We know this sounds straight out of a Star Wars film, but Ruben Wu was on a trip to visit the Ijen and Bromo Tengger Semeru volcanoes in East Java last month. Not all of it sounds that strange… he’s a Chicago-based photographer that captured the unusual sight of molten sulphur. Ok, well, now it gets weird again. Molten sulphur flows from fumaroles at the base of the aptly named Blue Fire Crater at Ijen. The area is usually swarming with tourists, but Wu stayed after sunset until the moon rose to capture these otherworldly images.
The journey into the Ijen Caldera is not for the faint hearted. A two-hour trek up the side of the rocky volcano is followed by another 45-minute hike down to the bank of the crater. The blue fire found at the base is the result of ignited sulphuric gas that burns up to 600 degrees Celsius (1,112 degrees Fahrenheit) and can flare up to 5 meters (16 feet) into the air. It is the largest “blue flame” area on Earth. Check the photos out.
If you take away the heroics of the the United States women’s national soccer team, soccer – football to the rest of the world – remains a blip on the radar in the United States. But while domestic interest languishes, the game’s global appeal grows, including creative branding and gear like the Adidas Capitano Ball, “digital age” inspired soccer balls embellished with printed circuit board designs.
The TPU covered and machine-stitched construction ball also sparkles with metallic incandescent film, adding to the tech-spirited piece of sporting gear. Available in black, white, and a bright “solar red” variation, these stylized, eye-catching designs are intended for casual play and training, and priced accordingly at just $20 (a surefire goal in the holiday gift idea department if your recipient enjoys the global game.). Two additional graphic designs are also available for the same price.
Netflix has just debuted a new trailer and poster for upcoming Western The Harder The Fall, featuring plenty of stylized wild west action from a truly dynamite cast. The footage kicks-off with “Treacherous” Trudy Smith (Regina King), Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield), and their gang busting leader Rufus Buck (Idris Elba) out of jail, and it doesn’t look like these guys have much interest in taking prisoners. From there, we’re introduced to fellow outlaw Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), who sets off with former flame Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), Jim Beckwourth (R.J. Cyler), and Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) to seek vengeance against the ruthless Buck. This modern spin on the Western genre features a primarily Black cast, and hails from director and producer Jeymes Samuel, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Boaz Yakin. Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, James Lassiter, and Lawrence Bender are on board as producers, and the all-star ensemble also includes Delroy Lindo, Damon Wayans Jr., Deon Cole, and Danielle Deadwyler. Check out the trailer below, which also features a tease of a new track from Jay-Z and Kid Cudi.
This Ohio City spot does its own meats in-house, including pancetta, which is laid down on a pepper-coated crust before being topped with provolone and eggs. Those eggs basically fry in the grease as the pie cooks at a high temp. The result? A pizza with egg yolk and bacon juice as its sauce base.
No conversation about places to get bacon in America would be complete without mention of Slater’s 50/50. The place was a pioneer in creative applications of bacon, and their patties are half beef and half bacon (hence the name), so pretty much anything you get here is going to satisfy that craving of yours. But of all their menu items, the B’B’B’ Bacon Burger is the most likely to make your jaw drop (both in awe and in order to fit the damn thing in your mouth).
Diesel’s “Bacon Explosion” — a bacon-stuffed, bacon weave-wrapped sausage loaf covered with maple syrup and cayenne — already sounds pretty daunting. Add to it cheddar & a poached egg, and put it all on an English muffin, and you’ve got a menu item that totally warrants the moniker of “The Death Muffin.”
All the reasons you’re not eating chicken-fried steak are dumb, but the reasons you’re not eating chicken-fried bacon are probably dumber. This is the most American food, hands down, end of discussion. Sodolak’s is where it’s been made the longest, and nowhere else has it been so enthusiastically perfected.
If you’re an indecisive person who likes bacon, BarBacon might be the wrong place to go. The menu here doesn’t have a single dish on it without the stuff (with the exception of a few cocktails), so we recommend attempting the four-variety bacon tasting beforehand just so you can cleanse your palate of everything that isn’t pork. And when you’re done with that, you’ll probably get their Bacon Loves Lobster Roll. Just saying.
Grubhouse is essentially a temple to bacon, and its been practicing its religion for a long time. Open since the 1950s, Grubhouse has been serving up bacon in endlessly creative and delicious varieties longer than most places have been in business. Some highlights are their Elvis Melt (bacon, banana, peanut butter, and “bacon powdered sugar”), and their bacon-wrapped, chili-topped Heart Attack Dog.
Looking at the rest of this list, and seeing that (for the most part) these are all savory bacon interpretations, we knew we needed something that would cap off the hypothetical meal that is this article sweetly. Enter: the Notorious Bacon Sundae. It’s made with coffee pecan brittle ice cream & bacon caramel, and is topped with Nueske’s applewood bacon, plus the hopes and dreams of every American.
This Stumptown butcher shop specializes in all things pig, from house-cured ham to porkstrami and, of course, bacon, which you can watch them slice behind the deli counter. That includes pepper and applewood, plus pancetta, unsmoked strips, British back bacon, and Canadian bacon, which has way better healthcare than its American counterpart. There’s a sandwich counter, though it rarely has bacon. Lucky you, you can grab it to go — or score it online — to do wonderful things to your own sandwiches.
When Bacon opened in 2011, pork-minded Austinites rejoiced. This sanctuary of swine’s menu is nearly entirely bacon-based, so you can’t really go wrong. But the move here is the chicken and waffles, a mountain of poultry whose secret weapon is the thick chunks of bacon they can bake right into the batter.
This West Loop beer hall does a lot of wonderful things with bacon, including wrapping it around dates and deep-fried meatballs. But for a real assault against your ventricles, go for the Whole Bomb. A glorious mutation of meatloaf, the thing starts with 2lbs each of ground beef and pork, which is wrapped up in a 16-strip bacon weave that sits on the smoker for three hours. The 5lb log is then sliced off for sandwiches or, more ideally, is just eaten like a burrito while you weep alone in the dark.
Brazillian artist ErnestoNeto is known for his enormous, fiber-based installations that plunge viewers into a multi-sensory landscape of organic elements: people are encouraged to walk through canals of stretched yarn and grasp the structural weavings, while spicy scents like turmeric and cumin are often diffused throughout the room. Similarly immersive and imposing, Neto’s latest work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is one of his largest to date. “SunForceOceanLife” is a hand-crocheted, walkable maze of yellow, orange, and green threads that stretch 79 feet across the gallery and spiral 12 feet in the air. The pliable installation centers around “fire, the vital energy that enables life on this planet,” the artist says, sharing that each polymer string utilized is burned at the end to further infuse the piece with sacred, meditative rituals. “I hope that the experience of this work will feel like a chant made in gratitude to the gigantic ball of fire we call the sun, a gesture of thanks for the energy, truth, and power that it shares with us as it touches our land, our oceans, and our life,” he writes.
Plastic balls also fill the pathway and shift underfoot, which forces those passing through the suspended structure to intentionally maintain their balance. Neto explains:
It directly engages the body as does a joyful dance or meditation, inviting us to relax, breathe, and uncouple our body from our conscious mind. The sensation of floating, the body cradled by the crocheted fruits of our labor, brings to mind a hammock: the quintessential indigenous invention that uplifts us and connects us to the wisdom and traditions of our ancestors.
“SunForceOceanLife” is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through September 26, 2021. You can see more of Neto’s interactive, site-specific projects at Galerie Max Hetzler. (via designboom)
As much as we’d like it to be, this isn’t a tour of Lia Sabella’s personal island suite, however, it’s something we’d love even more… Her 3rd EP “Island Suite”. The 7 track project features production primarily from ‘F1rst Class’, and is elegantly and filled out with Lia’s mellifluous singing. The songs range in topics like relationships, emotional compromise, and distressing in such a way as to connect with listeners on an emotional level, leaving them feeling relaxed. From the beautiful imagery to the quality of sounds, and fluidity of the entire project, “Island Suite” is one to definitely lay back and relax to, no matter what you may be feeling inside. Take a listen to “Vacation” below, just for a taste of an EP that is for sure to be on repeat in your headphones soon.
Click any of the photos to stream or download the entire R&B project produced by F1rst Class, and once again, beautifully sung by Lia Sabella. If the sultry sounds of this EP don’t leave you in a great place wherever you are, they will definitely make you want to take a getaway… Just look at how relaxed she looks.
“Miniature monuments, testaments to the power of language and metaphors of imagination.” Thats how Stephen Doyle describes his angled scaffolding and interlocking constructions. We just call them dope. They look as if they grow directly from the bound pages, and sprawl out to comprise his Hypertexts series. They are unruly and enchanting reimaginings of how information is communicated.
The New York City-based artist lobs off parts of sentences, tethers phrases together with an unrelated word, and generally obscures the author’s intended meaning, producing arbitrary and striking connections within the text. Although the paper sculptures are tangible manifestations of language, Doyle tells Colossal that he originally envisioned the spliced works as satirical commentaries on digital diagramming. “I first started when ‘hypertext’ was a novel term of the internet: blue underlined text was a portal, linked to another document in the ether.
“I conjured sculptures in which the lines of text shook off the shackles of the page, leapt up, out of the book, and started conferring with their neighboring lines of text, creating an aerial network of language, turning text into synapse, circulation… I soon realized that these three-dimensional diagrams seemed to have a poetic power of their own, recontextualizing language and ideas into sculptural forms, inspired by the books themselves.”
A graphic designer by day, Doyle has spent the last few years expanding his Hypertexts series, which has been featured in The New Yorker, Wired, The Atlantic, The New Republic, and other publications. If you’re in New York City, you also might have seen the triptych he created for the subway a few years back. You can follow his works on Instagram. (via swissmiss)
Beautiful, and spellbinding time lapse photos have been used to display many different mediums in the past. The above example is from DJ Storm’s: “Untitled” beat tape. But where do these images come from, and furthermore, how are they created? Photographer Reuben Wu creates images that reveal an alien splendor in natural and manmade landscapes across the globe. Previously he has explored the brilliant blue rivers of molten sulfur in Indonesian volcanoes, and photographed the thousands of glistening mirrors that compose Nevada’s SolarReserve. For his ongoing series Lux Noctis, the Chicago-based photographer utilizes modified drones as aerial light sources, illuminating obscure landscapes in a way that makes each appear new and unexplored. Recently Wu has evolved his process of working with the drones to form light paths above topographical peaks in the mountainous terrain.
“I see it as a kind of ‘zero trace’ version of land art where the environment remains untouched by the artist, and at the same time is presented in a sublime way which speaks to 19th century Romantic painting and science and fictional imagery,” said Wu to Colossal. The light from his GPS-enabled drones create a halo effect around some of the presented cliffs and crests when photographed using a long exposure. An elegant circle of light traces the flight of the drone, leaving a mark only perceptible in the resulting photograph. You can see more of Wu’s landscape photography on his Instagram.
No, this isn’t “Disney Plus Day”, its the first annual celebration of the launch of the endlessly bountiful, extremely profitable steaming service that Disney has set up. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ will be available to stream on Disney+ from November 12, and it sounds like Marvel and Star Wars fans will have plenty of other exciting stuff to look forward to on the first annual “Disney+ Day.”
Disney CEO Bob Chapek made the announcement during a Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Communacopia Conference. “We’ll be surprising people with offers and it will be an annual thing,” he said. “We’re going to have new content release against one of our four key franchises.” You can check out the full lineup below, which will also include a Boba Fett special (which might just feature a first look at some footage from The Book of Boba Fett), and a preview of what’s to come in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
– Jungle Cruise will become available for free on the service to subs
– the new Disney+ Original movie Home Sweet Home Alone
– An all-new original series of shorts from Walt Disney Animation Studios called Olaf Presents, which sees Frozen’s snowman retelling several classic Disney tales as only he can.
-Domestic Disney+ streaming debut of fan favorite shorts from Walt Disney Animation Studios including Frozen Fever, Oscar-winning shorts Feast and Paperman, Oscar-nominated Mickey Mouse short, Get A Horse! and more. The Pixar animated short film Ciao Alberto.
-A new short from The Simpsons that pays tribute to Disney+’s marquee brands
-First five episodes from season 2 of The World According to Jeff Goldblum from National Geographic
-A special celebrating the origins and legacy of Star Wars’ legendary bounty hunter, Boba Fett
-A special celebrating the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+ with an exciting look towards the future
-Dopesick, an original series starring Michael Keaton, which will be released in international markets as part of the Star general entertainment content offering.
The inaugural event is described as “a grand-scale celebration of our subscribers across the entire company,” and it sounds like we might get some official updates on Marvel Studios’ upcoming phases.
We know that the fate of endangered species is a global issue, but it remains an abstract concept to many of us. We aren’t confronted with the faces of these creatures on a daily basis; but thanks to the work of photographer Tim Flach, these mammals, reptiles, fish, and birds are shown in striking portraits that make it impossible for us to turn away. His poignant series (and book), aptly titled Endangered, features these creatures locking eyes with us—it’s much different than the typical pictures of animals where they are captured within their grandiose natural environment. Flach instead pits them against a stark backdrop and completely divorces them from their habitat.
The decision to visually remove some of the endangered creatures from their environment was deliberate. “The romanticizing, free, wild images of the animals weren’t necessarily getting people to take action,” says Flach. “I wanted to think about what kind of images people engage in and how you tell a story to get people to connect to [the animal].” The “mild anthropomorphizing” of animals is shown in research to make us feel a greater connection because the creatures have personalities we can relate to. “Images often done in a style and representation that was more like humans was more likely to make us care more.” The resulting endangered animal photos give a human-like existence to these creatures. Tell us what you think in the comments.
With over 5,800 square feet of thoughtful modern architecture, Kyoto embodies the true spirit of traditional, minimalist Japanese design. Floor to ceiling views wrap around perfectly balanced zen gardens offering a true retreat in the middle of the Las Vegas desert.
The 24 year old Coi LeRay has been on the TikTok royalty map with her music and dance popularity for years now. Boston born and New Jersey raised, she is the daughter of American rapper and former owner of ‘The Source’ Benzino. Leray started making music at age 14, and her newest single “Twininem” shows just how stylish she can be while giving social media new tunes to post with.R
The Slingshot R is a true showstopper. It’s the ultimate statement, with an enhanced, bold paint scheme and the best in features and style. The Slingshot R comes with additional horsepower, paddle shifters (AutoDrive), unparalleled finishes and styling, and Technology Package 3 featuring turn-by-turn navigation and connected services. Settle for nothing but the best with the Slingshot R. The next time you see someone driving around in a Polaris Slingshot, don’t snicker: They’re probably having a lot more fun behind the wheel than you are. I would know, because I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool Slingshot hater. However, after a week using one as a daily runabout, I have a new appreciation for the three-wheeler’s emphasis on driving excitement at all costs, even if it does require significant compromises.
The 2021 Polaris Slingshot R represents the best of the breed, with updates for this model year that include a Rockford Fosgate audio system with standard Apple CarPlay, revised styling, and an optional “Autodrive” transmission with paddle shifters. However, my tester was equipped with the standard five-speed manual gearbox, a must for maximum driver enjoyment. Of course, not even those updates can compensate fully for the Slingshot’s tiny footprint and attendant compromises – namely a lack of storage space and limited weather protection – so Polaris is still cautious to market the cyclecar as a weekend toy, not a daily driver.
Now we ALL know that October has 31 days, as Inktober has 31 illustrations, but we wanted to throw 16 photos up, just so you can go hunt down the rest. Last year (and this is not her first dabble), artist Amandine Comte embarked on a challenge. The principle is to create one drawing per day in ink or pen, digitally or even traditionally… Inspired by an official or personal she chose to create all of her illustrations in a traditional way to detach herself from digital and re-aprop herself with paper and pencil. “The pace is intense, the pace exhausting but the challenge so stimulating. I loved going beyond my limits and sharing my creations every day with this large community of illustrators participating in the #inktober challenge!” Check more of her work out at https://amandinecomte.com. NOTE! It’s in French.
As grim as this title sounds, ‘I Need You to Kill,’ follows three American comics – Chad Daniels, Pete Lee, and Tom Segura on a six show tour through three of the world’s newest stand-up comedy scenes: Hong Kong, Singapore, and Macau. The film explores the anxieties and surprises of taking your act halfway around the world as well as giving a ground-floor glimpse into Asia’s newest growth industry. Its an incredibly funny look at a medium of entertainment that many of us take for granted. The movie may not be super recent, but is still poignant especially in todays social climate.
Ceramic is a material we see on a daily basis. Things such as clay products, silicate glass, and even cement are ceramic. However, just like how those materials differ, ceramic in watches also prove unique. Generally speaking, ceramic is non-metallic. However, it’s also a solid material. In watches, combining metal compounds with pure materials or powder with alloy makes up ceramic. This exactly is how Rolex creates its proprietary Cerachrom material. To create Cerachrom, Rolex mixes very fine zirconium oxide or aluminium oxide powder with organic binding agents. The latter gives the Cerachrom such a bright and bold pigment. With that said, it’s only rightful that ceramic watches get easily associated with luxury watch brands. Ceramic gives any timepiece a polished look as compared to metal with varying finishes. It’s also not as typical as the ceramic we see in our kitchen. Ceramic in watches is durable and robust. In fact, many watch brands employ the same technology as NASA with their rockets and satellites.Most of the ceramic in watches come from fine powder or fibres. That’s what makes the end results appear more defined and smooth. This is the reason why ceramic watches have a specific look that no steel or precious metal watch possesses.
The Suicide Squad won’t hit DVD and Blu-ray until October 26, but James Gunn’s bonkers DC Comics requel is now available to purchase on Digital formats, and Warner Bros. has marked the occasion by sharing an official gag-reel for the movie online. There are some very funny moments here, including Flula Borg improving his lines and hijacking the helicopter scene as Javelin, Idris Elba inadvertently hitting David Dastmalchian in the family jewels when he tosses him a gun, John Cena reclaiming Frodo’s lost finger (and then sucking it), and more.
We also get a brief look at one of the film’s deleted scenes, as Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) finds a distraught Polka-Dot Man (Dastmalchian) in the back of the van. This is most likely the sequence we heard about involving Abner and The Thinker (Peter Capaldi) outside the nightclub which results in the latter losing his earlobe. The Suicide Squad may have underperformed at the box office, but the movie now has a chance to make a big impact on home release. Do you plan on picking up a copy on Blu-ray when it hits next month?
Isa Teresa and her fantastical footwear art are on full display at Displate.com. Displate produces a unique style of metal poster/posters that are sturdy, magnet mounted, and durable enough to withstand a lifetime of intense staring. Isa’s wonderful work revolves around Nike shoes, and re truly works of art. Printed on metal, she not only has the prints in the post, but a multitude of collections to browse. Any of her pieces are a treasured piece of artwork for any Nike fan. Check out more of her work on Displate, and their other metal printed art pieces.
For decades, architect Zaha Hadid has been internationally renowned for her daring landmark buildings, such as the Heydar Aliyev Center in Azerbaijan and the Dominion Office Building in Moscow. Yet, what’s lesser known from the Pritzker Prize winner was a structure that’s not meant for land: a superyacht. Working with German builders Blohm + Voss, Hadid’s designs was what one would expect from the virtuoso: bold, organic, and sort of looks like a drunken spider was way too into boating.
The 420-foot Unique Circle, the largest of the yachts, comes with a zone with underwater viewing, and the bow has the ability to break through thick ice. The exteriors are made up of a series of interwoven support beams, giving the superyachts Hadid’s signature touch of simple elegance.
News paper is typically exactly what it sounds like… paper used to print the news on. However, this commonplace type of stock in quite unique, and can be used to produce quite an interesting backdrop to an array of works. Shin-Young, Annie Terrazzo, and Patricia Pinto are all artist who use this easily looked over canvas, to make paintings that you cant take your eyes off of. Here are examples of artwork painted on news paper.
Much like the miraculous resurrection of this very blog, The Matrix franchise is coming back in a new and unexpected way. From the disappearance of Laurence Fishburn, (NOT the disappearance of Morpheus) among other little tid bits that have people asking questions. Hopefully this isn’t just the first Matrix all over again for a modern age. But lets see what we get his Christmas in theaters or HBO go, comment to let us know what you think.
Also, just a little Easter egg. The little girl from ‘The Matrix: Revolutions’ makes a welcome return. I’m not sure what that has to do with anything just yet, but we’ll see.
I was awoken this morning by a text message by a good friend (Sup Hans) to the news that a second trailer to ‘The Avengers: Endgame’ now had a second (second) trailer. The trailer has certain idiosyncrasies however, concerning Black Widows hair, and Captain America’s beard, which only leave me MADE of questions. A black and white scene from older films where the only accents are red, a voice over (presumably from Peggy Carter) tripled with flashback/flash-forward scenes of both Ant-Man and Hawkeye, heavily suggest the use of some type of time travel. However, take a heavy look at the trailer, and let us know what you think about it. Not to mention the bit with Thor and Captain Marvel at the end, was quite good.
Marvel Entertainment has officially revealed the cover and release date for their upcoming anniversary book, Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years. The massive 512-page book, which retails for $150, will hit stores on May 3, 2019, coinciding with the release of the still-untitled Avengers 4. It contains 250 exclusive illustrations along with over 100+ new interviews with key producers, studio heads, and tons of your favorite Marvel cast members, including Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chadwick Boseman, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Zoe Saldana, Evangeline Lilly, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Mackie, and more.
French photographer Julien Palast has conceived his “Skindeep” series. The vivid image-based project silhouettes the beauty of the human form by shrink-wrapping bodies, exposing the contours and curves of male and female figures with vibrant colors.
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