Abandoned London after Christmas
Vor drei Jahren bloggte ich über Ian Visits Fotos vom menschenverlassenen London, die er morgens an Weihnachten geknippst hatte. 2011 hat er’s wieder getan. Aus seinem Blogeintrag:
London is never silent, not even at 3am, but on Xmas morning, it is almost silent. The background drone of aircraft approaching Heathrow has gone, and away from main roads, the streets lack the sound of car tyres rolling over tarmac.
Heading home, also a sound you never really hear now – the pealing of church bells. Not just coming from a single church you are nearby, but from all over the city as the sound carries far further than usual and surrounds you from all sides. Magical.
Photos of an Empty London on Christmas Morning (via MeFi)
Hier das Flickr-Set: London deserted at Christmas
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Abandoned London
Matt Logues Fotoserie „Empty L.A.“
Ernst Haeckels Jellyfish Christmas-Cards
Vor drei Jahren bloggte ich Ernst Haeckels Naturillu-Klassiker „Kunstformen der Natur“ und ich wusste auch, dass der Mann als Grußkartenillustrator angefangen und auch einige Weihnachtskarten gestaltet hatte. Gesehen hatte ich die aber noch nie – bis jetzt.
Ernst Haeckel’s 1904 “Kunstformen der Natur” [Artforms of Nature] is a classic of biological illustration. What is less generally known is that the artist started as a Christmas card designer. The book was originally simply an album of holiday designs. “All the sweet things that the Squiddies/Twittering in the dewy spray/Wish each other in the springtime/I wish you this happy day.”
During the Victorian era Christmas was indeed regarded as a ‘happy’ day, but one of uncanny terror; accordingly, cards and ornamentation featured strange creatures with too many tentacles. But then Santa Claus became popular, and many of these older designs ‘fell out of fashion’.
Commercially marooned, unable to draw anything except tentacles and congeries of pustules/bubbles, Haeckel wandered into natural ‘science’ – almost as an afterthought – when he discovered that the stuff he had been drawing actually existed, give or take a tentacle. Isn’t that interesting?
A Very Haeckel Christmas (via Retronaut)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Ernst Haeckels „Kunst-Formen der Natur“ (1898) komplett in HighRes auf Flickr
Ernst Haeckels „Kunstformen der Natur“ im Fraktalfilter
Portal Xmas-Tree
Grandioser Weihnachtsbaum von Redditor Tmyakal: A Very Portal Christmas Tree. (via Superpunch)
Merry Xmas 2011!
Frohe Weihnachten Euch allen zusammen, lasst Euch dick beschenken und esst bis Ihr platzt! Ich leg’ jetzt die Füße hoch und mach’ drei Tage am Stück genau gar nix.
False Teeth for Christmas
Eine Gas/Wasser/Scheiße-Firma aus Monkmoor, Shrewsbury, will zu Weihnachten den Leute ihre Gebissen zurückgeben, die sie versehentlich in der Toilette runtergespült hatten. Herzallerliebst!
A utility company is trying to reunite nine people with their false teeth in time for Christmas. The dentures were all recovered from Severn Trent’s sewage treatment works in Monkmoor, Shrewsbury. The teeth are thought to have been flushed down toilets or dropped down plug-holes.
Nominate your gnashers – Severn Trent is looking to put the smile back on 9 people’s faces this holiday season, BBC: Severn Trent bids to reunite people with false teeth (via Arbroath)
Krampuslauf
Youtube Direktkrampus, via Cyn-C
Ich war mit meinen Eltern als Kind immer im Winterurlaub zum Skifahren. Letzteres konnte ich schon ziemlich früh, bin im zarten Alter von zwei Jahren im Rucksack meines Papas den Buckel runtergerutscht, meine ersten Ski hatte ich mit Vier. Der Vorteil davon ist: Ich war seit ungefähr 8 Jahren nicht mehr auf Brettern unterwegs, aber wenn ich mich heute draufstellen würde, könnte ich morgen wieder schwarze Pisten runterheizen. Wie Fahrradfahren.
Jedenfalls: Im Winterurlaub waren wir immer in Österreich, vor allem in Schladming und wir waren da drei oder viermal zu Weihnachten. Ich weiß nicht mehr, wie alt ich war, aber ich habe als Kind ein paar mal einen Krampuslauf selbst gesehen. Kein Wunder, dass ich so geworden bin, wie ich bin.
Cyriaks Xmas-Greetings
Youtube Direktxmas, via Boing Boing
Frohe Weihnachten von Cyriak, wie gewohnt sehr fluffig und knuffig. Das Bild am Ende ist Noel Edmonds, bekannt für cheesy Weihnachtsshows im englischen Fernsehen „and whose head was once compared to ‘a superfluous extrusion from the main body of an object, such as a surplus knob of butter on a corner of toast.’“
Calvin & Hobbes Killer-Snowmen made from Clay and Sugar
Youtube Direktbill, via Topless Robot
Jim Frommeyer hat die Killer-Schneemänner aus Calvin und Hobbes aus Knete und anderem Kram nachgebaut und auf seinem Esstisch abgefilmt. Großartig!
First thing to know is that every shot is practical. Every snowman was built from scratch. And it was all filmed on my dining table.
There was no single method used for anything. Some snowmen were playdough (out of focus snowmen), some were wire frame sculpty models (hero snowmen), paper mache (larger models). We did try to keep clay with clay and mache with mache within shots. Depending on the size of the shot and model, either sugar, flour, or a 1:4 mix of both was used. The smaller stuff used flour. Paint the model with white paint, and roll it in the sugar. Boom. Snowman.
A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Real Life Schneemann-Killer
Real Life Calvin & Hobbes-Schneemänner
How to make a Terrarium Christmas Ornament
Inhabitat erklärt, wie man Terrarien-Weihnachtsbaumkugeln bastelt: DIY: How to Make a Terrarium Christmas Ornament! (via Miss Cakehead)
Santa Claus Anatomy-Greeting Cards
Diese Nikolaus-Weihnachtskarte von Brad McGinty geht jetzt schon ein paar Tage durch’s Netz, ich wollte sie mir aber bis heute aufheben, weil alles andere ja überhaupt keinen Sinn ergibt. Jedenfalls: McGinty hat diese Weihnachtskarte illustriert und sich dazu noch eine hübsche Geschichte mit seinem Opa einfallen lassen, bestellen kann man die Dinger auch auf der Seite ganz unten.
I got a pretty exciting package from my mom recently: A container of my grandfathers’ Christmas cards from 1955. These aren’t personal Christmas cards, but rather leftover cards from my grandfather’s failed attempt at starting a greeting card company a few years after WWII. […]
A few years after my Grandfather returned from the war he decided to start a greeting card company. Armed with one terrible idea and no artistic ability whatsoever, he turned to someone he had met during the war for help, a young Japanese solider he had shot in the face named Haruo. My grandfather spoke no Japanese, and Haruo spoke no English, so how they actually got together is beyond me or anyone else in my family. The idea involved creating American-style greeting cards for both the Japanese and the American markets. It also required Haruo to create all the artwork and handle all of the printing.
Portal Cookie Cutters
Think Geek verkauft Plätzchenformen aus den Aperture Laboratories.
At Aperture Science, there’s a good amount of joking amongst test subjects and occasionally, if you’re lucky, you can joke around Cave Johnson himself. Just do not, under any circumstances, bring his mother into the mix. Got it? No “your mom” jokes. No “Yo Mama” jokes. Not even a “That’s what she said.” Cave’s very sensitive about those.
The penalty for joking about Cave’s mom? No cookies. That’s right, you’ll find your Aperture Science Holiday Gift Package is missing the sandwich baggie of Mrs. Johnson’s Made From Scratch Science Cookies. Then you’ll have to watch everyone else enjoying delicious frosted sugar cookies in the shapes of familiar faces around Aperture Labs.
Blood Pack of Santa Claus
Schöne Blutbeutel von Kiseung Lee aus Helsinki, die er grade auf der Design Week in seiner Heimatstadt gezeigt hat. Die Dinger sollen zu Blutspenden an Weihnachten motivieren.
Christmas often tend to be regarded with a possesion for people who are healthly, rich, and have enough. We otten neglect people who disabled, handicapped, sicked, don’t have enogh so far. Also, we are busy to enjoy our owns. Thus, I suggest a method of sharing through special blood packs. and people readily would get a pleasure and be warm as sharing thier own belonging.
“In generally, people tend to show a stiff motivation and response to donation, This phenomenon has caused passive dedication to society and human being lives. Naturally, it has weaken a bond between mankind as a I suggest new blood bag design and hope to inspire active blood donating boom or event across the world and dedicate to improve a quality of our lives. By donating warmness with pleasure, People would feel being a “Santa-claus” alike . Also, the socks shape welfare and sharing love.”
Miracle on 22nd St
(Vimeo Direktmiracle, via Doobybrain, Neatorama)
Jim und Dylan leben in Manhattan und bekommen seit ein paar Jahren an Weihnachten hunderte Briefe von Kindern, die an den Weihnachtsmann gerichtet sind. Keiner weiß wirklich, warum, wahrscheinlich aufgrund dieses Artikels aus dem Jahr 1998. Was macht man also mit hunderten Briefen von Kids an den Weihnachtsmann? Richtig: Man startet eine Aktion über Facebook und lässt die Wünsche der Kinder wahr werden. With love from Santa. Aaaaaaw!
When I walked into the room, I saw what looked to be hundreds of letters tied into small bundles with red and green yarn. I looked closer at the stacks; they were all addressed to Santa. These were letters with Jim and Dylan’s exact 22nd Street address, including “Apt. 7,” but all addressed to Santa Claus.
Jim did his best to explain. He told me that for the past few years, he and Dylan had received a few letters addressed to Santa and had always assumed it was because of a mistaken address. They ignored them. But this year, the tally was nearing 400 letters — with 20 to 40 new ones arriving each day. They had done every Internet search they could think of trying to link their address to something that might explain it, like the Postal Service or Macy’s, but they had come up with nothing.
He did not know why; he did not know how. He just knew that they were sitting on hundreds of letters to Santa and that the ones he had opened had moved him so much, he had to do something about it.
Defrag – Let It Snow (Jam’n with Dean Martin)
(Youtube Direktxmas, via Beautiful Decay)
Let It Snow (Jam’n with Dean Martin) von Defrag (NSFW Bestiallity Erotica-Illu auf der Künstlerwebsite).
