Japan – The Land of Vending Machines

Anyone who lives in a town or city is used to the sight of the odd vending machine. As a convenience they have no equal – at least when they work or have not run out of the product they are supposed to sell. Yet where most countries have vending machines for a limited range of goods the Japanese have taken it to extremes. Japan truly is the country of vending machines and some of the items you can get from them might surprise you.

Image Credit Flickr User Livvy

Image Credit Flickr User Hikosaeman

Who needs people to sell meat and vegetables when a machine will do just as well?  Here a variety of green things are on sale to those who wish to purchase.  To many people in the rest of the world this would seem like quite an odd idea – those who like to have a good squeeze of their veggies before buying them would have to break the glass first.

Glass Beach – Nature Corrects Another of Our Mistakes

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that a rubbish dump being created would, in the space of a century, become a protected area.  Yet that is exactly what happened to what has come to be known as Glass Beach, just outside Fort Bragg in California.

Image Credit Flickr User mlhradio

The residents there had no refuse collection so, with the sea so close by the solution seemed obvious – throw the garbage over the edge of the cliffs above their local beach.  The burgeoning population of the town proceeded, with abandon reckless if not gleeful (after all, it must have been more fun than the usual taking out of the garbage) to do just that.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Wilde's Classic Animated in 8 Minutes

The only novel written by Oscar Wilde, his 1890 work The Picture of Dorian Gray is regarded as a classic work of gothic literature. Its strong Faustian themed storyline tells of a young and beautiful upper class man. Basil Hallward, a painter, creates a portrait of the good looking aristocrat. Dorian sees it unveiled and whimsically announces that he would sell his soul so the portrait could grow old rather than he. The wish, as you might expect, is fulfilled.

This is an 8 Minute adaptation of Picture of Dorian Gray.  It represents Thomas Beg’s 15 week Major Project at UCA Rochester as part of his CG Arts and Animation degree. It is exceptionally well done, retaining the gothic eeriness of the original as well as ably pulling the story in to eight minutes. Perhaps it is best if you have read the book or seen one of the movies before, but if you are studying the novel this could very easily beat Cole’s Notes when it comes to helping you remember the sequence of events!

Yet if you are a Wilde fan (are they called Wilde-oholics, Wildeans or even wildebeasts?) you will adore this, as I did. The use of black and white seems more than appropriate and the use of shadow is superb.  Although I can only guess I suspect Oscar would have approved.

Please note – I have resized the animation so it can fit in to a window here – the original was somewhat larger but I thought most people would be unable to view it properly that way. If you click full screen you will get the full effect!

Bring Me the Head of Ronald McDonald

This, according to Flickr photographer mamasaurus rex was the freakiest thing that he saw on his recent holiday to Venice, Italy.  It is a work by Italian artist Giuseppe Veneziano who is known for taking contemporary cultural icons and turning them on their heads.  This may be more separating the head from the neck but it is worth posting up to see what your reactions are to it. 

Image Credit Flickr User edenpictures

It is based, not on Salome, the Daughter of Herodias who demanded the head of John the Baptist, as the post title might suggest. Instead, it takes its inspiration from the age old legend of Perseus who slayed the gorgon Medusa, here sculpted by Antonio Canova around 1808.  So, what do you think of this twenty first century rethinking of an old legend?