Author Archives: Egg Syntax

Mouth of Sand

Mouth of Sand:
Mouth of Sand sculpture sand photography
Mouth of Sand sculpture sand photography
Stumbled onto this striking 2010 photograph by Cuban artist Liset Castillo while poking around on ArtStar.

In my new body of work, “Human Studies,” from 2010, I subvert notions of enduring beauty with life-size images of women sculpted in a labor-intensive process out of sand, which I then photographed before destroying them. I create life-size sand sculptures of models typically found in high-gloss fashion magazines, photograph the works in sand and then I destroy them as a commentary on the ephemeral nature of beauty, America’s obsession with youth culture and decay.

See more of her work at Black and White Gallery.

Coffee ad from the 1650s

[Boing Boing]
Coffee ad from the 1650s:

This handbill — which can be seen in the British Museum — dates back to the 1650s, and was produced by the first coffee shop in London, in St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill.

It is a simple innocent thing, composed into a drink, by being dryed in an Oven, and ground to Powder, and boiled up with Spring water, and about half a pint of it to be drunk, fasting an hour before and not Eating an hour after, and to be taken as hot as possibly can be endured; the which will never fetch the skin off the mouth, or raise any Blisters, by reason of that Heat.

The Turks drink at meals and other times, is usually Water, and their Dyet consists much of Fruit, the Crudities whereof are very much corrected by this Drink.

The quality of this Drink is cold and Dry; and though it be a Dryer, yet it neither heats, nor inflames more than hot Posset.

It forcloseth the Orifice of the Stomack, and fortifies the heat with- [missing text] its very good to help digestion, and therefore of great use to be [missing text] bout 3 or 4 a Clock afternoon, as well as in the morning.

The Vertue of the COFFEE Drink.


Instapaper Roundup

Recently I’ve been posting from Instapaper directly to my blog (and thence to Facebook). But the newest version of the Instapaper app has a bug that prevents me from doing that. So here’s a roundup of some recent stories I’ve enjoyed. -Egg

14 reasons why this is the worst Congress ever
Technology Provides an Alternative to Love. – NYTimes.com
STANFORD Magazine: March/April 2010 > Features > Clelia Mosher

Amazon reviews for creepy Olympic mascots

[Charlie Stross]

The Blitz spirit:
be glad you can't see this! The horror, the horror!

To all those of you who live in London and are having to put up with the current Olympic insanity, I send my condolences.

For those of you who don’t, to give you some idea of the sheer cognitive weirdness of LOCOG (who, I swear, could keep a psychiatrist working on new diagnoses to add to DSM-VI for a decade), here’s one example of how London (and the UK in general) is responding to these neo-fascist killjoys.

See, the Olympics have two cuddly toy mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville. (Never mind, for now, that these focus-group-tested horrors resemble a bizarre cross between an animated CCTV camera and a dildo with legs: it’s the thought that counts.)

Of course, as is always the case with sporting mascots these days, merchandising happens: toy plushies are on sale. And so are much more dubious souvenirs. (“Hello, I’m Wenlock! Don’t I look smart in my police officer’s uniform? I have the important job of protecting you on your journey to the London 2012 Games … we can have lots of fun together!”)

No, seriously: go marvel at the true Orwellian horror of the product, then read the customer reviews. Especially the one-star reviews.

The Blitz Spirit is still alive and screaming and on display inside Amazon.co.uk’s reader feedback!

(Final note for LOCOG rights gestapo: I do not consent to the idiotic terms of use that I have been informed can be found at the other end of that link. If you object to this blog entry, feel free to piss up a rope.)