Worst Art-house Movie Ever?

The site where I found this clip explains:

"The now-infamous 'cup and sea' sequence from director Turge Babonet's 1968 film, THE HORRIBLE HORROR -- which prompted writer Cleveland Amory (TV Guide. May 12, 1968) to comment on the state of European cinema, 'You have to be on LSD to understand it'. Babonet's Dutch-language drama was ambitiously rescored and subtitled for US distribution, but its story of tragically depressed cod fishermen held no appeal for American audiences."

However, many folks believe Turge is a hoax.

Look at this purported list of Turge's films, and tell me what you think.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jul 07, 2010 - Comments (0)
Category: Eccentrics, Conspiracy Theories and Theorists, Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators, Movies, Performance Art, 1960s, Europe

Frank Chu

Read about Frank Chu here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jun 22, 2010 - Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Conspiracy Theories and Theorists, Politics, Outsider Art

Outside His Comfort Zone

Carl Hoffman has done a few things that most of us would never dream of doing. He has flown on airlines said to have the worst safety records in the world and ridden in old buses in South America as they crawled along cliff-top dirt roads. He also packed himself into already crowded ferries on the Amazon and trains crossing Africa. Why? To experience travel not as we might while on vacation, but as an ordinary person trying to get from point A to point B as cheaply as possible. Hoffman talks about his adventures here, and in his new book, "The Lunatic Express."

Posted By: Nethie - Fri Apr 23, 2010 - Comments (4)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Eccentrics, Mass Transit, Travel

Diamanda Galás

Six-and-a-half minutes of Diamanda Galás. Please let me know individually how much each of you can stand.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 22, 2010 - Comments (12)
Category: Eccentrics, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Music, Outsider Art

God Made Me Do It

If this book is not pure catnip for us WU-vies, I'm not sure what is. Here's the product description from the link to the right:

Does God, in His infinite wisdom, convince people to get rid of their car insurance? Does He encourage cannibalism? Does the God of more than six billion people actually have time to root for the Minnesota Vikings?

According to some, yes. How do they know? God told them. Luckily, God also told Marc Hartzman to write this book, a collection of the most shocking, absurd, and hilarious things people have ever claimed God asked them to do, and to present them for your pure reading enjoyment.

Including:

* The man that God told to perform surgery on himself
* God's generous offer to miraculously fill his believer's gas tank
* The fateful day God (assumedly feeling nostalgic for his teen years) asked a man to TP a police station
* The woman God instructed to direct traffic—topless
* And, sadly, many more

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 10, 2010 - Comments (2)
Category: Eccentrics, Religion, Books

Beyond Belief Extra – Fiat Novitas!

Next month will see the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne in Australia, where several thousand of the faithful faithless will gather to hear the like of Dawkins, PZ Myers and AC Grayling hold forth on enlightenment, reason, truth and science. Oh and they may mention God and religion once or twice. But isn’t it a little weird for a bunch of atheists to start acting like a religion? Maybe a bit, according to the head of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, David Nicholls. “[Atheists] do not believe in shoving views down thoats. They mistrust group-think and are suspicious of institutions. […] Atheists are, by definition, not joiners.” Individualists or not, over 2500 will congregate this March to swap thoughts and ideas, as a group (Sydney Morning Herald).

And if you can have an atheist congregation, how long will it be before there’s an atheist preacher? Well this is exactly the situation the Dutch Protestant Church found themselves in recently after one of their number, Klass Hendrikse, published a book called Believing in a God who does not exist. Surprisingly, they have decided to do nothing, concluding that Hendrikse’s beliefs, which include that God is not a real being but just a word for people’s shared feelings, are not so different from many other liberal theologies (RNW).

Slightly less tolerance was shown to Mark Edward Tynan of the Christian faith group “Servants of Jesus” this week when the Australian health watchdog banned him from practising any form of mental health medicine. The Psychologists Tribunal sadly took a dim view of Tynan’s opinion that dissociative identity disorder was caused by demons, and that one child’s mental health problems were due to her parents having dedicated her life to Satan. His innovative treatment plans of prayer and exorcisms were also roundly disapproved of (Telegraph(AU)).

Someone else to lose their job over a wacky belief this week is Baroness Jenny Tonge, shadow health spokesperson for the UK’s Liberal Democrat Party. Her problems started when an American blogger called Stephen Lendman resurrected the old “organ harvesting” myth in an article that accused Israeli medical teams sent to Haiti of doing just that. The allegations appeared in the Palestine Telegraph ,of which Tonge is patron, but it was for her suggestion to the Jewish Chronicle that an inquiry should be held to “dispel any rumours” that she got into trouble. Unfortunately for her, Liberal Party leader Nick Clegg did not feel the Israeli doctors should have to prove themselves innocent of any and all nonsense flung their way, and promptly removed her from her post (Spiked).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Tue Feb 16, 2010 - Comments (8)
Category: Disasters, Eccentrics, Government, Medicine, Religion

A Little Light Weirdness – 8

A would be bank-robber in Austria was foiled in his robbery attempt when the bank closed early for a staff training session. The man came equipped with a Barack Obama mask and gun but was stopped at the first hurdle when the locked door refused to open for him. Staff inside initially thought it was part of the training or a joke, and their laughter aggravated the criminal until he eventually fled empty-handed (Digital Spy).

More successful were the thieves that managed to steal several US landmarks, including the Palace of Fine Arts, USS Pampanito and Ghirardelli Square. Models of course, part of an exhibition of Mark and Jannet Benz’s Lego creations on display at the Palo Alto Museum of American Heritage, and worth several thousand dollars. A reward of $500 has been offered by the Benzes (SF Weekly).

But if Jan and Mark are thinking of upping their home security, they should perhaps avoid following the example of Alexander Skopintsew of Primorye in Russia, who decided to deter intruders by planting homemade landmines around his garden. He was inevitably found out when a trespasser was injured when setting off one of these devices, and charged with possession of illegal weapons, receiving a suspended sentence (ABC News).

Of course another alternative might be to have nothing worth stealing. Perhaps something similar occurred to retired lorry driver Ken Strickland, who amassed a collection of over 3000 watering cans, each meticulously documented. Sadly Mr. Strickland died last month aged 78, bequeathing the entire assortment to his niece, who is at a loss as to what to do with them and may in fact sell them on behalf of a charity. One watering can however will not be up for sale, it contains her uncle's ashes (Metro).

Meanwhile hundreds of other women up and down the UK might be feeling a little let down this Monday, after British department store Debenhams recorded a 76% surge in sales of their range of “anatomy boosting” underwear for men ahead of Valentine’s day. Turn around is fair play, I say (Reuters).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Mon Feb 15, 2010 - Comments (5)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Crime, Stupid Criminals, Eccentrics, Collectors, Explosives, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Government, Officials, Kitsch and Collectibles, Weird Theory, Goofs and Screw-ups

Smart Bacon

Witness the blasphemous abomination that is--VEGAN BACON!!!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 04, 2010 - Comments (17)
Category: Eccentrics, Food, Vegetarians and Vegans

Al Kaprielian

Goodbye, Al Kaprielian.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 17, 2009 - Comments (4)
Category: Eccentrics, Regionalism, Television, Weather

Turkey Feather Wedding Dress

In 1947, a gal named Barbara Ehrhart chose to create her wedding dress out of turkey feathers.















The guests tossed more feathers instead of rice.

More pix here, courtesy of LIFE.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 03, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Eccentrics, Fashion, Marriage, 1940s