I discovered a word on Futility Closet the other day: Xantippish. Looking it up led me to Xanthippe, Socrates wife and apparently an ill-tempered one: In Xenophon’s Symposium, she is described by Antisthenes as “the most difficult, harshest, painful, ill-tempered” wife; this char … | Continue reading
I was messing around on Bluesky, making food puns of Spider-Man characters and thought I’d collect them all here: The post Food-related Spider-Man characters appeared first on Cultrface. | Continue reading
This week, I found out about a concept called “right to light”: Right to light is a form of easement in English law that gives a long-standing owner of a building with windows a right to maintain an adequate level of illumination. The right was traditionally known as the doctrine … | Continue reading
I fell down a rabbit hole yesterday looking up cotton swabs, leading me to Q-Tips—and their original name: A Baby Gay swab was practically different from the Q-Tip we know today. For one, each swab was made by hand. Workers wrapped cotton around a wood stick (usually one side) an … | Continue reading
Apparently, Brazil has a gambling problem and it’s becoming a socio-economic problem too: Latin America’s largest economy has seen lower-than-expected growth in consumer spending in the country in recent months, a weakness some banks and think tanks are blaming on gambling. The p … | Continue reading
Comic illustrator Joe Chouinard made an excellent comic involving Frasier and Niles Crane who find themselves in a murder investigation after Niles accidentally kills Maris. and Lt. Columbo was tasked with figuring out who the culprit(s) was. Then, Jacob The Loofah added his voic … | Continue reading
David Schwimmer saying ‘Juice’ for 68 seconds. Thanks to Dom Griffin for putting me onto this hilarity. The post David Schwimmer saying ‘Juice’ for 68 seconds appeared first on Cultrface. | Continue reading
A very long time ago, I wrote about the original Ghost Busters, a live action series that predated Ghostbusters (the 1984 movie) by a few years. Well, Filmation made an animated series called Ghostbusters (later Filmation’s Ghostbusters for the home video release) and Secret Gala … | Continue reading
What if Eon had gone for Quentin Tarantino’s Casino Royale? Bullets & Blockbusters examined his script and why it never came to fruition. Setting it in the 60s might have been hard from a sponsorship perspective but they’d have made it work! The post What if they’d gone for Quent … | Continue reading
Dan Larson explored the tragedies from the making of The Crow, notably Brandon Lee’s accidental death during filming. The 1994 film was based on a comic by James O’Barr about a rock musician brought back from the dead to avenge his death and that of his fiancée. It’s a film I’ve … | Continue reading
In 1997, Channel 5 was launched in the UK. It was the first new terrestrial channel in 25 years and it had a massive marketing campaign headed by The Spice Girls, the biggest girl band at the time. Adam Martyn chronicled the channels origins and why it was almost a financial disa … | Continue reading
I love Danny Gonzalez’s videos but this has to be my favourite as it tackles a notable issue in content creation. He traced the various methods that people follow to copy YouTube, Instagram and TikTok videos and make their own. That includes people stealing videos and just puttin … | Continue reading
In 2022, Victoria Munro wrote about then-18 year old Fabian Williams and his pursuit of becoming an Olympic equestrian Fabian Williams – an 18-year-old who describes himself as “the UK’s Black cowboy” – is willing to do anything it takes to keep his dream of becoming an Olympic e … | Continue reading
It’s been 3 years since I last did a UK Black History Month post. In 2021, I quoted myself from 2020 and I’m going to continue that tradition: It’s been tough finding decent BHM content because so much of it is whitewashed or performative. People are retreading the same steps and … | Continue reading
A friend of mine mentioned Carrie, and it reminded me of how affecting the movie was when I saw it as a teen. Like, it took 2 weeks to get over and, for me, that’s the hallmark of a good horror movie (I can say that now but goddamn did it mess me up). That’s … Continue reading "S … | Continue reading
Likely to promote Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton joined WIRED to answer the Web’s most searched questions about himself. Of course Batman, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Birdman, and his early stand-up came up amongst other things. The post Michael Keaton answers the Web’s mos … | Continue reading
The Oakland Black Cowboy Association celebrated its 50th anniversary yesterday with a parade and festival: On Oct. 5, the group hosted its yearly Black Cowboy Parade and Festival at De Fremery Park to celebrate five decades of being in service. The post Happy 50th, Oakland Black … | Continue reading
Aissa Dearing discussed the ways Afrofuturism can open doors to new worlds and ways of thinking in these difficult environmental and sociopolitical times: Afrofuturist thinking and practice explore futures where white supremacy holds no power, fashioning worlds based on the possi … | Continue reading
Since it’s spooky season, why not make a Halloween-themed cocktail for the occasion? Dini Kodippili aka The Flavor Bender has an awesome recipe for a Witch’s Heart cocktail containing vodka, blackberries, and grenadine with some luster dust for that extra sparkle. Ingredients Che … | Continue reading
By no means an ultimate or definitive list but these films are still worth watching. The post A list of Black movies to watch during Halloween season appeared first on Cultrface. | Continue reading
The Zamacueca is a colonial dance and music that originated in Peru by enslaved people in the 18th century, and influenced by Spanish and Andean rhythms. The dance involves seductive movements with handkerchiefs and represents the courtship of the man and woman as they advance an … | Continue reading
For JSTOR Daily, Natalie Kinkade traced the history of cats and their involvement in American presidential elections, through a series of sexist political postcards. There’s a lot to go through here but I found this excerpt—from the modern day—interesting in its own way: When JD … | Continue reading
For Fodor’s Travel, Rosie Bell wrote about her experiences at Sekishoin, a modern Buddhist temple in Kōyasan, Japan: Was it a Rolex? I couldn’t get close enough to tell what was dangling on the wrist of the 83-year-old monk teaching us. I’m not enough of a timepiece aficionado to … | Continue reading
Open Democracy published an excerpt of Farrukh Dhondy’s book Fragments Against My Ruin: A Life, discussing his life as a British Black Panther in the 1970s. The post Farrukh Dhondy on life as a British Black Panther in the 1970s appeared first on Cultrface. | Continue reading
The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool is set to host an exhibition of work by 38 Black British women and non-binary artists. The exhibition will be called Conversations and run from 19th October 2024 to 9th March 2025. Through the powerful artworks on display, the exhibition aims t … | Continue reading
Jamaican poet Valerie Bloom wrote a beautiful poem about autumn called Autumn Gilt and you can hear her read it on The Children’s Poetry Archive’s website. The post Valerie Bloom recites her poem, Autumn Gilt appeared first on Cultrface. | Continue reading
Valerie Babb’s latest book The Book of James: The Power, Politics, and Passion of LeBron puts a spotlight on Lebron James and his cultural impact away from basketball. And, by doing so, Babb also scrutinises the contrasting views of Blackness from that perspective. This is a line … | Continue reading
For Cosmopolitan, Lola Akinmade Åkerström examined the culture of cultural erasure in Sweden from a Black female perspective: I often describe living in Sweden like being married to the most attractive man at a party. One who turns heads the minute you walk in with him on your ar … | Continue reading
For HuffPost, Candice Frederick chronicled Freaknik, an yearly festival held in Atlanta, a Black female sexual liberation renaissance-of-sorts that came from it, and how sexual violence impacted it all: “Women down here dress like hoes with the short skirts and all that,” says on … | Continue reading
Atlas Obscura on the origins of vampires and their relationship with spreading diseases: In many respects, the vampire of today is far removed from its roots in Eastern European folklore. As a professor of Slavic studies who has taught a course on vampires called “Dracula” for mo … | Continue reading
Departure Mono is a monospaced pixel font inspired by the constraints of early command-line and graphical user interfaces, the tiny pixel fonts of the late 90s/early 00s, and sci-fi concepts from film and television. The post Departure Mono: a free monospaced pixel font inspired … | Continue reading
The New York Times interviewed Pepe Mujica [archived], Uruguay’s former president. The notable anti-capitalist spoke about his cancer and why he thinks humanity is doomed: We waste a lot of time uselessly. We can live more peacefully. Take Uruguay. Uruguay has 3.5 million people. … | Continue reading
Brandon James Greer is a pixel artist and the video above shows some of the pieces he did for a Nokia Art Jam a few months ago. The idea was to create art that would adhered to certain criteria: Needless to say, Brandon understood the assignment and made some really cool stuff wh … | Continue reading
Kat Tsai is a Taiwanese-American artist who specialises in colourful, atmospheric illustrations. If the style looks familiar, you’ll be pleased to know that she worked as a Visual Development artist at Sony Pictures Animation on Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse. Her media work a … | Continue reading
The Kingston Negroni is a cocktail made with equal parts rum, sweet vermouth, and Campari, usually served over ice (or “on the rocks”), and garnished with a twisted orange peel. The difference between a standard Negroni and a Kingston Negroni is Jamaican-style rum in place of gin … | Continue reading
The Onion, from 28th August 2024: Scientists at the University of California at Davis are attempting to reengineer the microbes in cows’ stomachs to produce less methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas released by the animals that contributes about 4% of global warming. I think … | Continue reading
I’ve blogged about a few video tape projects such as the guy who built a video store in his basement and Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher aka The VHS Guys but they’ve always been focused on VHS. Well, there’s a guy who calls himself the Betamax King and CBC interviewed him about his … | Continue reading
Fancy a trip back to the 90s? Interested in tarot cards? Then you might like Jude’s World, a tarot-based journaling game by Button Kin Games: You’ll take on the role of Jude – a 12-year-old who’s desperate to grow up and certain that they’ll do a better job of it than their paren … | Continue reading
Paul Lewin is a Jamaican-born artist who currently lives in Miami, Florida. The above piece, called “Nanny and the Pumpkin Seeds”, was inspired by the Jamaican folktale of Queen Nanny and the pumpkin seeds: […] She is one of my favorite characters from Caribbean folklore and is J … | Continue reading
This passed me by: bell hooks’s memoir ‘Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood’ will be published in the UK for the first time, by Dialogue Books. The post bell hooks memoir ‘Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood’ to be published in the UK for the first time appeared first on Cultrface. | Continue reading
In the autumn night, Breaking into A pleasant chat. The post An autumn haiku by Matsuo Basho appeared first on Cultrface. | Continue reading
There’s a meme going around of surprisingly recently invented foods but rather than posting it and having to rewrite what’s on it for accessibility, here’s a list of 10 foods [archived] (the writer also “stole” the idea from a tweet). Here are the ones that surprised me the most: … | Continue reading
‘Den de payment comes, an we have some fun,Me, Zekiel, Breda and Duppy Son.Down at de bar near United WharfWe knock back a white rum, bus a laugh,Fill de empty bag for further toilWid saltfish, breadfruit, coconut oil.Den head back home to m’yard to sleep,A proper sleep dat is lo … | Continue reading
The Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990 is a treaty that aims to unified how the Portuguese language is written in countries where Portuguese is the official language. It was signed in Lisbon in 1990 and the signatories included representatives from all Portuguese- … | Continue reading
Superman Returns didn’t do so well in the box office and it took a reboot to bring the Man of Steel back to life (foreshadowing!) But director Bryan Singer had a whole idea for its sequel as Bullets & Blockbusters explained in his video. I personally enjoyed Superman Returns and … | Continue reading
It takes a certain morbidity to wonder if a life-sized Sonic the Hedgehog could cut you in half but that’s what we have in the above video from No Bitrate. Using a giant saw blade, a car, and science, Alex Corea put his “Sonic” to the test against an old TV and a mannequin to … C … | Continue reading
I’m something of a casual Star Wars fan. I’ve seen all the main series movies but not delved into the spin-offs like The Acolyte, the latest Disney series about a former Padawan teaming up with her old mentor to investigate crimes from sinister forces. In it, Jedi Master Vernestr … | Continue reading
Giorgia Villa is now an Olympic silver medallist for Italy in gymnastics but she’s also a Parmigiano Reggiano ambassador: Villa regularly poses in sponsored photos sitting astride or holding wheels of the hard cheese. The post Giorgia Villa: gymnast, Olympic silver medallist, and … | Continue reading