All I Want for Christmas is an Alien Fish Parasite and More Surreal Cartoons
From the real-life Simpsons house to drug cartels on TikTok to art that reminds us of the worst holiday office parties.
Greetings, Earthling.
15 days till Christmas.
It's just around the bend and despite everyone being ready to call 2020 a loss, there are still 3 more weeks of shenanigans to get through before we see the light of another year.
So what to do in the meanwhile? Well, you can start by perusing the latest batch of strange links. Because that's why you're here, after all.
Real Life, Stranger Than Fiction
Alien Fish Parasite: Did you know? There's a truly bizarre fish parasite that invades a fish through its lungs, eats the fish's tongue, and then replaces the tongue with itself, so that when the fish eats anything, the parasite gets a good chunk of it? It may just remind you of that mouth-within-a-mouth scene in Aliens. *Shivers.*
Narco-Marketing is an Actual Word: While your company is probably wondering whether it should start using social media channels like TikTok, one "industry" is thriving on it, and even using these channels to recruit new workers. The industry, of course, is the Mexican drug trade.
The Saga of the Real-Life Simpsons House: Did you know they built a real house in Nevada that copied the design of the Simpsons' famous home in Springfield? It was supposed to be raffled off to a fan for a nationwide promotion sponsored by Pepsi, but the fan eventually rejected it. And then the local homeowner's association hated the garish colors. And... well, there's more. A LOT more.
Hacker's Mom Breaks Into Prison and the Warden's Computer: This WIRED story tells an incredible tale of how someone with a clipboard, a fake badge and a business card can gain access into even the most well guarded prisons in the country. Confidence and conversation.
Match Made In Hell: Ah, the audacity of dating app marketing. This one is from Match.com, but of course.
Desperately Seeking Punks: And speaking of match-making, have you ever wondered whether those personal ads at the back of music magazines in the 1990s ever resulted in anything? Well, one UK journalist did the work to find out.
Nice Canadian to the Rescue: What happens when you need to get your family to the border of Canada and Alaska but have never driven in snow and have all but given up the stressful ordeal? You meet an angel in disguise willing to drive you the remaining 1,000 miles.
Eye Candy
Every Holiday Party You've Ever Been To: Alex Prager's installation "Farewell, Work Holiday Parties" features life-size sculptures that memorialize and satirize all the awkwardness of every Christmas party at work you've ever had to attend. It pokes light-hearted fun at the one thing that you're glad COVID -19 has canceled.
Betty Boop as Snow White?: This one's a classic black-and-white animation from 1933 showing Betty Boop and musician Cab Calloway in a musical reinterpretation of the Snow White story, complete with a New Orleans-style jazz song and the gorgeous hand-drawn animation of Roland Crandall.
Don't Feed the Stump Of Wood: I stumbled upon Little Otik (aka Otisanek aka Greedy Guts) on YouTube! It's a live-action + stop-motion film by macabre puppeteer Jan Svankmeyer, which tells the Hungarian folktale of the woodcutter and his wife who can't have a baby, so the wife treats a stump of wood as a baby... until it actually comes to life and starts eating everything around it: raw meat, mice, house cats, and eventually… Now imagine that with stop motion puppets and you get a truly bizarre film. (Quite possibly NSFW, but it’s been years since I saw it.)
Don't Feed the Bears: These photos from 1950 capture what appear to be a Soviet soldier feeding a bunch of polar bears from atop an armored tank. Just another wintry day in the USSR.
Don't Feed the Magical Beings in the Forest: Artist Adrian Cox paints colorful and surreal creatures made of energy or internal organs in idyllic landscapes. It's gorgeous in an X-Files meets H.P.Lovecraft way.
Watch Gravity Falls: Speaking of magical forests, my kids and I just finished our binge of the 2 seasons of the animated series, Gravity Falls. It starts out as two 12-year-old siblings investigating paranormal events during their summer vacation while learning about life and love... but then slowly and steadily builds up to what can only be called a massive climax in the 2nd season that is equal parts Stephen King (The Stand), Fringe (TV series from early 2000s), Scooby Doo zaniness, The Wonder Years awkwardness, and Adventure Time surrealism. Highly recommended.
Ear Candy
This 4-song EP from LA-based musician Phoebe Bridgers is a little bit of indie rock/pop. But it captures the essence of this last stretch of a really bad year. The title is all sorts of apt: If We Make It Through December.
Need some background music for work? Let me provide you with some suggestions:
Let me start with this 11-track electronic chillout/ downtempo album, primarily because I made it. :D
But also, allow me to suggest this vaporwave compilation album that has 28 tracks of retro future goodness.
And that's it for this week in strange.
Now, go watch Gravity Falls with your kids (only if you have kids, do not go and borrow someone else's).
Cheers,
Lionel