PlanetOddity.com » weird

The Crannog of Loch Tay

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:42:34 +0000

The definition of a crannog has to be “artificial island, usually built in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters”. They have been variously interpreted as free-standing wooden structures, as at Loch Tay. The word “crannog” is from Old Irish and means young tree.

They were made to protect the more wealthy families of a population. Scotland has now 400 crannogs, but Ireland still holds the record with over a thousand of them. Besides being used by wealthy families, the crannogs have also served as non residential hunting and fishing stations, and holiday homes.

Now they have reconstructed a crannog on Loch Tay in Scotland, and it’s open to visitors everyday day from Easter to October. A team of archaeologists from Edinburgh University has given us a good picture of how the people lived in crannogs, so you can learn a lot by visiting it.

Speaking of floating residents, here you have the floating island of Lake Titicaca where people actually live.

When Children Drawings Becomes Reality

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:13:32 +0000

Children are expressing themselves in many different ways, but one of the most popular is through drawings. And they love to give it to their parents and other people as gifts. It’s adorable, but the drawings are always the same; a round head with some sort of face, and a body made out of several lines.

The figures in the drawings almost look like monsters. That is what artist Dave Devries thought when he made imitations of children’s drawings.

He is basically illustrating drawings from kids into something that looks like little monsters. He uses acrylic painting, colored pencils and airbrush to create the lovely monster pieces. The reason why he started doing it was because of his young niece who was always drawing something in his sketchbook.

He immediately got inspired and wanted to make the drawings more alive, more three-dimensional. All of his drawings are gathered in his book called The Monster Engine. Some children develop amazing skills for drawing, like these students that express their art in their notebooks during classes.

Stunning Alien vs. Predator Metal Sculptures

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:54:29 +0000

It’s starting to get crazy how people are making sculptures out of anything. There are almost no creative materials left to use, especially all the ones that belongs to the metal category. Speaking of that here are some very good Alien vs. Predator sculptures made of car parts. Now for those who don’t know what Alien vs. Predator is, it’s a American sci-fi movie from 2004.

The aliens and the predators are very creepy, and their suits or whatever they are made of is metallic material, so the auto parts just fit perfectly. All of them are a part of a metal art event in Bangkok, and you can see how some of them are placed out in the wild so they will look even more scary. When speaking of crazy metal sculptures, you should take a look at these 250 year old ones, but still modern-looking.

Real Life Shrek Existed

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:23:57 +0000

For those of you who don’t know who Shrek is, let me explain: he is a big and not so attractive green ogre in this animated movie that goes by the same name. Yes he is a fictional character, but imagine the real life Shrek. He actually existed! The French Maurice Tillet, born 1903, was better known as the “Freak Ogre of the Ring” because he was a professional wrestler.

But why he got compared to Shrek is because he had Acromegaly, a disease that made his bones grow uncontrollably large, so for many people he looked weird, and many would say scary and ugly like Shrek. But as Shrek he was a charismatic guy.

The disease made also some disfigurements to his body so he even looked more unusual. I don’t know how he got accepted at that time, I suppose they looked on him as different, but he seemed very witty and positive, and they also called him The French Angel, so never judge a book by its cover.

All I know is that it would be cool seeing him in person. He couldn’t help looking like that because of the disease, but these meth addicts could, but they chose to destroy themselves.

Creepy Monster Garden of Orsini Family

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:47:11 +0000

70 kilometers from Rome you can find this old monster garden. They are located in a part of a woodland near the valley where the famous Orsini family castle. Pier Francesco Orsini built this garden, and his wanted it to be different and non-religious. And you can say that they are unique, but still a bit creepy. Taking a walk through the garden today is far from boring, because you never know what kind of monster monument will wait around the corner.

Orsini created the garden after his wife died, he needed something to put his mind to, and architect Pirro Lugorio helped him a lot with his work. The monuments have no connection with each other; it seems like they are just randomly placed around the garden with no specific plan whatsoever. A part of the sculptures are Pegasus, Poseidon and Proteus, and there are specially one monument that is really powerful: the one of the elephant crushing a Roman soldier. Another different and weird garden is the Dwarf Garden in Salzburg.

Funny drawings of Bill Murray as different characters

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:20:29 +0000

American actor and comedian, had a role in Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and Lost in Translation among others, and a winner of Golden Globe. Of course we are talking about the one and only Bill Murray. On these pictures you can see how Casey Weldon has drawn different personalities based on Bill Murray’s face. This piece of work is a part of a project that is called “Bad Dads”, and it will be shown in the Lopo gallery in San Francisco. It owns the slogan “what if it could be all Murray, all the time?”, and the illustrations also represent Murray like a woman.

The fun part is that his face is the same, and it looks so much like the actor himself, that only by looking at the drawings you want to start laughing, because it looks like Murray is making a fool out of himself on purpose. Using actors to make something fun seems to be hip these days; actor Kevin Bacon was used as an inspiration to make a bust out of only bacon, how ironic.

GandALF

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:43:23 +0000

Gandalf, have you ever imagined that?

Via TeeFury.

The Invisible Man Strikes Again

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:23:18 +0000

This is what camouflage is all about. On the pictures you can see that something is hiding, but admit that is done in such a neat way. It is all the idea of the Chinese artist Liu Bolin, or maybe you can call him “the invisible man”. He really knows how to melt in with the environment, like a chameleon that changes colors to match the background. He studied art at Shandong College of Arts and at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, so he knew what he was doing when he started this “camouflage project”.

In some of the photos you almost can tell that he is in the picture, like the one with the bulldozer. But the most impressive have to be the two photos with the police officer. Almost all of the settings for the photos are out on the street somewhere, so you could almost call it street art in a way. Either way it is so impressive and detailed done. Several other artists have also used people when creating street art, like for instance this amazing human architecture in New York.

A Peek Inside Fighter Jet Cockpits

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 02:42:02 +0000

Have you ever wonder how fighter jets looks inside? Now you have a chance to take a look at some of them, so many buttons and who knows which gadgets they have.

Creepy and Disturbing Mummy Dolls

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 03:09:13 +0000

Horror is the right word for Shain Erin’s mummy dolls. They are terrifying, and it is hard to believe that any child wants to play with them. But that is not the purpose of these creepy dolls, they are made for art exhibitions around the world. Shain’s dolls have been seen in quite a few countries; U.S., Australia, Norway, England, Germany, Canada and France. Erin has always been really into mummies, he says that they are like „books waiting for audience“. This is not the first time that he creates a unique art work; since childhood he has been interested in art, and has created sculptures and painted a lot.

To make the mummy dolls he used Paper clay and fabric. Some of them look like skeleton, some like monsters and others like zombies. It is definitely a nice collection of creepiness that will make you feel funny but impressed. Erin is not the only one using scary dolls to express something; this Mexican island has the scariest collection of dolls.