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There is an abandoned town called Uravan in Colorado. In the '50s they mined uranium and vanadium (hence the name). When this ceased, everybody left and it became a very "hot" spot due to the radioactive pools, and mill tailings.
It became a Superfund cleanup site, and has since been "cleaned" but I visited it in the late '80s prior to this and wandered through abandoned houses, stores and buildings. It was kinda spooky, yet fascinating and probably a bit dangerous as it was posted "radioactive".
There's a web site where you can find pictures and the whole story about it.
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im suprised that you haven't included pictures of the roads in northen iraq, they beat alot of the ones here!!
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You forgot to include Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia!
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That astronomical device is called an "Astrolabe" and has nothing to do with eternal female genitalia (Labia).
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Lol... fixed. Must be Latin :)
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Computer Space was THE first commercial coinop video arcade game, designed by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. The second photo you have is of some recently discovered Soviet-era video games that never made it out of that country. All of the other photos are obviously electromechanical coinop games. The scoring reels on the cabinets give that away.
Not to spam, but if you need a little help with a video game history article, I conducted interviews with Ed Logg (Asteroids), Al Alcorn (Pong creator), and a couple of others that might help. Just visit my blog page at http://www.briandeuel.com and check the links. Another page to check out is http://www.orubin.com. Owen has some great stories in his mailbag from 1976-1984 era Atari (he was a game designer there).
Another excellent article from an excellent site. Thanks!
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You should see the early listening devices. You could detect a plane before you could see it...
http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/en/earlyeq.html
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The astrolabe was a portuguese invention from the early period of maritime discoveries (mid-15th century), and derived from an arab navigation device. The name, latin in origin, means roughly «star-measurer».
In the late decades of the 16th century (circa 1580-87), queen Elisabeth I of England, ordered sir Francis Drake to plunder the portuguese naval schools of Lagos and Sagres, in the Algarve region, at the time under spanish occupation. There they found the astrolabes, which they replicated, and another then strange device - the calculating or slide rule, invented by the portuguese mathematician Pedro Nunes, around 1550. It was not until well into the 17th century that the british Edmund Gunter replicated the slide rule, just after the publication of the logarithmic tables by John Napier.
The evolution of the astrolabe gave birth to the sextant (one-sixth of a full 360º astrolabe).
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"Actual lace is part of the design... They don't make electronics like that any more."
Actually, they do:
http://www.toniawelter.de/snw_en_5_tidytippist.htm
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b.d. - will be delighted to see your info!
Listening devices we also covered
herecarlos - fantastic info, thanks - slide rule deserves its own post
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Astrolabes were an invention of the Hellenistic culture of Alexandria about the time of Christ. The earliest surviving descriptions of how to make them date from the 3rd Century AD. The actual earliest examples are Arab, from about the 8th Century AD.
Like much of Western culture, it was lost during the Dark Ages and reintroduced into Europe from the Islamic culture of Spain in around the 8th Century.
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And the English were familiar with astrolabes well before the time of Elizabeth.
Chaucer (author of the Canterbury Tales) wrote a "Treatise on the Astrolabe" in the 1400s.
Fascinating gadgets.
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Well, Chiropetra, you are right up to a point. The astrolabe mentioned by Chaucer was not... an astrolabe. In fact, it was the instrument devised by the greeks and adopted by the Arabs, which they called «kamal» or «balistl» (meaning height), and the portuguese of the 15th century called «balestilha». It was a crude instrument, similar to a crossbow, with a ruler on the longer end.
It was based on this instrument that the portuguese devised the actual astrolabe, circular in shape and more practical to use.
But, both the kamal and the real astrolabe were usually called «astrolabes», hence the misunderstanding.
There were lots of these instruments found in wrecks around the portuguese coast, both arabic and western.
Greetings.
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These pics are too much fun! Thanks for sharing. I'll probably write a post about it and link to your site in the next week or so. My readers would love this stuff.
My fave is the portable stereo in the kitchen, where the homemaker looks more pleased about her cutting-edge technology than she does about her Christmas dinner.
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Not too surprised to see Chrysler had invented the automotive record turntable... For a long time Chrysler invented many neat things... Two others that come to mind quickly are the automotive alternator (1959) and I believe they invented the portable window mounted air conditioner.
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Hey, that first tombstone has a Daewoo on it, not a Merc. Almost polar opposites on the automotive spectrum!
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I saw a program on the ship crash the other night (Shockwave: History Channel). The on site bridge operator was intoxicated and working alone. He thought the ship had passed and began lowering the bridge.
There were no deaths in the accident. The helmsman dropped to the floor as they hit the bridge and the wheelhouse was sheared off inches above the floor, leaving him untouched. The ship, of course, was destroyed and its hull has been cut down to make a barge.
Bridges in the area are now controlled remotely from a central location with closed circuit cameras to verify that traffic is clear.
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I truly hope that black&white basketball picture was photoshopped.... Those fingers seem to be *inside* his eyes!
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That b&w photo of the fingers inside the other´s eyes is actually a winner of the world press photo, so i think it is not photoshopped!
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yeah, tombstone piledriver figure skating! lol
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Sergio: what is the source of your information. As far as I know, this photograph is NOT a winner of the world press photo. In fact, there's only ONE sport's related photograph that ever won this competition and that was way back in the 60s (it was taken during a football match in the rain).
./w
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I'd guess Sergio got his info from the world press photo contest website.
http://tinyurl.com/2b56or
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Love the site, you owe my employer a lot of lost hours :D now for my first comment...
That rugby photo is related to the 2008 Rugby world cup in Paris, it didn't turn out as romantic as the photo suggests!
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RE: Mystery Photo
First thought that came to me:
"...and now for something completely different...."
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So much for the theory that "at least Communism supported the arts"...
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Correct.
Howver,just change "supported" to deformed and ...
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I did recognize one of the sculptures as a representation of a Russian folk story about a farmer trying to pull a huge beet or turnip from the ground. It only looks scary in sculpture.
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Cthulhu for President in '08.
Why vote for the lesser evil?
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Children appreciate any playground. Even if it is creepy.
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I actually liked the little bears with light-up eyes though, and I'd love to have the Cthulhu chair in my study; maybe I could sit next to him while reading the Necronomicon...
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This really scares the shit out of me and leaves one word in my mouth... WHY!? Why on earth would you do something so ugly!
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haha some of this stuff is really creepy but some of it it is funny :] i geusse kids would have fun on anything
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Well, it was kind of like a bad accident... horrible and scary, but yet... I want to see more...
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http://lh5.google.ca/abramsv/R5mGIO9HheI/AAAAAAAAE4c/Ol7kgwMiVbA/post-1200088287.jpg
its hungarian fountain :-)
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Lovely Art Goddess: there is going to be more! We have lots more photos sent to us for part 2... btw, great nick :)
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Picture number six shows the 'Grün 80' in Münchenstein near Basel/Switzerland. There was a exhibition in 1980 when this strange thing was built. I played there sometimes in my childhood, it isnt that bad :)
http://www.migrosbasel.ch/parkgruen/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-183//218_read-345
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there are not SCARY sculptures. the problem is in your HEAD/BRAIN, you create SCARY thoughts from that, and kids are not brainwashed like you.
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"...are in danger to become psychologically scarred from thinking too much about these monsters..."
If anyone actually did successfully sue somebody over this, they and anyone that thinks it was a good idea should get impaled, stuffed, and made into a creepy statue for a playground somewhere.
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Some of these are creepy, but some I found quite endearing. The turtle and snail sculptures were pretty cute. I also liked the black bear looking little guys that were just a picture or two after the "intermission".
The one sculptures that I don't think kids will enjoy are the lady with the bloody eyes (though that could be later-added graffiti), and the giant bugs. Still, only SOME kids wont like the giant bugs.
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You have some very interesting images here. Like very much the sports collection...
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i really find most of these images beautiful and interesting. maybe the problem is that you have a very narrow concept of what beauty must be. you know, boy used to disney and all that things. not that it's bad, but you can't judge other cultures just because they are different to/ oh, wait, you are an american! sorry, forget it, my fault...
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found another picture http://flickr.com/photos/pyr0_de/141003780/
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" not that it's bad, but you can't judge other cultures just because they are different to/ oh, wait, you are an american! sorry, forget it, my fault..." um? does anyone else see the irony in this?
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So you wanted to prove with this gallery that you have a very narrow concept of art? And what has this to do with playgrounds? Besides - i find the playgrounds at a typical McDonnalds way scarier.
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These are freaking cool! I would've loved to have something like this growing up. In your mind it might be scary for children, but to children, it's the starting point for imagination (except maybe the one with the bleeding eyes). A little bit of scariness can be exciting!
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I agree with the Mcdonalds comment. Ronald Mcdonald is surely the most scary thing on earth!
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I would welcome some of these in our school playgrounds to frighten the crap out of gobby kids before they come into school.
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you obviously have a poor conception of what art is. Allot of that is interesting abstract art, you are way to ignorant to realize how this could add to a kids imagination. And if a kid doesn't like whats at the park go to a different one. Or the parent should explain to the kid that theirs nothing scary about it.
Most of you people are just ignorant to any kind of abstract art any ways.
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I was flicking through the pictures and I spotted one I knew.
but its not Russian...
its in the centre of Stockholm, Sweden.
its the one with four mole looking creatures.
its in the middle of a bigger park, the moles are heated if you sit on them (handy in Stockholm!) and the eyes are lit up with halogen bulbs.
they are actually pretty cool.
pity its all just punk kids drinking on them most of the time.
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Thanks for all the location info - I updated the post. Api-punk, Abstract art is a wonderful thing when done tastefully. Some of the sculptures shown here are cool, but not all kids might appreciate it.
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"even sweden", "even america" - as if... looks like art to me... read a Grimm tale, lately?
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it's not art vs. art so much as creepy vs. creepy. and i love the little black bears - they're great! but the woman with the bleeding eyes needs to be repainted.
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Awww, they're all so wonderful! I especially loved the bird creatures (pic# 7). Why don't we have more of that here in The States. *sigh*
If anyone has ever successfully sued because a park scarred them...they need to be locked in a room with the bleeding eye lady! (whom I think is fine just the way she is!) :D
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I don't really get how a lot of these pieces are supposed to be creepy, outside of like... the elephant slide and the bleeding eye lady. Everything else is pretty benign. this story did not live up to the hype.
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Dude...those are just freaky. XD
That bleeding eyed-lady is gunna give me nightmares or something.
o.0
And I really WOULDN'T want to play on a playground with a huge statue of a doctor holding a large NEEDLE...
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An ode to toejam!
Stinky? Yes!
But it doesn't come in strawberry or grape.
What a shame.
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I actually live in the city where are those weird pink and orange female and male figures.. You can climb on them... They ARE actually kinda scary...
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i tend to agree that the scariness of these playgrounds is overblown.
maybe you'd have been better off calling them "ugly playgrounds."
i'm guessing you don't have kids?
since i had a son my playground aesthetics have changed a lot. safety and fun are a hell of a lot more important than cosmetics. and actually, "ugly" things can be cool to play on.
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Here's a submission for the topic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/micahdonahue/2422670999/sizes/l/
Captured on our recent trip to Chile.
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I can't WAIT to subject my kids to this! Good psychological learning for the formative years.
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The giant reptile with knives in its back is not displayed at the Guggenheim. It's on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum.
Yes, some of these playgrounds are a little odd, even creepy. I think some of the them are kind of cool with kids climbing on sculptures. You aren't taking into account the culture or the amount of money they have to work with for building playgrounds.
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I'd like to have the skeletons playing cards for my yard, way cool.
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A couple I can see is not for kids, but the majority of them are fine. Nothing is wrong about getting your imagination going. Most great writers have very creative minds. I'm in the USA and I wish I could see playgrounds with a child's mind as the focus, not what we think is suitable. It's not what you play with, but how you play is what is important. ( the elephant, it's better than going in the rear and out the mouth) now that would be gross!!!
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My sons would have loved the elephant as it combines fun with the potty talk so common in childhood. The other sculptures are obviously not professional but look like something a child would make. (I made somethin simliar to the mermaid in 3rd grade.) The skeletons playing cards was a little weird.
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Yeah, I agree on the McDonald's idea. The scary playgrounds are the generic cookie-cutter playgrounds as the place for our children to learn about "creative play." When I was in school we got to design our own playground including a maze that had "scary creatures" at the dead ends. We painted the creatures ourselves. I still remember how much fun that maze was. I don't remember a particularly joyful McDonald's playground ... just empty fun.
These freaking rock! Thanks for the collection.
(And yes the "judging cultures .. oh wait you're American" comment was pretty funny ... but whatever, typical internet ridiculousness.)
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I found these stimulating and enjoyable. My daughters would be terrified of them, but I wish they were exposed to more unusual things here in the US. It would be good for them to expand their idea of fun. Disney Princesses leave me cold, and I think whimsical sculptures are better than Barbie for promoting the outside-the-box thinking that I cherish. Then again, I'm an artist, so I'm not sure you'd want my opinion on art.
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most of its abstract art. a child can have hours of fun , using their imaginations. perhaps playing on a sculpture that may be scary(doctor w/ needle) will help aleve their fears.can't be that bad if you can play and have fun. some of the playgrounds are run down, but to a child, its better than nothing and they don't see things the way adults see them.oh ya, not all americans feel the way some of the comments will lead you to believe.
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Does anyone happen to know where the metal Cthulu sitting on the chair, and the skeletons playing cards happen to be? I'd lovelovelove to visit them.
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I really like the skeletons playing cards too. someone let us know where it is please
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I think they are great. The woman with the bleeding eyes was the only one that was disturbing and I agree, that it could have been vandalism. Children are fascinated with ideas that are different than adults. They are fascinated with monsters and bugs and gooey things. These sculptures feed imagination. Oh, and by the way, I'm an American too.
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Wow, what are you all so up-in-arms about? So the author thinks that these playground sculptures are freaky... and? This offends you somehow? Do we all have to have the same opinion about everything? No. Everyone (for the most part) has differences in aesthetic taste, thankfully.
Personally, i love all things spooky and abhor most things plastic/McDonald's/cookie-cutter, but even i found a lot of these sculptures frightening, to say the least. I loooooved the four little black bears with glowing eyes, but do think that a fair percentage of children, upon being introduced to them, would cry. But maybe that's ok? Maybe that helps them to recognize the truly scary things when they get older.
Anyway, i enjoyed the photos a lot. Actually, i almost feel like the very first photo was the most unsettling, somehow!
Moral: different strokes for different folks.
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Well... As far as "miserable playgrounds" go, let me tell you – they're pretty representative of childhood in Eastern Europe in general, but it was all there was. (I grew up in Bulgaria.) Because of the utter lack of funding, a lot of them were made by local artists or even parents, hungry to provide something – anything – for the kids to play on. You can't blame them for not being MoMA-worthy, they were doing their best.
And I think there's a bit of cultural misinterpretation going on. For example, the one sculpture where a man is pulling on something with a woman behind him, a child behind her, and a puppy on the end. It's actually an iconic folk culture image from a tale called something like "Grandpa Pulls The Giant Radish" – it's something like Jack and the Bean Stalk, except it's a radish that grows huge. And that's the family trying to plug it from the ground...not the orgy-like scenario it looks like here.
Anyway, point is, although many of these are laughable today in contemporary Eastern Europe as well, they didn't necessarily come from a bad place.
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I agree with the comment from "silvergirl".... TAKE IT EASY PEOPLE) ..Comments are a way of stating your opinion, get it? Name calling & defensiveness just proves your ignorance not everyone else's. The opinions & captions are perfectly understandable. They ARE creepy. That is an opinion! They are also funny, disgusting, sad, morbid & cool. So what people! Now wonder everyone needs meds!
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I can't believe that you didn't include the sculpture of "The Awakening" in Haines Point Park Near Washington DC. It is super scary, especially that big open mouth with teeth. My kids used to play on the leg and foot though. They didn't care. Here is a link to view. http://www.senate.gov/visiting/common/image/The-Awakening.htm The sculpture has been moved. Where you ask? Who knows, maybe Prague?
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Well, to me it seems that these peolpe in these cultures have been hidden from the real world for a LONG time, perhaps behind a curtain!
Maybe that curtain was made of IRON!
Ya think?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get a grip on the rest of the world its history, folks!
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When we lived in Ukraine, we had a fun but oh-so-dangerous playground in the courtyard of our highrise. It was concrete and metal and designed with ne'er a thought to safety.
Hunh. . . don't have a pic online, let me see if I can find one to upload. . .
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These aren't scary, not for kids. They are just old and run down. I'm sure they were quite pretty when new. Like someone else said, kids will play on anything and be happy to have something to play on. Something is better than nothing.
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Actually, being a Russian and having grown up in Russia, yes, the strong "opinion" in the form of introduction of the article offends me. The majority of the playgrounds' statues found in Russia represent the characters from our good old Russian folklore fairytales. What exactly is wrong with the brown monkey? Oh, it looks old and disgusting to you? Did it even occur to you that the only reason they look so “ugly” is because they are old? Yes, someone should have replaced them, but in the country twice as big as the US, there are other problems more important than renovating the statues of the characters that everybody still loves and recognized. And honestly, it drives me nuts when someone with McDonald’s playgrounds mentioned here earlier goes to the country as old as Russia and begins to critique what they see. Why don’t you critique those “real” playgrounds here that are, let’s be honest here, completely absent from the landscape?! Or shall we look at the lovely schoolyards with nothing but black concrete and wire fences? Or maybe we should look at the private backyards with swings identical to each other because all of them were bought in the same store??!! Please, nobody is perfect!!
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Excuse me, what exactly is that "real world" you refer to? A country with 400-year old history -a self-proclaimed world savior? Iron curtain means nothing to you-nothing has changed here since the communism broke down. It's the people on the other side of the curtain are the ones who had lived the real life, not you! Oh, and why don't you check your native language grammar-it is kinda hard to understand your last sentence!
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Interesting collection. Thanks for assembling them.
Many of them beautiful, very few of them scary.
Says more to me about the limited education of the weberati if the consensus is that these are scary.
Scary is: cultural myopia; global blanding; having a functional illiterate in the White House.
I know a lot of Europeans who grew up playing in these type of parks. They are, without exception, cultured, bright, modest and hard-working professionals.
Thankfully, those qualities will eventually overcome the cultural hegemony of The Land of Dumbo.
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I don't think it moved but when I was in NYC last summer the crocodile with the cutlery was on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, not the Guggenheim. On the other front, people can say your view of art is narrow but they're just trying to put you down because their own view is closed to all but what they think has artistic value.
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Has anyone checked out the City Museum in St. Louis? The entire building is one giant playground, with a jungle gym of old jets perched 5 stories about the ground and an entire cave in the basement.
Also the turtle park outside the St. Louis zoo is also a little wierd.
just my $.02
matt
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They have imaginative parks in the States as well. I grew up in New Orleans and we have a beautiful one there called storyland. It has sculptures of all types of creatures - scary and not. My favorite was always the whale that you can walk inside - a representation of Pinnochio.
http://neworleanscitypark.com/storyland_kids.html
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These so-called 'artists' could not make a living in the private sector so they asked the government to take money away from hard working families in the form of taxation in order to pay for these butt-ugly creations.
Just look at the sculptures that are placed in front of government buildings. They are almost always ugly. The government bought the sculptures with taxpayer money because no one else would even consider buying their crap.
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Kids will be climbing over anything they can and if an adult won't tell them that they should be afraid of those playground then they probably won't be. I am from Czech Republic and they have some really cool playgrounds there. Please, don't judge. Did you maybe realize that in some countries people don't have so much as here in US and they are happy for anything? Maybe people should stop being so spoiled and be thankful for what they have.
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I have to agree with a lot of the comments here. I think most kids would find a lot of this stuff interesting, not disturbing. I'd take any of them over a plastic ronald mcdonald any day.
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Hi there! I read this post some time ago and I was really shocked to see how, yesterday night, spanish TV program Cuarto Milenio [http://www.cuatro.com/microsites/cuartomilenio/] used the most of these "Nightmare Playgrounds" pictures without giving any credit. They didn't use all the pictures, but all the pictures they used were taken from here. They presented it like "stuff you find in the net". They made it sound as though they had been the ones who made the compillation.
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Deadly Bite - we will investigate. Thank you for the heads-up about this.
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Why is is funny for you to mock the lot of poor people?
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The elephant with the large plastic tube stick out of its butt is in a rather depressing zoo on the island of Majorca.
Charming, it is.
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Apart from the sculpture of the woman that was bleeding from the eyes, I didn't see anything particularly wrong with any of these.
In fact, many of them were very imaginative and fascinating, albeit a bit rundown, but in my experience, most kids wouldn't care about that at all.
Seems to me this is more an example of the blogger's rather narrow worldview - not all playgrounds need to be full of licensed Disney characters.
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Next up on DRB: photos of Central African mud huts: Holy crap, these guys don't have bidets and air conditioning? Are they retarded or something??
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I actually enjoyed many of the pieces posted here. Some were a little grotesque to be placed in children's playgrounds, but I think part of that also has to do with the fact that they were marred by graffiti. (However, I normally like "artistic graffiti".)
Just because you don't understand a work of art does not mean you should simply cast it aside as meaningless. Art is supposed to make one think critically and invoke emotion.
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Stay tuned for the Part 2!
Even uglier and more entertaining.
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I found these extremely interesting and so creepy - but I agree that little kids don't see things the way we do - these reminded me of a sculpture I remember playing on as a little kid growing up in suburban Miami decades ago - may be I really only played on it once, but to me it seems like it was many times... I thought maybe it was something I had dreamed of until I found pictures of it online recently:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zwelling/566206994/
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I visited the one with the dragon. All I saw was a whole lot of kids having fun. I saw alot of amazing art when I visited Russia, however, there was not a whole lot of public art. I was taken there by a 20-somthing Russia who expressed how much he enjoyed it when he was a child. I really enjoyed visiting that scuplture, I know those who live around do as well.
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only an american would think that this is horrible or scary, i've been many times to america, to diferent places of it and it always amazed me how everythink looks the same, saving geographical diferences all the country looks and feels exactly the same is like a uniform country made of prefabricated buildings with zero apreciation for any human factor. i am gratefull that i grew up in a variety of places so culturally fullfilling so vast in it's human nature that i can see things in a deeper way, and i feel ashamed to know that i share this world with a society so destroyed as the north american that makes young inexpierienced to feel good about being the though type, like gangsters i mean they actually look up the delincuent life... they see it as "cool", where i come from of course we have crime... A LOT of it, but no criminal or gangster is proud of it at all, they are ashamed, maybe angry that the society pushed them to that kind of life.
btw i'm not eastern european, i'm southamerican and we have those kind of landscapes in parks and public places too. i think is great.
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Some crazy stuff.
Surprised to see the basel one! (6th from the top). Its in a park close to the city, used for massive parties by the international school kids. The hill in the background is usually the epicenter whereas the artsy object can be entered and is usually where the stoners do their thing.
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The cthulhu is actually a leather doll with joints and stuff, not a piece of playground equiptment, it's by this guy http://bob-basset.livejournal.com/
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Really theres a lot of hate going on here for what is in essence a showcase of unusual and fascinating sculpture that the OP even calls masterpieces, just because he accuses them of being disturbing doesn't mean that it's necessarily a criticism and certainly doesn't suggest that they aren't appreciated.
Some of the comments people have made accuse the poster of being close minded, as far as I have read it's many of these very defensive posters making inflammatory comments that have brought any feelings of ill will into the discussion, not to mention the feeling of bigotry against America (I myself am not American before you make an accusation).
I understand these are hand crafted and a far cry from the generic, mentally sterile, factory creations, but the imagery does evoke the same Grimm's fairy tales level of eeriness.
Some of these sculptures are scary in the same way a derelict house turns from being a family home into terrifying place kids are warned of (because of this they are often all the more fascinated), decaying and decrepit things are unsightly to many, but perhaps kids have the imagination to see things as they could be.
Personally I find them wonderful and I'm certain the original poster does too.
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What's the big deal? Art doesn't have to be beautiful. Most of these images are fascinating. Sure, the lady with the bleeding eyes was terrifying, but I can imagine kids happily climbing all over almost all of the other playground fixtures shown on this page.
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As usual, human nature rears it's ugly head. An amusing, forgettable morning-coffee article becomes an ugly debate in the comments section. Get on with your lives, you moaning myrtles. DRB, thanks for a great site. x
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About 10mins. from where I live is the Manitou; a giant, anatomically correct buffalo sculpture at the Earlton Zoo in Earlton, Ontario, Canada. I don't think the addition of that 'bit' of anatomy makes it any less of a buffalo but someone apparently thought it might.
http://www.bigthings.ca/ontario/pictures/manitou1.jpg
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I love the pic that's like, "Dear Cthulhu, I'd like a pony, and some candy and my little brother to be eaten last."
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that elephant hole probably goes with the phallic slide from nightmare playgrounds part 3
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The picture with the giant lilac-colored lady is from Turku, Finland. I used to play there as a child, it features even weirder sculptures... Fun to play on though.
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I recognized the turnip/beet story in one of the sculptures as well. They tell it in Japan, too (I think it's a daikon radish there). But it definitely could have been represented in a way that looks a little less... in appropriate for children.
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Outside the Sazka building at the bus stop K Žižkovu, you will find one of the most upsetting sculptures (though hopefully, NEVER intended as a playground installation.)
It is of a man sitting on a bench and a young woman on her knees in front of him. Her head is resting against his inner thigh.
So far, it's ok, right?
BUT go behind her and her skirt is hiked up and there are two labia staring you in the face.
Amazing.
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Oh, that execrable lippy lady is in Prague. Sorry for neglecting to add that.
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Hi. I´m from Mexico and I just want to tell your that your blog is great and I see it every day, it´s amazing how many pictures you have and every one is really cool.
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Holy crap man, that football clip couldn't be faker if it tried. Just look at the ball when they hit it. That movements isn't natural.
For some real REAL moves, check out the Chiclone videos knocking about on the internets.
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I call dibs on writing a New Weird novel on this guy! Or...something related to him! Tough luck, Jeff Van Der Meer. :)
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The illustrations attributed to "Mikolka-Parovoz" is actually by Vladimir Tsesler & Sergei Voichenko
See here for more info:
https://www.winterhalter.com/node/23
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Thank you, credits updated
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Wow! This rare tale reads like a lost Ray Bradbury novel, complete with electric bodies, spooks, robot gods, torchlit mobs, and charismatic vagabonds roaming 'Winesberg, Ohio'.
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Thank you Steve - couldn't agree more with this, a perfect Ray Bradbury story... or maybe some new writer like China Mieville or Jay Lake could pick this up?
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"QUANTUM SHOT" #377
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37 Comments:
What stunning images of Iran! Thanks for sharing these - I now have a profoundly different (and better) view of this country, and her people and the beautiful scenery.
I think my perceptions of Iran were of a hot and dusty desert country - I am ashamed of my ignorance - but pleased to have learned something new.
I really enjoy reading your picture blog. I have no idea where you find all these images. Thanks for putting in the work though, they make my day. Iran is a beautiful country...even if Ahmadinejād is a little crazy
I can only agree with Nick, stunning pictures of what is obviously a beautiful country. I am sure that the vast majority of the people there are the same as in every other country, happy to live their lives bringing up their children. Time for us all to think about what is good in the world, and that is most of the people, not the very few how are ruining it for us all.
To the anonymous idiot who said "even if Ahmadinejād is a little crazy"
You obviously just don't get it you clown. If Iran has been so seriously misrepresented to you as it obviously has before now, doesn't it occur to you that their very popular (by our standards) President has also been misrepresented?
Ahmadi Nejad has been lied about endlessly. If you bothered to research a bit you will find he is a very decent, wise and well spoken president. He has NEVER threatened anyone, let alone Israel, his words have been twisted by Zionist controlled corporate press and the constant claim he threatened to wipe Israel off some map, is pure unadulterated bulldust.
If you want crazy you maniac, then how about reading some of Bush or Cheney, or indeed most of the present crop of US presidential candidates ramblings. Then go read the text of the excellent and reasoned letter Ahmadi Nejad personally penned a couple of years back, to Bush and which of course was also misrepresented. They even lied about its length which was NOT fourteen or seventeen pages but a just a handful of well written and very inspiring prose.
The ignorance of so many people these days is astounding, frightening and not a little disgusting!
By the way I have always known what a beautiful country Iran is, I have a number of Iranian friends who long since told me of it. The thought that such philistines as American pig dogs and their nasty lackeys might destroy and harm such a country and race fills me with loathing. As an Australian it is even self loathing.
F**K, where do I get off this crazy bus!
To the blog owner thanks for shining a light into the darkness of western minds, for what little good it will do.
I'm from Canada and let me tell you I have the same difficulty telling my friend they should not refuse to visit a great country, with marvelous scenery to see, only because of there politics. And this great country is U.S.A. Sadly, I'm not joking. But I'm sure I will enjoy my trip to the Grand Canyon in march.
Please, just ignore the politics and enjoy the scenes.
By the way, did you really think of Iran as a desert country? I think you have mistaken Persians with Arabs.
inaram bebin:
http://www.pbase.com/kourosh/esfahan
http://www.pbase.com/kourosh/boushehr
Loads more images here:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/73022/index.html
Wow such beauty makes me feel so connected to Iran.
beautiful photos thanks! rabbit please keep your jihadist rants for another site.
Beautiful land! God's land. If only there weren't religons!
However, I noticed you photo'd an Armenian church - please tell me how many people attend masses there?
And also, please tell me, how come you have photos mosques? Aren't you featuring landscapes - NOT islamic works? Note, the artwork originates from pre-islamic times, from classical Persian civilization - nothing to do with today's shiite scum.
Hi
With so many thanks for giving us the opportunity to look at theses delightful pictures of Iran , I must notify you that the 5 the picture dose not belong to Iran. I may ask you to kindly remove it from the list !
Regards
Behnam
I've always known the area to be naturally beautiful [along with a thousand other places on this earth].
I've long been a huge fan of Iranian films [check them out].
But the reality is that it is not a safe place to travel.
Yes, I know that most written about the area is a beat up. But the dangers in visiting these places for westerners, along with it's neighbours, is real.
Congrats again on another fab series of pics, I look forward to your site everyday.
To Rabbit
You're lack of information astounds me. I have lived in Iran and have all of my family there, but have gone to college here. Let me set it straight. Ahmadi Nejad is a pig for lack of better uncensored words. He has screwed Iran ever since he gained power. There is a reason why no one in Iran is able to access the video of Ahmadi Nejad's promises of what he would do when he came into power. For example, giving out free oil to Iranian citizens. Right now, as of Thursday, February 28 2008, Iranians are in terrible shape. You obviously have some corrupt friends as the only people who are pro-government have some kind of family, financial, or religious link. Sorry I get pissed off thinking about my homeland getting screwed.
I'm an American and I can see that Iran is a very beautiful country, more so to me because I love the mountains and the cooler climate they give.
This is pretty country and many of its inhabitants are decent people. It just happens to be ruled by a despotic regime. In that vein it's similar to Germany. Germany is also a beautiful country with a decent populace that also once upon time had been ruled by a despotic regime that eventually threatened the world's stability. And back then, many people thought Hitler himself was a decent, intelligent man who hugged puppies and adopted babies and liked to dance and twirl in the rain. Only hindsight would prove to us what a monster he truly was. The same will probably hold true for Ahmadinejad (who really is just a figurehead) as well.
We're seeing history repeat itself, and once again the Jews are the scapegoat. What a shame.
Maybe if the iranians spent more time making this wonderful art and maintaining their beautiful country instead of funding the killing of Jews it would be a better world.
too bad their leader is going to make that place uninhabitable for about 10,000 years. looks nice right now.
Great photos, I visited Iran two years ago and found the country to be quite beautiful. You can see my photos here, www.persiatoparis.com.
I had the pleasure of being in the country for 1 1/2 years compliments of the US Army. The Shah was in power then. Most of my time was spent in the country. I got to know the rural people. I feel that they would compare to most all of the rural people that are in the USA. I hope that the changing of the politics haven't changed the inherent kindness of these people.
Thank you Michael, very nice photography there!
Such a great country,,, really beautiful!! Well for those who don't know.. Desert is found only in the Gulf and African Areas in the Middle East.. So if you found those pictures beautiful then i guess you would find Lebanon Marvelous!! Lebanon is an Arab Country of a beauty that competes Switzerland with a great sea
thanks a lot Michael. iram is a very nice place
It is really stupid to discuss politics here in this blogg. Why people don't just enjoy the magnificently pictures posted here. Thats is what this blogg is for. This is really a amazing country which I hope can visit soon. It doesn't matter which kind of religion they adopt but respect it by all foreigners to it. Every country has its up and downs and we are not here to judge it but just admire the most amazing sceneries that nature and mankind have done. If we want to discuss politics there are many bloggs out there for this purpose, just respect other peoples work. If other people already recognized that they didn't know Iran was a such beautiful country why criticizing then.
For the owner of this blog you did a great job posting these pictures.
Sorry to all for speaking of politics! But as an Iranian I must tell some words to you; especially if you have read words of the other Iranian commenter, the Rabbit one!
Iran is a beautiful country as you can see. And it is a historical country of course. Even in holy book the name of our old kings mentioned who had have a fair manner of doing things.
Today the problem with Iran is islamic fundamentalism. Those Iranian hate even Iran itself! Can you believe it? The governments of Iran with presidency of Ahmadinejad are making a dam (named Sivand) to destroy some of our old pre-islamic constructions (named Pasargadae)! Can you believe it? This is happening in Iran. If you do not believe me see this:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivand_Dam! And do not believe anyone that telling you the governments in Iran are any kind of good!
Cheers!
very beautiful place
To Rabbit,
You're bullshiting. Ahmadi Nejad HAS made repeated threats against Israel, and none of it is media hype or "zionist" propaganda. I could just as easily said that everything Bush and Cheney have said was twisted by propaganda. If YOU have done any REAL research, and not just listened to your Iranian friends or read Iranian sources, you would see this. But you're too ignorant to see it, and too anti-American to see any other point of view. Don't hit me with that "show proof" forum-retort BS because arguments like yours don't need proof, just opinion, and any proof i'll dig up you'll dismiss as "propaganda."
People outside Iran get a very limited perspective of this country; they only ever hear about it when Ahmadi Nejad has made a new threat (or repeated an old one) against some nation (usually Israel). In much the same way, you, an Australian, experience America only through television; a brief injection of an outside culture, a background noise in your Australian life. You got as much ability to judge as an American does.
Iran is a beautiful country, and its a shame the political climate makes it difficult for people to experiencing it. As in Israeli I can't travel there (I heard Israelis visited Iran with a European passport) though I would very much like to.
Thanks for beautiful pictures,
But where is the 5th image,
for other Uramanat images, go to this location, www.worldisround.com/articles/73022/photo2134.html
To Rabbit: I think you should calm down and cease to speak in such an aggressive manner. Furthermore, who sais Ahmadinejad is so popular? Just because you are shown scenes of tens of thousands of hysteric Iranians in rural provinces from south to North and West to East, cheering their president during his frequent visits to the provinces? Is that enough to convince you that he enjoys the support of the majority of Iranians? Well I have news for you! Don't ever rely on the number of people you see taking to the streets to determine statistics as far as how many of a population are pro and how many are anti. Iran has 70 million inhabitants, and if one to two or three or even four million should take to the streets in support of Ahmadinejad, it does not by any means necessarily indicate that he enjoys the support of the majority! All you need to do is to stroll around and talk to people in Iran, and you will find that they're not fond of either Ahmadinejad, U.S./Zionist warmongers, or the ludicrous Iranian "opposition" in exile. The Iranian people want a strong, independent, advanced and progressive Iran, and peaceful relations with all the countries of the world.
I recommed all people who are interested in an ancient and most spiritual civilization, to visit Iran, and you shall see what many foreigners have already discovered which is a lovely, fascinating country with the friendliest and most generous people in the world. No people in the world can match the Iranians when it comes to kindness, hospitality, generosity and helpfulness.
Thank u for the pictures.This is an iranian girl who is in love with her country.I am not going to speak much about politics because I hate politics and politicians all around the world!The majority of them are fool stubborn liars ,no difference where they are from.Iran IS beautiful and SAFE to the guests.Iranians are still kind and warm.They do not want to destroy any where.They do not whish to fight.They just want to live their lives.Do not believe in that puppet president please and do not call him iranian for God's sake.I beg you not to call him Muslim as well.He is not our president.People in Iran suffer but the life is going on and iranians like other people live.that's not that bad yet!we'll survive!COME AND VISIT IRAN AND BE SURE NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO YOU EVEN IF YOU ARE A WESTERNER! browse tehse ones too:
www.iranchamber.com
www.destinationiran.com/UNESC0_List.htm
What a wonderful comment!
Thank you...
...And one more thing!Have you heard of Cyrus the great Cylinder kept in UN?if you haven't,search a little on google and you will sympathize with people who first spoke about the human rights and now are accused of being terrorists!
Iran is a nice place worth of being seen.There are bewildering numbers of different landscapes from dessert to woods and plains and mountains.Like it's nature,there are lots of different people living there too.It is a multicultural,multilingual and multireligious country.Even there live many jewish people and so do christians,muslims and the followers of anciet religions like zardoshties.
Thwy have been living in peace for many many many years.
Just because a land is beautiful it doesn't mean all the people are.
Doesn't Rabbit sound like a White Liberal Consumed With Guilt From California?
I should know, I'm surrounded "rabbits"...
iran is a special place. to me it is the heart of the world,the center of the middle east, to the west europe, to the east asia, to the south africa, north russia, surrounded by other cultures and mixed with all types of people and colors. as far as shiite scum, islam is not scum, i personally dont believe in religion but islam is a pretty decent religion whatever you may think. its extremists that have turned it inside out. as for the art work and masques that came out of it, it shows the intricacy and focus and beauty "through" the religion. im just happy i can look at something so beautiful that humans created. these are geometric patterns that can be viewed in so many different ways, like the world- you can look at it in so many different perspectives and no one is really wrong. and yeah im iranian and yeah iran is kinda getting screwed but ill tell you one thing, america helped kick out the shah for some stupid oil that the world won't even need in our "green friendly" future. i may not enjoy what the country is undergoing but i dont want such beautiful things and so many good people destroyed and forgotten. hope for america. hope for iran.
Yes Ahmadinejād is a maniac. Yes the country is ruled by a bunch of fanatic theocrats. Yes I will not go there and support these people with my precious currency.
However, the country Iran as a such really has huge potential. The cultural richness, the beautiful nature, the natural resources and the many well educated intelligent people could make Iran one of the greatest nations on earth. Sadly, has become one of the most dangerous countries on earth, threatening its neighbors with nuclear destruction and supporting various terror activities.
Its funny how certain people imply that:
"Oh! , it's a beautiful country with mountains and trees...Ok..we should not go to war with them, but i previously thought it was a desert and people deserved to die. We must stop our leaders into duping us into believing that."
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