Oddity Central |
- Strange Wedding Tradition Forbids Newlyweds to Use the Bathroom for Three Days and Nights
- Hairy Man Poses in Pink Tutu for a Very Good Cause
- Utopix – French Family Turn Barren Field into Outsider Art
| Strange Wedding Tradition Forbids Newlyweds to Use the Bathroom for Three Days and Nights Posted: 17 Apr 2012 09:51 AM PDT
Weddings in the Indonesian Tidong community have traditions that are truly unique. Perhaps the most adorable of their customs is the one where the groom isn't allowed to see the bride's face until he sings her several love songs. The curtain separating the couple is raised only after the musical requirement is met, and then they can see each other on a dais. But then again, not all the Tidong wedding rituals are this sweet. The bride isn't allowed to leave the confines of her home during the engagement period, and a groom who arrives late to the wedding needs to pay a fine (usually jewelry). But the weirdest of them all is this – the bride and the groom aren't allowed to use the bathroom for three days after the wedding. It sounds a lot like the newlywed couple are being punished for an unknown reason. How else would you explain being prohibited from leaving the house, clearing bowels or urinating for three whole days? For those of us who couldn't go even a couple of hours without using the restroom, this sure does seem like a torturous way to be welcomed into married life. But the custom is very normal and natural for the people of the Tidong tribe, who now inhabit the city of Sandakan, in Sabah, Malaysia. They believe that not practicing the three-day and night ritual would bring terrible luck to the couple – a broken marriage, infidelity, or death of their children at a young age. So the couple is watched over by several people, and allowed only minimal amounts of food and drink. After the three days are up, they are bathed and then permitted to return to normal life.
So what do you think, could you hold it for three days and nights just to get married? I mean, isn’t married life a big enough sacrifice? Do we really need to be subjected to this kind of physiological torture just because we love somebody? We have our share of silly traditions where I’m from, but if this were one of them, I’m pretty sure there would be a lot of bachelors walking around. via The Star Strange Wedding Tradition Forbids Newlyweds to Use the Bathroom for Three Days and Nights was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Hairy Man Poses in Pink Tutu for a Very Good Cause Posted: 17 Apr 2012 08:55 AM PDT
They're silly, they're awkward, and yes, these pictures will make you laugh. Because there's something undeniably comical about a grown man dressed in a pink tutu, hugging trees or dancing in a meadow. The subject in the photographs is actually a New York photographer. Bob Carey has been posing for self-portraits across the US, wearing nothing else but the tutu. Before you jump into conclusions, he is neither gay nor a crossdresser. Bob is a happily married man who takes pictures of himself in a tutu to help his wife. Once you know more about the cause behind his photographs, they will seem less funny and all the more heart-warming and endearing. The first time Bob took a picture of himself in the tutu was for a media campaign in 2003. It was just a silly idea back then, but the garment remained in his closet. Six months later his wife Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was cured at the time, but the illness returned in 2006 and she has been under chemo treatment ever since. Linda's condition has served as a reminder to Bob that laughter is really the best medicine. So he started posing in the tutu once more in order to make his wife laugh, calling it the 'Tutu Project'. He began taking self-portraits at beaches, parking lots, subway stations and even amusement parks. The unexpected strangeness of these photographs has been very well received. Bob's pictures have become immensely popular, which has inspired him to work on a book of his images, called 'Ballerina'. The book will be dedicated to women fighting breast cancer, survivors, relatives and physicians who work for the cause. He plans to donate the proceeds from all sales to breast cancer organizations.
You might think that the images of pudgy Bob dressed in a little girls outfit are bizarre, but surprisingly, they aren't the least bit weird. There's something different about his expressions and body language that only extracts a 'laugh-out-loud' from the viewer. The one I like most is where he's peeping into a window of an old building. Of course, the final pictures are pretty silly and funny, but Bob has had his share of trouble during photo shoots. Which is natural, given that all the pictures are taken at public places. Once, he was trying to shoot on a car ferry and found himself confronted by six crew members along with a German shepherd. "I asked for permission to shoot but apparently I didn't talk to the right people. They discovered I was harmless," says Bob. Sometimes, though, luck favored him. "Finding the Bedford Avenue stop empty still baffles me. It was 7pm on a Friday night! And to have two trains pass at the exact moment I wanted to shoot? Stars were aligned." Bob's photo shoots are pretty random, and the locations are selected according to convenience. He carries the tutu along with him on the road, stopping to shoot whenever and wherever possible.
Bob hopes to raise $75,000 through pre-orders, in order to cover costs of publishing 'Ballerina'. If you're interested, you could sponsor $500 to get your own copy of the book, a 20×24" signed tutu print, acknowledgement inside the book, and also recognition on the official Facebook page. You could even purchase t-shirts or pledge as little as $1 to receive a signed 'Ballerina' postcard. Learn more about it, here.
Photos copyright of Bob Carey via IB Times Hairy Man Poses in Pink Tutu for a Very Good Cause was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| Utopix – French Family Turn Barren Field into Outsider Art Posted: 17 Apr 2012 06:36 AM PDT
Jo and Dominique Pillet's home 'Utopix' is like something right out of a fairy tale. They started work on it about 30 years ago, and although it was completed as of 2010, it continues to evolve. The beauty of the house is not just in the construction, but the patience and perseverance put in by its builders, given that the land it stands on was considered to be barren. Utopix is located on an 11 hectare (27 acre) plot in Causse de Sauveterre, Lozere, France. Causses are sparsely populated plateaus of limestone. The limestone soil does not hold water and so the terrain is very much like a desert, but that didn’t stop this French family from fulfilling their dream. The Pillets got married in the 70s and purchased their plot of land with the intention of building a beautiful home. Being artists themselves, they wanted to create something that was both functional and aesthetically pleasing. It's been a long journey with several hurdles, but the couple has managed to complete the task and quite beautifully in fact. The construction project was started in 1979, and Jo Pillet mostly worked on it alone, or with the help of a few friends. He mostly made use of the abundant limestone in the region, structuring it in the form of igloos. The domed structures were then reinforced with concrete and wood, and later covered with stones to give them a cave-like feel. After two whole decades, the building finally began to take shape in 1992. Utopix has been quite popular since then, with local newspapers carrying stories, and several visitors coming to see it regularly.
Apart from the house, Jo has created other items out of the limestone such as an automobile, a dinosaur and a mini golf link. Today the property is quite visitor-friendly; the Pillets have several families with kids coming over to see the house. For a place that's taken over three decades to build, it certainly is worth a visit.
Sources: Geocaching, Outsider Environments Utopix – French Family Turn Barren Field into Outsider Art was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
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