Oddity Central |
- Yohio, the Japanese Doll-Like Rock Star Who Is Actually a Swedish Boy
- The Beautiful Cut Canvas Portraits of Kuin Heuff
- German Couple Build Fairy Tale Castle in Their Backyard
| Yohio, the Japanese Doll-Like Rock Star Who Is Actually a Swedish Boy Posted: 14 Jun 2012 04:50 AM PDT
Ok, so we’ve had plenty of doll-like Internet celebrities featured on Oddity Central, but Yohio, a Japanese visual-key singer is pushing the envelope even further, as he’s actually a 16-year-old Swedish bot who looks like an anime girl. The androgynous look isn’t exactly something new in music. Singers like David Bowie, Boy George and even Marylin Manson have used their feminine features to their advantage for years, but they never took it as far as Yohio, a Swedish teen who has taken Japan by storm with his anime girl looks, guitar skills and knowledge of the Japanese language. The 16-year-old became an online sensation outside the Land of the Rising Sun when a video of a a pale blonde-hair girl with big black eyes and pigtails singing in Japanese made the rounds of popular Internet media outlets. People were left stunned when they realized the beautiful performer was actually a 16-year-old dude, from Sweden.
Born in a family of musicians, Yohio was a part of a visual key band called Seremedy, at the age of 14. They were so successful that after making appearances at a few conventions, they were signed by Nintone Records/Universal Music Japan. Yohio’s look became so popular in Nippon that this year he launched his own solo album, “Reach the Sky”. The young musician, who describes himself as a ”bishounen” (beautiful young boy), became interested in Japan when he was just a 10-year-old by watching anime. He started learning the language, following Japanese blogs and even keeping up with celebrities on sites like Twitter. Now, he’s performing in front of thousands of Japanese fans who love both his looks and his music.
Visual Key is a Japanese musical genre characterized by heavy use of makeup, flamboyant costumes and elaborate costumes. The androgynous look is also often associated with visual key.
A while ago, we posted about Andrej Pejic, a male model who looks so much like a woman that he became the star of a women’s lingerie ad campaign. His androgynous appearance allows him to model both men’s and women’s clothing.
Source: CNN Yohio, the Japanese Doll-Like Rock Star Who Is Actually a Swedish Boy was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| The Beautiful Cut Canvas Portraits of Kuin Heuff Posted: 14 Jun 2012 03:15 AM PDT
At first glance, Dutch artist Kuin Heuff‘s portraits seem to be made up of a dizzying number of converging lines, but in reality, the creative process couldn’t be more different. The Rotterdam-based artist, whose work focuses on the intricacies of the human face, starts off by creating acrylic paintings of the faces she wants to render. But while other artists would leave it at that, she takes her art to a whole new level by taking a sharp knife and cutting away maze-like patterns to create negative space. The process becomes even more impressive when you realize how important deciding when and where to cut, considering every stroke of the knife is irreversible. Yet Kuin Heuff pulls it off with relative ease, showing incredible skill and an eye for what’s important in her art.
The lace-like patterns Heuff creates are not the only impressive aspect of her amazing works. By carefully selecting the right gradient, the Dutch artist manages to make these 2D portraits look almost 3D and alive. The curved lines look like scars in the subjects’ faces, making the portraits a cut above the rest.
The Beautiful Cut Canvas Portraits of Kuin Heuff was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
| German Couple Build Fairy Tale Castle in Their Backyard Posted: 14 Jun 2012 02:15 AM PDT
Heinz and Hildegard Schönewolf, from Dudweiler, Germany, have spent the last 37 years building a 350 square-foot fairy tale castle, right in their own backyard. It’s amazing the kind of things people create in their backyards. Just a few days ago we posted about the stunning Four Seasons Garden, and the impressive replica of the Golden Gate Bridge built by Larry Richardson, and let’s not forget the backyard Titanic we featured a while back. Today, I found some photos of a colorful castle like the one you usually see in children’s fairy tale books, and learned it was actually built by a retired bricklayer, right in his own backyard, in the German town of Dudweiler. The 76-year-old castle enthusiast spent 37 years building his masterpiece out of stones, bricks and thousands of bags of cement.
Photo: Jennifer Weyland/BILD Schönewolf told German newspaper Bild that his beautiful backyard castle started out as a simple retaining wall that he simply kept embellishing over the years. Ever since he started work on it, in 1975, Heinz has spent every single day making his castle better, and his wife Hildegard says they never even went on a holiday, only to visit her husband’s mother, in Hessen. Although he says the backyard castle will never really be finished, because he lways wants to add new things, Heinz has already opened it up for public visits, free of charge.
Photo: Jennifer Weyland/BILD The 15-meter-high and 15-meter-wide Schönewolf Castle features towers, battlements, narrow pathways, a charming Rapunzel room and even an 18,000 liter aquarium in the basement. The German couple estimate they’ve spent about €50,000 on the castle so far.
Photo: Jennifer Weyland/BILD German Couple Build Fairy Tale Castle in Their Backyard was originally posted at OddityCentral.com |
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