Oddity Central |
- Strange Love – 4 Women in Love with Inanimate Objects
- Tough Mudder – Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet
- The Bone Chapel of Portugal – A Creepy Sacred Destination
- The Chalk Masterpieces of Rustam Valeev
| Strange Love – 4 Women in Love with Inanimate Objects Posted: 10 Apr 2012 05:39 AM PDT
Thanks to Objectum Sexuality, the Statue of Liberty now has a lover, a three foot model the Greek God Adonis has a girlfriend and the Eiffel Tower has a wife, as does the Berlin Wall. What sounds completely bizarre to us is in fact normal to these four women who suffer from the psychological condition that makes them experience romantic feelings towards inanimate objects. Let's delve a little deeper into their stories of love. Amanda Whittaker Amanda is a 27-year-old shop assistant from Leeds, and head-over-heels in love with the iconic Statue of Liberty. In her home she has a shrine to the famous landmark, which demonstrates her love. "She is my long-distance lover," says Amanda. "I am blown away by how stunning she is." She affectionately refers to the statue as 'Libby', and although she would like to be married to it, she says she's holding herself back in consideration of the many others who might be in love with it too. Photo: Tysto Amanda, who confesses to have been in a passionate love affair with a drum when she was younger, fell in love with the Statue of Liberty when she saw a picture online. Since then, she has visited the statue four times, caressing it and even leaning out of a window to kiss it. I wonder what the statue would have to say about this, if it could speak.
Reighner Deleighnie The 40-year-old's object of affection certainly is smaller than Amanda's, but no more animate. London-based Reighner is in love with a 3-ft model of the Greek God Adonis that she purchased for £395 ($620). The marble statue that heats up with touch has been a part of her life for the past 6 months, and the 'couple' is inseparable. Reighner's stone companion is named Hans, after the Pointer Sister's song that was playing in the cab when she first brought him home. She now spends hours reading to Hans and keeping him close while she eats dinner and watches TV. But it gets weirder than this, because she also spends time kissing and caressing the statue. In her imagination, they even take walks through meadows or at the seaside. But Reighner won't marry Hans because she's not sure she could be faithful to him. Photo: Jastrow Erika La Tour Eiffel 37-year-old Erika, a former soldier, has not only fallen in love with the Eiffel tower (as you would have guessed by her name), but she's even married the monument and legally had her last name changed. The intimate ceremony was attended by a handful of friends, in front of whom she pledged to love, honor and obey the tower for as long as she lives. What she's done seems perfectly natural to her. She says, "I just don't understand how some people can bring someone into the world like a child – an object – and not love them." This isn't the first for Mrs. La Tour Eiffel, she's been in past affairs with a bow called Lance and also the Berlin Wall. She also claims to have a physical relationship with a piece of fence that she keeps in her bedroom. I'm not sure I really want to know how that works. Photo: Rama
Wall Winther Wall Winther is in love with and married to another monument – the Berlin Wall. Born Eija-Riita Eklaf, Wall is also an Objectum-Sexual. She describes the condition as an orientation, similar to hetero or homosexuality. "We see things as living beings," says Wall. "That's a must. Otherwise you cannot fall in love with an object." And it's not just the Berlin Wall that does it for her, she loves all kinds of constructions with parallel lines – fences, bridges, gates and even a guillotine. Wall says that when she was a child, she thought that all people looked at objects like she did. As a teenager, she quickly realized that this was not the case. She was just 7 years old when she saw the completed Berlin Wall on TV, and it was love at first sight. "Wow, it's gorgeous," she thought, and by the summer of 1979, she was married to it. Of course, the bond is more spiritual than legal. Strange Love – 4 Women in Love with Inanimate Objects was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| Tough Mudder – Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet Posted: 10 Apr 2012 04:55 AM PDT
"The Tough Mudder is not a race, it's a challenge," say the organizers. And it most certainly is, given the grueling nature of what is perhaps the toughest event in the world. Consisting of 10 to 12 mile 'hardcore' obstacle courses, the event designed by British Special Forces is meant to test stamina, strength, grit, and camaraderie. Tough Mudder is the brainchild of former counter-terrorism agent Will Dean. During his MBA course at Harvard, he was frustrated with the monotony of marathons, triathlons and mud runs. Wanting to participate in an event that truly challenged the core of his personality, he came up with the idea of Tough Mudder. According to their official website, Tough Mudder is much more than just a race because it gives participants the opportunity to a personal challenge. Simply completing the course is an achievement in itself. The participants are not timed, and there are no winners as this is no contest. In fact, one of the rules of the event is to help your fellow mudders whenever they seem to be struggling with themselves. Men and women are strongly encouraged to participate, but the event is open only to those above 18 years of age. So far, over half a million people have participated worldwide. And 25% of them have been women. The events are currently being held in USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. So you must be curious to know what exactly happens during a Tough Mudder event. The truth is, participants aren't informed about what they are going to be up against until the day before the race. I suppose this adds to the test of 'mental grit' – meeting challenges head on. The course for each event is finalized only a couple of days in advance. I snooped around their website for a bit, and found a few videos of past courses. Let me tell you, this is certainly not something for the faint hearted. What starts off as a simple run, quickly transforms into the toughest of tasks. The Arctic Enema – one of the worst – is where people jump headlong into a dumpster filled with ice water. Marketing Chief Alex Patterson calls it, "the mother of all ice cream headaches." Other tasks include crawling in the mud under electrified barbed wire, climbing a quarter pipe slicked with mud and scaling a mud hill. The final one is the Electric Shock Therapy, which involves electrocution with a 10,000-volt charge. Before they begin, participants take a pledge that includes statements like: ‘I understand that Tough Mudder is not a race but a challenge’, ’I put teamwork and camaraderie before my course time’, and ‘I do not whine – kids whine’. The beauty of Tough Mudder events lies in the fact that no one takes themselves seriously. Unlike marathons and other such events, people turn up at Tough Mudders dressed in the silliest of costumes – tuxedos, superheroes, and even kilts. At the end of the event, participants are rewarded with some cold beer, orange head bands and live music. Sounds like a world of pain and fun. Would you pay a fee of between $90 and $200 for this? This reminds me of the Tough Guy Race, another grueling challenge where people push themselves to the limit in order to cross the finish line. Only in this race contestants actually compete for first place, so I don’t know how much help you’re going to get from competitors. I wonder which one of the two is tougher, though, but I’m not going to participate in them just to find out. If you do, please, let us know.
Photos copyright of Tough Mudder Tough Mudder – Probably the Toughest Event on the Planet was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| The Bone Chapel of Portugal – A Creepy Sacred Destination Posted: 10 Apr 2012 04:24 AM PDT
A structure with interiors covered completely in human bones – sounds like the stuff that scary houses are made of, right? But believe it or not, it is actually a place of worship. Capela dos Ossos, or the Chapel of Bones, is located next to the Church of St. Francis in the medieval Portuguese town of Evora. The 16th century chapel is a large room that has been adorned with the bones of over 5,000 monks. The decision to use human bones as building material for a church is certainly an unusual one, but there's a story to justify it. It seems that in the 16th century, Evora had about 43 cemeteries that took up way too much land. When the decision was made to destroy some of these cemeteries, the corpses of 5,000 monks were exhumed in an effort to save their souls from condemnation. It was decided that the remains of these monks would be relocated to the Capela dos Ossos. However, the existing monks soon realized that it might be a better idea to put these bones on display, rather than behind closed doors. These monks were concerned about the societal values of the wealthy town of Evora. So they set about creating a place for meditation, a place where the undeniable reminder of death would help people transcend the material world. The welcoming message at the doors of the chapel is rather blunt – "Nos ossos que aqui estamos, pelos vossos esperamos." Which means – "We bones that are here, for your bones we wait." A pretty blatant reminder that we're all going to die one day. I suppose it's meant to get people into perspective before they enter the chapel and begin to pray. But praying would indeed be difficult inside a place like this – the walls are decorated with thousands and thousands of skulls, and bones are arranged in decorative patterns. For an added effect, the corpses of a woman and a child hang from a wall. No one knows who they were or why there are even in the chapel, but rumor has it that a powerful man had once cursed them. When they were refused burial in local cemeteries, the corpses received shelter in the chapel. I do hope the bodies didn't actually decompose in there; they would have stunk up the place. That couldn't be too good for meditation, now could it? Photo: Nsandre/Wikimedia The world’s most popular bone-decorated attraction is the Sedlec Ossuary, in the Czech Republic. Unlike regular holy place that use paintings as decorations, this one uses between 40,000 and 70,000 human bones. Photo: Nsandre/Wikimedia
The Bone Chapel of Portugal – A Creepy Sacred Destination was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
| The Chalk Masterpieces of Rustam Valeev Posted: 10 Apr 2012 01:07 AM PDT
Rustam Valeev is a 20-year-old street artist from the city of Sterlitamak, Russia. Using simple pieces of white chalk, he is able to create incredibly detailed portraits right on the pavement of his home city. Doodling with chalk was one of my favorite pastimes, as a kid. I remember I spent hours trying to draw simple things like people, butterflies, or animals, but my works never looked as good as what Rustam Valeev creates. In fact, the only other person I know who can create such realistic artworks is Paul Cadden, who renders photo-realistic masterpieces with graphite and chalk. But while Paul draws on paper, Rustam practices his skills on rough pavement. Although his street art hasn’t been featured by any important Western media outlets, his beautiful portraits have gone viral on some of the most popular sites in Russia. There’s no question Rustam Valeev can do wonders with a piece of chalk, but he appears to have a problem with spelling the names of his subjects, as you can see by looking at the photos below.
The Chalk Masterpieces of Rustam Valeev was originally posted at OddityCentral.com  |
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