3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Movie Fan Opens His Own Beetlejuice Museum
Peter Bulow – New York’s Subway Sculptor
Thailand’s Cobra Village – Where Men and Snakes Live in Harmony

Movie Fan Opens His Own Beetlejuice Museum

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 02:38 AM PST

Beetlejuice might have been very popular back in the 80s and 90s, but the character is hardly remembered these days. Of course, things are different for New Yorker Bruce Christensen, a loyal Beetlejuice fan. The owner of the only Beetlejuice museum in the world, run out of his rent-stabilized studio apartment on West 34^th Street, 48-year old Christensen has over eighty artifacts related to the 1989 movie character.

Christensen's obsession with all things Beetlejuice began in 1991, when he was just looking around at a KB Toys outlet on Long Island and found a Beetlejuice figurine with a removable head for just 99 cents. He bought one, but he couldn't stop thinking about it all night. So the next day, he ran back to the store and bought as many varieties of the action figures as he could, like the Showtime Beetlejuice, Spinhead Beetlejuice, Shish Kabab Beetlejuice and Phantom Flyer. His collection started off very small and expanded as he travelled. When he went to Amsterdam he found bottles of Beetlejuice; in Hollywood he found the typewritten script and the original press kit of the movie. Over the years, friends also started gifting him Beetlejuice merchandise and memorabilia. When the 400 sq. ft. museum opened, he had only 57 artifacts, but now the collection has grown to over 80. Some of the other gems in Christensen's collection include a VHS tape of the movie, Michael Keaton's autograph, and a Beetlejuice comic that he purchased off EBay. And in case you're wondering about those bottles of Beetlejuice, well, they do contain a liquid of some sort, which according to the label is five-and-a-half percent alcohol.

Photo: Craig Warga/New York Daily News

Christensen's collection also consists of a business card that reads "Betelgeuse: Licensed Bio Exorcist". There's some Play Doh too, and a completed Beetlejuice puzzle that's framed against the wall. A framed beach towel completes the museum, draped over the corner of a shelf like a tablecloth. He does admit that he could do better, though. "I could do better with this. I mean, if I had a whole gallery or a museum, I know I could go to town. This is a studio. I try to live here." But Christensen does the best he can with what he has. He's plugged in a set of sirens and lights to create a strobelike effect in the apartment. "It's really neat at night time," he says. "But we'll turn that off, because after 5 minutes of it? Ow. It's a little much." His entire collection cost him about $500 to put together, apart from what he's spent on storage.

Arriving in New York 25 years ago, Christensen worked for the music producer John Scer as a roadie. He has done stints as a bartender and a bellhop. He's even found work as a stand-up comic, only occasionally though (three times on SNL, twice as an extra). Christensen's dream now is to find a recurring gig in Las Vegas. "If I get a chance, I'm not coming back," he says. "So this is it," this is your last chance to see the world's only museum of Beetlejuice memorabilia before he puts it all back into storage. The only time it's closed now is on Halloween, because that's when Christensen dons his own handmade Beetlejuice costume and crashes several parties. Although, he wouldn't mind if the likes of Tim Burton crashed at his place. "Yeah, I wouldn't mind Tim Burton or Alec Baldwin. I mean, if they come, they come. If not, no big deal. It's for my friends." But he's quite sure about one thing – "No Drunks. There's irreplaceable stuff in here."

While most of the memorabilia owned by Christensen is centered around the main character of Beetlejuice played by Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin hasn't been forgotten. He has just one action figure of Baldwin that he believes to be the only one in the world. "It's Adam Mitland, remember? He was Geena Davis's husband." Well, I don't really remember but perhaps a few other fans like Christensen do. After all, he has watched the movie about a dozen times, which in his own words is "not that many times."

Source: The New Yorker, New York Daily News

Movie Fan Opens His Own Beetlejuice Museum was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Peter Bulow – New York’s Subway Sculptor

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 02:15 AM PST

Peter Bulow, a psychiatrist from Washington Heights, is just like any other New Yorker – he spends a chunk of his day commuting on the Subway. But unlike others who tend to doze off or are busy on their smartphones, Bulow prefers doing something much more creative and artistic – he sculpts. He has actually managed to convert the A-train into his own personal studio and his fellow commuters, into models. Armed with a blob of clay and a sculpting knife, he picks a subject and creates miniature busts of them. His completed works are usually stored in his violin case. Among several sculptures, you can find things like a school-girl on her way to a violin lesson, a macho guy with headphones, a couple snuggling, a woman wearing a fur collar, a few sporting dreadlocks and turbans.

Bulow started his unique Subway pastime about four years ago. "I had a long commute to work, so I thought it would be a good time to practice sculpting portraits," the 52-year-old says. He has degrees in clinical psychiatry and art, and is a researcher at Columbia University. Not only is he an artist and a psychiatrist, but an immigrant and the son of Holocaust survivors. Born in India to a German father and Hungarian mother, Bulow's sculpting days go far back into his childhood in Berlin when his uncle took him to the zoo and he made clay lions. Before his son Isaac was born, he would go to a stone carving studio after work. But now, he does it to and from work. So far, he has completed over 400 sculptures and he views them as portraits that help him "capture a moment in time." Bulow feels a live connection with his subjects, especially because he has a fascination for people's inner lives. He is so deeply moved by his art that he says, "When you look at a sculpture you feel all these emotions, but it's not the sculpture that's doing it; it's you. It interests me how art affects the brain." In fact, he is so much into sculpting miniature busts that he is writing a book in which he is attempting to connect all the portraits he's made with his research in neuroesthetics (how the brain interprets music and art).

Photo: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Bulow's backpack is always full with blobs of clay. He begins his work by first kneading a fist-sized ball, looking out for potential subjects in the meantime. As soon as he spots an interesting-looking face, he has to begin sculpting immediately, because there's always the chance that his model might get off at the next stop. Bulow finds the whole process very exciting. "Sometimes, I'm standing up on a crowded train, balancing the clay and a bicycle while I work." But he is able to work quickly, more often than not. Features emerge in no time at all – a pointed nose, a baby in its mother's arms, or a man with his newspaper. When he's working, most of the time no one can tell what he's doing because the clay is so small. Even when they do find out, people don't seem to mind having their portraits made. "I meet all kinds of people and it's usually pretty positive," he says. "It's like a cross-section of New York." There was this one time, though, when a commuter insisted on smelling the clay to make sure that Bulow didn't have plastic explosives on him. "One guy on a train attacked me, but I wasn't sculpting him. He was wearing Army fatigues and was in a wheelchair with an American flag sticking out of the back. For some reason, he thought the clay was plastic explosives. He eventually grabbed my hand and stuffed some of it in his nose."

Photo: New York Daily News

The shrink who actually shrinks heads into clay portraits is getting to be quite popular around the city. Recently, the City Parks Department had opened an outdoor display for Bulow's work. It was titled "Passing Glances" and located at Fort Tryon Park. According to Jennifer Lantzas, the public art coordinator for the Parks Department, "He has such a treasure trove of these portraits, so we wanted them displayed on the promenade almost like a flip-book. He pays so much attention to what's going on in the subway, while the rest of us try to zone out." The exhibit was on in June this year, for which Bulow enlarged 13 of his favorite sculptures to sit at 190^th Street, near the park entrance. For now, it looks like Bulow is never going to tire of his commuting activity. "I sit on the train sometimes and wonder who these people are," he says. "I'm sure a lot are going through incredible struggles – maybe psychosis, maybe financial ruin, and you can't see it in their faces." He admits that, "The human mask is forged iron. There's something fascinating about trying to sculpt other people but ultimately, you can't do it. Even if I did the same person all my life, the same portrait over and over, I would never really get them. That's what's fascinating about it."

Sources: NY Times, New York Daily News

Peter Bulow – New York’s Subway Sculptor was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Thailand’s Cobra Village – Where Men and Snakes Live in Harmony

Posted: 03 Dec 2012 01:59 AM PST

Sixty years ago, a doctor from Thailand had a vision for his small, dusty old village – to convert it into a major tourist attraction. And in an attempt to do so, he actually convinced his fellow villagers to raise pet snakes in their homes, putting them in shows for tourists. Surprisingly the ploy worked, and today the village of Ban Kok Sa-Nga in Thailand's Northeastern Province of Khon Kaen is better known as 'The Cobra Village', among tourists.

All of the 140-odd homes in Ban Kok Sa-Nga have at least one pet snake, which they place outside in wooden boxes. The pet snakes range from deadly ones, such as king cobras or monocled cobras, to less dangerous ones such as copperheaded racers and pythons. The atmosphere in the village itself is always festive; it is one big snake show theme attraction. The snakes are bred in captivity and put together in daredevil shows such as – you won't believe this – man vs. snake boxing matches. Obviously not for the light-hearted, these shows involve the handlers taunting an already enraged giant king cobra. As the snakes slither across the stage, the men pull their tails to provoke them further. Despite all the weird stunts that take place in these shows, what spooks out most tourists is the level of comfort the villagers share with the snakes. Most people are terrified of these creatures, but the people of Ban Kok Sa-Nga don’t even bat an eye-lid. Even the children are completely at ease; they are taught how to handle snakes, how to fight them and feed them, at a very young age.

Another disturbing aspect of the Cobra Village is the poor standard of safety. Rumors are plenty about a number of tourists having died from snake attacks. It’s unclear if they are true or not, but the locals certainly have suffered. For instance, the village's top snake-handler, 72-year-old Bualee Chai has been bitten 21 times – a fact that he's rather proud of. He's been in the business for over half a century and sometimes tours Thailand with his cobras, putting on shows. For proof of his injuries, he has a few gaps in his hands where there should have been fingers. "If I didn't get my fingers amputated, I would have died. The last time I was bit and lost a finger was December 26, 2004. It was the exact moment the tsunami hit Thailand." Surprisingly, Chai refuses to take any anti-venom after a bite, because the technique for extracting venom is cruel and hurtful to the snakes. This, from a man who would not hesitate to kick a cobras head and hold it down on the stage during a show…

But it is true that these villagers truly consider their snakes a part of their families. "If one of my snakes died, I would be very sad," says Chai. "They've been with me for years. When snakes in our village die, we make offerings for them at the temple." But despite all the attachment that they have with snakes, the villagers of Ban Kok Sa-Nga do not make much money out of their snake shows. The real cash is in fact, made from something completely different – rare, locally grown herbs that are sold in the cobra show market. The most famous of these herbs is the 'wan paya ngoo', which is what is mixed with lime and used as treatment for a snake-bite. Chai claims that this herb can cure bites from any venomous animal, like millipedes and scorpions. Eating the herb is supposed to make a person feel better in 30 minutes.

At Ban Kok Sa-Nga, snakes are not only bred but also purchased. Villagers are ready to shell out 5,000 ($160) to 6,000 ($200) baht for a snake. But they are never ready to sell. Even if the snakes aren't too profitable, they continue to buy them out of sheer love. "It's not just for business," says Chai. "Very few of the snakes are put in the show. We just buy them to take care of them." For those who are not too keen on viewing snake-fighting shows, there are other attractions on display. Markets selling beautiful handicrafts, souvenirs, toys and clothes are plenty. If you ever happen to be in Thailand, you wouldn't want to miss this unique Cobra Village, where men and snakes live together in harmony.