Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Bedazzle Your Food with the World’s First Edible Spray Paint

Posted: 05 Mar 2013 04:01 AM PST

I never would have imagined humans would one day be eating spray paint, and yet here we are…Food Finish is the world’s first edible spray paint, and according to its German manufacturer, it’s a great way to add some strange color to your food.

People have been eating strange things for a long time. There’s this woman in Ukraine who enjoys eating sand, another girl who savors soap bars, and even someone who likes to eat sponge, but spray paint is definitely something new. And apparently it doesn’t fall into the weird category because it was actually designed to be consumed and it’s totally safe. German-based producer The Deli Garage Food Cooperative says its ethanol-based edible spray paints are tasteless and odorless, and can be applied on any kind of food to make it look better. Food Finish is available in four different colors – gold, silver, blue and red – and has to be applied in layers in order to achieve that perfect effect. “I love it when it’s not only our cars which have a metallic finish but also our tomatoes,” Deli Garage project manager Kaya-Line Knust said. “It’s great when you see not only a steak on a plate, but a gold-plated one!” Yeah, who needs all those healthy-looking colors when you can go for gold, right?

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I would probably never use something like this, because I find my food exciting enough, but Food Finish seems to be a very popular novelty item, as the Deli Garage Food Cooperative confirms the edible spray paint is their top seller. If you’ve always wanted to eat blue strawberries or silver apples like the heroes of your favorite fantasy stories, Food Finish is available online for €24.80 ($32).

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The Photographic Pencil-Drawn Portraits of Franco Clun

Posted: 05 Mar 2013 02:40 AM PST

Italian artist Franco Clun uses only pencil and paper to create these incredibly realistic portraits that can easily be mistaken for photographs. Believe it or not, he’s a self-taught drawing master who has never studied art…

I’ve always found hyperrealism fascinating, and the collection of articles on this amazing art genre that I’ve posted on Oddity Central throughout the years is proof of that. I never get tired of looking at drawings and paintings so masterfully executed that they resemble high-resolution photos, and I consider myself lucky whenever I discover the works of truly gifted artists, like Franco Clun. The Italian-born master of the pencil says he has never taken art classes and that everything he knows he learned from experience and from reading some drawing manuals. I guess you can say he’s living proof that practice makes perfect, and that following your passions in life can truly lead to amazing things. Although he has had to take a long break from drawing to dedicate himself to other things, his love for graphite remained strong, and now he’s wielding his trusty pencils again to create marvelous works of art.

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And as if his insane ability to capture every little detail of the human face in his detailed portraits wasn’t enough to make you love him, Franco Clun also wins points for choosing some of the coolest characters from today’s films and TV series, like Dr. House, the X-Men, or Thorin Oakenshield, from the newly released “The Hobbit”. His DeviantArt profile also features beautiful animal drawings and expertly-executed landscapes. Clun definitely deserves to be mentioned alongside established hyperrealist graphite masters like Paul Cadden, Kelvin Okafor or Dirk Dzimirsky.

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Photos © Franco Clun

Bizarre Dog-Spinning Ritual Believed to Ward off Rabies

Posted: 05 Mar 2013 01:17 AM PST

When we were kids, we played this game where we would twist a pencil innumerable times into a loop of thread and then let it go, watching with fascination as it spun around at top speed. It was a fun game, but I never imagined that somewhere in the world, the same thing was being done to living creatures.

Brodilovo is a small, remote village in the South-Eastern part of Bulgaria. Here, villagers are so afraid of rabies that they have a centuries-old tradition to ward off the disease. The bizarre ritual involves the spinning of dogs, just like the pencil game, on a rope, hanging over a small stream. It is practiced once a year and is believed to help keep rabies at bay. The process that the dog is put through is quite enough to give animal rights activists nightmares. Dogs are twisted in a rope that is stretched out tautly over, and are then let go. The dogs spin out of control and then tumble into the water below. Since they reach very high speeds, they are often unable to swim when they hit the water. A net is held at the bottom for the animal to fall into, and then helped out of the water.

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Sounds pretty cruel doesn't it? I watched a video of the ritual, and the poor dogs seemed so helpless. The tradition was banned by law in 2006, after pressure from international media in 2005, but that had no effect on the locals whatsoever. They continued with their practice just as before. The weird ritual was finally stopped last year when members of the Animal Rights Sofia group guarded the banks of the Veleka River to make sure that the locals adhered to the law. According to the new guidelines, the locals are permitted to simply throw the dogs in the water so they can swim safely to the other bank. A spokesman for the town's mayor Petko Arnaoudov admitted that this isn't exactly ideal behavior, but much better than before. "Some of these traditions have taken root over hundreds of years. You don't change them overnight. You cannot stop a traditional custom with a simple order."

 

Maybe he's right, maybe this baby-steps method is the best way to go, but cruel traditions like this, the controversial Pigs of God Festival, or the horrific show of Toro Jubilo have no place in this day and age and need to remain in the past, where they belong. The Spanish have managed to replace bloody bullfighting with the more humane sports of bull dallying, so perhaps it is possible to preserve cultural legacy without resorting to barbaric practices.

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