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A Serbian performance artist assigned a passive role to herself, with the public being the force which would act on her. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions with 72 objects that people were allowed to use (a sign informed them) in any way that they chose.
Some of these were objects that could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were a rose, a feather, honey, a whip, olive oil, scissors, a scalpel, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions.
Initially, members of the audience reacted with caution and modesty, but as time passed (and the artist remained passive) people began to act more aggressively. As Abramović described it later: “What I learned was that… if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.” … “I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.”
To annoy his captors, an American POW in North Korea would pretend every day that he was riding around on an invisible motorcycle until eventually, his captors “confiscated” the motorcycle and stated that it was “against the rules and regulations.”
When Colombian drug lord Pablo Escolar’s home was raided, the military released the dangerous hippos of his personal zoo, not knowing what to do with them. They now thrive in the Colombian rivers. This makes Columbia have the largest wild hippo population outside of Africa.
Ancient Romans believed eyelashes fell out from excessive sex and that long lashes indicated purity and chastity.
In 1669 King Louis XIV banned pointed, sharp knives in an attempt to reduce violence, and that’s why table knifes are dull and rounded today. Apparently, this measure worked, but did not stop dinner table altercations entirely, but rather made them slightly less bad.
A whale known as “the world’s loneliest whale” is the only one known to produce “songs” at 52Hz. Although the sonic signature is that of a whale, the frequency is unique in no other whale uses it to answer back. His songs were first detected in 1992. A 50-day search for him will start this Fall.
In the 1500’s Russia had a mentally disabled Tsar who enjoyed nothing more in life than ringing bells and whose mismanagement led to the 15 year Time of Troubles. But they loved and respected him anyway.
As late as 1850 doctors had little respect and parents joked that if a son failed at everything Else he “could always become a doctor”
Before being stationed in Antarctica Australian physicians have their appendix removed to ensure they do not get appendicitis.
The schizophrenic artist Mary Barnes discovered her talent while undergoing treatment at Kingsley Hall during which she was encouraged to regress to a childlike state and paint on the walls with her feces. When they needed a solution for the smell, they decided to give her paint.
“Huh?” is a universal word and is found in roughly the same form and function in spoken languages across the globe.
The family of Chris Benoit, the 40 year old wrestler who killed his wife and son before hanging himself in 2007, consider his death a result of brain damage, after tests showed years of wrestling injuries left him with the brain of an 85 year old with an advanced form of dementia.
The Scottish town of Dull has formed a “trinity of tedium” with the towns of Boring (USA) and Bland (Australia).
In 2009, Colorado initiated its Family Planning Initiative to provide low-to-no cost birth control to 68 family clinics around the state. Between 2009 and 2013, the state’s teen birth rate dropped by 40%.
Pablo Picasso painted this when he was 15 years old.
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Oh 90s, is there nothing you can’t fix?
Photo courtesy of Jason Morris.
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1805 - Battle of Elchingen, France defeats Austria
1862 - Baseballer James Creighton ruptures bladder hitting HR, dies 10/18
1884 - George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film
1929 - Phila A's beat Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 1 in 26th World Series
1953 - WTEN TV channel 10 in Albany, NY (ABC) begins broadcasting
1968 - A 6.8 earthquake wrecked the Australian town of Meckering, and also ruptured all major roads and railways nearby.
1734 - Francis Lightfoot Lee, US farmer/signer (Decl of Independence)
1864 - Maurice de Plessys, French poet (Palace Occidental)
1894 - E.E.Cummings (Edward Estlin), Cambridge Massachusetts, poet (Tulips and Chimneys)
1907 - Pert Kelton, Great Falls Mont, actress (Cavalcade of Stars)
1970 - Nina Kemppel, Anchorage Alaska, cross country skier (Olympics-1994)
1972 - J J Smith, NFL running back (KC Chiefs)
1256 - Kujo Yoritsugu, Japanese shogun (b. 1239)
1790 - William Hooper, US attorney/signer (Decl of Ind), dies at 48
1943 - Jackie Matthews, cricketer (8 Tests 1911-12, 16 wickets), dies
1944 - Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal (WW II-Africa), suicide at 52
1957 - Carl Natanael Berg, composer, dies at 78
1972 - Joseph Kaminski, composer, dies at 68
