The #Occult Universe of #DavidBowie and #Blackstar [#geekgirl]
In the wake of David Bowie’s death, his last album, “Blackstar”, is his swan song, an enigmatic conclusion to a career punctuated by otherworldly alter-egos and esoteric symbolism. We’ll look at the meaning of “Blackstar” in the context of David Bowie’s career.
Very few artists can boast the longevity of David Bowie in the music industry, as his career spanned over five decades and produced 28 albums. Throughout the decades, Bowie migrated from one musical genre to another, and even from one persona to another, but a constant remained: He was surrounded by an otherworldly aura.
Through his work, Bowie turned himself into a musical ‘ascended master’, a Gnostic Christ-like figure who achieved a high level of illumination and who sought to communicate a cryptic message to humanity. While many of Bowie’s eccentricities could be attributed to drugs and rock and roll, one cannot paint a complete picture of this artist without mentioning his most enduring obsession: Western occultism.
Source: The Vigilant Citizen
#Animal #Testing Resumes For Avon, Mary Kay, And Estee Lauder [#geekgirl]
An Italian anti-cosmetic testing on animals ad.
KNOW YOUR PRODUCT!
Animal testing for cosmetics is a hot topic in the beauty industry, with most consumers and many companies deciding to avoid products made with animal testing. After more than two decades following a “no testing on animals” policy, cosmetics giants Avon, Mary Kay, and Estee Lauder have resumed the practice without letting consumers know. In the late 1980s, PETA’s “Avon Killing” campaign eventually led to the company banning animal testing for their products, with Mary Kay and Estée Lauder following suit.
According to a press release from Rush PR, the news was broken after animal rights organization PETA removed the companies from their cruelty-free list after discovering that they had returned to using testing on animals for their products. The three companies began the tests again in order to satisfy regulations from the Chinese government so they could sell their products in China. However, PETA contends that there are alternative testing methods that are just as effective and widely used in the US.
Source: The Dog Files
This is not a drop of #water, it’s a #cake [#geekgirl]
Source: Lost at E Minor by Inigo del Castillo
‘Mizu Shingen Mochi’ is a new breed of Japanese rice cake that’s bound to get people scratching their heads and wondering what the hell they ordered. Though it might look like a water droplet served fancy, it’s actually a cake that uses water harnessed from the Japanese Alps!
Its makers say it’s like a traditional dessert mocha – sweet, usually sprinkled with kinako soybean powder and partnered with brown sugar syrup – except, you know, this one looks like a water droplet. If that’s not drool-worthy enough for you, the cake even melts in your mouth! Those who have tasted the treat went on Twitter, saying it’s ‘refreshingly cool’ and ‘tasty.
You have limited time to take selfies and food porn photos with it, though. Its consistency only allows it to take form for 30 minutes, before finally disintegrating into plain, old water.
#Selfie #Portraits and 4K #Videos Explode Modern #Identity [#geekgirl]
Merging the ever-classical “woman-as-subject” with a creative self-psychoanalysis, the New York-based visual artist Carla Gannis‘ latest solo show A Subject Self-Defined turns her unique selfie series into 15 GIF-style videos.
The exhibit is the continum of her 52-week self-promotional drawing experiment, The Selfie Drawings. For TRANSFER Gallery she manuevers the selfies into 4K videos with rhythmicly looped soundtracks by Christopher Knollmeyer and Christopher Rutledge. Gannis tells The Creators Project, “Particularly with this project, looped motion heightens the narrative impact and moves from a graphic novellike aesthetic into a more cinematic one.”
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