Chloe Sevigny

Photographer Jay Clendenin, regularly tasked with photographing celebrities at film festivals and cons, was looking for a method of shooting that would make his celebrity portraits stand out. He found it using a Polaroid Land Camera 180 with Fuji FP-100c film. That equipment in combination with a background painted especially for the project and a rustic, 100-year-old farmer's table equals a decidedly old-fashioned charm in Clendenin's portraits. The unique look has been popular with his celebrity subjects as well. 

Among the things Clendenin llkes about the setup is that it necessitates that he and his subject slow down their fast pace and contemplate the look and feel they want. He said in Petapixel,

“It has a calming effect, as much for the subjects as it does for me. It gives everyone a chance to take a breath, slow down and to collaborate on making one or two frames that hopefully stand apart.” Clendenin continues, “I’ve always maintained that successful portraits are dependent on collaboration and having this ‘film’ on hand has helped me create an extra set of pictures that I’m really proud of.”

To see more of these "retro-innovative" celebrity portraits by Clendenin, visit his website, Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Rob Zombie


Alison Janney (l), Elisabeth Moss (r)

Don Cheadle

Are you a book lover who has ever considered opening your own bookstore? If so, this $39 per night Airbnb rental might be just your opportunity to "try on" that lifestyle without risk. In Wigtown, Scotland, a tiny, picturesque village, there is an independent bookstore called The Open Book. The space over the store is for rent on Airbnb with a six-night minimum stay, but there's a catch: renters are expected to work a forty-hour week in the bookstore, which comes staffed with a combination of volunteers and paid book retailers ready to assist. The listing reads in part: 

"The first ever bookshop holiday/residency experience, Scotland's National Book Town welcomes you to play-bookshop for a week or two. We'll give you your very own bookshop, and apartment above, supported by a team of friendly volunteers and bookshop sellers to make your trip as lovely as possible. Set up by The Wigtown Festival Company, the bookshop residency's aim is to celebrate bookshops, encourage education in running independent bookshops and welcome people around the world to Scotland's National Book Town."

Learn the details of this unusual offering and see additional pictures at The Open Book's Airbnb page, and check them out on Facebook as well. Via My Modern Met

Deviant Art user dustbean11 created a hilarious set of Simpsons tarot cards that will certainly lend a comic bent to even the most dire of readings. So far he's created a dozen cards, so there's definitely room for expansion. And with characterizations like Grandpa Simpson as the Hermit and Homer as — what else? — the fool, expansion of the cards would be welcome. 

See each card of the Simpson tarot set at Deviant Art. Via Dangerous Minds

Brandon Turnbow and the dog he rescued from a life of abuse

Brandon Turnbow, a singer/songwriter from Burleson, Texas, was riding his motorcycle en route to his father's house one day when he witnessed a terrible sight. He noticed a blue SUV that was pulled over, and saw a man in the SUV who looked like he was hitting something, yet the target of the violence was out of Turnbow's sight just then. Turnbow continues the story,

"The opposite side passenger door flies open and the man knocks this little white dog up into the air and onto his back in the ditch. I was in shock at that point seeing this little harmless dog on his back in convulsions from the blow…

So I go straight to the place where the dog was and find the dog standing about two feet from the highway where the vehicles were passing. Im scared he is going to dart out and get hit but he doesnt thank God. I jump off my bike and just kneel down beside him and start talking to him. He slowly steps closer shaking like crazy and his breathing was very heavy. I take a chance and just fold my body over him to see if he will bite or trust me. He then just lays his body into me shaking so I just stand up with him in my arms and sit him on the bike seat.”

The SUV driver sped away before Turnbow turned around and was able to reach the scene. But now the dog, whom he calls Mr. Davidson, is in good, caring hands. A look at the smile on the dog's face in the picture below says it all.

Check out Turnbow's Facebook page for more uplifting updates about his new best friend, and follow him on Twitter as well. Via Uproxx
 

pic.twitter.com/7LcW11UX4t

— brandon turnbow (@brandonturnbow) February 19, 2016

YouTube Link

This video uploaded to Facebook by user Jasmine Perez contains a rare sight. The footage shows a baby immediately after its en caul birth. "En caul" refers to a baby being born within its unbroken amniotic sac. This is a rare medical happening, occurring in approximately 1 in 80,000 births.

Typically, prior to giving birth and in the early stages of labor, a woman's "water breaks," which is a common phrase for the amniotic sac rupturing. In this case, the doctor cut open and removed the amniotic sac and the healthy baby was breathing normally.

Last year, Miss Cellania featured a photo of a baby at six months of development after being delivered by emergency C-section in its intact amniotic sac. Videos such as the one above are exceedingly rare. Via IFL Science

Wild Carrot | Image: Genetic Literacy Program


For better or for worse, we humans seem to leave our mark on everything we touch. In the context of the article linked below, the topic is fruits and vegetables: their appearance before and after human domestication. Whether these changes in our produce come about by GMO, in which genes are spliced from other organisms, or specialized breeding plans by farmers (commonly referred to as selective breeding), the results can be significant. 

Like the wild carrot pictured above, this article lists before and after pictures of fruits and vegetables that humans have altered to their tastes.  Via The Presurfer

This handsome, half Maine Coon cat is Corduroy, who at age 26 holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest living cat. Adopted from an Oregon shelter in 1989, when his owner Reed Okura was only 7 years old, Corduroy sets the bar high for aging cats by living an active life that includes jumping on and off counters and "gliding up" stairs.

At this point Corduroy is in excellent health, and his owner keeps him on a low-protein diet to protect his kidney function. Okura shares what she feels is Corduroy's secret to health in old age:

“I strongly believe the key to his longevity is the fact we did not declaw him and allowed him to go outside. He was able to defend himself and exercise his body and mind by hunting. Corduroy still catches critters but is not as good as he once was, thankfully.

It is an honor to have Corduroy in our life, I honestly don’t remember much of my life without him. He is a wonderful companion and I hope to give him a happy and healthy life for many more years.”

The longest lived cat in history was Creme Puff, who lived to be 38. Go for the record, Corduroy!

See tons of adorable pictures and videos of this photogenic feline on Instagram.

Via Bored Panda | Images: Reed Okura  

These days it seems like there's at least a fringe organization that is offended by practically every media message or presentation. Given that the public is bombarded with so many media presentations per day, it's hard to keep track of who is mad at what. 

Film portrayals are often singled out and labeled as objectionable by one activist group or another. If they are lucky, the principals who stand to profit from the film sales are able to withstand any protest without any financial repercussions. If they aren't so lucky, they stand to lose a lot.

The article linked below lists eight films that had their premieres picketed. The following example is one in which the protesters, though strident in their threats, were not sucessful in creating negative financial consequences for the film:

"The Hateful Eight
Following Quentin Tarantino lending his support to the increasingly high-profile anti-police brutality movement in the US, several police organisations (The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, and the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police), all called for a boycott of The Hateful Eight.

The Fraternal Order of Police executive director Jim Pasco promised there would be a 'surprise' for Tarantino 'any time between now and [the premiere].' Although having to explicitly rule out violence in retaliation to Tarantino's anti-police brutality statements, he did threaten to hurt him 'economically.'

The biggest shock about the so-called 'surprise' was that literally nothing happened. Whether it was decided that using police officers to intimidate or harass a high-profile anti-police brutality campaigner was a bad tactical decision, or whether a lot of cops really, really wanted to see The Hateful Eight, this was one protest that ended with a fizzle, not a bang."

Read about more films that had their premieres attended by protesters here. 

Image: Double Feature Films

A skilled, reliable plumber is a valuable commodity in any location. That fact is particularly true if one has serious damage leading to leakage or is doing home renovation requiring complicated connections. As a result, plumbers can be quite expensive; just another reason why having one who does a job right the first time is key. But such an observation is obviously from the perspective of a homeowner, not a plumber. What is it like to practice this important trade? The article linked below gives readers an idea. For example, 

6. YES, THEY GET HIT ON...

Tradesmen have a short-hand for flirtatious customer encounters: “near-sex experiences,” or NSEs. “It’s not like I flirt with customers, like, ‘Hi, help me take off this shirt,’” says Mike, who is happily married. “But female customers can flirt. I’ve been hit on.”

Yet the above is hard to reconcile with the following:

UNLESS THEY’RE COVERED IN POOP. WHICH HAPPENS A LOT.

Cleaning out drains means getting rid of waste clogs backing up the line, and they have to go somewhere. If a plumber is stationed at a point of poop access, odds are he’s going to get hit. On one of Mike’s first jobs, he was accompanying his supervisor while they were snaking a second-story drain above them. “He wasn’t paying attention, but he heard it,” Mike recalls. “30 to 40 gallons of raw sewage. His face was six inches from the pipe.”

Yikes! Read more behind-the-scenes facts about plumbers at mental_floss.

Comic artist Grant Snider of Incidental Comics presents a purebred dog category of which even the most enthusiastic of canine enthusiasts were not aware. Hopefully the species in this breed group aren't actually impossible; I'd love to get an invisibeagle and train him to walk off-leash and attack on command. That would be a great way to ward off undesirables! Via Laughing Squid

Poster prints of this comic and other Grant Snider works are available here.

YouTube Link

Mommy, whatever you do, don't go making smiley faces or other cutesy displays with this little boy's food. In this clip, he makes it clear with his tears that eating something that's smiling back at him is absolutely out of the question. Draw an ugly face instead? No, that won't do either. Leave it alone, mom! Via Laughing Squid

YouTube Link

In this adorable footage, the larger giant panda has a snack, and a juvenile would like a taste. But the little one is out of luck. The big panda gently but persistently keeps the young one at leg's length from the treat. Better luck next time, kid. Via Yahoo News

These children are at the Humane Society of Missouri brushing up on their reading skills with an attentive audience of shelter dogs. The animals in the "Shelter Buddies" program are either overexcitable and in need of a calming influence or require work with humans to build up their trust for them. These sweeet, earnest children are the perfect people with whom the canines can get their feet wet to that end. The Humane Society's goal is to make the dogs more likely to be adopted, and thus far they feel that the program has been beneficial. 

Via The Dodo | Images: Humane Society of Missouri

YouTube Link

Say what you want about Reddit, but it does seem to be a virtual space in which those who are skilled in Photoshop turn up in droves. For example, Redditor Your_Post_As_A_Movie uses random images uploaded to the site and transforms them into brilliant movie posters, examples of which are seen above and below. So many of them are great that it was difficult to select which ones to feature. See a collection of these creations here. 


 

Witness internet celebrity cat Coby, the British wonder with two big, beautiful pools of blue. This cat has everything it takes to be a Supah Stah. His chub is just an extender for that gorgeous white fur. His big body is in perfect proportion to his big baby blues. His expressions are large and in charge, and he looks great in a tux and with a champagne glass. 

Check out Coby's Instagram and Facebook to see the wide range of looks this kitty can pull off. Via Bored Panda