Ben

Bully, Lolawolf, and Waxahatchee performing at Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN 2016. All Images courtesy of Brian Butler

In the middle of a dark, packed venue, with the drums pounding, the bass thumping, and hundreds of audience members snapchatting and instagramming, Brian Butler takes out his sketchbook and draws. He draws the performers: Blink-182 wearing baseball caps and t-shirts, Laura Jane Grace and her guitar, ever-shirtless Iggy Pop. He draws the crowd: girls dancing at an Outkast concert, festival trendsters, teenage boys looking scared. Sometimes he writes bits of dialogue, whether it is overheard or imagined. Sometimes he writes lyrics, like “I’m a loser, baby,” which hovers over a sketch of Beck. Sometimes he draws bits of the city he is in. These sketches have become the collection titled, Show Drawn.

Prince Rama, Downtown Boys, and White Lung performing throughout SXSW in Austin, TX, 2016

Based in Miami, Butler is a painter, graphic designer, and muralist, among other things. His own music has been featured on a Floridian indie rock album with an environmentalist twist and his artwork was a part of an augmented reality tour of Downtown Miami. His interests in music, characters, and the bizarre can be seen through his work, though the media vary vastly and impressively.

Insane Clown Posse dousing my drawing with Faygo soda in Tampa, FL, 2015

Though he sticks primarily to concerts, Butler has documented events like the Miami Book Fair as well. His knack for combining his immediate impressions of the concert with his previous ideas about the artist, city, or festival, is part of what makes the pieces so intriguing. He records both how people look during precise moments, and other times focuses on how he imagines them in his mind. What is striking about this technique, as well as the series in general, is that in an age where anything and everything is documented, Butler steps back and captures the vibe of the concert in his own authentic way, concretizing his own responses and perceptions in a series of overlapping black lines.

Check out the video below to see Brian’s in-concert process: 

Masked Intruder, Mac Sabbath, The Randy Savages and Big Eyes performing at The Fest in Gainesville, FL, 2016

Show Drawn is an ongoing series. Check out more sketches on Tumblr and follow Brian Butler’s other projects here.

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Multisensory Concert Experience Marries Food, Music, and Art

Does anyone know who this is? People keep asking him to sign their t shirt pic.twitter.com/Md4fU1uKZD

 
Meet New Zealand-based James Malcolm. Yesterday on Twitter, James posted photos...

The most notable grave in San Jose's Hacienda Cemetery is not that of an entire person, but his limb. Specifically, the left arm of a man named Richard Bertram Barrett. While Barrett's left arm was buried here in 1898, the rest of him lived another 61 years and was buried elsewhere.

In 1898, when Bert Barrett was 13 years old, a shotgun blew off almost half of his left arm in a terrible hunting accident. In compliance with the laws of the time, he buried his severed appendage. The marker reads simply: “His arm lies here. May it rest in peace.” The rest of Bertram’s body is buried 11 miles away at Oak Hill Memorial Park, and his story is the source of local campfire tales.

After his amputated limb was interred at Hacienda Cemetery, the rest of Richard Bertram Barrett went on to live a very successful life. He went on to become the Chief of Sanitation for the Santa Clara County Health Department, and the road that bisects the cemetery in which his arm is buried is named for him. In 1959, he passed away at the ripe old age of 74. Though the man rests in peace, local legend tells that Bertram’s left arm comes alive on Halloween night to seek out the rest of him, buried eleven miles away from the verdant pioneer cemetery.

Hacienda Cemetery is situated in the historic San Jose community of New Almaden, located at the southern tip of the urban sprawl that today is Silicon Valley. While this community is part of present-day San Jose, it was once a bustling mining town in one of the wildest parts of the Wild West, where bandits, mountain lions, wildfire, and the constant dangers of mercury mining were typical of the area.

Hacienda holds the mortal remains of the New Almaden Quicksilver miners and their families who lived nearby from the 1850s to the 1920s. At one time, Almaden Quicksilver was the largest mercury mine in the world. Around 50 graves, both marked and unmarked, speck the wooded landscape. Many grave sites are marked with graying white picket fences. 

On the editorial circuit promoting her #1 film, ‘Hidden Figures’, multi-talented AFROPUNK alum Janelle Monáe stuns in NASA-inspired series for Cosmopolitan’s February issue. Styled by James Worthington DeMolet and photographed by Max Abadian, the ‘Moonlight’ actress worked it futuristic ready-to-wear in front of missiles, space capsules, control stations, and more. Check it out, below!

Photography: Max Abadian @Atelier Management
Styled by: James Worthington DeMolet
Hair: Nikki Nelmus
Makeup: Jessica Smalls @Epiphany Artist Group
Manicure: Rachel Craine
Talent: Janelle Monáe

Photo: Mairo Arde

A Chilean artist is creating outlandish, eye-catching garments specifically to ensure that they won’t be ignored. Ingrato is the alter ego of Sebastián Plaza Kutzbach, a creative producer at The University of Chile, who uses traditional textile processes to make garments that are designed to attract attention. Kutzbach tells The Creators Project why he invented the alter ego and what he’s trying to do with it: “The project was born because of the need to show the artisan's work that exists in my country and its devalued state because of the textile industry. Everything that I display as 'Ingrato' is handmade.”

Photo: Carolina Agüero

Chile has a rich history of textile art. The Mapuche, for example, are an indigenous Chilean culture that are known for traditional garments, which were once so highly valued that one of their ponchos could be traded for multiple horses. Kutzbach is concerned that Chilean garments now have to compete with a globalized textile industry that’s decreasing their worth in comparison to cheaper, factory-made garments. Kutzbach’s intention is to highlight the artistry behind Chilean textiles, especially their handmade qualities, and to illustrate their creative possibilities. “The concept seeks to intervene the human body in different ways,” says Kutzbach. And considering that Ingrato translates to “ungrateful,” it seems that one intervention that Kutzback is determined to achieve is an increase in appreciation for the skilled labor involved with textile production.

Photo: Felipe Andre

Kutzbach says he is always striving to showcase the work that goes into the production of the garments for the Ingrato project in new and different ways. “My process of creation is experimental depending on the garment I want to create and I have in mind, always the processes are changing.” Luckily, Kutzbach documents his evolving processes and interventions extensively on social media. These interventions often include groups of people knitting and crocheting in public as well as participating in events by wearing their handmade creations. These images clearly illustrate how successful Kutzback is at attracting attention with his work.
 

 

A photo posted by I N G R A T O (@ingratoo) on

Sep 23, 2016 at 11:01am PDT

A video from the Modamorphosis series, created by audiovisual producers LENGUA, documents the process that Kutzbach goes through to make his garments. Starting with the sketching out of a design, the video moves through steps like dyeing the fiber that will be used to make the garment. The brilliantly colored fibers that result are then woven, knitted, and crocheted by hand. In contrast to these traditional processes, the resulting garments appear distinctly otherworldly, an effect which is accentuated by the remote landscape in which the video takes place. The models in the video end up looking almost like aliens in a sci-fi movie, a poignant comment on our relationship to indigenous textile production processes.   

Find out more about what Sebastián Plaza Kutzbach is getting up to with Ingrato on the project’s Instagram and website.

Related:

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New Chilean Mural Brings a Tower-Sized Message to the World

Underwater Ecosystems Come to Life in Crocheted Coral Reefs

All images courtesy the artist

Oxidized busts and well-worn sculptures fill the parks and public squares of cities around the world, yet these examples of public art are often overlooked. To draw attention to historical monuments all over Belgium, florist Geoffroy Mottart stages herbaceous interventions by adding botanical beards and verdant hairdos to statues of luminaries and potentates like Victor Rousseau and King Leopold II. This clash between history and brightly-colored floral facial hair lends the otherwise-somber effigies an air of tender whimsy.

Mottart chooses the flowers for each sculpture with care, taking into account his subject’s features, the statue’s color and material, its location, and the season. The Fleurissements are a momentary augmentation, and Mottart removes them after a day or two, before the blooms begin to wither and die. “My creations are not meant to last in time,” he tells The Creators Project. “If I let the flowers [die], the message would be different. My goal is to put forward the statues.”

Though he’s somewhat of a guerrilla florist, Mottart says the feedback from the Belgian government has been positive. “Contact with cities like Brussels is rather favorable. On the other hand, I would like to have more access to other statues, like the ones that are in the courthouse, because they are magnificent. But communication is more complicated, because like everywhere, it is difficult to have access to the responsible person.”

Making perishable art has its drawbacks, but Mottart documents every creation and posts his work to his Instagram account. Though only a few Belgian citizens are lucky enough to see the Fleurissements in real life, if photos of his floral modifications inspire people to appreciate the public art in their midst, Mottart considers that a success.

For more botanical interventions, follow Geoffroy Mottart on Instagram.

Related:

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Why is This Artist Trapping Flowers in Blocks of Ice?

16,000 Flowers Become A Living Sculpture

Kushner, who had Trump’s ear in an informal role during the election, will need to argue a federal anti-nepotism law does not apply to him

Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was named senior adviser to the president on Monday, an appointment that would further entangle the incoming White House team in a web of potential conflicts of interest and accusations of nepotism.

Related: Jeff Sessions confirmation hearing to shine light on history of racism claims

A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail.

Roughly a year and a half ago, I made a pitch that we were due for a magnetic-tape comeback similar to the one we’ve seen for vinyl. (I titled it after a Frank Turner album, because Frank Turner is cool.)

Now, we haven’t seen that magnetic-tape comeback just yet, but it might help if I did my part by highlighting tape-format obscurities.

One of those obscurities worth a mention is the Elcaset, just one of Sony’s many attempts to create a new standard of some kind.

The ‘70s-era format was a middle ground between reel-to-reel tape, which was too bulky for mass consumption, and the already-standardized compact cassette, which was gaining steam in car stereos. It solved the weaknesses of the cassette—mainly imperfect sound due to limited space—through sheer size. The device, as Ars Technica notes, was roughly twice the size of a standard cassette.

So why didn’t it sell? Two reasons: First, Sony made the device with the assumption that cassette tapes wouldn’t get better. With the addition of new materials, such as chromium oxide, the quality of the standard cassette got a lot better, and tape players quickly improved as well.

And the other? As Techmoan notes in this 2014 clip, no officially-released pre-recorded music ever came out on the format, meaning that all you could really essentially do with it is record your own music—likely from the radio or a vinyl format—onto a giant tape that you can’t put in your car. (Ars notes that this was because Sony at the time did not have a significant content business, something that you definitely couldn’t say about Sony now.)

The thing disappeared by 1980. But on the plus side, they were selling a tape-based product that had already healed the wound. You may have heard of it. It’s called the Walkman.

A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail.

 
Everybody needs a hobby, right? Meet “sweater dude,” Sam Barsky whose hobby is to knit sweaters of places and then have photos taken of himself wearing those sweaters at these places.

Sam was making the Internet rounds a few days ago but I didn’t really look at the...

 
Apparently I’m on some kind sweater-blogging kick today. Maybe because it’s currently 17° outside and this brilliant sweater struck a chord with me. I’m feeling sick, sorry for myself and in a really terrible mood today so this “Leave Me Alone Sweater” by Ruth Grace totally makes terrific sense to me...

Dear Employee #11682,

Congratulations on your promotion! What a great American accomplishment. This salary bump at our corporate institution will give you every opportunity to grow accustomed to the slow but steady lifestyle increase, subsequently trapping yourself in a hamster wheel of your own doing. Congratulations again! All that hard work is finally paying off.

Pretty soon, the very last childhood dream you actually remember will fade away into the abyss, leaving you with nothing but a wistful longing for something you can’t recall, and a future filled with middle-management politics and more weekends spent in a dark cubicle. Hurray! This is what you’ve been dropping hints about to us all year now! After all, you wouldn’t want to be running around with things like “free time” anyways. Would you really discover your true passion for illustration, or would you binge watch three straight seasons of House instead? Who needs that kind of guilt?

When a young, hopeful child asks, “what did you want to be when you were little?” your eyes will glaze over, and you’ll search for a glimmer of who you once were. Was it a… firefighter? Yeah, that sounds like a good answer. All kids want to be firefighters, right? Thank goodness Bring Your Child to Work Day was last month, or you wouldn’t remember what child was! What a generous workplace your company provides for its employees. No wonder you accepted that promotion!

And anyhow, who needs self-fulfillment and a published “graphic novel” when you can have incremental salary increases! Annual rewards so you can work longer hours until you become a shell of who you once were. The American dream is ripe for the taking, and you have a basket full of it! Or at least, you did once.

So congratulations again, you really deserve this. And you’ll deserve the next one, too. And the next one. And the one after that, until you realize that there’s no one else you’d rather be than the person you are right now, mainly because you can’t really remember the person you were before.

Now get out there and celebrate like you have an insignificantly larger budget and a month’s less mortgage to pay! Hurray!

Yours truly,
Upper Management

Driving along one of many county roads in the miles of Illinois cornfields, a gravel road will lead you to the town of St. Omer, or what's left of it at least: its cemetery. The ghost town might have been forgotten if not for the strange Barnes monument, the subject of a local witch legend.

The Barnes gravestone is a ball atop a pyre. While many of the other graves in this cemetery are oriented east to west, this one curiously faces north and south. Four people are buried there, Marcus Barnes, his parents Granville and Sarah, and his wife, Caroline, whose stated date of death could never have happened: February 31, 1882. 

The prevailing lore is that Caroline Barnes was a witch, or at least was accused of being one. She was hanged (or, depending on who you ask, burned or even buried alive) for her magical crimes. The sphere atop her tombstone is actually a crystal ball, which is said to glow on moonless nights. The impossible date is actually a preventative measure: The witch would rise again on her death date, but if her death date never came she wouldn't reappear.

People also claim that film photographs of the Barnes' grave won't develop (though digital seems to do just fine), and that secret rituals are carried out there in the dead of night. That last claim may have some credence to it, given that the ball has repeatedly been found with melted white candle wax dried atop it.

In reality, there are few facts to back up accusations of witchery. Local lore seems to have sprung out of the weird anomalies surrounding the tombstone. There is, however, some tragic history surrounding the Barnes family. Marcus Barnes died in a sawmill accident in 1881 and was buried with his parents. Just two months later Caroline would die of pneumonia at the age of 23. Her actual death date was either the 26th or the 28th of February. "February 31st" was likely just a typo too expensive to fix, not to mention that there was no one left in the Barnes family to mend the error.

In fact, there wasn't even anyone in town. The town of St. Omer only held about 40 to 50 families, a post office, a blacksmith's, and a general store. By the time the Barnes family had died off, the town had done the same. Now, fittingly, all that remains of St. Omer is its cemetery. 

Aside from the mysterious monument, the remote and serene cemetery has many other old grave markers worth perusing.  It's a brief walk through history that Caroline Barnes is somewhat responsible for keeping alive. 

Cédric Herrou, who was previously arrested for aiding eight Eritreans, faces up to five years in jail and €30,000 fine if convicted

A French farmer, who has become a local hero for helping African migrants cross the border from Italy and giving them shelter, has gone on trial for aiding illegal arrivals.

Cédric Herrou is one of three people to appear before courts in southern France for assisting people fleeing to Europe.

Dr. Emanuel Bronner is best known for his line of natural soaps. But Bronner, who died in 1997, was also a philosopher, and on January 25, a new spoken-word album of his personal musings will be released. The 16-track LP, Sisters & Brothers, features newly unearthed and remastered home recordings from between 1970 and 1995. It will be available on Bandcamp, and 1,000 copies will be pressed on vinyl. All album proceeds will go to the nonprofit Jail Guitar Doors (founded, in part, by MC5’s Wayne Kramer), which provides prison inmates with instruments and music education.

On the day of the record’s release, the Dr. Bronner’s brand will host a listening party at San Diego’s Music Box. Kramer, the B-Side Players, Jill Sobule, Iron Sage Wood, and Rafi El are scheduled to perform at the event. In addition, Dr. Bronner’s grandsons David and Michael (CEO and President of the company, respectively) will give speeches.

Watch a brief history on Dr. Bronner’s:

Coachella’s lineup just dropped and social media has been teeming with palpable excitement at the prospect of warm weather and good vibes. The lineup boasts names like Kendrick Lamar and Beyonce, Black music royalty more than deserving of our hype, but Coachella’s owner is a whole different story. Philip Anschutz is the billionaire machine behind Coachella and his politics are icky, sticky with the slime of the swamp that folks like president-elect Trump loves to associate with. Anschutz owns AEG, the entertainment and sports company only second to Live Nation in its reach, with investments in the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Kings and the Staples Center to name a few. But really where his money is doing the most damage is in his support of socially conservative causes. ProgressNow Colorado’s executive director Ian Silverii was quoted saying, “Phil Anschutz’s extensive influence in Colorado politics has been known for years, but the degree of his support for anti-LGBTQ groups that fund extremist hate groups like Gordon Kligenschmitt’s ‘Pray in Jesus Name’ is shocking.” In even more covert efforts, the Anschutz Foundation gave $110,000 to Alliance Defending Freedom, $50,000 to National Christian Foundation, and $30,000 to Family Research Council between 2010 and 2013, all of which have been known to support prejudice against LGBTQ efforts.Since 2008, the Anschutz Foundation has donated $175,000 to the Mission America Foundation, a far-right organization whose president considers homosexuality to be a “deviance.” Anschutz’ Walden Media group funds films that support his political views as well, funding “Won’t Back Down” and “Waiting For Superman” which are pro-charter school and anti-teachers union. To add insult to injury, Greenpeace notes that media companies owned by Anschutz figure prominently in the denial of climate science and the promotion of climate-change skepticism and even went as far as suing a small town for their regulations on fracking, but eventually lost the case. All in all, this guy is a prick and not someone who should be profiting from the hard earned dollars of the very people he would discriminate against. So you still tryna go to Coachella?

Mental health amongst women in the music industry isn’t new but the recent uptick of rappers and singers making their mental health struggles public is alarming. Nitty Scott MC, Kehlani, and SZA all have taken to social media to express their points of view in the past few months, and Azealia Banks is the most recent to share her story. In a heartfelt Facebook post she writes, "They joke and prod at you and say you need a doctor yet have no idea about the type of uncontrollable chaos that goes on inside your head. On top of arrogantly suggesting you need to be medicated, these people Have no idea how gnarly psych-drugs are." It seems that the nonstop criticism of her past antics have weighed heavy on her psyche, and combining that with preexisting conditions has made for a low moment for her from which we’re earnestly hoping she ascends from. We’re wishing her all the best in her road to recovery.


By T. McLendon, AFROPUNK Contributor

In a conversation with Savages’ Jehnny Beth on her Beats 1 show “Start Making Sense,” John Cale revealed that he’s working on a new album. “That’s why I’ve been listening to all this hip-hop,” he added. Apparently, Cale’s been influenced by his heavy listening regimen of recent hip-hop records, including music by Chance the Rapper, Donnie Trumpet, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, Mike WiLL Made-It, Domo Genesis, and others. (Cale recently revealed his admiration for Mike WiLL on the Creative Independent.) He says the album is set to arrive this spring. Listen to that clip from their conversation below.

Last year, Cale reissued Music For a New Society with a new reworking of the album, M:FANS. His previous studio album was 2012’s Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood.

Watch Pitchfork.tv’s interview with Cale and Vince Staples on “Over/Under”:

Katonya Breaux has asked her son, Frank Ocean, to take gospel singer Kim Burrell off of his Blonde track “Godspeed.” Burrell recently delivered a homophobic church sermon, during which she described homosexuality as “perverted”—a position she later reiterated in a Facebook live video, where she called homosexuality a “sin... against the nature of God.” In another tweet, Breaux added, “I mean damn. Hypocrisy and the inciting of hate pisses me off. Opportunistic &?%#€!!.” See her tweets below.

Frank Ocean famously came out publicly as gay in 2012, shortly before the release of his album Channel Orange. In September 2010, he posted a video of Burrell performing “Home” on his Tumblr. In a note, he wrote about being raised in a Christian household, and closed the paragraph writing, “the lady in the video…summa cum laude.”

Following her sermon, Burrell was dropped from a scheduled performance on “Ellen” with Pharrell. The two were set to sing their track “I See a Victory” from the Hidden Figures soundtrack. Both Pharrell and Hidden Figures star Janelle Monáe have since condemned Burrell and hate speech.

Pitchfork has reached out to Frank Ocean’s representatives for comment.

Me: Son, can we crop Kim Burrells voice out of your song??

— katonya breaux (@katonya) January 1, 2017

I mean damn. Hypocrisy and the inciting of hate pisses me off. Opportunistic &?%#€!!

— katonya breaux (@katonya) January 1, 2017

Listen to “Godspeed”:

Wannabe time travelers, start emptying your coffers: Canadiana Village, a massive fake 19th-century town, has gone up for sale. The village, located in Quebec, is 60 hectares of fields, trees, and ghost buildings, and is priced at $2.8 million, the CBC reports.

The village, which is not open to the public, is generally used for weddings, corporate meetings, and movie shoots. A video slideshow reveals an endless array of nostalgic structures, including a saloon, a church, a school, and a blacksmith's shop—all either eerily or charmingly empty, depending on how you feel about such things.

There's a reason for this: The buildings are just for show, says Mary-Catherine Kaija, the broker in charge of the sale. "There's only one liveable home," she told the CBC. (There are, however, real tombstones, moved from a nearby town to the fake church after the town's cemetery ran out of room.)

All this shouldn't be too huge of a problem for the future owner, who is almost certainly going to use the space to live out their own personal Westworld (Northworld?) fantasy. Who needs accommodation for friends when you've got a butter separator all to yourself?

Every day, we track down a fleeting wonder—something amazing that’s only happening right now. Have a tip for us? Tell us about it! Send your temporary miracles to cara@atlasobscura.com.

CJ Atkinson, author of Can I Tell You About Gender Diversity?, calls fury over book from Mail on Sunday and Tory grandees a ‘trans-panic’

“My name is Kit and I’m 12 years old. I live in a house with my mum and dad, and our dog, Pickle. When I was born, the doctors told my mum and dad that they had a baby girl, and so for the first few years of my life that’s how my parents raised me. This is called being assigned female at birth. I wasn’t ever very happy that way.”

These are the opening lines of a controversial new book called Can I Tell You About Gender Diversity? which is being introduced into some primary schools as a resource for children, parents and teachers, and claims to be the first book to explain “medical transitioning” to children as young as seven.

British singer says she would appear at the ceremony if she could perform anti-lynching anthem popularized by Billie Holiday

Singer Rebecca Ferguson has said she would accept an invitation to perform at Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January on one condition: she be allowed to sing Strange Fruit.

First recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939 and covered by Nina Simone in 1965, Strange Fruit is one of the nation’s most famous songs about racism. The lyrics by Abel Meeropol graphically describe the lynchings of African-Americans:

Screencaps, via

Did you know the word coffin comes from the Latin root cophinus, which literally translates to basket? Coffins have been around for a long time. The Ancient Egyptians used to immaculately decorate coffins/sarcophagi to ensure safe passage into the afterlife. In modern day Ghana, craftsman Anang Kwei performs a similar ritual only on a slightly smaller scale. Kwei and his family make handcrafted custom designed coffins of almost anything you can imagine. Everything from giant fish and birds to guitars and model homes, Kwei’s workshop can turn your wildest dreams into a final resting place or palace.

Kwei was interviewed as part of a short video feature produced by Great Big Story, the studio responsible for stories like this man-made island or this amputee tattoo artist. In the video, Kwei refers to himself as a “fantasy coffin maker.” His work allows customers to honor or memorialize any particular aspect of the deceased’s life. Kwei says, “When a driver dies, the family may want a car-shaped coffin for the deceased. Some are fisherman. The family may request a canoe-shaped coffin.”

Kwei’s father started the tradition of custom coffin making in Ghana 65 years ago, when a chief made a special request to be buried in a coffin the shape of a cocoa pod. According to GBS, although funerals are often perceived as a grim occasion, people in Ghana see them as an opportunity to celebrate the life of those who’ve passed. Kwei’s coffins aren't exclusive to Ghana. His workshop has shipped custom caskets around the world to places like Los Angeles, Denmark, and Russia. Check out the full video below:

To learn more about Anang Kwei and his workshop, head over to their website.

Related:

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Throughout Southeast England, a small batch of modern pilgrims have been traveling to visit and sleep in ancient churches. They’re not necessarily seeking a religious experience—rather, they are part of a modern movement called champing, a portmanteau for church camping.

Organized through the Churches Conservation Trust, an organization that oversees the preservation of historic churches throughout the country, champing provides rural villages a way of offsetting the maintenance of these historic buildings, while offering travelers a very unusual place to stay. The Trust’s website promises that “apart from a few weary pilgrims, monks, and a tired vicar or two,” champers will be amongst the first to spend the night in the space.

The Churches Conservation Trust first piloted champing in 2014 at All Saints’ Church in Aldwincle, Northamptonshire. The medieval church, which features limestone arches and a square tower, is situated on the outskirts of town. Visitors can pass their time exploring the church, canoeing on the nearby river, or exploring the small village and surrounding woodlands and meadows. From the church tower, guests are offered a sprawling view of the surrounding countryside. Just under three hours from London, the church is conveniently located for city dwellers looking for a unique getaway.

In 2015, the Trust expanded their offerings to four churches. That year, nearly 300 people stayed overnight during the champing season, which runs from May until September. In 2016, nearly 650 champed in the seven available churches. These champers were mostly between 26 and 44 and from urban locations. Most were couples, but there were also many families with children, not to mention seasoned walkers, cyclists, and canoeists. Though there are no specific records, the Conservation Trust reports that a handful of guests champed more than once in the season.

The location of the champing churches might explain the appeal to these demographics.  All of the current churches are in southeast England, no more than two or three hours from London, making them convenient for weekend getaways. All are located in small villages that have few tourist attractions, but are close to charming traditional English towns and areas of natural beauty.

One of the more popular destinations is in Fordwich, England’s self-proclaimed smallest town. Located along the Stour River, it was in the Middle Ages a port for boats making their way to Canterbury, two miles upriver. Though the town is little more than a bend in the road as you make your way south from the town of Sturry towards the eastern end of the Kent Downs, it played a small, if vital, role in both the protection of Britain from outside invaders and in the economic development of the towns upriver.  

At the center of town sits the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. The original structure was built in the Norman era and was expanded in the 1200s. Legend has it that St. Augustine, the Benedictine monk who reintroduced Christianity to England in 600 A.D., is buried outside of the church’s north wall. Some evidence suggests that Shakespeare may have performed inside during his exile from London during the plague.  

On one wall is listed the names of the church’s rectors beginning in 1283. Tomb markers on the floor date back to the 17th century. Historically the center of the town’s spiritual life, the church has been closed since 1995, but in 2015 it was resurrected as a spot for champing. Though the town offers little more than two pubs and an historic town hall, its location along the Stour River provides guests with easy access to hiking trails and canoeing note.

Proximity to nature is the primary draw of St Michael the Archangel Church in Booton, one of the top three most popular champing destinations in 2016. Located in the countryside along the Marriot’s way footpath, the location is ideal for hikers and cyclist looking for a secluded place to spend the night. The nearby Bure Valley Railway offers families the opportunity to ride a traditional steam engine train throughout the scenic countryside.

Though champing churches are open to the public during the day, guests have the entire church to themselves for the night, when they are free to explore every nook and corner. Local volunteers prepare the church for arriving guests, providing electric candles, light snacks, bottled water, and camping chairs, as well as sleeping bags and pillows for international guests who may not have been able to bring such bulky items.

As these provisions suggest, champing is a true camping experience, not a hotel; the churches are all unheated and have no running water, and all but two lack traditional toilets. Instead, churches are equipped with dry-separating toilets. According to the pre-arrival packet provided for guest, the toilet “does exactly what it sounds like...When using the loo, you must sit down, even the male of the species...When you sit down the mechanism works that opens the two containers below...it doesn’t whiff, honest.”

This jokey tone is typical of Churches Conservation Trust material. In contrast with the ancient beauty of the churches, the Trust’s correspondence is surprisingly chatty. ”It’s nearly Champ O’Clock,” guests are informed via email prior to arrival. In answer to whether champers need to be Christian, the website FAQ assures us that “that’s like saying that you need to be...a teenager to shriek at a One Direction concert (...ahem)!”  Elsewhere, the FAQ informs guests that “the space had adapted to the requirements in the previous centuries and champing is just the latest chapter in this ongoing tradition of change.”

It remains to be seen whether champing will be enough to offset the expense required to upkeep these churches, though the modest growth seen between 2015 and 2016 was enough for the Trust to expand its offerings for the 2017 season. Starting in May, champers will have their choice of 12 new churches spread across all of England, not just the southeast. The Churches Conservation Trust will also look for ways to broaden its appeal by offering tiered pricing structure based on guests’ desired level of comfort, promoting the option for guests to visit more than one church per season, offering licensed merchandising, and improving the amount of local information on the local area for champers.

If recent trends continue, there will be no shortage of churches available for champing. In the past 15 years, the number of Britons identifying themselves as Christian has dropped from 75 percent to 25 percent, and only 1.4 percent of Britons attend weekly church services. The Church of England reports that nearly 20 additional churches are closed to worship each year.

Some of these churches are offered for sale to be turned into private residences or commercial spaces, but others will join the 350 non-operational churches currently overseen by the Trust. Champing is perhaps the last chance for preservation of some of these ancient churches, which were central to English life for so long.

Special thanks to Bob Ross and BobRossQuotes.com.

In painting, you have unlimited power. You have the ability to move mountains. You can bend rivers. But when I get home, the only thing I have power over is the garbage in bed.

Any time ya learn, ya gain, in bed.

Any way you want it to be, that’s just right, in bed.

You can do anything you want to do. This is your world, in bed.

We’re gonna make some big decisions in our little world in bed.

Decide where your little footy hills live. In bed?

Clouds are very, very free in bed.

You know me, I gotta put in a big tree in bed.

There’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend in bed.

Trees cover up a multitude of sins in bed.

Just put a few do-ers in there…in bed.

The trees are oh-so soft, oh-so soft I freakin’ love it in bed.

People might look at you a bit funny, but it’s okay. Artists are allowed to be a bit different in bed.

Gotta give him a friend. Like I always say, “everyone needs a friend” in bed.

We don’t know where it goes. We don’t really care, in bed.

Just “smoosh” it in there. It’s not a real word, but people seem to know what it means in bed.

Shwooop. Hehe. You have to make those little noises, or it just doesn’t work in bed.

Oh, you’d be in Agony City by now, in bed.

You can use a brush rack to hit the brush on. Otherwise you will become unpopular real fast in bed.

Be sure to use odorless paint-thinner. If it’s not odorless, you’ll find yourself working alone very, very quick in bed.

Here’s your bravery test in bed!

Just go straight in like you’re going to stab it. And barely touch it…barely touch it in bed.

I can’t go over 30 minutes, because we have a mean ol’ director with no sense of humor in bed.

Just scrape in a few indications of sticks and twigs and other little things in there. People will think you spend hours doing this in bed.

If you did this with blue, and you went over it with yellow, you would end up with a nice green sky. And that’s not the thing we are looking for in bed.

The only thing worse than yellow snow is green snow in bed.

Oh, green water… oh, that’s pretty. Boy, I like that: just alive with algae in bed.

Water’s like me. It’s laaazy… Boy, it always looks for the easiest way to do things in bed.

This is the hardest part of this method. If you can do this, you can do anything in bed:

The secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it. Anything that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do. Anything. As long as you believe in bed.

Read more Adding “In Bed” To Bob Ross Quotes at The Toast.

Please Stop Writing Headlines That Ask the Reader to Please Stop Doing Something

You Won’t Believe How Many Headline Writers Think You Won’t Believe Things That Are, In Fact, Quite Believable

You Thought This Was a Headline for An Article About Headlines… Until the End of the Article

20 Ways to Re-Write a Listicle Headline That Begins By Quantifying Its Points

Watch What Happens When You Watch What Happens and Then Re-Post So Others Can Watch What Happens When You Watch What Happens and Watch What Happens Themselves

Learn the Definition of Clickbait By the End of This One-Sentence Article

So, This Headline Totally Happened

“I was never a punker. Punks made fun of us in the beginning because we did not wear black leather coats with “the Clash” painted on the back. I would wear flannel shirts back in 1980 because it was the most uncool thing a person could wear at the time. It was my silent way of expressing my rebellious attitude and to show other kids that you didn’t have to look a certain way to be accepted. I still am as rebellious and nonconformist as I was back then.” — Greg Sage

Gif of Ramona yawning in slow motion #cat #yawn (Taken with Cinemagram)

Hahaha

If you’re a Boston local, you’ve certainly heard of Heather Schmidt. Either from her company Homemade Modern Co. (previously City Chicks) or the immediate success of Union Square Donuts which she co-owns with business partner Josh Danoff. The latter is currently closed as they move their donut operation into a bigger and brighter space. Keep your eyes peeled on their facebook page for the announcement of an opening day celebration. And keep reading for a Q&A with the brilliant Heather!

Q. How and when did you start your path to becoming a chef/baker?

A. Growing up, my mom and dad both worked late and I would be in charge of dinner. When I’d get home from school, I would find a recipe my mom had left for me. I loved cooking. I thought I was so fancy when I made lunch for myself one day by adding parsley and oregano to Spaghetti-o’s. One time, I misread a manicotti recipe and added a Tablespoon of pepper instead of a teaspoon. That was bad. My dad ate the whole thing. Amazingly enough.

Cooking was the gateway into baking for me. My first solo experience was over one Christmas, and I made Croissants and a Danish Braid just because I was curious about how it all worked. They turned out awful. But my family, bless them, choked them down. That’s love!

Q. What were some of your most challenging culinary lessons in the beginning?

A. Cooking and baking are two different animals. Baking requires patience. This was a learned skill for me! Baking is a complete science. One of it’s limits. And it’s only after you fully understand those limits that you can break them. If you don’t break the rules, then it’s boring.

I love baking because it’s the only way I know how to take care of people, how to make them happy. Food is nurturing and I’m a nurturer by nature. I’m happiest in the kitchen!

Q. What inspired you to start Homemade Modern Co.?

A. I learned cooking on my own, and my mom taught me how to knit and sew. It wasn’t until I began talking with my peers that I realized these skills were lost. We don’t have to use our hands anymore, so oftentimes, people don’t. Homemade Modern was my way of encouraging us to preserve the skills my mother taught me, and her mother before her. Homemade Modern is about reconnecting with our food, it’s about using our hands again, it’s about understanding every step of the process. Not just as a consumer, but as a maker and creator. All within the context of a modern life. It’s very empowering.

Q. You recently started a new venture, Union Square Donuts with business partner Josh Danoff of Ocean Ave Popsicles. How did you decide on donuts?

A. I developed the flavors for Ocean Ave. Pops with the Danoffs. That was the beginning of our working relationship and friendship.
One day, Noah, Josh’s brother, called him and said, “We need donuts.”
Josh said, “I know who to call”.
Later that day he sent me an email:
“I have one word for you. Donuts.”
I wrote him back, “I’m in”.
The next week I started recipe development.

Q. How is being a part of the community of Somerville, specifically Union Square, been beneficial to your businesses? And vice versa.

A. I love being a part of Union Sq. because it is such a close-knit community. With so many small businesses here, we’ve become our own support system. We have a deep sense of pride and camaraderie about where we are and what we do – it’s electric. There is this exciting energy within the budding food scene here and I’m so happy to be a part of that.

Q. You’re non-stop these days, what’s next on the agenda?

A. Taking over the world. With donuts. And maybe ice cream? …