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Music

10 Famous Musicians’ Hilarious and Surprising Ad Jingles

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Brand endorsement is an eternally tricky thing and can easily segue into crass commercialism if not presented thoughtfully. That’s what these musicians must have struggled with when the sponsors came calling for their pound of flesh — but then again, a large paycheck is a seductive thing on its own. Here are ten stars who sang about soda, cereal, and more with dollar signs in their eyes — most of whom we never expected to see belting one out for the ad man. … Read More

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Photography

Haunting Photos of Elaborate Gowns Frozen in Ice

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Vancouver-based environmental artist Nicole Dextras, who we first learned about on Beautiful Decay, works with ephemeral materials such as plants, water, and flowers. For her installation series IceShifts, Dextras froze elaborate gowns in five-foot-tall blocks of ice, illuminated them at night, and photographed the results. “This frozen wardrobe acts as a metaphor for the multilayered affinities between the self and the environment,” Dextras explained. “On a deeper level, the mercurial aspect of ice alludes to the transient nature of the environment and of the inherent poetic beauty of the ephemeral.” The frozen dresses resemble icy sirens, dancing and drawing us near. See more of Dextras work in our gallery. … Read More

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Books

12 Curious Vintage Sex Books

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With Valentine’s Day approaching, love is in the air. Ignoring the whole corporate manufactured holiday thing, we can’t think of a better way to get you in the mood for love than with a fun, vintage book about sex. Part curious time capsule, part laugh riot, these guides are sure to charm. Head past the break to indulge in some good old-fashioned loving between the pages of these sexy (and chuckle-worthy) manuals. … Read More

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Film

Vintage Holiday Cartoons You Can Watch Right Now

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Once upon a time we were all small and a lot less jaded — and that’s when the holidays were the most fun. We’ve been getting into the spirit of the season by examining holiday traditions and curating some fun gift guides, but today we’re taking it back to the golden age of cartoons. These vintage animated shorts are probably before your time, but they should help inspire memories of old-school holiday celebrations and make you feel like a kid again. … Read More

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Film

The Most Deranged Horror VHS Cover Art

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Let’s have a moment of silence for the granddaddy of commercial video stores: Blockbuster first opened its doors in 1985 today. Whether you rented films at your local mom and pop shop, or ventured to the chain that has been steadily fading into obscurity, movie memories were made in the aisles of those stores thanks to the visual impact of DVD and VHS cover art. VHS has been making a comeback, with multiple documentaries and limited-edition videotapes being produced in recent years, and the format reminds us of the heyday of horror cinema. With Halloween around the corner and outrageous VHS box art on the brain, we hunted for some of horror’s most deranged cover images — the gory, creepy, and bizarre artwork that beckoned to audiences from the shelves of video rental stores everywhere. Travel back to the days of VHS, below, but be warned that some images may be upsetting to horror newbies. … Read More

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Pop Culture

10 Funny and Frightening Vintage Sex Ed Films

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Earlier this week, website Open Culture unearthed a video gem from Disney. The Mouse House created several educational shorts during their heyday, including animations about sex education and family planning (oddly, starring Donald Duck). We feature one of them past the break, along with other vintage clips that offer absurd and inappropriate advice about our bodies, our sex lives, and our health. … Read More

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Books

20 Vintage Diet and Beauty Book Covers

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Earlier this week, we read what health experts are saying about the summer’s best-selling diet books. There’s the usual assortment of good, bad, and confusing advice in the titles reviewed, and really, not much has changed. We traveled back in time to amuse ourselves with the strange, charming, and hilarious diet/beauty books of the past. Here are 20 book covers advertising some crazy ways to beautify and boost your health. … Read More

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Art

Naughty Paintings from a Soviet Erotic Alphabet Book

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Famed Soviet sculptor Sergey Merkurov, best known for his towering monuments honoring leaders like Stalin and the death masks he created (the faces of Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky included), dabbled in the erotic arts. The former director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts made an A to Z picture book of people having sex in impossible positions. It contains multiple references to Greek and Roman mythology, hence the horny satyr that appears throughout. We’re still unsure about the inspiration behind the severed male appendages, some of which have wings. See more of Merkurov’s erotic alphabet, which we spotted on Animal, in our gallery. … Read More

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Design

Minimalist Posters of Cassette Tape Labels

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Neil Stevens’ minimalist poster series Don’t Forget the Cassette, which we spotted on Design Taxi, started out as a personal project to fill the wall space of his loft studio. The artist started to realize that the typography, colors, and simple shapes of cassette tape label designs were actually quite nice to look at. Stevens’ bold posters feature printed text from the vintage medium, such as “low noise,” “normal base,” and “standard quality.” It’s also nice to see a few designs from other countries in Stevens’ work. Click through our gallery for more minimalist cassette posters.

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Photography

Otherworldly Snapshots Captured on Expired Film

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Advances in technology strive to make our devices lighter, faster, and more powerful, but it seems that just as many companies hark back to the days of vinyl, cassettes, and other vintage mediums. We want speed, but can’t let go of the styles from the past. Polaroid photos are a physical medium — our memories in the palm of our hand, captured on tiny paper and plastic sheets. Before we start sounding like a Mad Men advertisement, take a look at the work of German photographer Bastian Kalous — an artist we discovered on Photojojo. He experiments with expired film and various instant photo mediums to create hazy landscapes, blurred portraits, and otherworldly snapshots. We think they’re beautiful. … Read More

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