Year: 2020

Take an Eerie Walk Through the Empty Streets of Amsterdam, San Francisco, and New York City

Aside Markozen.com World

With one-third of the world’s population currently under some level of quarantine, the streets of major cities like Amsterdam, New York City, and San Francisco are an unusual and unsettling sight. Film director and cinematographer Jean Counet, who shot “Meanwhile in Amsterdam,” shows the capital city almost entirely deserted. Public transit is empty and a four-minute walk reveals less than a dozen passersby.

Counet tells Colossal that “Meanwhile in Amsterdam” came together like any other film, except that “this time there was no director, and no plan,” he says. “We walked through the old city centre of Amsterdam between 8:30 (and) 13:30 which is normally teemed by walking people and bicycles. What we witnessed felt like a dream. Sometimes beautiful and mesmerizing, sometimes scary and worrying.”

Amsterdam

In a similarly bizarre look at San Francisco, stop lights cycle from green to red with no cars passing through and businesses are boarded up. One with a psychedelic facade even has signs that read “We will survive” and “We will get by,” a hopeful gesture derived from the city’s musical legends that directly contrasts the nailed plywood covering the windows.

To see how the global pandemic is affecting public life in New York City and Rotterdam, check out the videos below.

Hinterland Who’s Who : the Black Spectacled Giant Brown Manitoba Sasquatch

Aside Markozen.com Animals

Most adult Bigfoot sightings have the creatures between 7-8 feet tall and rough estimates on weight is somewhere between 500-800 pounds. This description is uniform across North America (the Florida Skunk Ape has a different height and weight, more like a mutated Orangutan).  However, there is a super-tall sub-species of the North American Sasquatch that inhabits the forest and bush country of Manitoba, the Black Spectacled Giant Brown Manitoba Sasquatch, a True Monster!

 

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The regular Sasquatch species to the left 7-9′ tall, his name is Gimlin, he’s photo-opping with his agent.  And a Black-spectacled Manitoba Squatch to the right, 12-14 ‘ tall. This Squatch, nicknamed Red River, is testing moonshine at a racist convention in Dodge City, Texas.

The Manitoba Sasquatch is NBA material. They are purported to be as tall as 1.5 Kareem Abdul Jabaars.  They are super-tall. Why?! Not sure. It could have something to do with the boreal forest they inhabit. Small trees allow for taller animals to look above and see the endless horizon.

It will take a good dose of tranquilizer to knock one of these down, then haul it to a secret lab and determine if it’s a relic of an ancient ape or a lost -missing link -, homo sapiens sub-species that decided to stay wild and live in the bush.

 

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The Wookiees are related to the Sasquatch, it has been surmised by Professor Antonio Andulazia of the University of Prague.

The Hmppphf family taking a family photo in Austin, Texas.

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Massive Wild Animals Wander Russian Streets in Surreal Composites by Vadim Solovyov

Aside Markozen.com Art

Seeing a raccoon washing its paws in the rivers of Saint Petersburg or an octopus tumbling out of a city bus would be a startling sight for most city dwellers. Artist Vadim Solovyov, though, takes those surreal scenes a step farther as he imagines massive rooks, penguins, and chameleons invading the Russian city. While many of the composites feature the animals in nature, some position them in spaces typically occupied by a human, like a sloth behind the candy-covered counter of a convenience store.

Solovyov says that he began the uncanny series as a way to explore strange events in his real life. For example, he said the giant raccoon and its presumptive counterparts “quietly make their way through the deserted evening city to the embankments and shyly rinse something in the water there. Thoroughly. Not less than 20 seconds,” which is a reference to current handwashing suggestions to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

 

Movies with Ghost in the Title

Aside Markozen.com Movies

People are both scared and intrigued by ghosts.  Suffice it to say ghosts are very popular with the general public.  They are frightening, yet they allow belief in the afterlife. The idea of ghosts has been around since time immemorial. 

The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.

With the advent of film the ghost story had a new platform that made the popular genre more accessible. There are many ghost movies. Below are a few, many others are out there.

 

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The Traffic Girls of Pyongyang

Aside Markozen.com Transportation

The capital city of North Korea, Pyongyang (pop. 3,255,388) is one of the most mysterious cities in the world.  This is due to the fact that the Communist rulers of North Korea control the country and city with an iron-fisted resolve.  No foreign tourists or journalists, and very few diplomats from other countries.  Only 6-8 countries have missions staffed with diplomats in Pyongyang.

But one truth has been established about the day-to-day activities on the streets of Pyongyang.  The Traffic Girls of Pyongyang.

In these pictures the main characteristic is the lack of traffic.  Especially relative to western and other Asian societies.  There is virtually no traffic.  North Korea is an economic basket case.  So only government elites and upper bureaucrats get to drive cars.

Therefore the Traffic Girls must not get to overly stressed out.

The giant monstrosity in the background of this picture is the Ryugyong Hotel.  A 105 floor skyscraper that began construction in 1987.  Construction was halted for many years but resumed in 2009.  It then stopped again in 2014.

 

 

 

Introduced in 2009, some intersections are equipped with traffic control podiums.
Podium features:
– umbrella for shade and rain
– heated pad in base for keeping feet warm
– light for illumination of traffic controller
– reflective paint for visibility

Some basic information on the Traffic Girls.

There are slightly more than 50 posts in Pyongyang.

Each post is assigned six traffic controllers, with the post staffed from 7:00AM to 10:00 PM.

The post’s six traffic police are split into 2 groups which rotate duty.

Each group shift is 2-3 hours. A traffic controller is on duty for 30 minutes at a time, relieved every 30 minutes.

They work 6 days a week, with Sundays off. They also may have to work holidays.

Intersection control
The basic rules are:
If traffic officer is facing you or has back to you, stop do not proceed – cross traffic has right-of-way.
When traffic officer raises baton, a right-of-way change is imminent.
Baton held out indicates a turn through intersection is permitted.

Requirements to be a Pyongyang Traffic Girl:
– unmarried
– attractive
– healthy
– between the ages of 16 – 26
– at least 1.65 meters (5’4″) tall
– high school graduate

The intersections staffed by the traffic police are called ‘posts’.
Inspired by Ed L.

Speeding Car Goes Airborne After Slamming into Roundabout in Poland

Aside Markozen.com Bizarre

A jaw-dropping video from Poland shows a motorist speeding towards a roundabout and failing to turn in time, sending his car flying through the air. The incredible scene, which was captured on film by a traffic camera, reportedly occurred in the village of Rabien this past Sunday. The community’s volunteer fire department subsequently shared the footage on social media as a warning to drivers.

According to their post, the car was so badly damaged that rescue workers had to cut the vehicle open in order to remove the driver, who suffered several serious injuries from the accident. He’s currently recuperating at a local hospital and may wind up facing charges for the mishap as officers on the scene took blood samples from the motorist after detecting the smell of alcohol at the scene.