Marshmallow peeps are one of those weird cultural icons that intersect in the arena of nostalgic food and kitsch. As such, I’ve always been a huge fan. Over the span of my life I’ve rabidly choked down dozens of their sugar and carnauba wax covered bodies. Maybe hundreds is more accurate. Regardless, my love for these little guys betrays my inner man child time and again. For those of you who love them with a similar fervor, here are a few peep related blips. God I love junk food subculture.
It cracks me up that so many junk foods have such obsessive followings. Not that I haven’t found myself wrapped up in them (I spent months on an epic search to buy my own icee machine), but I’m always amused when I find people speaking of junk food in the same vernacular and with the same detail as wine snobs and foodies.
“How do you store Peeps so they will keep through the off-season?
I’ve found that sealing unopened boxes of Peeps in ziplock bags and storing them at room temperature will keep them fresh, without getting too ripe, from one Peep season to the next. Some prefer to refrigerate or even freeze them.”
“What’s this about Peeps needing to ‘age’ or ‘ripen’ ?
Many Peepophiles prefer a certain degree of staleness to their Peeps, ranging from a slight stiffness, to downright hard and crunchy. This is somewhat of an acquired taste. This is normally accomplished either by letting them age naturally, or else leaving them exposed to air.”
A couple months ago I went into Lansing and noticed how much bleaker everything was. Now, don’t get me wrong Michiganders are a hearty breed and can find beauty and happiness in nearly anything (and I mean anything), but with cold weather and Christmas looming, things seemed a bit heavier than usual. So, a friend and I rounded up two armfuls of bubbles and headed downtown, intent on sharing them. With the exception of two senior citizens who reacted to us as if we had been offering them crack cocaine, everyone we met seemed elated for the distraction. A week or so later I headed downtown Cleveland with more bubbles in hand. Reactions in Ohio were similarly glowing.
The video above is a combo of these two trips plus a little bit of post production.
Song featured is “Choir from ‘The Sun’” by Mirah and the Microphones.
Sound Advice: Though there’s a preachy Nancy Reagan-ish tone to the whole thing (at its base it is an anti-drug initiative), the Sound Advice Project operates on a fun premise. Speak into your mic and the captured audio will be transformed into corresponding bead waveforms that you can purchase. It’s an interesting and beautiful transformation for nostalgic audio bits, inside jokes, etc. I’m going to make an educated guess and say that most of these will have little or nothing to do with the cautionary tale message that’s being pushed.
On Race and Rape: “In the clip, Kimmel asks Wayne about losing his virginity at age 11. Wayne reveals that he did, indeed, lose his virginity at 11. He lost it to a 14-year-old girl who turned out the lights and surprised Wayne into participating, even as he had not intended doing so. What is fascinating is, were Wayne a white female, this narrative would have been considered molestation or rape. As a black male, doubly hypersexualized as a man (who always wants sex) and a black man (who really always wants sex), it’s just considered a joke. This is really nice evidence of the social construction of men, especially Black and Latino men, as hypersexual and, therefore, incapable of being sexually assaulted… Just one excerpt:
White guy: I didn’t know you could lose your viriginity at 11-years-old. Other white guy: Well, we can’t, but he did.”
1. Women’s Self Defense Classes: Sexual harassment is crazy rampant in Cairo and the Middle East (while I was there a man began masturbating in public while my friend passed by). Often it’s chalked up to be a “woman’s problem,” so it’s nice to see some sort of positive headway.
2. Thoughts on the Decline of Cairo: In many ways Cairo, seems to be the Middle Eastern equivalent of Detroit (or Cleveland, etc.). Both cities have such a faded mystique and luster to them, but that luster, though decaying and blighted, ardently refuses to die. Neither place is classically beautiful, but in that hell and back sort of way each has more character (and is subsequently more inspiring) than almost anywhere else I’ve ever been.
3. On Blogging and Gender in the Middle East: “Banat wa Bas or “Girls only” is the first online Arabic radio station entirely run by women and which addresses their issues. It is one of a growing list of online stations that have sprung up in Egypt including Horytna (Our Freedom) and Teet (an Arabic reference to the censor’s “beep”). Banat wa Bas was started by a 25-year-old computer science graduate, Amani Tunsi, who was frustrated with how women are treated in Egyptian society. “We are almost not living. If you are always at risk of being sexually harassed everywhere, What kind of life is this? ” she asks. Banat wa Bas is not afraid to let its contributors express opinions about what is in the news, and they can get away with it because using the internet means they can steer clear of government censorship.”
Artists Buying Up Detroit’s Inexpensive Bungalows: I was suprised to read this, as I had been thinking of something similar for a while now — though not as a place to live, but as space for large scale urban installations. It seems like others might be considering the same thing.
“But the city offers a much greater attraction for artists than $100 houses. Detroit right now is just this vast, enormous canvas where anything imaginable can be accomplished. From Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project (think of a neighborhood covered in shoes and stuffed animals and you’re close) to Matthew Barney’s “Ancient Evenings” project (think Egyptian gods reincarnated as Ford Mustangs and you’re kind of close), local and international artists are already leveraging Detroit’s complex textures and landscapes to their own surreal ends. In a way, a strange, new American dream can be found here, amid the crumbling, semi-majestic ruins of a half-century’s industrial decline. The good news is that, almost magically, dreamers are already showing up. Mitch and Gina have already been approached by some Germans who want to build a giant two-story-tall beehive. Mitch thinks he knows just the spot for it.”
Dazzle Camo: A lot of military technology can be chotchy and bro-ish, but some of it is really very incredible. One example is dazzle camouflage. I’m a sucker for biomimicry to begin with, so it’s always exciting to run across anything pertaining to the surreal facade found on turn of the century British and American vessels. One of the most best sites is RISD’s special online collection, which includes 455 ship plans and 20 photos.
The publishing of this marks Spicybiscotti’s 201st post. BOOM! BOOM! PEW! PEW! The virtual parades and fireworks have apparently already begun commencing. But, seriously, for anyone who has been reading along, thanks for sticking around, and for those who are just joining, I reckon Spicy’ll be around for a while to come. It’s been an interesting two or so years. Who knows where things will go from here…
Recently the vestiges of Team Spicy gathered forces at the Muskegon Winter Sports Complex in Muskegon, Michigan to fulfill a longtime dream: to go luging. All three of us sat down and wiggled our way down America’s only non-refrigerated track (and one of only three US tracks) in what turned out to be an absolute, albeit initially anxiety ridden, blast (think: creaky rollercoaster that you can barely control and looks like it will kill you but is actually not too terribly unsafe, or in short, a really fast sled — whatever suits you best). Agent Drew whipped up his first video ever (above) in celebration of this historic event. All in all it was definitely one of the most fun filled days I’ve ever had.
“The common attitude about metro Detroit is that this is a morbid, decaying Rust Belt city. That’s the impression one would take from the opposition in Washington and across the country to the idea of government loans for Detroit automakers. But Soji Adelaja, director of Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute, sees the Detroit glass as half full.
“Detroit has extensive assets,” Adelaja says. “It has a long history of deep culture and a historic music heritage. It has one of the largest expanses of vacant land of any city. If we are interested in green urban infrastructure, Detroit has greater potential than many other places. There’s potential for more local food systems related to urban agriculture. We should lead the country. It has the lowest property values so it is an affordable city. There are Great Lakes access points; the waterfront is beautiful. Detroit has the potential to be globally relevant. It has great potential to catch the imagination and interest of global investors and private equity players. There are major health care facilities, universities and a major international airport within a short distance. There is a history of innovation in the region. Just because we’re not manufacturing cars doesn’t mean we can’t manufacture wind turbine components. That will be big. We’re part of a regional economy. The metro area has the strongest concentration of knowledge workers in the state. The ability to attract knowledge workers could be a center point of regional development.” [image via Anthropophagous]
Really? People are just realizing that you might get blisters from gaming? I can’t even begin to name the number of other repetitive activities that cause sores (crew, marathon running, guitar, etc.). I’m calling shenanigans. [image via The Age]
The way I see it there are already tons of kids burdened with totally inadequate parenting — add this to the list of things that can be manually screwed up and toyed with. As an addendum, if doctors start pumping out celebrity baby lookalikes we’re all doomed (this world is terrifying enough with one baby Suri, it doesn’t need any more).
I spend a lot of time with ideas on the burner and things in the pipeline. This is one that I wish I could take credit for. This is Why You’re Fat is incredible — I’m so jealous. All in all, the site is pretty self explanatory, but in its simplicity it offers a disgusting gustatory tour of debilitatingly appetizing food. I feel obese just looking at it. Yum.
[The picture above is tagged on their site as "Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburgers," though I'm told that it is colloquially known as the "Luther Burger"]
What an awesome collective. I’m on the job hunt right now and Civil Twilight is exactly the kind of thing I would love to be involved with. This is an example of smart, conscious design at it’s best.
