Tag Archives: death

The World’s Weirdest Museums You Must Visit

March 28, 2023 The Silo Leave a comment

More often than not, all our museum experiences are quite similar. We see some art or historical artifacts, learn about a subject, and sometimes listen to a lesson during a tour.

And while every museum is invaluable, sometimes the heart wants something quirkier and unusual.  Evidently, many people had the same sentiment because if you really look, you’ll find some incredible gems in the world of museums.

Here are the world’s weirdest museums you must visit.

Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka, Japan

Ramen is synonymous with Japan, so no wonder there is a museum dedicated to it! Momofuko Ando, the Taiwanese-Japanese inventor, invented Chicken ramen noodles in his backyard shed in 1958. 

The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum shows this Japan’s cult food that went global by displaying ramen noodle packages from around the world and giving the opportunity to taste limited-edition ramen from Hokkaido island and Tohoku region.  Visitors can also design their personal soup packet at the “My Cupnoodles” Factory. 

Spy Museum, Washington DC, USA 

Love spy movies or novels? Then this museum is for you! International Spy Museum in Washington DC has the largest public collection of espionage artifacts that includes various gadgets, cameras, secret weapons, cipher machines, and counterfeit money.

It’s a rare chance to take a look at this secret profession and see how it’s developed over the years.

Museum visitors can participate in interactive spy adventures, watch never-seen-before videos of spies and revel in the impressive photo collection. And who wouldn’t wish for a super-gadget that would help make life easier, to help you in high-stakes situations like basketball betting on BetAmerica.com? 

Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, New Delhi, India

Roughguides.com names the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, New Delhi, India, which shows the history of hygiene and sanitation from 2500 B.C. to today, as one of the weirdest museums a person can visit.

The visitors can see the toilet evolution over the ages – from Roman emperors’ gold-plated toilets to medieval toilets of peasants.  A fun fact – you can find a collection of rare toilet poems in the museum as well. 

British Lawnmower Museum, Merseyside, England

Can there be something more British than a Lawnmower museum?  If you’re a garden enthusiast or simply like quirky things, you must visit the museum, which details this garden tool’s history.

Lawnmowers - Picture of British Lawnmower Museum, Southport - Tripadvisor

You’ll find such items as the lawnmowers of Prince Charles and Princess Diana or the world’s first solar-powered robot grass-chopper in the collection.  Probably the cutest lawnmower at the museum is less than five centimeters high and is fully functional! 

Siriraj Medical Museum (Museum of Death), Bangkok, Thailand

If it sounds scary, that’s because it is. Even though officially named a Medical museum, most people call it simply the museum of death. If you’re squeamish or find the subject distressing, it’s probably best to skip this one. 

You’ll find severed and mutilated legs and arms, brains, skulls pierced with bullets, lungs that have been stabbed, and other similar things in the collection.  They all illustrate the dark and gruesome ways to transition to death and leave no one indifferent. 

If that’s not enough, you can also see the mummified body of a notorious cannibal Si Quey and the museum’s founder’s skeleton. 

The Museum of Broken Relationships, Zagreb, Croatia

It is just as sad and beautiful as it sounds. It started as a joke by two Croatian artists who broke up after a long relationship and said they wanted to create a museum to honor it. Well, they did, and it blew up all over the world.

You can see various mementos from people’s relationships in different countries that include an ax used to destroy a cheating partner’s furniture, jewelry, postcards, and more. 

Paris Sewer Museum, France

Nobody likes to talk about it, but sewer systems are the basis for a civilized society! However, it’s not the first or even the fifth thing people want to see when visiting the city of love. 

Still, it’s so fascinating and complex.  Lifehack.org explains that it’s an entire network of tunnels as large as the city itself, and also a museum that tourists can visit and explored, complete with tour guides.  Don’t worry, it doesn’t smell that bad, and you’ll see a part of Paris you never thought you would. For the Silo, Milda Urbonaite.

Reviews

What We Learn From The Death Of A Spouse And How To Find Love Again

September 23, 2019 The Silo 2 Comments

He had no idea his life would change so significantly……For 31 years, Dennis and Hope Freed had a fulfilling marriage. They raised a family, built a home, and shared their dreams with one another and their two sons.

Then Hope got cancer, and their lives changed drastically overnight. She fought a long brave battle, and went through over 250 chemotherapy treatments, but on April 7, 2012, on an evening that heralded Passover in the United States and Easter in Israel, she died.

Dennis Freed’s beloved wife and best-trusted friend had gone, leaving him alone to figure out a future he’d never imagined. For the first year, he sorted through what society expected of a long-term caregiver and widower. Eventually, Dennis emerged from mourning, his heart ready for life’s next chapter. Is there love after marriage?

In Love, Loss and Awakening, Dennis Freed tells the story of how he began to go out with women again. He shares the reality of dating at age 50-plus—how he endured the awkward and hilarious encounters and embarrassments a man experiences when he hasn’t been on a date with a new woman for decades. Dennis’s book chronicles how one finds love after the death of a spouse. He describes his courageous and uplifting journey through sorrow, his search for new love, and his rediscovery of love and happiness.

Drawing upon the wisdom and personal experiences he acquired dating middle-aged women in all the wrong places, Freed takes the mystery out of the many lessons he learned. Dennis found out that as a widow or widower you can find love again, but it’s a difficult road. Love isn’t unique to the person you loved first. That love never fades, but your heart has room for more. You can get love back in your life. Your new love becomes a special love in its own right.

Here are just a few of the valuable insights:

Hole Heart/ Whole Heart

When you lose your best, most trusted friend, the hardships just begin. You are now alone. Your whole heart collapses to half its size. It transforms into a Hole Heart. The process of resurrecting it to wholeness is like Lego construction, built one little brick at a time. At first, bricks of varying shapes and sizes are sorted through and meticulously placed. Slowly they assume the weight and shape of your newly imagined Whole Heart.

Learn How to Be Physical, Affectionate, and Intimate

You spent thirty-plus years kissing no one but your spouse. If you spend your time worrying about the “what if” instead of enjoying the right now, it will rob you of your joy today. Sometimes you just have to learn something new, like all the kissing pleasures one never experienced. It’s not such a bad idea. Understand that it takes time and practice, and that each person you meet is unique. You’ll make hurtful intimacy mistakes just like a teenager. You’ll make stupid and inconsiderate mistakes. It’s a fact. Practice and learn so that when the right person comes along, you’ll be ready.

A Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall

You are going to date a lot of people. It is okay to be sad, mad, depressed, empty, lost after a date that isn’t perfect. Embrace the journey! Feel! Live it! Then get on to the next one so your failures don’t consume you. Have fun searching. Let your dating escapades become the target of jokes for your friends. Entertain them with style!

Love, Loss and Awakening

Dennis P. Freed

List $ 12.95US

88 pages, trade softcover, also available in ebook version

ISBN 978-0-9971916-1-5

Tolawaken Press

The death of a loved one is devastating, and can leave us questioning our new path. Will I ever want to find love again, and if so, how do I find it? What’s appropriate behavior for a widowed fifty-four-year-old? Should I explore dating sites? Meet women in bars? Rely on introductions from friends? The questions far outnumber the answers. In Love, Loss and Awakening, Dennis Freed shares his experiences and his journey to new love and the rediscovery of happiness.

For more information, visit www.LoveLossandAwakening.com

About the Author

Dennis P. Freed is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and, from age three, grew up in Oceanside, Long Island, where he later raised his family. He earned a BS in Civil Engineering at the University of Rhode Island. After a stint as a structural engineer, he entered the Construction Management and Development profession in New York City, where he has led teams to construct and develop more than sixty-five buildings. Also an associate professor at Pratt University in New York, he teaches Construction Management to architecture students.

What People Are Saying

“Love, Loss, and Awakening is an engaging story of how one man bounces back after losing the love of his life. It is an ode to the power of being in relationship, especially when faced with incredibly difficult and heartbreaking loss. And it is with much humor that Dennis Freed takes the reader on a journey to find what we are all looking for to be joyous and fulfilled in relationship.”

—Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph.D., Creators of Imago Therapy and authors of Getting the Love You Want

“This is a story of digging deep after loss, finding that being with another is worth the risk, and staying open to lessons both human and Divine. At times an excruciating memoir of living with cancer, at others, a combination of ‘How To’ and, more useful, ‘How NOT To’ of middle-aged dating. Those who have loved deeply will be reminded of what they have or have lost; for others, it’s the promise of how good a relationship can be. The book has a happy ending, yet acknowledges that seeking love must always include a willingness to lose again.”

—Cynthia Wall, LCSW, author of The Courage to Trust: A Guide to Building Deep and Lasting Relationships

“Get ready to cry, laugh, cringe, and howl with wonder and delight as you go through Dennis Freed’s amazing experiences after the loss of his wife. He offers heartfelt real-life insights on how to cope with the despair and overcome the pain so you can face the world and find love and happiness anew.”

—Paul J. Krupin, author of Words People Love to Hear Simple Verbal Recipes for Making the People Around You Feel Good

Culture

Roadside Memorials Of Loss Are On The Rise

December 27, 2017 The Silo 15 Comments

erin_riley_markerofloss_photoWeb — One of Toronto based photographer Erin Riley’s series of photographs depicting roadside memorials in and around the GTA

Indeed, the prevalence of roadside memorials has increased significantly over the past several decades and there is little doubt that each of us has encountered them at some point. Roadside memorials are essentially visual manifestations of profound suffering and loss. They mark the site where a motor vehicle accident has occurred and the death that resulted from it (however , many memorials, especially in major cities, have little to do with motor vehicle accidents and more to do with cycling accidents, innocent bystanders or anything else that faithfully marks the site of passing).

In areas where large gravestones or plaques cannot be placed, for a variety of reasons, makeshift memorials take their place. These sites grow with each flower, ribbon or object and deplete with the wind, rain or snow; they are in a continuous state of flux. The organic quality of roadside memorials may directly reference the very epehemerality of life itself. Moreover, in their various forms and inclinations, they challenge Western society’s visual seperation of the living from the dead; therefore, as they subsist, roadside memorials carry the spectre of mortality into the public sphere, a space where even speaking of death remains taboo.

Post-mortem/momento mori photography during the Victorian age is a fascinating though dark and unsettling movement.

roadside_marker_frontroad_stwilliamsWeb — Roadside markers are a rural and urban feature- this marker is located on Front Road, near St. Williams, Ontario, Canada image: www.thesilo.ca

Encountering the idea of death may be one of the reasons why people take issue with the appearance of roadside memorials. For them, they represent a veritable “distraction” while driving, are considered “unsightly” or a “vandalism of public property”. For the families of the deceased, roadside memorials allow the opportunity to mourn their loved one(s) at the very place of their passing. The level of emotion generated by being near the actual site where a loved one has died is different from standing beside their final resting place in segregated communities of loss that are the modern cemetery.

Not only are roadside memorials, as markers of loss, important to the families and groups that maintained a relationship to the deceased, but they powerfully address the living by acting as memento mori (reminders of death). It is through them that one may better appreciate the present.

Toronto-based photographer Erin Riley’s series of photographs depicting roadside memorials in and around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) specifically engages the publicization of loss and its visual manifestation. Riley’s images are strikingly beautiful and skillfully composed, yet they raise ethical questions precisely because they aestheticize markers of death sites by transforming them into visual objects to behold. This theme was explored in Jarrod Barker’s April 2010’s Umwelt at the Norfolk Arts Center with a central piece depicting a virtual gallery memorial in conjunction with projected audio/video loop of a recently deceased Deer- struck down by a motorist, the piece becoming essentially a rural memento mori.

umwelt_barker_deerWeb — Happening upon a recently struck deer- Artist Jarrod Barker aestheticized the site by placing a white linen ‘shroud’ over the victim. This would later become a central piece in the installation of Umwelt April 2010 photo: J. Barker

Another question concerns the identification of deceased individuals and whether or not their names should be made public through the vehicle of art. That being said, Riley’s photographs do provide an eloquent record of roadside memorials within the GTA and speak to their social and cultural value. Ask yourself: where do you stand on this issue?

It would seem that, for the families of the deceased, roadside memorials serve the purpose of exactly that: the memorializatin of a life. [ “even” an animal life CP ] They also serve a function for the living, reminding us that life is fleeting and that the dangers of the road are real. Ultimately, rather than causing drivers to collide, roadside memorials may force drivers to more aware of the consequences of speed, negligence and drunk driving. May roadside memorials continue to stand where lives have fallen. For the Silo, Matthew Ryan Smith.

Supplemental– http://www.rideofsilence.org/memoriam.php

Art

ArtyA’s Timepiece Will Be Exhibited In Swiss Musée d’Ethnographie de Neuchâtel

June 24, 2015 The Silo 1 Comment

Skulls & Bones: Skulling the heights of perfection

The skull motif made popular in watchmaking by ArtyA has long been copied, resulting in a whole range of derivatives. Now, the fully independent brand has taken the helm once again. The Skulls & Bones is an extreme timepiece that pushes the creative concept to the limit.

Word has it that if you really can’t compare a Swiss watch to any other, it really is original. By that standard the Skulls & Bones is one original watch.

ArtyA’s latest creation doesn’t do things by halves, and it certainly isn’t a mass-market kind of timepiece. Critics might say that it’s rather extreme – and they wouldn’t be entirely wrong. But more objective minds will first and foremost note its wholly coherent style.

Back in the day, the Skull universe, popularized many years ago by Yvan Arpa, was decried in the world of watchmaking as being in frightfully bad taste. Since then, it’s become trendy and fashionable, as people started wearing this style of timepiece to try and stand out from the crowd – with varying degrees of success. But in most cases, the relevant styling doesn’t go much further than a dial illustration, some sort of ‘skull’ motif on the hands, and little else. Until now, that is.

Skull-tural!

With the Skulls & Bones, ArtyA has embarked once again on the style trajectory it was the first to pioneer (with many following in its wake), as ArtyA’s CEO and designer Yvan Arpa guides the concept to what must surely be its ultimate destination. The skull is much more than a simple drawing: sculpted and engraved, it’s been released from the two-dimensional representations to which it’s been confined elsewhere. As is its wont, ArtyA has suffused the Skulls & Bones symbols with new meaning, taking concepts through to their logical conclusion, and once again placing the artistic dimension at the heart of its work. The dial is fully hand-made.

Every one of the new 47 mm models is unique, featuring hand-crafted engravings and sculptures. Each includes the brand’s own movement, frequently used in its Son of a Gun collections. This results in a reliable, high-performance caliber, the heart of which is incorporated within a small central space. Its surface is covered by a rough, seemingly unfinished steel plate surface, featuring a twitchy drawing of a skull, rather like a hastily spray-painted tag.

This is surrounded by six hand-engraved skulls in polished steel outlined in black. The style is at once tribal and urban, modern and ancestral. ArtyA leaves the interpretation of this universal symbol to each individual’s imagination. By definition, each timepiece will be unique, with each person free to have their own take on the skull universe.

Gangs of skulls

The Skulls & Bones bezel sports another dazzling spectacle, exploring both “skulls” and “bones”. Here, ArtyA extends the core theme to encompass other graphic elements such as crosses, totems, barbed wire, guitars, and guns, expressing the whole gamut of the world of rock. Here too, ArtyA has not gone for simple cookie-cutter drawings, instead favouring genuine steel engravings. The shapes of the movement are seemingly drawn inexorably towards the bezel, each feature setting off the other.

Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum, Osaka, Japan

Spy Museum, Washington DC, USA

Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, New Delhi, India

British Lawnmower Museum, Merseyside, England

Siriraj Medical Museum (Museum of Death), Bangkok, Thailand

The Museum of Broken Relationships, Zagreb, Croatia

Paris Sewer Museum, France

Canada's 'biggest little blogspace'

Spy Museum, Washington DC, USA 