“THAT’S METAL!” — BUT IT’S NOT MUSIC (NO. 81)

Welcome to another edition of THAT’S METAL!, in which we assemble photos, videos, and/or news items about things we think are metal, even though they don’t involve metal music. Today, we bring you a smorgasbord of eight items.

ITEM ONE

The first item is metal on many levels. It came my way thanks to a tip from GemmaD (whose wonderful blog is here). It concerns an artist from Mexico City named Pedro Reyes. Among many displays of creative exuberance, Reyes has been creating collections of musical instruments made from the remnants of weapons that the Mexican army seized from drug cartels and destroyed. The most recent collection is entitled Disarm and was made in collaboration with a team of musicians and Cocolab, a media studio in Mexico City.

The concept of creating instruments from weapons is itself brilliant, but get this: These mechanical instruments made from pistols, rifles, and shotguns can actually be programmed and operated via computers, making them capable of performing concerts. You can see photos of Disarm over at Lisson Gallery in London where it debuted earlier this year; I’ve included a few of them here. Many of the Disarm instruments will also be on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh starting October 5, 2013. After the jump, I’m also including a video interview of Reyes that allows you to see some of the instruments in action.

Check out Pedro Reyes’ web site here.

 

(via Colossal)

 

ITEM TWO

Speaking of metal works of art, let’s visit the 65th Frankfurt Auto Show, which is now in progress (running from September 10, 2013 to September 22, 2013). The photos I’ve seen show some stunning cars, most of them unfortunately far beyond the usual price points of your average consumer.

Many of the photos are also unintentionally amusing. For example, what the hell is that dude up there examining, in the presence of the magnificence that is the Rolls Royce Phantom Celestial? Must be the built-in door beer coozy.

More:

And what the hell is this guy checking out? I guess maybe brand new Bentley GTV8S Convertibles leak oil just like my 12-year-old Japanese ride.

 

Are you beginning to notice a trend? Surrounded by all this automotive magnificence, all these people seem to be looking at everything but the cars. Except for that dude who’s scratching his head on that 911’s rear spoiler. If it were me, I’d be slack-jawed and slobbering in awe all over these beauties.

 

Okay, maybe someone actually did slobber on this Ferrari 458 Speciale.

 

Get a load of those wheels! Hey, have you ever noticed that high-end car makers always feel it necessary at shows like this one to surround their hot models with hot models? You know, so that visitors will have something to stare at other than the cars?

I could understand if this were the 65th Frankfurt Toilet Show, but I’m not sure about the theory behind sexing up things that are fully sexed-up all by themselves.

 

As I was saying.  She’s smiling because she’s not wearing her seatbelt and the cops haven’t pulled her over yet.

 

More people barely noticing an Audi A3 e-tron, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who looks like she’s thinking, “What the fuck am I doing here?”

I dunno, maybe people would have paid attention if this next item had been included in the Frankfurt show:

 

ITEM THREE

What you see above is the Kabutom RX-03. It’s a 17-ton, diesel-powered robotic bug that Japanese engineer named Hitoshi Takahashi spent 11 years creating. He told Fuji TV, “I said to my wife I was thinking about making a kabutomushi robot that you can ride. She said, ‘Oh, that sound interesting, so make it. You could probably ride it to take out the trash.'”

Oh, the loneliness of underappreciated genius!  More details and photos can be found here. (credit to DGR for the tip on this one)

 

ITEM FOUR

On a somewhat related note, what you’re looking at (via tywkiwdbi) is an “excruciatingly detailed Mercedes V12 engine built from 53 materials that were hand-forged from 35 master craftsmen from various regions in Morocco.”

It’s a piece of art called V12 Laraki created by Eric van Hove. He first dismantled a Mercedes engine. He then specified faithful reproductions of all 465 parts and 660 bolts, contracting with the Moroccan craftsmen to make them from a huge array of natural resources:

white cedar wood, high Atlas red cedar wood, walnut wood, lemon wood, orange wood, ebony wood of Macassar, mahogany wood, thuya wood, Moroccan beech wood, pink apricot wood, mother of pearl, yellow copper, nickel plated copper, red copper, forged iron, recycled aluminum, nickel silver, silver, tin, cow bone, goat bone, malachite of Midelt, agate, green onyx, tigers eye, Taroudant stone, sand stone, red marble of Agadir, black marble of Ouarzazate, white marble of Béni Mellal, pink granite of Tafraoute, goatskin, cowskin, lambskin, resin, cow horn, rams horn, ammonite fossils of the Paleozoic from Erfoud, Ourika clay, geometric terra cotta with vitreous enamel (zellige), green enamel of Tamgrout, paint, cotton, argan oil, cork, henna, rumex

Yeah, holy shit.

Okay, enough with the “mechanical” creations. Let’s turn to artwork created with bread.

 

ITEM FIVE

Kittiwat Unarrom is a Thai baker who makes corpse art out of bread and sells the edible pieces at his Body Bakery in Ratchaburi, Thailand. Wouldn’t these make lovely gifts? Can’t you just imagine cutting off slices to serve at your next family get-together, with butter and raspberry jam? Yum.

Here are more pics, with a video at the end.

(via CVLT Nation — where you can see many more delicious pics.)

 

ITEM SIX

Shades of Cthulhu! Here’s a video of a giant octopus killing a shark. I don’t really have anything more to say about this, other than to recommend you watch it with the sound off. As one of the YouTube commenters said, “Any chance of putting the narrator in the tank?”

(thanks to Alexis for the link)

 

Speaking of sharks . . .

 

ITEM SEVEN

“Researchers at the University of Delaware set out recently in the hope of recapturing tagged sand tiger sharks. They enticed a large female but it was the bizarre manner by which they captured the predator that left them shaking their heads in disbelief.

“After casting a small fish called a menhaden, a small shark called a dogfish was quick to snatch the bait, only to be swallowed by the much larger sand tiger shark. ‘The dogfish was about 3 feet long and completely swallowed by the sand tiger shark,’ states a post on the university’s ORB Lab Facebook page.”

Ah yes, the Hobbesian state of nature, the war of all against all, the shark turducken.

(via GrindTV)

Now for some science news:

 

ITEM EIGHT

This might be a good way to pick up some extra change in a bar bet. Here’s the question: Can you name the largest volcano on Earth, including both active and extinct volcanos?

Until a week ago, the answer would have been Hawaii’s Mauna Loa. But as a result of a study published by geophysicist William Sager of the University of Houston (and reported here), the new answer is: The TAMU Masif.

That’s the name given to an extinct volcano located on the floor of the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 miles east of Japan. According to Sager:

“We knew it was big, but we had no idea it was one large volcano. Our final calculations have determined it is about 120,000 square miles in area, or about the size of the state of New Mexico, making it by far the largest ever discovered on Earth. It rivals in size some of the largest volcanoes in the solar system, such as Olympus Mons on Mars.”

It’s not nearly as tall as Olympus Mons, which is 16 miles high at its peak; TAMU Masif rises only a few miles above the seabed floor, though it has a gigantic footprint. Still, it’s considerably taller than even Mt Everest, as can be seen in this graphic.

Big fuckin’ volcanoes are metal.

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And that, my metal brethren and sistren, concludes this edition of THAT’S METAL!  As always, enjoy the rest of your fucking day.