Phil Donohue is a Los Angeles-based photographer whose work is on the once-popular aspects of American culture that are discarded or forgotten in the passage of time. From Midcentury malls left desolate, restaurants and businesses adorned in fading pastels from the ’80s and ’90 , nostalgia is felt and shown. In an interview with Buzzfeed, Phil Donohue shared a selection of his photographs from his book I Dreamed It Was Better Than It Was, along with the concept behind it: 

What are the concepts behind I Dreamed It Was Better Than It Was, and what are you searching for in a photograph?

Phil Donohue: In a lot of ways, these are portraits of forgotten spaces and the sometimes lone people who inhabit them. I look for something that I fear won’t survive our current view of progress — and a lot of what I’m drawn to does seem to disappear shortly after I make an image, so I’ve learned to trust my instincts there.

I’ve always had a camera on me, whether I was filming or shooting, but I only really started focusing on this type of work around 2006, and even then, it was only a personal exploration, nothing I ever considered sharing in any kind of meaningful way. It was around 2011 when I started to contextualize and share the work.

image credit: Phil Donohue via Buzzfeed

Residents in Virginia woke up to a surprise gift at their front door - an old TV. The gift only gave birth to more questions and intrigue, as no one knew how the old TV ended up in their front door, nor who was responsible for it.  

Adrian Garner, however, managed to catch the culprit on a home security camera. He told Sky News about who he saw from the recording: 

"It was a guy dressed in a jumpsuit with a TV for a head. It's the weirdest thing. He squats down, puts the TV there and walks off. It's really weird.”

So far, 60 TVs were retrieved and collected by the police. The TV man and his reasons for the old TV gifting remained a mystery. 

image credit: Sky News

Robb Manes called it “The Great Mattress Migration of 2019”. What resembled migration of a flock of animals was actually a group of air mattresses laid out in Denver for an outdoor movie night that got carried by the strong wind. 

The Great Mattress Migration was an instant hit on the Internet when Manes uploaded his recording of the whole event. Don’t do outdoor events on nights where strong winds are prevalent! 

image credit: screenshot via Twitter

Indiana State Police Sergeant Stephen Wheeles ticketed a driver on Interstate 65 after the driver’s backseat passenger tossed a soiled diaper out of the window. In some instances, this case of highway loitering might go unnoticed but the diaper bounced a couple of times on the Sergeant’s window: 

"I was heading home after working the Indiana State Fair, tired, and wasn't really expecting it," Wheeles told the Indianapolis Star. "It hit my car and bounced a couple of times. ... It's not something I could really let fly."

Next time you’d want to throw something away when on the road, just wait for a place you can throw it away properly. 

image credit: via Twitter

The lizard probably thought that it has its next lunch as he planned to lunge at a nearby praying mantis. However, the mantis decided to pull a cunning counterstrike  hold the lizard’s jaws apart. 

One would think that a praying mantis couldn’t have the strength to pull open a lizard’s jaw - but they have the quickest of reflexes and spiked legs to pin their opponents or prey down. So it’s no surprise that the mantis was able to fight against the unsuspecting lizard. If you like, you can see how the whole interaction unfolds (but if fighting animals isn’t a thing for you, don’t). 

NEVER. Underestimate your opponent pic.twitter.com/gdOl1d6kaO

— miye tani (@Miye_tani) August 12, 2019

Who doesn’t love to throw pillows at friends or roommates during sleepovers or school trips? Japan takes the long-lasting tradition of pillow fights into a more competitive and serious form - the All Japan Pillow Fighting Championship.

The game is a mix between dodgeball and chess, as Reuters details: 

The game starts with all five players ‘sleeping’ under duvets on futons before the whistle goes and they leap to their feet and reach for a pillow.

The aim is to protect each team’s ‘King’ from being hit by pillows whilst trying to hit the opposition’s ‘King’ during two-minute sets. One player on each team can also use a duvet as a shield.

The championship attracts different people from different walks of life, regardless of age - single, married, athletes, and students alike. 

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Jimmy De Frenne, a 48-year old Belgian man sat on the toilet for 116 hours in a bid to break the record for the longest toilet break. He initially set himself for a challenge of 165 hours on a toilet set up in the middle of a bar - but gave up on a Friday morning. Reuters has more of the details on his attempt: 

De Frenne was allowed five minutes off every hour, which he could accumulate over several hours to allow him to sleep. Ironically, he needed toilet breaks as his bar toilet was not plumbed in.

Sitting that long was not as easy as it might have seemed.

“I was very tired and my legs hurt but I believe in my success and try to make this record official,” de Frenne said.

Reuters added that Guiness World Records has been made aware of his attempt. Here’s to the hope that his 116-hour toilet break becomes the longest toilet break in record! 

image credit: via Reuters

It’s all in the cadence, Scott Beinster (a public-safety specialist for ShotSpotter) tells the New York Times how people can determine the origin of  a loud “bang!” :

“When somebody pulls a trigger, they tend to pull it in a fairly steady rhythm until the end, when their finger gets tired,” Beisner says. A series of evenly spaced bang-bang-bang sounds is much more likely to be a gun than the more sporadic ba-bang, ba-ba-ba-ba-bang of firecrackers. 

Sometimes it is difficult to know whether what someone hears is from a gunshot, and usually the answer comes from the sound’s intensity. Beinster details that multiple shots from a gun will be equally loud, unlike a continuous stream of fireworks (the sounds from them can be unequal in intensity). So the next time you hear bang, bang, bang consecutively - try to ask yourself : is it the equal bang, bang, bang, of a gun or the ba-bang, ba-ba-bang of fireworks? 

image credit: via wikimedia commons

The scenario goes like this: a drunken passenger talks to a pigeon, and instead of reprimanding the drunken passenger for their antics, an inspector writes a memo against the bus conductor. The funny thing about this scenario? The memo was issued for letting the pigeon ride free on the bus. Another funny thing about this scenario? It’s real. 

Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation’s rule on this was (as quoted by Times of India) that conductors should collect one-fourth of the full fare when a passenger is carrying more than 30 pigeons. The rule doesn’t state on a passenger with one pigeon.

Putting the odd rule for bus fare aside, here’s hope that the conductor wouldn’t get punished for not charging the drunk passenger for his feathered companion. 

(via weirdasianews.com)

image credit: via Times of India

Mitten crabs strutted their very best form in Eastern China’s Hongze Lake Harvest Festival. The crab fashion show, where at least 150 participants joined is actually a 70-year old Huai’an tradition to celebrate the harvest of mitten crabs. 

Some strutted on the runway decked with bling, some in traditional chinese wedding garments, some are dressed to match to their owners, and some are hand-painted. A new addition and development to this 70-year old tradition was that a drone now flew the models / contestants to the runway. 

(via weirdasianews.com)

image credit: Barcroft Images via weirdasianews.com

Sifting through you pet cat’s litter box can be quite a task, so wouldn't it be nice if they can have toilets of their own? However, it would kinda be awkward if  you and your cat share the same toilet - so maybe the wish can be altered to a kitty litter box that sifts on its own? If so, then this automated “cat toilet” may pique your interest! 

Cat Robo is a high-tech cat toilet that automatically does the litter sorting for you! The device will rotate once your cat leaves, putting all the contents of the litter (and your cat’s finished business) into an opening that can catch the hardened dirty kitter litter and then placed into the bottom of the unit. The clean litter will return back to its place, where it awaits your cat’s next call of nature. 

This device is available for 58,000 yen (US$532) from Nissen - an investment for you and your cat’s convenience! 

image credit: via SoraNews24

Romesh Ranganathan’s kids are really into Fortnite. The children’s lives seemed to be centered around the hit game - they won’t stop talking about it and about other players who are particularly skilled in playing the game.

So, like any good father who wants to relate to his kids, Ranganathan decided that he’d give Fortnite a try.

I went into my eldest son’s room when he was in the middle of a game and asked him to talk me through it. He proceeded to give me an in-depth tutorial that consisted of him running around, building weird structures and shooting people, while asking me if I was getting it. I really wasn’t. And what’s frustrating is I’m a gamer, albeit a casual one. I’ll play anything Mario- or Zelda-related, but Fortnite is one step beyond me. I don’t get anything from it but motion sickness and an increased sense of anxiety about how violent future generations are going to be.

Now, Ranganathan is having a crisis about the game - he experienced motion sickness, is unable to figure out the controls, and is likely on the verge of giving up trying to relate to his kids.

There are other ways to try to relate and connect with your kids, but Ranganathan might just have to endure hearing his kids sing praises about Fortnite players and the game itself - for a while. 

There’s nothing bad about loving to play a game, though! Maybe he can convince them to play a Zelda game as well!

image credit: via wikimedia commons

Her name is Martina Pastorino. Together with her Jack Russel Terrier named Kira, they traveled over 400 miles on foot from Alessandria to Rome - a project named “To Be A Woman Is Strong”. 

Pastorino and Kira took on a route once trod on by medieval pilgrims, as noted by the Huffington Post: 

“to raise awareness of the issue of violence against women.” To bear witness that “a woman can and must feel confident that she can face a solo journey,” that “each of us can and must find her way even alone,” that “to be a woman is to be strong.”

For her initial motivation to do this project, Pastorino told the Huffington Post she wanted to showcase that women who report mistreatment and abuse aren’t weak but courageous and strong: 

“In our country, we tend to consider female victims of violence who decide to report mistreatment and abuse as less strong,” she says. “But instead, these are courageous women. Do you have any idea how much strength we need to make such a choice, especially if, as in most cases, the aggressor is a family member?”

“I want to say to women who report these cases: Walk with your head held high,” she emphasizes again. “And continue on your way.”

image credit: Luciana Matarese via The Huffington Post

What could be a pawsitively better way to spend your time on the Internet procrastinating than spending it on dog videos? Watch as this dog takes on different kinds of food, rating it with his reactions.  The video also has the right captions (as if it was really the dog saying the captions). 

Not only did you get to spend your time watching an adorable dog munch on food - you might take on some of its food ratings to know what’s good or not for your own pet (or for yourself)! 

In a new series, photographer Todd Antony documented Bolivia’s Cholita Luchadoras Wrestlers. The women are photographed competing with each other not in the usual form-fitting spandex worn by athletes, but in their voluminous petticoats, colorful skirts, and long-sleeved tops instead. 

The clothes the wrestlers wear, including their identifier (“cholita”) are aptly chosen to show pride in their history and to take pride in their indigeneity. 

(via Collosal)

image credit : Todd Antony via Collosal