Valencia, Spain
La Despertà the beginning of Fallas 2009 -The last Sunday in February boasts one amazingly loud display making this one of the most dramatic festivals in the world. Firecrackers in the hands of thousands of people 7:30 am on a Sunday morning. The aftermath is a cloud of smoke and ringing ears.

“The last Sunday in February is a huge, busy day in the city. Not all Sundays are like this. And in Valencia, the last Sunday in February manages to achieve the polar opposite. It’s 7:30 in the morning, and you’re on the streets, in the middle of World War III.

The Despertà is Valencia’s annual wake-up call for Fallas — the region’s most important festival and one of the biggest in the world. At 7am, thousands of people belonging to organized groups (Fallas Commissions) gather at Parterre Park (location) to collect their ammunition bags for an assault on the city’s sleeping populace. And at 7:30am sharp, all hell breaks loose.”

“These freaks just start throwing firecrackers everywhere.
And I’m not talking cute
cherry bombs. This is the real shit. 15 seconds into the “parade”, a piece of shrapnel caught me just under the eye. An ugly, fat kid laughed at me before throwing a mini-grenade under my feet. A zombie-eyed homeless guy snuck up behind me, then offered me a firecracker. I think I screamed, I’m not sure, my ears were reverberating, reality seemed skewed.”source link

Birds can not only fly and eat, they can juuuump!!!

Me and my bear.: Photo by Photographer Ellen van Deelen - photo.net.

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Me and my bear.: Photo by Photographer Ellen van Deelen - photo.net.

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Fascinated by robots, virtual reality, genetic engineering, longevity, performance enhancement, the singularity, and mind-driven human evolution? Then you need to check out the free digital magazine H+.

h+ covers technological, scientific, and cultural trends that are changing — and will change — human beings in fundamental ways. We will be following developments in areas like NBIC (nano-bio-info-cog), longevity, performance enhancement and self-modification, Virtual Reality, “The Singularity,” and other areas that both promise and threaten to radically alter our lives and our view of the world and ourselves.

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Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz
Human Candles, 1996
Wax, wicks, metal
74 x 36 x 36 inches each

We cast ourselves as candles in a mixture of beeswax and parafine with a wick running through the center from head to feet. We lit the candles at the beginning of our show in PPOW Gallery and we let the candles burn and run their course throughout the exhibition. Our candle bodies slowly melted away for the duration of the show.

Link [via BoingBoing]

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