Starting off 2025, we’re coming off the holiday season with family and friends, definitely got some Art Bell’s Coast to Coast and X-Files vibes for weird podcasting being something interesting for high schoolers. It’s nice to see a classic from your childhood reinvented for modern audiences. Last year we got to pick up the Why Files and circling back this year, wow…that show has grown in all the best ways to over 4 million subscribers from a few thousand. Good job.
People talk about Joe Rogan, but the smaller ones out of the Southeast around Nashville, TN are more fun and push the limits: Blurry Creatures, The Confessionals, Ninjas are Butterflies, and Deep Waters are a few to get you started. Obviously these should be approached with a sense of humor and please with all conspiracy theory podcasts, you should use common sense and not take everything seriously. Still remember in 2nd or 3rd grade with the whole X-files toilet scene, kids in the class wouldn’t pee in the dark at night for months afterwards. Littleton, NC has a fantastic cryptozoology museum. Does Big Foot exist? Make up your own mind.
Speaking of museums, the rest of this week’s post is some of the NC Museum of Art’s amazing exhibit on Venice, the Ottoman Empire, and Japanese Samurai. We’re going to nerd out about fabrics and textiles for a bit because whoever put this together deserves serious credit. As you walk in the museum, the first thing you see as you enter the exhibition is the samurai armor on the left. It’s up til February. If you’re a fashion nerd like we are, the suits of armor will blow your mind. Japanese armor and swords are made to be worn and taken apart for travel. You have blue linen or cotton bases with metal pieces stitched on them for protection in various patterns. The metal pieces are woven together like macrame with heavy cording. The swords, guns, and accessories are also lovely.
Moving forward you reach the second part of the exhibit which is a combination of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Venice and Italy was a water based trading empire based on the sea while the Ottoman Empire was a land based empire extending through the spice trade from East to West, but the two overlapped extensively. There was an amazing Turkish Cookbook being cooked on a screen which made you drool. So much Baklava. Venice was ruled by the Doge, a combination of a military and merchant title while Istanbul was the religious center of first the Holy Roman Empire and then Islam. Textiles were a huge part of the trade between two cities. Rich velvets and gilded leathers. Spun glass for concubine houses. Anyways, best traveling exhibit I’ve seen in 20+ years in NC and thought it deserved a few photos for friends and family who can’t make it. Hope you all enjoy!
