Opus – Page 27 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

Yabusame

Yabusame originated as a way of training samurai in preparation for warfare, but it has always had close connections with Japan’s Shinto religion, and so is usually performed at Shinto shrines. Yabusame itself is very simple. An archer on horseback starts at one end of a roped-off track around 255 metres long, and gallops down it at high speed. Without stopping or slowing down, he fires three arrows in succession, each at one of three wooden targets placed about 70 metres apart on one side of the track.

Pachinko

Despite Japan’s strict gambling laws, pachinko, a pinball derivative played by millions of people, is a national obsession generating 30 trillion yen profit a year.

Mehmet Özyürek

Mehmet Özyürek is a man with a very large nose.

Gordonstoun

Gordonstoun is a boarding school in Scotland. Three generations of British royalty were educated at Gordonstoun, including the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales. Seamanship has been a main part of the curriculum since the school began.

Highway of Death

The Highway of Death is a six-lane highway between Kuwait and Iraq, officially known as Highway 80. It runs from Kuwait City to the border town of Safwan in Iraq and then on to the Iraqi city of Basra. The road had been used by Iraqi armored divisions for the 1990 Invasion of Kuwait.

Fiat Tagliero Building

The Fiat Tagliero Building in Asmara, Eritrea, is a Futurist-style service station completed in 1938 and designed by the Italian engineer Giuseppe Pettazzi. Conceived as a simple petrol station, Pettazzi designed a building that resembles an aeroplane incorporating a central tower with office space, cashiers desk and shop — and supporting a pair of 15 meter cantilevered, reinforced concrete wings. The building remains structurally sound and has not been damaged during numerous conflicts affecting the Horn of Africa during the twentieth century.

Golden poison frog

A single golden poison frog harbours enough poison to kill 10 grown men, making these frogs perhaps the most poisonous animals alive.

Timothy Carey

Timothy Carey was an eccentric Hollywood actor who did his finest work in John Cassavetes' Minnie and Moskowitz.

The World’s Greatest Sinner

The World's Greatest Sinner is a 1962 American drama film written, directed, and produced by, and starring Timothy Carey. The film focuses on a frustrated atheist who rises from an insurance salesman to a powerful figure but alienates his family and friends with his increasing egomaniac and dictator-like presence.

Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party

TV Party was a cult public-access television cable TV show in New York City that ran from 1978 to 1982. Guests on the show included Mick Jones, David Byrne, Debbie Harry, James Chance, Klaus Nomi, Charles Rocket, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.