The Before and After Museum

January 8, 2003 10:57 AM

The Before and After Museum Based upon the number of makeover and home redecorating shows on television these days, it's pretty safe to assume that we humans have a serious fascination for the art of the transformation. Case in point? Consider the marketing wallop Subway's weight loss poster boy, Jared, packed--he's still making those commercials. Sharpeworld's compiled a list of before and after links from the bizarre Jocelyne "Cat Woman" Wildenstein to not-so-famous-but-still-amusing shaved dog on couch. What do you find most compelling about the before and after: the starting point, the final results or the process of transforming?
posted by VelvetHellvis (13 comments total)

without link rot
posted by machaus at 11:25 AM on January 8, 2003

Anyone want to give this post a makeover? I've failed miserably and am desperate need of help or should I just hang up my MetaFi post apron and settle nicely into the masses of those who comment, but don't contribute? Bummer, dude. I found the series of links quite interesting.
posted by VelvetHellvis at 12:10 PM on January 8, 2003

What? Velvet, I am enjoying it.
/doesn't know what Velvet is talking about

My particular fascination with transformation has to do with the knowledge that both images that I see are the same thing (especially with people-they are the same inner person) but the presentation has changed my perception of it or them in such a way that effectively, either the object or person exists in two perceptual ways at once. Have I made any sense?
posted by oflinkey at 12:14 PM on January 8, 2003

I didn't look at all of the links, but I was amazed at the eyeglasses link. I guess glasses are as much a part of someone's facial features as anything else. What would Harry Caray have looked like in frameless bi-focals?

The Hair and Make-up link was rather boring, but when I clicked on the bearded man with the parrots at the bottom of the page, I found out that the Hawaiian weddings page that was run by jack-of-all-trades: "I am Rev. Howie, a non-denominational minister residing on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. I am also called Capt. Howie, as I am a maritime captain licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard. Also, I breed and protect exotic and endangered parrots as a hobby."
posted by Frank Grimes at 12:34 PM on January 8, 2003

Frank, I clicked on the same link. Made me laugh.

Velvet, never surrender. Never. (This coming from someone who has never gotten the nerve up to do an FPP - too afraid of flamethrowing MeFi'ers.) Besides, I thought it was a neat post.
posted by widdershins at 12:51 PM on January 8, 2003

I thought this page about one person's experience with facial feminization surgery was really fascinating. It really shows the structural differences in male and female faces. Bummer about her hairline problems, though.
posted by jennyb at 12:58 PM on January 8, 2003

"Trading Spaces" signifiantly entertains the over 35-crowd.

(or is it just the hope of a designer in tight jeans?)
posted by ParisParamus at 1:08 PM on January 8, 2003

I'm really digging the Before and After Scientist page, where kids draw and describe what they think a scientist looks like before and after a visit to Fermilab.

The link rot at the Before and After Museum is frustrating, but the links that do work are pretty neat.
posted by jennyb at 1:09 PM on January 8, 2003

Velvet this kicks. Folks are just too busy acting like children in the SUV thread to check out something truly worthwhile.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:13 PM on January 8, 2003

an aside: the funny thing about jared is that he didn't eat subway for 2 years to lose weight, he ate subways for two years because he lived above one and the only sandwich he could aford were the healthy ones (at least that's what my brother who went to high school with the guy has always said, so i could be full of...)
posted by NGnerd at 1:38 PM on January 8, 2003

Well, this is a good place to repost about this house I came across while hitting the rummage sales last summer on Queen Anne Hill here in Seattle, which used to look like this when I lived in the neigborhood back in the 70s, but now looks like this--I call it the Oz house. Dig this turret construction sequence here. That's a cast iron gargoyler leaping off the peak of the house there in in the second picture, the gargoyle on the page is actually a dragon's head on the side of the house.

The motto translates to roughly More Is Better--I don't know, though, that looks like a lot of dusting in the interior...

Theneighbors tell me they have a full time carpenter--it's still a work in progress--and gardening service., but I think they need a couple of full time maids. All those are pop up jpegs from here--check out the other interior shots, expecially the elephant trunk toilet.

It's funny--these guys are very jealous of their privacy, as you may notice from the show page, and yet they build a house like that. I was miffed that they had no Christmas lights myself but as it is, people drive by all day to gawk, so I can understand their reluctance to draw any more attention.

I think, however, that there should be some sort of compensation in property tax or a zoning overlay to encourage this sort of thing.
posted by y2karl at 1:43 PM on January 8, 2003

[this is good]
posted by rushmc at 5:19 PM on January 8, 2003

Thanks, VelvetHellvis. Sharpeworld is America's #1 website, if you believe the hype ;)

My favorite before and afters are the sound files at Sonic Foundry.
posted by iconomy at 5:26 PM on January 8, 2003