Phrase of the day: “rogue taxidermy”
August 9, 2014 10:49 AM Subscribe
"First it was knitting; then came excessive facial grooming, vegan baking and urban beekeeping. You thought hipster hobbies couldn’t get weirder? Brace yourself."
"...it was a lot like doing other crafts,” says writer Kate Horsley, who attended one of Magpie’s classes with her husband. “In fact, it was a lot less fiddly than the purse I made my mum for Christmas."
"...it was a lot like doing other crafts,” says writer Kate Horsley, who attended one of Magpie’s classes with her husband. “In fact, it was a lot less fiddly than the purse I made my mum for Christmas."
Given the wildlife situation in Williamsburg, I see lots of stuffed rats, pigeons, and roaches in the future.
posted by jonmc at 10:59 AM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 10:59 AM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
I feel like this has been a thing for ages, even if it's just now going mainstream.
posted by wotsac at 11:00 AM on August 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by wotsac at 11:00 AM on August 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
I'm into vegan taxidermy. Behold the potato!
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:01 AM on August 9, 2014 [32 favorites]
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:01 AM on August 9, 2014 [32 favorites]
The Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists has been going strong for nearly 2 decades.
posted by GameDesignerBen at 11:04 AM on August 9, 2014 [10 favorites]
posted by GameDesignerBen at 11:04 AM on August 9, 2014 [10 favorites]
mainstream? - where i live, this has been mainstream for decades
someone's got to mount those deer heads
posted by pyramid termite at 11:04 AM on August 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
someone's got to mount those deer heads
posted by pyramid termite at 11:04 AM on August 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
How about inverse taxidermy, where you cover real meat with fake skin?
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:05 AM on August 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:05 AM on August 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
I imagine that rogue taxidermy has lots of rewarding aspects to it. Like when you've finished stuffing up your family members you know they will always be with you in their most perfect state and never abandon you or hurt you again.
Edit: Pets, I mean pets.
Edit: I mean random roadkill.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:06 AM on August 9, 2014 [15 favorites]
Edit: Pets, I mean pets.
Edit: I mean random roadkill.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:06 AM on August 9, 2014 [15 favorites]
As far as I can tell people are just playing catch up to all the Grown Up Goths with thier kitchen gardens and skull home decor and taxidermeied pets and antler chairs.
posted by The Whelk at 11:06 AM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 11:06 AM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
Previous relevant post, from 2010.
2007
2006
2004
2002
2001
(some of the links in those posts are broken, sadly)
posted by idiopath at 11:07 AM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
2007
2006
2004
2002
2001
(some of the links in those posts are broken, sadly)
posted by idiopath at 11:07 AM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
How about inverse taxidermy, where you cover real meat with fake skin?
Don't give the Hannibal writers any more ideas.
posted by The Whelk at 11:07 AM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
Don't give the Hannibal writers any more ideas.
posted by The Whelk at 11:07 AM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
pyramid termite: or the deer asses even (butt faces for the win)
posted by idiopath at 11:08 AM on August 9, 2014
posted by idiopath at 11:08 AM on August 9, 2014
I teach classes on organic stamp collecting.
posted by ryoshu at 11:40 AM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ryoshu at 11:40 AM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Don't believe the anti-Andersonite pundits who are saying we have reached peak whimsy. The [insert value judgment here] is yet to come.
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:45 AM on August 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:45 AM on August 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
I used to accept taxidermied things as just part of life, since I was in Texas, but more and more, they skeeve me out. Beards and chickens and bees, fine; weirdly-posed animal corpses, uh, please no? I am starting to feel like the Bigfoot in Harry and Hendersons* who gave all the taxidermied animals in the house a burial.
*don't judge me, my nieces loved that movie and made me watch it with them 800 times.
posted by emjaybee at 11:45 AM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
*don't judge me, my nieces loved that movie and made me watch it with them 800 times.
posted by emjaybee at 11:45 AM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
The Whimsadammarung is upon us
posted by The Whelk at 11:46 AM on August 9, 2014 [15 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 11:46 AM on August 9, 2014 [15 favorites]
Not actually hipster. Just normal human variability of interests. Avoid temptation to label everything trendy "hipster" or your vocabulary will atrophy.
posted by Peach at 11:50 AM on August 9, 2014 [23 favorites]
posted by Peach at 11:50 AM on August 9, 2014 [23 favorites]
Fuck everything about this.
The article, I mean.
"You know all these things people have been doing for hundreds of years? Well, people still do them! What total trend-obsessed weirdos!"
posted by Sys Rq at 11:52 AM on August 9, 2014 [16 favorites]
The article, I mean.
"You know all these things people have been doing for hundreds of years? Well, people still do them! What total trend-obsessed weirdos!"
posted by Sys Rq at 11:52 AM on August 9, 2014 [16 favorites]
My grandfather was a taxidermist. I have only one piece of his: a porcupine holding an 8 ounce pull-tab can of Olympia beer.
I won't even get into my dad's Project Squirrel or the Blogess's collection, but odd mounting is not solely the domain of hipsters.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:54 AM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
I won't even get into my dad's Project Squirrel or the Blogess's collection, but odd mounting is not solely the domain of hipsters.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:54 AM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
Self-taxidermy is probably the only thing left that can shock parents.
posted by srboisvert at 11:57 AM on August 9, 2014
posted by srboisvert at 11:57 AM on August 9, 2014
Them weirdos should have proper hobbies like buying the latest fashions and decorating their houses with goods produced using the worst kind of third world labour.
posted by zoo at 11:59 AM on August 9, 2014 [13 favorites]
posted by zoo at 11:59 AM on August 9, 2014 [13 favorites]
And watching TV.
posted by zoo at 11:59 AM on August 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by zoo at 11:59 AM on August 9, 2014 [2 favorites]
Damnit the locally made butterfly in a bell jar taxidermy sculptures are always sold out when I get to the website I'm mad.
posted by The Whelk at 12:00 PM on August 9, 2014
posted by The Whelk at 12:00 PM on August 9, 2014
Them weirdos should have proper hobbies like buying the latest fashions and decorating their houses with goods produced using the worst kind of third world labour.
Taxidermy sweatshop! Genius!
somebody call mitt
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:03 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Taxidermy sweatshop! Genius!
somebody call mitt
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:03 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Self-taxidermy is probably the only thing left that can shock parents.
Well, someone who lost an arm in an accident could get the arm stuffed and wear it in place of a dummy arm.
Also, there's a bit in an Iain Banks novel where a guy stops into a boutique, places his order, they take a few skin cells and he and comes back later to pick up his new OwnSkin™ jacket.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:06 PM on August 9, 2014
Well, someone who lost an arm in an accident could get the arm stuffed and wear it in place of a dummy arm.
Also, there's a bit in an Iain Banks novel where a guy stops into a boutique, places his order, they take a few skin cells and he and comes back later to pick up his new OwnSkin™ jacket.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:06 PM on August 9, 2014
Many of the links on this Mathowie birthday post from October 2012 still work.
Damn, the 'something mundane' link now fails ... {searches} ... aha, it's elsewhere online - (re)enjoy!
posted by Wordshore at 12:10 PM on August 9, 2014
Damn, the 'something mundane' link now fails ... {searches} ... aha, it's elsewhere online - (re)enjoy!
posted by Wordshore at 12:10 PM on August 9, 2014
This is nothing new.
I'd rankle at the word "hipster" here, but a lot of it is done by Minnesotans just like me, so fair is fair. We've also managed to turn seed art into a hipster affectation.
posted by maxsparber at 12:17 PM on August 9, 2014
I'd rankle at the word "hipster" here, but a lot of it is done by Minnesotans just like me, so fair is fair. We've also managed to turn seed art into a hipster affectation.
posted by maxsparber at 12:17 PM on August 9, 2014
God, this is so 2009.
posted by kariebookish at 12:19 PM on August 9, 2014
posted by kariebookish at 12:19 PM on August 9, 2014
When I was a kid, I'd do this with banana peels. I'd stuff them with fabric or cotton balls and sew them up and create faces for them with markers and googly eyes and sew clothes for them and all kinds of things. I called them Banana Buddies.
posted by rue72 at 12:29 PM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by rue72 at 12:29 PM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
But even I find doing the same thing with animal corpses to be a bit strange.
posted by rue72 at 12:29 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by rue72 at 12:29 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm into vegan taxidermy. Behold the potato!
Those eyes are totally fake looking.
posted by yoink at 12:38 PM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
Those eyes are totally fake looking.
posted by yoink at 12:38 PM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
How about inverse taxidermy, where you cover real meat with fake skin?
Cultural appropriation continues to run rampant - - the Mesoamericans developed the burrito a millenium ago.
posted by fairmettle at 12:47 PM on August 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
Cultural appropriation continues to run rampant - - the Mesoamericans developed the burrito a millenium ago.
posted by fairmettle at 12:47 PM on August 9, 2014 [4 favorites]
The local phone directory allows you to add any job title you want to your name. I've seen "lion tamer", "astronaut", "former tough guy" and others. I'd been tempted to give myself one, too, but could never make up my mind until now: "vegan taxidermist" it is. Thank you, Metafilter.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 1:00 PM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 1:00 PM on August 9, 2014 [6 favorites]
I believe it was Jerry Seinfeld who said, "If they were really hipsters, how could there be so many of them?"
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:15 PM on August 9, 2014
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:15 PM on August 9, 2014
How about inverse taxidermy, where you cover real meat with fake skin?
Oh, I've done that.
What, you don't mean putting sausage into artificial casings?
Never mind.
posted by tyllwin at 1:17 PM on August 9, 2014
Oh, I've done that.
What, you don't mean putting sausage into artificial casings?
Never mind.
posted by tyllwin at 1:17 PM on August 9, 2014
Taxidermy sweatshop! Genius!
Isn't there already a jackalope factory in China?
posted by localroger at 1:47 PM on August 9, 2014
Isn't there already a jackalope factory in China?
posted by localroger at 1:47 PM on August 9, 2014
I'm sure there are hipsters who knit, but considering the social group of mine who also knits are roughly the least hipster people in existence, I'm not able to take seriously any trend article like this that attributes some other hobby to hipsters and starts out using knitting as an example. A lot of these hobbies didn't go away because nobody was interested; they're having a resurgence because with the internet it's easier to find other people who also think this would be cool and connect to someone to teach you how to do it.
posted by Sequence at 2:14 PM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Sequence at 2:14 PM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
jackalopes are real dammit
posted by hap_hazard at 2:21 PM on August 9, 2014
posted by hap_hazard at 2:21 PM on August 9, 2014
"hipster" is the new "literally"
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 2:27 PM on August 9, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 2:27 PM on August 9, 2014 [5 favorites]
jackalopes are real dammit
So the jackalope factory is like a puppy mill?
posted by localroger at 2:38 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
So the jackalope factory is like a puppy mill?
posted by localroger at 2:38 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
Attention millennials: any hobby you may be interested in will relegate you to a pseudo-homogeneous group so that we can more quickly trivialize you and your interests.
posted by gucci mane at 2:41 PM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by gucci mane at 2:41 PM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
How about inverse taxidermy, where you cover real meat with fake skin?
How about covering real taxis with fake skin?
posted by octobersurprise at 2:44 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
How about covering real taxis with fake skin?
posted by octobersurprise at 2:44 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
So the jackalope factory is like a puppy mill?
I prefer to believe that because of China's famed 'one jackalope per family' policy, they mostly live peaceful and contented lives in the country, where they tend to expire from old age, and only then are they packed in ice and Fed-Ex'ed to the factory.
posted by hap_hazard at 4:02 PM on August 9, 2014
I prefer to believe that because of China's famed 'one jackalope per family' policy, they mostly live peaceful and contented lives in the country, where they tend to expire from old age, and only then are they packed in ice and Fed-Ex'ed to the factory.
posted by hap_hazard at 4:02 PM on August 9, 2014
So the jackalope factory is like a puppy mill?
I have never understood what people use ground puppies for.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:08 PM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
I have never understood what people use ground puppies for.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:08 PM on August 9, 2014 [3 favorites]
Oh, fffm, it adds just the perfect soupçon of pathos. It really brightens up the tears of the masses which can be so salty.
posted by dejah420 at 5:20 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by dejah420 at 5:20 PM on August 9, 2014 [1 favorite]
I have never understood what people use ground puppies for.
Mostly to weigh down their air kittens.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:49 PM on August 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
Mostly to weigh down their air kittens.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:49 PM on August 10, 2014 [1 favorite]
Isn't "hipster" shorthand for "people who do stupid shit in a misguided belief that odd is unambiguously cool"? Because that pretty much explains all this.
posted by kjs3 at 9:39 PM on August 10, 2014
posted by kjs3 at 9:39 PM on August 10, 2014
"Hipster" is shorthand for "people who seem to me to do trendy stuff in an awkward way that I can make fun of."
posted by Peach at 4:24 AM on August 11, 2014
posted by Peach at 4:24 AM on August 11, 2014
It's shorthand for "I am boring. Interesting people are my inferiors. Be boring."
It's time we got back to taking the squares down a peg.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:26 AM on August 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
It's time we got back to taking the squares down a peg.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:26 AM on August 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
« Older Statues Taking Selfies | Believe it or don’t, turtles are horrifically well... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Nope- Chuck Testa.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:57 AM on August 9, 2014 [19 favorites]