Okay, so your establishment is NOT the Bates Motel. But do you even want to remind your customers of the horrible things that can happen in anonymous hotel rooms?
This house takes its shape from the human digestive system. While CasAnus is anatomically correct, the last part has been inflated to humongous size. CasAnus is made to function as a hotel, including a bed and a bathroom.
If you stayed there, you could say "This place is crap," and not necessarily mean it in a pejorative sense.
Also by van Lieshout, along similar lines, is the BarRectum (aka Asshole Bar):
The bar takes its shape from the human digestive system: starting with the tongue, continuing to the stomach, moving through the small and the large intestines and exiting through the anus. While BarRectum is anatomically correct, the last part of the large intestine has been inflated to a humongous size to hold as many drinking customers at the bar as possible. The anus itself is part of a large door that doubles as an emergency exit.
The concept behind the Rough Luxe Hotel in London seems to be that the rooms look like crap (unfinished walls, peeling paint), but you pay a lot to stay there because they've rebranded crap as "rough luxury". How much do you pay? £250 a night during regular season, which is about $380.
Our look is a mix of old and new, furniture and art; combining colours and beautiful fabrics with cheap materials and existing distressed original walls. Cheap materials are treated as precious items and preserved for their beauty and memory of the site.
Most rooms don't have a TV because "as you are in one of the most exciting capital cities in the world, you probably wouldn't need one." Oh, and you might have to share a bathroom. My favorite touch: a sign in one of the rooms declares "This is Shit".
For that kind of money I'd be happy to let someone stay in my "rough luxury" garage. I'd even put out a sleeping bag for them.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Dec 01, 2008 -
Comments (5)
Category: Hotels
According to Wikipedia, the Other World Kingdom is "a large commercial BDSM facility, resort and micronation." It's located in a 16th century chateau in the Czech Republic. OWK describes itself as "the private state of supreme women":
The goal of the OWK is to get as many male creatures under the unlimited rule of Superior Women on as much territory as possible. Gradual realization of this goal in its final consequence will mean the introduction of an Absolute Matriarchy - the only righteous social order.
However, the OWK is not a sex resort. According to wipipedia:
The forms of domination appear to be severe, with little if any sensuality or seductive qualities. Psychodrama does not seem to be a concept the ladies there understand or practice. There is reportedly NO sexuality or sexual contact at the OWK, and the behavior seen in videos seems to bear this out.
If this sounds like a place you'd like to visit, you better do so soon. The OWK has recently been put up for sale. The asking price is eight million euros.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 29, 2008 -
Comments (3)
Category: Hotels
I'm off for a long weekend of wine tasting around Paso Robles. My wife and I are starting the vacation tonight by staying at the Madonna Inn near San Luis Obispo, which deserves a mention here on WU. From Wikipedia:
The Madonna Inn is a motel of flamboyant style in San Luis Obispo, California. Opened for business in 1958, the motel was the creation of Alex Madonna, who died in April 2004, and his wife Phyllis. The motel is a monument of unremitting kitsch, a Swiss-Alp exterior, and lavish pink common rooms. Each room in the Madonna Inn is uniquely designed and themed. Its famed rock waterfall urinal is a fixture along California's Central Coast. Many tourists come to visit the urinal, to the embarrassment of males who genuinely need to use the facilities.
I don't know which room we have, but it's one of the more budget-priced ones. (The place ain't cheap.) The next two nights we're unfortunately just at a Best Western.
I will, of course, keep my eye out for weirdness while on the road. In fact, whenever I travel by car in California I take along my map of Eccentric California, which has provided quite a few interesting detours over the years (to the dismay of my wife, who isn't as enthusiastic about the weird stuff as I am, though she's more into the wineries than I am -- I'm more of a beer guy -- so it's a trade-off).
Posted By: Alex - Thu Aug 14, 2008 -
Comments (0)
Category: Alex, Hotels
We all love gadgets. Except for the truly useless and frustrating devices. Those we hate and ridicule. The Japanese actually have a term and category for such items: Chindōgu.
Recently, while browsing through the catalog for WHATEVER WORKS, I found two examples of Chindōgu.
This anti-cootie sack for the paranoid traveler seems utterly useless. Wouldn't the bedbugs crawl inside within seconds of contact?'
This spinning fork is guaranteed to suck all the pleasure out of an eternal childhood pastime: making S'mores. When the batteries die and the plastic handle melts, all the fun comes to a tearful end.
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.