Author Archives: swarm
Schwarm
A beautiful array of hanging ceramic beetles created this year by Beate Reinheimer and Ulrike Rehm under the name RaR for design distributor Thomas Eyck. The entire collection was shown at the Milan Furniture Faire. Schwarm consists of Ten ‘species’ … Continue reading
Posted in art
Tagged Beate Reinheimer, beetle, ceramic, lynxandtelescope, nomenclature, Thomas Eyck, Ulrike Rehm
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Insects At The Movies: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
For movies in which insects save the day, it doesn’t come more dear to my heart than the animated film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his epic concurrent post-apocalyptic manga series. In 1986, … Continue reading
In Which: I Eat All The Insects
Last night Mrs. Swarm and I visited the Headlands Center for the Arts to take part in a delicious multi-course meal presented by Monica Martinez, owner of Don Bugito, a new insect-themed food cart in San Francisco. The Headlands Center … Continue reading
Posted in cuisine, event
Tagged ant, cricket, Don Bugito, hemipteran, mealworm, Mónica Martínez, moth, Rosanna Yau, wax moth
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San Francisco Eats Insects
While most of the world thinks nothing of eating insects, (indeed, it could be argued that in most of humanity’s history we’ve been eating insects), Europe and the US throw up their hands over their mouths in utter amazement of … Continue reading
Posted in cuisine, event
Tagged Daniella Martin, entomophagy, Headlands Center for the Arts, insect, Mónica Martínez, San Francisco
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Insects At The Movies: Joe’s Apartment
Often shown as part of MTV’s legendary Liquid Television, John Payson directed this this short film gem in 1992 about poor slob Joe and the thousands of cockroaches he shares an apartment with. It’s great low-budget lunacy, and obviously one … Continue reading
Insects At The Movies: Phenomena (aka Creepers)
It’s time for another insect horror movie, and this is one where the insects not only win in the end, but they do the bidding of Jennifer Connelly! PHENOMENA (1985 aka “Creepers” in the US ) was made by Italian … Continue reading
Posted in film, wtf
Tagged Creepers, Dario Argento, flesh-fly, fly, Jennifer Connelly, maggot, Phenomena
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Insects At The Movies: Mimic
Despite it being a rather standard and predictable genre movie in many ways, Guillermo del Toro’s MIMIC (1997) gives us giant human-mimicking cockroaches, a splendid combination of practical and CGI insect goodness. While diagrams of the “Judas Breed” anatomy are … Continue reading
Posted in film
Tagged cockroach, Dictyoptera, giant, Guillermo del Toro, halloween, Kyle Cooper, Mimic
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Insects At The Movies: Phase IV
Saul Bass! Crazy geometric title sequences! Indelible brands! Bold colors and blocked shapes and crazy animation! Can you imagine what an entire movie directed by him would be like? Strangely, instead of a snappy title sequence, we start out Phase … Continue reading
Insects At The Movies: THEM!
In honor of my favorite month, it’s time to go through my favorite insect movies. Gleefully, most of these contain Insects and Inverts Of Unusual Size. Let’s start with the best, shall we? No matter if your list is Giant … Continue reading
Araneus diadematus invasius!
Here in the Bay Area, we have very few really large insects. Aside from Jerusalem crickets, most insects and spiders here are small and scarce. But in September and October, the weather heats up, and beautiful huge orb weavers appear … Continue reading
