shank

I’ve become a frequent visitor to Doom Cakes, my most favorite of the projects that reframe the cake as a symbol of our sad but often hilarious failures and the way we charge ahead cheerfully with the apocalypse upon us.

For just over a month, Tom Blunt has been gathering film clips that demonstrate the concept of the doom cake--so far, he has over 50. By Blunt’s definition, a doom cake is any lovely cake in a film that doubles as a harbinger of imminent catastrophe. In addition to foreshadowing something shitty, the cake itself is often destroyed (especially if it is beautiful!). Though, as he explained to me, he's "even more interested in the examples where the cake is not destroyed, but the lives of the people around it are."

Blunt got the idea to start gathering these clips after watching Black Swan. Indeed, that cake scene with Barbara Hershey and Natalie Portman is a dark and awkward one. Other examples include Sleeping Beauty, Harry Potter and The Birds.

Until a few weeks ago, I didn’t know that the doom cake was a film trope, but now that I do, I can't believe I never noticed it before. In fact, it’s hard to peruse Blunt's site without obsessing over more examples (or counterexamples) to share with him. He welcomes both, by the way, though for now doom cakes are strictly cakes (rather than other kinds of confections).

This kind of intense, obsessive focus is perfectly suited for Tumblr (where single-subject collections like Women Reading, Burgers and Nails and Pretty Colors all find followings). But what makes Doom Cakes special is that Blunt isn't shy about looking for meaning in his collection of seemingly frivolous cakes, which he provides with thoughtful commentary and context.

Blunt is from a small town in Arizona and moved to New York a decade ago for a publishing internship. These days he works as a freelance film writer and curates the 92 Tribeca variety show Meet the Lady (Doom Cakes began as a place to gather ideas for a potential show of the same theme). As Blunt continues to expand the site with commentary and more clips, I suggest a visit.

This pig diagram below might be the most famous one of our time. It's a throwback to the glory days of English butchery and meat markets, but it's become a reference point itself. It stands for London's St. John restaurants, which stand for chef Fergus Henderson, who stands for so much that is joyful and sweet and true in the world of nose-to-tail eating, and beyond.

I love beautifully designed butchery diagrams, especially of pigs, especially this one. But the butcher's diagram is not a pig. It's a pig-shaped cluster of potential deliciousness. The pig as pork, as parts. The meat section is a technical illustration, a straightforward map for meat-cutters and buyers, showing which words go with which parts. A simple what's what that reveals other information, too. Industry (breed), economy (cuts) and culture (illustration--is the pig pretty or ugly? Dead or alive?).

San Francisco-based artist Alyson Thomas deciphers the butcher's diagram by reimagining it, again and again. I love how her versions of the pig chart vary so much in style and format (paint, paper, plastic and frosting, to name a few).

Alyson Thomas had her first solo show last month; shop her Etsy store here.