1. The Transformation of a 19th Century French Castle
Artist Okuda San Miguel recently transformed a 19th-century castle in Château, France in a work titled Skull in the Mirror. After stints as a school and holiday center for children, the castle was abandoned for nearly 30 years.
Five years ago it was acquired by the local Town Hall. Recently it became a site for Urban Art Paris‘ LaBel Valette Festival, which hosted Okuda the last weekend in June
Found on This is Colossal.
2. Africa’s Unknown City of Modernist Architecture
Welcome to Asmara in Eritrea. This unique architectural gem was just named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“Asmara should be regarded as a central part of the Modernist canon,” says Dr. Edward Denison, an architecture expert and professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, who first visited Asmara as a tourist in 1997 and has worked professionally to help preserve and protect the city’s architecture since 2001.
Talk about Wes Anderson location scouting.
All photos ©Edward Denison, 2016, find the full article on Curbed.
3. This photo may solve the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earheart
Did you hear the very exciting developments on the mysterious disappearance of Amelia Earheart?
Earheart famously disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 and her disappearance has long been a subject of fascination. Now, this recently discovered image is at the centre of a new History Channel film.
The photograph, recently discovered in the National Archives by former US Treasury Agent Les Kinney, allegedly shows Earhart and Noonan among a group of people on a dock on Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The documentary suggests that the pair ended up in the Marshall Islands and did not crash into the Pacific Ocean as many assumed. Many believe they died as castaways.
In the film, former Federal agent Les Kinney says the photo shows Earheart and Noonan. An expert compared Noonan’s teeth, nose and hairline to the man in the image. He also compared Earheart’s torso to the woman in the image and found that both match. Kinney also says Earheart’s plane is in the background of the photograph.
The photo could support the theory that the pair was captured by the Japanese military and died while in custody on the Marshall Islands.
More found on CNN, watch the History Channel special online.
4. Salvador Dali’s body to be exhumed for paternity suit
A judge in Madrid has ordered the exhumation of the body of Spanish artist Salvador Dalí to get samples for a paternity suit. A Spanish woman, born in 1956, said her mother, a maid, had a clandestine affair with the painter in 1955 … The judge said there were no biological remains or personal objects of the artist to be used in the test.
Ms Martínez claimed that her mother told her several times that Dalí was her father, on many occasions in front of others.
“The only thing I’m missing is a moustache,” she once said, according to newspaper El Mundo (in Spanish).
The Dalí Foundation, which manages the artist’s estate, says it will appeal.
Found on BBC World.
5. The Elvis Barbershop Museum
There’s Graceland and then there’s the Chaffee Barbershop Museum. Yes, the place where Elvis got his first Army buzz cut is memorialized with a cardboard cutout. Supposedly the widow of the barber who cut the singer’s hair, James Petersen, still has the pair of clippers.
Open since 2008 and located inside one of the old barracks, the barbershop has been restored to its 1958 condition. Thousands of U.S. Army enlistees received their signature G.I. buzz cuts here.
Found on This Belongs in a Museum.
6. This Matchbook
Found on Kiel James Patrick.
7. The 1939-40 Stevens Clipper
Found on this Tumblr.
8. The Caraboat
Found here.
9. Cutting Grass in an Air Conditioned Lawn Mower
via Old School Cool on Reddit.
10. Murder Bottles
Trendy Victorian era baby bottles were hotbeds of bacteria, later nicknamed “the killer” and “murder bottles.” 2 in 10 infants lived to 2nd bday.
Find out more here.
11. Bullet Bras from the 1940s and 50s
Invented in the late-1940s, they became popular in the 1950s, and worn by the Sweater Girl, a busty and wholesome “girl next door” whose tight-fitting outergarments accentuated her artificially enhanced curves.
Found on Vintage Everyday
12. This Bed
In 1882, the nawab of Bahawalpur (native governor in colonial British India), Sadiq Muhammad Khan Abbasi IV, anonymously commissioned this bed from a Parisian manufacturer. Why was he embarrassed to be ordering a bed? Because Abbasi requested that there be four life-sized bronze figurines of naked women, complete with natural hair and movable eyes, holding fans and horsetails.
Wires were engineered so that downward pressure on the mattress – like a man lying on it – would set the figures in motion. Each lovely lady winked and fanned the nawab, while a selection from the opera Faust played from a built-in music box.
Found on Historical Non Fiction.
13. Introducing the Rolling Stones
Found on Wondros.
