1. Paper Sculptures by Kate Kato (who also teaches online courses)
Kate is a sculptor living in the Welsh Borders, obsessed with flora, fauna and paper. Shop her creations here. Take an online paper mushroom-making course here! Because, why not.
2. Salvador Dali’s Anti-Venereal Disease poster he made in 1941
Found on Open Culture. Further reading: Can We Talk About Dali’s Amazing Sell-Out Era?
3. Who Saves New York’s Iconic Signs When a Business Shuts Down?
A look into the life of David Barnett, the co-founder of Noble Signs and the New York Sign Museum. For the past decade, Barnett and his crew have been rescuing iconic signage whenever a business shuts down. Together, they’ve built New York City’s very first sign museum.
4. Taking an Internet Walk
The Internet is so much vaster than a single worldview. It is a sprawling galaxy of archipelagos, filled with more humanity and personal gestures than any man-made archive. Instead of traversing the congested highways of the web, we invite you to try alternative routes: take a scroll down local streets and wandering paths, try out someone else’s commute, rediscover the favorites of your neighborhood, and gather the friends you love in your favorite spots, quiet and comforting. Beneath social media and app hedges, the blossoming internet awaits: a live ecosystem unfolding beneath our footsteps.
Some great suggestions for alternative browsing this way.
5. The Bone Hunters of Siberia
Russia’s Yakutia region, part of which is north of the Arctic Circle, encompasses the coldest inhabited place on earth. There, mammoths and other ice-age creatures once roamed the land. Some of the oldest mammoth fossils have been hidden in the permafrost for centuries. Today, tens of thousands of years later, the permafrost is rapidly thawing as a result of climate change, and fossils are washing into the Adycha River. Explorers are searching beneath the ice for their bones. In February, a brother-and-sister filmmaking duo from Yakutia joined four local divers on their quest to find underwater fossils in minus 60 degrees weather.
A beautiful documentation found on The New York Times.
6. Before the End: Searching for Jim Morrison
This three-part documentary made it to Apple TV and it has some pretty convincing arguments.
7. An essential resource
A few favourites from the glossary…
A
Ain’t that a bite: that’s too bad
Angel: One who pays the bill
Ankle biter: child
Apple butter: smooth talk or flattery
Are you writing a book?: you’re asking too many questions
B
Back seat bingo: making out with a girl in a car
Bad news: a person who rejects a beatnik
Bake biscuits: to make records
Beakel: Tourist
C
Can the lip: stop talking
Classy chassis: great body
Claws sharp: to know a lot about a lot of subjects
Come on snake, let’s rattle: let’s dance
Cop a breeze: to leave
Find the (Mostly) Complete Beatnik Dictionary here.
8. Edward Hopper’s Sketches for “Nighthawks”
“How Edward Hopper Storyboarded ‘Nighthawks’” in 1942, article found on Art News.
9. This Lost New York City Building
The Gillender Building was an early 20-story skyscraper in the Financial District, completed in 1897. The building stood for only 13 years–destroyed in 1910. New York City.
It attracted attention for a visible disproportion of height and footprint which commanded a relatively low rentable area, and was deemed economically obsolete from the start.
After thirteen years of uneventful existence, Gillender Building was sold in December 1909 for a record price of $822 per square foot of land, and was demolished in April–June 1910 to make way for the 41–story Bankers Trust tower at 14 Wall Street. The New York Times called demolition of the Gillender Building the first time when a modern skyscraper was torn down to be replaced with a taller and larger one. It briefly held the title of the tallest building ever demolished voluntarily.
Found on Wikipedia.
10. Zelda Fitzgerald’s Little-Known Art
When Zelda Sayre married legendary Jazz Age novelistF. Scott Fitzgerald to become Zelda Fitzgerald, she was anointed “the first American flapper” and embarked on one of the most turbulent relationships in literary history. Though best-remembered as a writer and dancer, Zelda, unbeknownst to many, not only considered herself an artist but was also an exceptionally gifted one.
Central Park
Washington Square
The Pantheon and Luxemburg gardens
A Mad Tea Party Zelda: An Illustrated Life: The Private World of Zelda Fitzgerald (public library) collects 140 illustrations and 80 of her paintings from the late 1930s and 1940s, lovingly compiled by her granddaughter.
Found on Brainpickings
11. A Topiary Form Chess Set
Found on Bid Square.
12. Thomas Jefferson’s Laptop
Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on a “laptop.” At the time, a laptop was a writing desk that could fit on one’s lap.
“Always on the go, the Founding Fathers waged their war of words from the mahogany mobile devices of their time”.
Found on The Smithsonian / Image via Wikipedia.
