The Curious Case of the Notebook from State Lunatic Asylum No.3

Drawings, found in the hundreds, every page hand-bound, every artwork a labour of love. Why was it found in a dumpster in Springfield, Missouri, by a teenager who pulled it out in 1970? For decades, the only clue to its origins was a water mark: “Missouri State ‘Lunatic Asylum’ No. 3.” These drawings weren’t an…

Drop Everything, and Let’s Run Away with Ernst Kreidolf’s Flower Fairies

Some stories deserve to be told in a whisper. Tales of hidden flower kingdoms on the edge of a river bank, where caterpillars dance with apple blossoms and fairies fly on butterfly wings. Such are the tales woven by 19th century children’s book pioneer Ernst Kreidolf, whose meticulous watercolours fleshed out the richest fantasy worlds…

Meet the Anti-Bob Ross of Korea

When we stumbled upon a work by contemporary artist Kim Beom, we couldn’t believe our eyes, or our eardrums: the Korean artist mixes the two “mediums” together in his 2012 video work, Yellow Scream, imbuing his brushstrokes with every shriek on the human spectrum. Ever wonder what shape agony makes? How pain is measured on…

The Unsolved Case of the Missing Perfume Heiress

It’s the best Agatha Christie novel that never was: the story of the disappearance of Manhattan perfume heiress, Dorothy Arnold. She was a woman about town and the belle of too many Uptown balls to count, but to this day, no one could ever figure out whether Dorothy was murdered, kidnapped, or stepped through some…

A Brief Compendium of Captivating Fairytale Grottos

You know how there’s always one room at a party where the action is really going down? The Greeks and Romans saw grottos as a place for sensual, Dionysian desires to unfold; the stage of Venus, goddess of love. In contrast, these mystical chambers also became shrine-like places of feverish religious worship for Roman Catholics.…

How the Last Great American Flower Factory Still Blooms Over Midtown, NYC

Once upon a time, a woman needed a parrot tulip. Not just any tulip. “She started with something like this,” explains Adam Brand, heir to his family’s 4th generation flower factory business, M&S Schmalberg. He picks up a few flat, flower shaped layers of fabric. “Then we took some little poofs, some hibiscus, all different…

This Guy Knits ‘Ugly Sweaters’ for Every Place He Goes

Not all heros wear capes. Sam Barsky, for example, wears sweaters. Nearly 200 of them at this point. The Baltimore, Maryland native has taken the internet by storm recently with his talent for knitting sweaters of, well, everything, from the glory of Stonehenge to the streets of Baltimore; an incoming tram, or the Hollywood sign.…

The Curious Career of Being a Human Crash Test Dummy

If there’s one thing Messy Nessy’s editorial team has in common, it’s that we’ve never quite been able to keep a normal 9-to-5. Which is why we love to learn about the ins-and-outs of the oddest jobs out there; the gigs behind the everyday things we may take for granted. Like your drive to the…

Podcast du Jour: The Reclusive Royals that Lived in a Crumbling Jungle Palace

Some stories never leave us. They take up permanent residency in our brain, resurfacing for years to come in shades of daydreams and just-before-bed thoughts. “The Jungle Prince of Dehli” is one of those stories. Declarations of “How have we not heard about this?” and “Just when you think every story has been told…” made…

The Beautiful, Weird World of Japan’s Answer to David Lynch

If home is where the heart is, House (1977) is where the mind unravels. The experimental film by director Nobuhiko Obayashi is a beautiful, Surrealist venture into the horror genre that’s slowly but surely getting its due credit in the Western world. Where to even begin with Mr. Obayasi? His finger-eating piano? Ghostly watermelons? He’s…