A Kitschy Weekend Guide to the Australian Outback

We’ve got that itch for a little road trip once again, and this time it’s taking us to the Land Down Under, specifically, to the town of Broken Hill— no sandy beaches, no respite from a sun that (literally) shines longer and brighter than most places on earth, but it’s the keeper of some of…

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Unlocking the Secrets of Vinegar Hill, New York

How can you escape from the New York City grind on an MTA card budget? Make a break for Brooklyn’s Vinegar Hill, the sleepy neighbourhood that’s managed to safeguard its 400-year-old, cobblestone streets from the clutches of big development. It’s on small but hallowed ground, bound together by a tight-knit community whose homes look like…

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So What’s the Deal with Those Quakertown Pyramids?

We just love it when two utterly opposite worlds collide, which is precisely the case with the mysterious pyramids sitting smack in the middle of Quakertown, USA. That’s right, States-bound folks: you can now eschew a visit to Cairo and just head to rural Pennsylvania to get a taste of an esoteric society, the “Rosicrucian Order”,…

Muse du Jour: Bollywood Bad Girl Zeenat Aman

It’s 1971, and a smoke-filled set overflows with hippies tapping tabla drums, eyes glazed over and glued to Zeenat Aman, who bursts into a groovy rendition of a Hare Krishna chant, dancing with no one but herself, and suddenly, it’s easy to see how she turned India on its head with one jerk of her…

From Elizabeth Taylor to Adolph Hitler, Presenting History’s Greatest Decoys

First things first, we’re about to spill the contents of a very mixed bag of history’s greatest eccentrics. It’s one filled with impersonators, decoys, and body doubles throughout the 20th century who’ve got one thing in common: they’re really, really good at getting under someone else’s skin. From Andy Warhol to Adolf Hitler, some of…

Edgar Allan Poe’s Cottage Is Just Sitting There in the Bronx

Finding it there seems improbable. Absurd, even. Yet, on a sunny day in Sector G of the Bronx, amidst cheap Thai massage parlours and “99¢ Only” stores, stands the final home of the king of American macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. That the house stands after 221 years is a miracle alone. It’s been a quiet…

The Night We Found ‘Sleepy Hollow’s’ Jack ‘O Lantern City

Every October in the woods not far from Sleepy Hollow, and yes, it’s a real place, jack ‘o lanterns spring up from the ground to form a whirling carousel and a herd of dinosaurs; a complete circus train a towering bridge — all made entirely of 7,000 hand-carved pumpkins. For locals, it’s just another year…

Uncovering Hollywood’s 1920s “Antichrist” Photo Shoots

Somewhere in a dark room almost a century ago, an image emerges of a woman with her skeleton lover. Beside it, another of a gyrating goblin, a pin-up worthy witch, or some other creature from the wonderfully twisted mind of photographer William Mortensen. Today, Mortensen is praised as a pioneer of his profession, a Tim…

Naked in the Mountains 100 Years Ago, She Invented the Advanced Selfie

Anne Brigman was turning up her selfie prowess about 100-years before the rest of us. For one, she was never the stoic, buttoned-up type, and felt more at home on a mountaintop than with a roof over her head. When Brigman stepped inside the lens of her camera, the result was a ‘selfie’ that looked…

Midnight Movie of the Month: A Forgotten “Rocky Horror” Sister Film

What’s your favourite midnight movie? That one totally weird film you tell your friends about at parties, a vintage masterpiece that slipped through the cracks of mainstream culture, because it was just too strange to find a traditional audience, and instead found an unlikely cult following elsewhere. We’ve discovered a midnight movie that’s slipped under…