The Secret NYC Gallery that brought Picasso & the Avant-garde to America

Did they ever tell you about the nice Jersey boy who brought Modern Art to America’s shores? It wasn’t a Rockefeller, or a Guggenheim – just a kid from Hoboken, New Jersey with an eye for talent. Behind the doors of a little 5th floor attic-level apartment on 291 Fifth Avenue, he displayed raunchy Rodins,…

A Pit-Stop in Japan’s Time Capsule Post Towns

We’ve got an achilles heel for places stuck in the past, and today on our armchair adventures, we’re stopping off in the sleepy streets of Japan’s cinematic post towns, known locally as Shukuba (宿場). What is a post town, you ask? Essentially it’s a pit-stop, albeit a very charming one lost in time, which popped…

Thoughts for Our Lady of France

I wish I had taken your picture a thousand more times, my beautiful neighbour. For all the history lovers, architecture lovers (who feel that buildings have souls), Paris lovers: we are all no doubt feeling the same helplessness and sadness for Notre Dame. I think of the artisans who have spent the last decade tirelessly…

In the Shadows with NYC’s Self-Styled Guardian Angels

People forget that in 1979, New York was burning. To relive it today would almost be like entering an unrecognisable dystopian society where street gangs ruled the city after the sun went down. Times Square’s Disney stores were occupied by peep shows and drug dens, and you could go as far as saying that some…

When Seashells Were Money

Some of us might recall that day in school when the teacher dumped a bag of cowrie shells on their desk, and decreed, “See this? This used to be money!” Seashells were used as money across the world well into the 20th century, from West Africa to California. And in some parts of the world,…

A Shortlist of the Most Obscure Design Oddities

Life is simply too short not to explore the strangest depths of design, which, in all honesty, are usually the most innovative. Case in point: exploring the world of antique fish pulpits in Eastern Europe, reusing WWII stretchers as fences, or fashioning a coffin to look like a cow or taking a ride in France’s…

America’s King of Macabre Would Have Made a Killer Fashion Designer

Who else writes an alphabet book where “E is for Ernest who choked on a peach?” or where “B is for Basil assaulted by bears?” Master of the macabre, Edwardian enthusiast, unlikely style icon, cat lover – there’s no box the late illustrator and author Edward Gorey doesn’t tick for us. He wasn’t trying to…

The Women Who Walked on Wings

Gladys Roy, pictured above on the far wing, is probably the only woman in the world who could say she’s played tennis on an airplane– at least in our circle of friends. As it turns out, a lot of women did some pretty crazy stuff on airplanes in the 1920s… Take Gladys Ingle, for example…

10 American Indie Alternatives for an Anti-Oscars Movie Night

We look to movies for many things today — an escape, a laugh, a glossed-over Hollywood take on the life of another music icon that died too soon. But American filmmaker John Cassavetes looked to the movies for one reason: to fail, and fail beautifully. “I feel that we must try many things,” the late…

On a Remote Volcanic Island, American Soldiers Are Worshipped like Gods

Forget Valentine’s Day– let’s talk about John Frum Day. At this very moment, on a tiny island in the South Pacific, natives are preparing their annual rituals to welcome a mysterious messiah, expected to return on February 15th. In this remote corner of the world, every year the islanders await the return of a World…