Messy Nessy Chic Top 12 Posts of 2012

Dear Messy Nessy Chic reader, I’d like to thank you for a fantastic year. Your encouragement and appreciation has been the driving force behind the amazing growth of a little blog that I started out of my bedroom nearly three years ago. Every high, every low, every sleepless night has been completely worth it thanks…

The Car Park Theatre of Detroit

Detroit’s haunting decline has been so well documented by urban explorers that to the outside world, it might seem like it’s the only thing to know about this once great industrial metropolis. And yet undeniably, it’s vast urban abandonment is intensely interesting. My latest guilty fascination is the Detroit’s renaissance revival theatre that has ended up…

Tiny Surrealism

What I like most about Frank Kunert‘s work is that it makes me grunt– a grunt that says, “that’s clever, you cheeky bugger”. The German photographer makes all his tiny 3D models himself before he snaps them. Not all the punchlines in his scenes are immediately obvious, leaving the viewer to look a little longer,…

The Paris Boutiques that transform into a Nocturnal Art Museum

If you try to go during the day, you’ll find the “museum” will be closed. In fact, during the day, the Rue Cavalotti in Montmartre is much like any other Parisian street in the quartier, going about it’s business with independent boutiques and small restaurants. It’s not until dusk that this narrow road hidden behind…

America’s Boneyards: Where Airplanes go to Die

Before they are put to rest, airplanes undergo funeral-esque rituals known as ‘pickling’. Their engines are removed, the windows covered and the fluids drained. But of course these giants are too big to bury. In the parched deserts, where a dry climate is an old machine’s best ally, aircrafts young and old lie nose to…

That time Picasso might have stolen the Mona Lisa

Piccasso is probably most famous for his affairs, his extravagant bohemian lifestyle, oh and his art too, but he’s probably less remembered as the guy who was suspected of stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. On August 22nd of 1911, Parisian artist Louis Béroud, famous for painting and selling his copies of…

Mike Tyson’s Deserted 80s Mansion

Between 1985, when he made his professional debut at age 18, to his retirement two decades later, Mike Tyson made up to $400 million, demanding $30 million for a single fight at his peak. He led a high-flying lifestyle, buying mansions, cars and Bengal tigers at the drop of a hat. In 2004, Tyson filed for bankruptcy.…

Time Capsule found in the Basement of a major Internet Hub

There is no feeling quite like it, when you realize you’ve discovering something that’s been entirely forgotten and frozen in time. Cabel is the co-founder of a Mac and iOs software company in Portland, Oregon called Panic– not your everyday time-capsule explorer! But one day, Cabel decided to take a lonesome wander down to the basement…

Inside America’s Biggest Flea Market

The Brimfield Flea Market was founded in 1959 in Brimfield Massachusetts and has grown to become one of the largest flea markets in the world. Three times a year, the population of Brimfield swells from 3,000 to a quarter million, when treasure hunters flock to the fair in search of vintage Americana. One dealer sums…

Retro Recipe: Dr. Pepper served Hot?!

Here’s something different for a holiday party– Dr. Pepper, as in the cherry cola, served as a hot beverage! In the 1960s, the soft drink brand made a go of marketing it as some kind of non-alcoholic alternative to mulled wine. Easy to prepare–simply heat Dr Pepper in a saucepan until it steams and pour…