Is MacPaint the Most Underrated form of Outsider Art?

Readers of a certain age may remember MacPaint’s arrival well: developed by Apple and released in 1984 with the OG Macintosh Computer, it was our planet’s first taste of fancy graphics editing, and it was available to absolutely everyone. For a price, of course (the first Mac cost the 2019 equivalent of $5,000 USD). As…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCXLVII)

1. The Louvre’s Pyramid Turns 30 with an Epic Optical Illusion The world-renowned street artist JR used 2,000 pieces of paper to make the museum’s iconic glass pyramid look like it it’s rising from a quarry. Follow JR on Instagram. 2. Just nature, adapting to a hostile urban environment Banyan tree roots in Hong Kong,…

This 1920s Bauhaus Ballet is a Serious Trip

This is not pyschedelic performance art from the 1960s, this is ballet. Throughout history there are works of art that stand out as somehow atemporal and this choreography created in 1922 for the Theatre of Bauhaus, is one such artwork… Featuring astonishing brightly coloured, asymmetrical and cumbersome costumes, this ballet broke so far with convention of that…

Let’s Talk About 1980s Parisian Pop Culture

On a steamy summer night in 1981, it wasn’t odd to find David Bowie tossing around a blow-up ball in an underground discotheque pool or Grace Jones singing “La Vie en Rose” on a Harley Davidson surrounded by Paris’ premiere drag queens at clubs like Le Palace. A big, playful energy combusted across a city…

A Hidden Island Treasure of Lost Antique Machines

It’s a place you’ll only find if you’re searching for ghosts of the past. I saw it flash past the corner of my eye as we whizzed through the sleepy village streets of Gozo, the Maltese island south of Sicily, before siesta’s quietest hour. I hurled my head out of our battered 4×4 jeep window to catch a fleeting glimpse…

Exploring Tommy Suharto’s Ghost Hotel

Of all the stories of crazed dictators and corrupt regimes built on nepotism, the Suharto legacy might just be the most scandalous. The youngest son to one of the most brutal leaders in recent history, Tommy Suharto’s tale fits somewhere on the same shelf as Pablo Escobar’s and Kim Jung Un’s. Playboy embezzler, convicted murderer,…

The Vault

The Greatest American Train Journey that Time Forgot

It was “the grandest scenic trip on earth”; an enchanting and world-famous mountain railway journey to a vast resort where champagne and caviar was served along with panoramic views over southern California as far as the Pacific Ocean. I first learned of the Mount Lowe railway when I stumbled upon this old postcard map above. My first thoughts were: wow,…

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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…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCXLV)

1. Europe’s First Underwater Restaurant At the tip of Norway, beneath the icy waters of the North Atlantic in Lindesnes, Under is a restaurant five and a half meters below the surface in Norway, exposing you to the wonders beneath the sea. 2. A Perfect New Life in Newfoundland, For Sale Listed at $350,000 CAD, the Pickersgill Premises on…

If You Like Animals, You’ll Love Amber the Taxidermist

Ah, Death. The last taboo – or one of them, and especially in America. “I think a lot of people assume I’m out here hunting animals, which just isn’t the case,” Amber Maykut tells us in her New York City taxidermy studio, “I study them. I love them.” Her workspace is tucked away in a…