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Category / Editor’s Picks

Ibiza’s Long Lost Utopian City Built Inside a Bouncy Castle

Before the days, and nights, of Ibiza’s club-culture tourism and world famous pool parties that popped up in the early 1980s, a peculiar inflatable structure appeared on the island a decade earlier, and no, it wasn’t a blow-up bar. In 1971, a bunch of hippies built a DIY utopian city on the northern coast of…

Once Upon a Summer in Black Eden…

Today, the glory days of Idlewild feel a bit like a fever dream. Just ask any of the African American vacationers who made the pilgrimage to the Michigan resort from the 1910s-60s. “It was something that you’d never believe…stranger than fiction,” reflects one woman in Coy Davis Jr.’s documentary, Whatever Happened to Idlewild? In the midst of Jim…

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

1. Trapani Coral In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a notable production of works by experienced masters flourished in Trapani [Sicily]… The history of Trapani coral however has its origins much before and as early as the twelfth century, that famous Arab traveler, Muhammad Idrisi, noted the exquisite quality of the red material. The discovery…

She was the Black Actress Who Refused to Pass

In 1934, a young woman stepped off the train in Los Angeles’ Union Station. Even in a city swarming with beauties, eyes would’ve fastened on her. She was astonishingly lovely — tall and lithe, with dark glossy hair she wore pulled back in a style that offset her porcelain skin and blue eyes. Everyone who…

That Quiet Couple Next Door Who Brought Magic Mushrooms to the Masses

Ah the psychedelic 60s, what a time to be out of your mind. It’s easy to assume bohemian beatniks, free lovin’ hippies, and prog rockers popularised mind-bending medicines to everyday folk, but let’s go back a step before we start spiralling. Who’d have thought that American counterculture was kickstarted in the most conforming of places,…

A Dinner Party with History’s Most Notorious Art Thieves

Imagine gathering around a dinner table with the guy who stole the Mona Lisa, an heiress who stole a Vermeer, the “gentleman thief” responsible for some of the most sensational art thefts in Europe, and let’s throw an invite to Pablo Picasso for good measure, for his own attitude towards the world of art fraud…

Heartbreak Hides in the Walls of This Paris Mansion

Museums are usually a feast for the eyes, but rarely are they this much of a treat for the heart. Cozied up beside Paris’ Parc Monceau you’ll find just that: the opulent Musée Nissim de Camondo, a perfectly preserved mansion from 1911 that belonged to the affluent Camondo family. As stunning as the interiors and antiques are, it’s the…

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

1. The Man Who Crawled the World Meet performance artist Pope .L “who traversed a substantial portion of New York City (and parts of Europe) on his hands, knees, stomach, and elbows, wearing everything from a Superman costume to a sports jersey and Nike sneakers”. “One of the problems with . . . my crawl works is they…

Oh, Just a Decaying Soviet City in the Middle of the Sea

In the waters of the Caspian Sea, about 40 kilometers from the coast of Azerbaijan, lies an intricate network of bridges and man-made platforms which is currently home to around 2,000 people. Encompassing about 17 miles, this real-life water world is a veritable city called Neft Daşları (Neft Dashlari or Oily Rocks). It’s sole purpose…

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

1. An Abandoned Chateau Known as “Little Versailles” In a village in the Vosges department of France is a chateau built in the nineteenth century by Charles Perron for the widow of a wealthy French industrialist, Elisabeth Géhin. Called the “Versailles vosgien”, the chateau was built in the Louis XV style, using only the finest…

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