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Category / Editor’s Picks

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

1. Elevator Girls, by Miwa Yanagi, 1994–8 For Japanese artist Miwa Yanagi, “elevator girls” (the hostesses employed to greet shoppers in department stores) have proved a potent means of exploring the role of women in Japanese society. Her first solo show featured various uniformed models standing beside fake elevators, performing ritualised actions. Yanagi expanded upon…

The Factory Girl who Became an Art Deco Ceramics Sensation

When English ceramic artist Clarice Cliff first started designing pottery in the 1920s, her work was so out there, the styled garnered the name “Bizarre.” But the curious and colourful decorative pieces with abstract shapes and pastoral scenes soon gathered an impressive following. Ahead of her time, Cliff’s rise to fame during the mid 20th…

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

1. The Last Glimpses of California’s Vanishing Hippie Utopias Half a century ago, a legion of idealists dropped out of society and went back to the land, creating a patchwork of utopian communes across Northern California. Here, the last of those rogue souls offer a glimpse of their otherworldly residences—and the tail end of a…

The Greatest Movie Starring Mick Jagger, Dali, and Orson Welles That Never Got Made

Once a month at a Parisian café near the Place de la Bastille, you can find a peculiar crowd of characters trying to squeeze into the local bar du quartier, lining up feverishly to meet a silver-haired man, dressed in all-black and promising to give them a tarot reading. You could be easily forgiven for dismissing the scene as…

Wandering Through the Oldest (and Emptiest) Hospital in Paris

Notre Dame has a very unusual neighbour that no one ever visits. If you’re facing the cathedral’s famous facade, surrounded by a sea of tourists and selfie-sticks, turn to your left and spot the blue door behind the chestnut trees, marked “Entrée“. And enter you must! This blue portal opens up to the Hôtel Dieu, Paris’…

Black Debutante Balls: Curtsying with Pride since 1778

Debutante balls, or cotillions, are a centuries old tradition with roots in Europe as far back as the 1700s. The word “debutante” translates to female beginner in French, and refers to a young woman making her debut into polite society. The first of these lavish events was held by King George III in 1780 in…

New York’s Forgotten Outpost of European Aristocracy

The far end of New York’s Long Island is a place filled with secrets. Set against a beautiful backdrop of rocky Atlantic coastline, charming fishing towns, lighthouses and exclusive boatclubs, are hidden places where you’re not allowed to go. There’s the decommissioned Camp Hero in Montauk, an old coastal defence station disguised as a fishing…

Hawaii’s Forbidden Island and the Real-Life Swiss Family Robinson who Controls it

Picture what Hawaii might have looked like before it was colonised; a paradise in the tropics, frozen in time and largely untouched by the trappings of the 21st Century. Welcome to controversial island of Ni‘ihau, also known as “The Forbidden Isle”, depending on who you speak to. Only, you’re not really welcome, unless you’re invited…

Discovering Ancient Roman Ruins in a German Parking Lot

One of the most visited sights in Germany is the Cologne Cathedral (der Kölner Dom) where it’s easy to spot swaths of tourists taking in its Gothic beauty. But what a lot of visitors to Cologne don’t realize is that right underneath their feet is a functional parking garage that happens to have an added…

Postcards from a Seaside Village of Upturned Boat Homes

There’s a sleepy seaside village in France with a small fishing port, a population of less than 3,000 and some very peculiar-looking houses. At a moment’s glance, they could almost appear to be an unfortunate pod of beached orcas, but look again carefully at those unusual roofs. Yes, those are boats … upside down! Local fishermen of Équihen-Plage have lived under scavenged boat hulls here…

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