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Category / How to start a subculture

Meet the Trendsetting Mystics that gave The Beatles their Psychedelic Style

The Fool left its mark all over the 1960s, but few can match the name to the art today. The Dutch collective of artists and designers who named themselves after a Tarot card that’s often numbered as zero in the deck – as in the first – were unquestionable pioneers of the psychedelic aesthetic that defined…

The Dapper Rebels of Los Angeles, 1966

In the summer of 1965, riots broke out in the Watts neighborhood of southern Los Angeles. Over a six-day period, 34 people were killed, 1,032 injured and over 3,438 arrests were made. In 1966, LIFE magazine revisited the site of the worst riots America had ever seen in its history. The photo essay depicting the…

China’s Bizarre Marriage Market

Blind dates are bad enough but when your own parents take to the streets and advertise your eternal loneliness on public noticeboards, that’s when things probably start to get really bleak. In a sort of online dating nightmare come to life, every weekend in Shanghai at the north end of People’s Park, up to a…

Made in China: European Clone Towns

Taking counterfeiting to a whole new level… Paris in China In the outskirts of Shanghai stands a fake Eiffel Tower overlooking a replica of the Champ de Mars and rows of Parisian townhouses. This is not Disneyland in China, this is the gated community of Tianducheng, built in 2007 by real estate develepors Zhejiang Guangsha…

In the Midst of a Warzone there’s an Afghani Skateboarding School for Girls

Today I learned there’s a skateboarding school in Afghanistan where 40% of its students are female. In a part of the world where little girls are getting shot at for promoting women’s education, that’s a pretty impressive statistic. In a part of the world where little girls aren’t even allowed to ride a bicycle, that’s…

Meet the London Club Kids Who Made Punk Go Pop

Sex, drugs and lots of black eyeliner. Just a regular Tuesday night at the Blitz Club. At the turn of the 1980s, London’s teenage squatters, outcast art school kids and disillusioned punks all descended on a barren Covent Garden in search of a good night out. By simply living out their wildest and wackiest fantasies,…

A Guide to Sheep Pageantry in Senegal

You might think this sounds a little odd but sheep pageantry is in fact not all that different to the dog and cat shows we put on in the western world. In Senegal, sheep and rams are like pets. In 8 households out of 10 in Senegal, there are live-in sheep and rams because it’s…

The Misunderstood Nomadic Women who Danced Their Way to Liberation

Centuries before Betty Friedan and the sexual revolution challenged social mores in the West, the women of the Ouled Nail in Algeria enjoyed the freedom to earn their own fortunes, choose lovers and engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage in a society that placed no shame on these choices – and indeed valued these…

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…

He’s the P.T. Barnum of the Deep South, leading a One-Man Art Movement

Butch Anthony’s cabinet of curiosities, aka the Museum of Wonder, isn’t easy to find. Beyond the help of Google Maps down these sparse backroads of rural Seale, Alabama, you have to rely on Anthony’s hand-drawn map. There’s no sign, just an ordinary black mailbox. Your one clue that you’ve found the place is the address…

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