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Category / Life is Messy

Her Tarot Cards Came to Life

Poking out of the treetops in Tuscany, and spread across Etruscan ruins, is the sparkling masterpiece of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, Il Giardino dei Tarocchi — The Tarot Garden. De Saint Phalle acquired the land in the 1979 through a close friend, and from the get-go her intent was to transform its 14-acres…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 716)

Cauldrons ready? 1. Vintage ephemera from the Talking Board Historical Society Time to get your boards out. More imagery here. 2. Hieroglyphic Lioconcha, a true enigma of the ocean Hieroglyphic Lioconcha is a fascinating species of saltwater clam, native to the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific. It is distinguished by its intricate patterns on the shell…

A Brief Compendium of the Traveling Salesman’s Vintage Sample Case

Unlike most of the vintage stuff we tend to get nostalgic about on this blog, I’m not sure travelling salesmen of yesteryear rapping their knuckles on our front doors is something we’d necessarily want to bring back. While I do like to touch and feel what I’m buying, briefcase-carrying bowler hat-wearing door to door sellers hawking…

The Pagan Wild Men of Europe

Slightly terrifying, right? Not the sort of crowd you want to run into alone, in an empty field, with the sounds of chanting coming from the woods yonder. But don’t worry, they only come out at Christmastime to haunt the innocent souls of children. You see, while the rest of us are celebrating the most magical time…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 715)

1. Currently lusting after these 3D animal portraits: Immediately must have these at the Cabinet. Stay tuned. See more of the artist’s work here. Found while browsing this incredible home in India on AD Magazine. 2. French Kissing by Edouard Boubat We all know that famous kiss of Robert Doisneau, but I found these portraits…

Uncovering Hollywood’s 1920s “Antichrist” Photo Shoots

Somewhere in a dark room almost a century ago, an image emerges of a woman with her skeleton lover. Beside it, another of a gyrating goblin, a pin-up worthy witch, or some other creature from the wonderfully twisted mind of photographer William Mortensen. Today, Mortensen is praised as a pioneer of his profession, a Tim…

America’s First Planetarium is Hoarding the Ultimate Cabinet of Curiosities

I’ve caught the collector’s bug again. What is it this time? Antique astronomy tools. And I’m blaming it on the Adler Planetarium, the first in America and home to one of the world’s largest collections of historic scientific instruments. It all began when I stumbled upon their online collections, a dangerous rabbit hole for those of us…

Did Glam Rock Wrestling Give Bowie and Elton Their Style?

Before Ziggy played guitar, Adrian Street pounded the ring (and the makeup counter) in silver tights. The pro-wrestler changed the game forever in the 1960s when he decided the game needed more panache. More glitter. More glam. He emerged from his chrysalis, that of the former coal miner and man’s man that he was, like…

The Extraordinary Guests of Charles Babbage’s Saturday Night Soirées

Forget your standard 19th-century dinner parties, where everyone sat around sipping sherry and discussing the weather. If you were lucky enough to snag an invite to Charles Babbage’s Saturday night scientific soirées, you were in for a wild ride through the brainiest and most bizarre conversations that Victorian London had to offer. Picture a mad…

A Love Letter to the Lost World of the Parisian Pneumatic Post

Years before the Paris Métro opened, there was another subterranean transport system rattling away beneath the city streets. Instead of messages floating around in the internet ether of apps and social networks, if you wanted to send a note to someone in your city in the 19th century, you tube. A network of sealed lines…

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