Japan’s Ancient Attitude to Sex was Way Freakier than you’d Imagine

At a glance, the picture looks perfectly innocent: a 19th century, posh portrait of woman sipping tea. Upon closer examination, we learn she’s made up of entangled copulating bodies. Welcome to the fascinating world of ye olde Japanese erotica. Known as “shunga” (春画), the genre flourished in the Edo period (1600s-1800s), and the artworks didn’t…

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

1. Monday Mood Dancing ladies on overhanging rock in Yosemite Park, 1890s by George Fiske. Found on Calisphere. 2. Viktoria Modesta after her burlesque show Bionic Woman at Crazy Horse, Paris Modesta was born in Latvia in 1988 where she learned singing aged six at a local music school. Due to a doctor’s negligence at her birth, Moskalova spent most…

Where has the Dystopian Wonderland of Taxandria been Hiding all Our Lives?

Our dreams have always remained an ineffable, un-shareable experience – the kind of thing we can describe, but never quite convey to the fullest. Then, we saw Taxandria. The 1994 film by Belgium’s Raoul Servais is the closest we’ve felt to stepping inside a world that feels just as slippery, strange, and intuitive as our…

A Surprising Compendium of Car Phones Dating back to the 1940s

Am I one of the few who didn’t realise where the name Motorola originated from? The American telecommunication company’s first commercial product was a radio made for motor vehicles in the 1930s, and in 1946, it was Motorola equipment that carried the first calls on the Bell System’s new radiotelephone service for motor vehicles. This too,…

The Pearly Wonders of Renaissance Bling

Pearls have always been in a league of their own. As souvenirs from the depths of New World waters in the 15th century, they were simply something diamonds, emeralds, and rubies could never be: alive. Pearls were ghostly. They were animal, and alien. They ushered in a quiet war and a “Pearl Rush” of their…

Oh, Just an Utterly Insane Japanese Robot Restaurant

There are themed restaurants, and then there’s Japan’s Robot Restaurant, which will steam roll your brain with glow sticks, techno, and robots. Running counter to the Japanese cultural rubric usually shown, it’s a space age Cirque du Soleil on acid or a cyberpunk Moulin Rouge that gives a mind-blowing taste for bedazzled silliness and whimsical…

The Mysterious Magic of Waterfalls

Waterfalls – nothing more, nothing less. This is a brief compendium of gelatin silver and antique postcards found in various archives, dedicated to one of nature’s most beautiful gifts. Maybe one of them can inspire your next adventure, or at the very least, just give your mind a cool break in the heat of summer.…

The Art of French Kitsch and its Eccentric Parisian Queen

As a decorator, the late Madeleine Castaing embodied over-the-top luxury and la vie bohème. As a patron, no – diva – of the arts, Castaing’s eye for excellence helped sponsor some of the greatest artists of all time, from Soutine to Modigliani. During the height of World War II, she opened an extravagant boutique behind…

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

1. A Village in Provence, Abandoned over a century ago The Bories Village is nestled on a low mountain in the Vaucluse region near Avignon, now classed as a historic monument, giving a priceless account of the way of life in Provence. The group of 30 stone huts, called ‘Les Cabanes’ in local parlance, include…

Inside the Beat Hotel of Paris

“I lay there on the floor, he makes love to Nanette all night, as she whimpers,” wrote Jack Kerouac, recalling the night he slept in Room 41 of a Parisian “fleabag” in the Latin Quarter that his friend and fellow poet had christened “The Beat Hotel”. Gregory Corso, the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers,…