13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 674)

1. How to do a Picnic in the Mountains Found via the Hobnob Journal / Hobnob Mountain Club. 2. These surreal clocks by Mexican designer Pedro Friedeberg (circa 1980s) Found here. 3. The World’s First Portable Record Player (1924) Found on Open Culture. 4. Elvis & Frank Sinatra singing “Love me Tender & Witchcraft” in 1960 5. Imagine…

How to Introduce Agnès Varda to the Next Generation

Agnès Varda throughout her career was seen as belonging to the older generation. A pioneering photographer, writer, filmmaker and artist, at the beginning of her career and at barely 30 years old, she became known as the “grandmother of the New Wave.” But Varda was the cool kind of grandmother, the one with a thousand…

Being Bad with the Bouzingos: The First and Naughtiest of the Bohemian Subcultures

To be a Bouzingo was to be a part of a counter-culture group that wouldn’t go down in history, but would give birth to bohemianism as we know it. A mere footnote of the Belle Epoque, and yet this group of young and wild creatives of late 19th century Paris defined and changed the avant-garde…

Guitars, Wash Boards, and Tea Chests: How Skiffle Became the 1950s Punk

Before rock and roll would sweep through the landscape and the consciousness of the youth, a forgotten musical genre held a nation in its grip. A rhythmic, urgent music of expression and movement that was simple and accessible due to the addition of improvised homemade instrumentation, it let anyone form a band, and many did. In…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 673)

1. This miniature artist Discover more on A House of Wonders found via This isn’t Happiness. 2. East Berlin Factory Girls In 1984, the German photographer Helga Paris spent several weeks at a state-owned clothing factory in East Berlin capturing female employees and their ‘unforeseen beauty’. More photos found on The Guardian. 3. These handbags…

Everybody who was Anybody had Dr. Feelgood and his Speed Shots on Speed Dial

What do Elvis, President John F. Kennedy (and Jackie), Alfred Hitchcock, Truman Capote, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe all have in common? Apart from the obvious cultural and historical significance, they all shared a special relationship with Dr. Max Jacobson or as he would later become known, ‘Dr. Feelgood’. Private physician to the rich and…

An American Gigolo in Europe

Whatever that intangible ‘It’ factor is, the gods bestowed it on Denham ‘Denny’ Fouts in disproportionate quantities. He was blessed with more natural-born charisma than Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt and The Talented Mr Ripley put together. Denny Fouts exuded a carnal mojo of the kind that compelled a Greek king, German baron and a…

Good Luck to the History Teachers who tackle the Narrative of Native Americans in Uniform

From the earliest colonial conflicts to the present day, the participation of Native American tribes and nations in American military campaigns spans a complex tapestry of alliances, conflicts, and shifting loyalties. But in our collective knowledge, so much of it is simply history unaccounted for. When we’re taught about that time America nearly split in…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 672)

1. Portraits from the Back of a Grocery Store in Mid-Century Algeria Lazhar Mansouri (1932-1985) was an Algerian photographer active from the late 1950s through the 1970s in Aïn Beïda (Aurés Mountains region, Northern Algeria). During this period, he owned and operated a photography studio and created an archive of local everyday people and rarely…

What the Hell is a Zine anyway? A Counterculture Crash Course Guaranteed to Make You Cooler

Let’s say you’re at a party, the air is thick with smoke and some cool cat on the couch looks at you funny and asks, “hey dude, do you even know what a zine is?” Don’t panic. Lean in close, clear your throat and remember: zines are whatever you want them to be and that’s…