Mission Martini

My week was starting out just like any other when I received a mysterious email in my inbox. I was invited to Italy to discover Turin, the hometown of Martini. I had a 15 minute window to decide if I could jump on a plane in the next 24 hours and spend the next 3…

Ode to the Ladies Pant Suit of Zanzibar

When fashion has been borrowed from the past over and over again, it’s rare to find something that you haven’t seen before. I was browsing through snippets of a new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, and noticed that among the historic photographs captured throughout East Africa from the 1890s-1920s, there was one…

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Meet the Neighbourhood Slot Car King & Queen of Brooklyn

They’re kind of Brooklyn’s Romeo and Juliet. He was made of slot car stock, and she was, well, not. At least, that’s what she’ll tell you — but it’s clear that Dolores, who’s one-half of the legendary couple behind Buzz-a-Rama, is a slot car queen. “Oh this whole thing?” she jokes, a boot propped up…

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The Kids Who Burned New York

The club kids burned bright and fast. They were the society misfits. The ‘freaks’. A sharp cocktail of young drag queens who built a community out of their craft, and a cast of constantly rotating nightlife characters with one common mantra: be whatever you want, but just don’t be boring. We’re headed back to a…

India’s Utopian “Star Wars” City

Her words rang out for 5,000 to hear, and in 16 languages, on a winter’s day in 1968. It was the inauguration of Auroville, the futuristic utopia in India led by guru Mirra Alfassa, who declared her mission to make “a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace…

Inside the Drawing Board of the Soviet Subway

It doesn’t get much better than this, especially for a morning commute: space-age chandeliers, marble statues, ‘golden’ ornaments, and a floor so clean you lick your lunch clean off it. Well, it’s all a part of the Moscow Metro, which has been shuttling Russians to-and-fro in opulent style since 1935. The stops were designed to…

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

1. In search of the permanent wave… Wireless permanent-waving machine introduced in 1934 by Icall Limited to satisfy a demand for a machine in which there was no direct connection to electricity when the heaters were applied. The heaters were disconnected before applying to the head, known as the “falling-heat” method. Because such heaters started cooling…

How to Save the French Brasserie

I‘m gastronomically-challenged when it comes to the French brasserie. The truth is, I really have no idea if the food is any good because I’m too busy side-eyeing the floor tiles, the typefaces, ogling at the glass ceiling and imagining the entire scene exactly as it was 50 or 100 years ago. Walk into any…

Forget the World Cup, Let’s Play Motor-Ball!

Not to rag on the World Cup or anything, but why run after a football when you can just drive towards it on a motorbike? Well that’s the spirit of Motor-ball, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. All you need to play is 1) a huge inflatable ball, 2) a bike of…

The Unexplained Dancing Plague & Other Epidemics of Yore

The human body is a miraculous piece of machinery. Try as they might, scientists can’t always seem to understand its power — and susceptibility — to the strangest situations throughout history. What happens when a meteorite causes a mental health calamity? Or a laughing epidemic? From ye old French dancing fits, to an entire village…