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

1. Crow Native Americans watching the rodeo at Crow fair in Montana, 1941 Colorisation by Sanna Dullaway. 2. The first kiss captured on camera was between two women in 1887 (contrary to Edison’s “The Kiss” film, widely accredited to being the first, 9 years later) “The First Naked Kiss On Camera: Eadweard Muybridge, Sex And…

The Wholesome Lost World of Competitive Barrel Jumping

Whilst exploring the abandoned Grossinger’s holiday resort in New York’s Catskill mountains one last time before it was torn down, something caught our eye in the crumbling ruins of what had once been the ice skate house. Propped up against the wall was a large wooden sign that had been left behind. Dusty like a…

Digging Up Egypt’s Not So Ancient WWII Surrealist Movement

Cairo, 1938. Around 140,000 British troops occupied the city, and World War II was ready to burst. Thirty-seven artists and writers gathered to fight against a rising Fascist ideology, British colonial rule, and the local conservative art scene. The first inklings of Surrealism already simmered under Egypt’s troubled surface, as artists and writers corresponded with…

An Ode to the Lonely Bandstand

‘A bandstand is, merely an empty shell unless music is played upon it,’ so laments Pavilions for Music, a website dedicated to the humble bandstand. Indeed, these empty shells with their elaborate ironwork and faded glamour, rushed past by commuters, utilised as climbing frames by children, smoked upon by teens and generally taken for granted…

The Vault

The Paris Off-Beat Winter 2022 Guide

Despite inflation and skyrocketing energy prices, The City of Lights isn’t going dark during the holidays, but instead is relying on LED lights and shorter hours (ie turning off all of the lights before midnight) to maintain the usual festive mood throughout the city. Let’s start planning your winter in Paris… Eating & Drinking your…

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

1. Living Paintings By Thierry Mandon 2. Joan Didion’s belongings from her NY apartment are up for auction See the catalogue here. 3. The New Yorker’s List of Best Books of 2022 so far If this list doesn’t get you back into reading, I don’t know what will. 4. This Instagram account is “a Love…

An Off-the-Curriculum Introduction to BDSM & Fetish Art History

A little slap and tickle – kinky or otherwise – has been good medicine for us down the ages. Public consumption of the practice of BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadochism and Masochism) really came into its own during a ‘golden age’ of fetish art in the mid 20th century. Fetish art has…

100 Rooms and 70 Secret Doors: Washington DC’s Quirkiest Secret

When most people think of secrecy in Washington, DC, they probably think of the FBI, the CIA or the Pentagon. But just south of Embassy Row, nestled behind the façades of five row houses, there stands an icon of kitsch, African American history, and rock and roll: the Mansion on O Street. Is it a…

Meet the Mama of Dada

We need to talk about Beatrice Wood. The last surviving member of the American Dada movement, the ceramicist, the artist, the writer, the actress, the lover, and let’s not leave out, the inspiration behind the headstrong character of “Rose” in the movie Titanic. Beatrice was born at the end of the 19th century, and died…

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

1. A Parisian Apartment For Sale in the Iconic Art Nouveau Hector Guimard Building The 4th floor apartment is asking 840,000 euros, found on Architecture de Collection. 2. These Incredible Miniatures by Aida Pravia Found on Etsy. 3. Virtual Reality from the Year 1830 4. Cool Stuff they Used to Paint on Bass Drum Heads in…