13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 709)

1. The Making of Alex Chinneck’s new looping barge He’s the same guy who made the famous sliding houses & more. More of the “how it was made” on his Instagram. Found via Present & Correct. 2. This great little place, in Hatcher Pass, Alaska Photographs by Kelsey Hayden. How to stay here. 3. Inside…

The Flickering Portal to a Forgotten World of Personal Screens

It appears we’ve come full circle. Picture a time before smartphones, Youtube, Tik Tok, streaming services, or even the modern movie theater as we know it — a time when a few moments of visual entertainment involved peeking into a mysterious, boxy machine and cranking a handle. Back in the late 19th and early 20th…

Mostly, this Secret Masonic Order Just Wants to Have Fun

We do love a good plunge into worlds apart – filled with secret society conspiracies and folks living off-grid or on the fringes of society. The latest curious collective to pique my interest is perhaps the quirkiest of masonic orders, called “The Shriners”, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 708)

1. This excellent Twitter (X) thread about a labyrinthine magical bookstore in Syracuse, NY And then a hero of the labyrinthine magical bookstores of the world put all the bookstores that people listed in the replies on a map! Link to the first tweet in the thread. But a reader informed us that the bookstore…

Name that Aesthetic: The Romance and Ruins of Lost Civilizations

If it took you this long to identify one of the most epic genres of art history, welcome to the club. We must have skipped class that day. The aesthetic: a lost civilization – its crumbling and vaguely familiar architectural forms dramatically lit by a sunset backdrop, and in the foreground, a congregation of folks…

Lake Maggiore’s Treasure Island of Marionettes

On the serene waters of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, nestled among the Borromean Islands, lies Isola Bella, a place where history, art, and nature converge. While the island is renowned for its opulent Baroque palace and terraced gardens – including six incredible shell-encrusted grottos – there’s a lesser-known treasure within the walls of Casa…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 707)

1. A new hotel in Rome designed by Luca Guadagnino, director of Call Me By Your Name The Palazzo Talìa is 26 rooms and the Challengers director designed its public spaces and one of its suites. Book it here. Found via Will O’Connor on X. 2. Bulgarian beach bar sarcophagus turns out to be genuine…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 706)

1. The marbelised “Literatur” passageway in the Museumsquartier in Vienna Free to wander through, the mural (painted by Austrian artist Johanna Kandl) is inspired by the marbled endpapers used in Baroque book production. The vending machine dispenses literature written by young Austrian writers. Found on the Tess Newall Studio. 2. A Time Capsule Department Store…

The Ancient (and very Naked) Olympics

The original Olympic games got cancelled for 1500 years because … well … everyone was naked. The Ancient Greek Olympic Games, held from 776 BC to 393 AD, so that’s nearly 10 times longer than the modern Olympics have been running (since 1896), were celebrated almost entirely in the nude. While today’s spectators are used…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 705)

1. The oldest functioning planetarium in the world Hidden behind a pocket-sized door in a doll’s house-like building in the sleepy Dutch town of Franeker is a room so unique that even a King was star-struck. Explore the extraordinary world created by wool weaver turned astronomer, Eise Eisinga. His creation of a fully functioning planetarium in…