Traversing over three kilometers of boardwalk and beach, photographer Ludwig Favre documents a day in the life of Coney Island.
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| Image © Ludwig Favre |
Previously: Amalfi Coast and New York City
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Remembering 'America's Youngest Ambassador'
Samantha Reed Smith was an American schoolgirl from Houlton, Maine. At the height of the Cold War in 1982, when she was just ten years old, she wrote a letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov telling him she was worried about a nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union and asked him what he planned to do to prevent it. Andropov replied that he did not want a nuclear war with the United States or any other country and closed his letter with an invitation for her to visit the Soviet Union. In July 1983 Smith and her family spent two weeks in the Soviet Union, visiting Moscow, Leningrad, and Artek, a children’s camp on the Black Sea.
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| Samantha speaking with the press on her trip to Russia in 1983 |
Yesterday would have been her 50th birthday. Samantha died in 1985 at the age of 13 in a plane crash while traveling with her father but her plea for peace remains as relevant as ever today, as threats of nuclear attack are made during the current war waged by Russia in Ukraine.
The Origins of the Modern Conspiracy Theory
Conspiracy theories like 'Pizzagate' and QAnon seem like a modern phenomenon spread through social media but these theories have been around as long as human beings have existed.
The War in Ukraine Rages On
Four months in and the plight of civilians in Ukraine is dire. Every day people just like you and me are dying. This is a tribute to them.
Bientôt 4 mois de guerre en Ukraine. Hommage aux milliers de vies perdues dans cette invasion insensée. pic.twitter.com/1931TK9RLU
— Maurin Picard (@MaurinPicard) June 22, 2022
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
The Story of a House
Filmmaker Anne Magee Coughlin shares her family's deep roots in Brighton, Massachusetts, their home there, and the changes that threaten its existence.
Via Miss Cellania
Some days …
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| “But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh you can’t help that,” said the Cat. “we’re all mad here.” |
Toiletpaper Street Murals
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| The murals at 4 via Balzaretti in Milan, photo: Andrea Breda |
An entire street was turned into a dreamscape for Milan Design Week 2022. The Via Giuseppe Balzaretti was transformed into a permanent installation by the artist Maurizio Cattelan and the photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, founders of TOILETPAPER magazine whose headquarters are based on this street.
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| Toiletpaper’s Headquarters had already been painted with the iconic lipsticks. photo: Andrea Breda. |
The murals represent many of the brand’s iconic images from their magazine, products and previous collaborations.
More: If It's Hip It's Here
It Started with Muybridge
It Started with Muybridge was produced by the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory in 1964, on the eve of Operation Rolling Thunder, the U.S. Navy and Air Force’s three-year campaign of aerial bombardment against North Vietnam. The documentary begins with a voiceover stating the center’s mission: “research and development for tomorrow’s weapons”. The documentary shows how the famous scientific sequential studies of animal movement done by Edward James Muggeridge (aka Eadweard Muybridge) in the late 1800s contributed to the development of modern weaponry. We watch timelapse experiments with floral blooms and growth before the film cuts to instruments of human annihilation.
A Mother and Daughter Talk About Abortion
This 1987 film by Gail Singer documents an intimate conversation between a mother and her adult daughter on the subject of abortion. They discuss their personal experiences when trying to obtain the procedure before and after the 1969 amendment to the Canadian law.
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Glasshouse Unfolds Like A Flower in the English Countryside
Located in the gardens of an historic property in West Sussex, Heatherwick Studio's Glasshouse is a sculptural and kinetic greenhouse filled with 300 species of subtropical trees and plants.
Read More: Dezeen
When the Allies settled in Berlin (1945)
This footage is in original color and HD before restoring for the documentary Spirit of Liberation (Kronos Media, 2016)
See restored pictures in the trailer for the film.
See restored pictures in the trailer for the film.
(Thanks Bruce!)
Maison Feuillette, France
Built in 1920, the Maison Feuillette in Montargis is the oldest known building still in existence with a timber frame and straw insulation. It is now the headquarters of the French Network of Straw Construction.https://t.co/PhsjSxYbyK#straw #resources #biobased #architecture pic.twitter.com/Zx9fzg70H2
— Pit KUFFER (@KufferPit) June 28, 2022
Battle of Verdun In Lego
The JD Brick Productions YouTube channel creates videos depicting historical events using stop motion animation. This video by Jordan Durrenberger recreates World War I's Battle of Verdun in Lego. The battle in Eastern France was the longest and one of the bloodiest battles of the war .
Date Night
Andrew Interisano's photograph of coyotes roaming the streets of Ontario was the overall winner at Picfair's 2022 Urban Wildlife Photo Awards.
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| “Date Night” by Andrew Interisano (Canada), Picfair Urban Wildlife Photo Awards Overall Winner |
Read more: PetaPixel
Monday, June 27, 2022
Chabutras
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| A closeup of a chabutra in the town of Anjar. |
Photographer Nipun Prabhakar documents the ornamental birdhouses of India, known as chabutras.
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| A chabutra with a crescent moon and star — an Islamic symbol — at its peak. |
See more The New York Times
Nine Letters
In Cristina Müller's Nine Letters,the experience of living far from home is conveyed by letters, and by images of everyday urban life.
via Aeon Videos
The Surgeon Ahead of His Time
James Barry improved conditions for wounded soldiers and performed the first recorded caesarean section by a European in Africa in which both the mother and child survived the operation. Barry kept a secret that was only revealed post-mortem.
Sunday, June 26, 2022
A Doghouse For Eddie
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| image credit: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation |
Frank Lloyd Wright once designed a doghouse for a labrador retriever (no charge).
Read More: designboom
Sunday Links
Kokea Kwok (above) is a photographer and designer who has used bedding and textiles to create a series about our relationship with comfort food.
The Lost Glamour of the Department-Store Restaurant I vaguely remember the dining rooms at Eaton's and Simpsons in Montreal and Toronto. As a kid I thought they were pretty swanky.
Grayson Perry's End Of Covid Bell was made in support of the campaign to Save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
Atomic Bombing: How to Protect Yourself (Thanks Bruce, I feel much safer now)
The newest room at the Swedish Treehotel is suspended among the trees and covered in 350 birdhouses.
When I was a little girl my favourite lunch was Chef Boyardee ravioli with a slice of Wonderbread and butter. Here's the story of how it made its way to our table. (Via Dr. Caligari's Cabinet)
If those adorable little badgers couldn’t make it, what hope was there for the rest of us? Disturbing Biographies of Children's Book Authors
How To Declutter Your Home - Step By Step Guide (I'm going to share this with Mr. Nag)
Remember the days when concerts were free and mostly peaceful? High Times And Green Grass: Stones In The Park
Unai no tomo Catalogues of Japanese Toys (1891–1923)
Paint your nails with Velveeta. I'm a gardener and keep my nails cut almost to the quick so no. Maybe you're interested?
10 Beginner Recipes That Will Teach You to Cook (NYT article)
Colour Footage of the Liberation of Paris (1944)
The liberation of Paris took place from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. Hollywood director George Stevens headed a film unit in the US Army Signal Corps that shot most if not all of this footage.
Saturday, June 25, 2022
Jinmenseki
Jinmenseki is a Japanese word for stones that look like faces. There is a museum in Japan that holds 900 of these rocks.
Éclair Pistache
I want someone to make a Sicilian pistachio eclair for me. (Make sure to use Bronte pistachios grown in the foothills of Mount Etna.)
Via BoingBoing
For The Birds
In collaboration with some of the world’s greatest musicians, artists, and actors, For The Birds: The Birdsong Project includes over 200 tracks of original music and bird-related poetry. In The Gale by Yo-Yo Ma and Anna Clyne is included in the second volume of music supervisor Randall Poster’s five-volume set.
All proceeds from the sale of this collection and supporting events will directly benefit the National Audubon Society's mission to protect birds and the places they need, today, tomorrow, and for all our futures.
The Twelve Tone Method - loved and revered, hated and damned.
"The metaphysics of tones - banned in a single album. This music has never been more compelling than now. addictive!" A production, done in 1977 by Robert Conrad, the founder of WCLV classical radio in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
(Previously posted here 3 years ago)
Friday, June 24, 2022
Japanese Tile Museum
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| Image © Akitsugu Kojima |
The Mosaic Tile Museum Tajimi holds more than 10,000 individual tiles, sample books or boards portraying tile products, tools and utensils, and objects such as wash basins, bathtubs, and export goods.
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| Image © Akitsugu Kojima |
Many of the artifacts were obtained by a few volunteers who set about salvaging tiles from buildings earmarked for demolition, and asking tile factories closing down for product samples.
Read more: Colossal
J'ai Été Au Bal (TRAILER)
This 1989 documentary by Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz is a classic about Cajun/Zydeco music and its evolution. It was remastered by Harrod Blank and Anthony Matt in 2021 and premiered at SXSW.
Get entire film here.
A Working Miniature Of The Beachcombers' Persephone
If you are a Canadian of a certain age you will be familiar with the Persephone, the boat made iconic by CBC’s show The Beachcombers (1972-1990). Now there is a working mini version of it made by YouTuber Pete Kurelek who has a channel featuring his miniature off-road radio-controlled vehicles. Here is a parody of the Beachcombers opening complete with Nick Adonidas (Bruno Gerussi would be so proud):
Thursday, June 23, 2022
575 Wandsworth Road
I came across a post today on Ian Visits about a London house that was bought in 1981 by Kenyan-born writer Khadambi Asalache. For 20 years, he decorated it internally with Moorish-influenced fretwork which he cut by hand from discarded pine doors and wooden boxes. The house was gifted to the National Trust when Asalache died in 2006 and tours are now offered twice a week. I found a remarkable video for those who can't visit the house in person.
Silkworms
Silkworms spin a cocoon with a single strand of silk up to ten city blocks long. Humans have bred these insects into weaving machines that can no longer survive in the wild.
(Thanks Bruce!)
Opel Automobiles In the 1950s
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| 1951-1953 Opel Kapitän |
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| 1953-1954 Opel Olympia Rekord |
 1954 Opel Olympia |
See more: Vintage Everyday
Sisters of the Road
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| Debbie Dingo © Anne Marie Michel |
Anne-Marie Michel's series, Sisters of the Road, documents the remarkable lives of forty female American truckers. She was inspired by a trip across America she took with her mother in 1998 to make a fresh start.
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| Michelle Kitchen © Anne Marie Michel |
Read More: Creative Boom
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Vervet Monkeys Like Cats
Stroking a cat helps reduce human stress levels– apparently, it has the same effect on a troop of vervet monkeys.
(Thanks Bruce!)
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Sisters and Brothers
Today is National Indigenous Peoples Day 2022 in Canada. Here is a powerful short film by Cree artist Kent Monkman that draws parallels between the annihilation of the bison in the 1890s and the devastation inflicted on the Indigenous population by the residential school system.
Summer Solstice 2022 Sunrise
See today's sunrise over the Stone Circle ahead of the longest day of the year.
(PLASTIK)
This short film is made with MeshMinds in association with United Nations Environment Programme to raise awareness to end plastic pollution in South-East Asia.
Directed by Philip Rom
Riding the last Wooden Escalator in New York
Only two exist and one is under repair so this century old mechanical fossil may finally coming to end of its existence!
Monday, June 20, 2022
Technology for Talking
Tech advances have greatly improved lives with very little downside in the area of alternative and augmentative communication aids (AACs).
Via Aeon Videos
The Lost Coloramas
The Colorama was a Kodak advertising campaign. In 1949, these massive backlit transparencies (measuring 18 feet by 60 feet) were designed to introduce Kodak color film to a mass market and promoted a distinct Kodak American lifestyle. 565 Coloramas were displayed at Grand Central Station in New York City. Neil Montanus created many of them.
A few years ago Jim Montanus, Neil's son found a box containing dozens of original Colorama negatives that were never used in Grand Central but are still amazing in their own right.
Around Cape Horn 1928
This film was made by Captain Irving Johnson in 1928, when he was but a swabby before the mast.
(Thanks Bruce!)
Sunday, June 19, 2022
Sunday Links
When his childhood home in Ste. Marie, Quebec was due to be demolished due to flood damage, the creative director of Paprika Design in Montreal honoured those who have lived and visited over many decades. The typography picks up the architectural details of the columns. See more.
Sign in to Small World using your Twitter account and you can view all the people you follow on Twitter on an interactive map.
This does not make sense to me: The Prison Bra Rule
This is what I call collaboration (via Memo Of The Air)
The Smallest International Bridge is just 32 feet long.
LARPing Goes to Disney World Before my friend Bruce sent me this link I was not familiar with the term 'LARPing'. Now I know what it is.
Yoko Ono's Art of Defiance Did celebrity deprive her of her due as an artist?
The Airstream Heritage Center holds a collection of vintage “Silver Bullet” trailers.
These vases by Vanessa Mitrani!
I've already read a few of these and just ordered two that are new to me. NYT favourite summery reads
The Best Bridges to Drive Across (via Perfect For Roquefort Cheese) One that is not on the list is the Irminio Bridge in Sicily. I was a little bit terrified driving across it but it was mighty impressive.
A vision of heaven: A gorgeous collection of John Hinde's photos of rural Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s.
An alternative to expensive and costly cosmetic surgery? Apparently the parasite Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), commonly transmitted through cat feces, can also make people appear more attractive. (Thanks Bruce!)
Birds, dragons, faeries, and more: These miniature automata are adorable.
He left a restaurant because his girlfriend was slurping her spaghetti. Is this man an a**h**e?
When a PVC pipe multi-flute becomes an orchestra (Thanks Bruce!)
Paradise Learned I came across this 12 year old post in my Facebook Memories and I still find it interesting so I thought I'd share it. (Also interesting is the fact that I cannot remember writing it…)
The correct way to open a difficult bottle top You're welcome!
Riding a bike on a highway Sometimes it's faster than a car.
What Men Don't Like About Women Today there's a name for guys like this: incel. (via Memo Of The Air)
Saturday, June 18, 2022
On this Day
A three-day music festival in Monterey CA was wrapping up on June 18, 1967. Here's a documentary about it:
Good Vibrations - Lost Studio Footage
In 1966 rock 'n' roll was changing and "Good Vibrations" sounded like a symphony. It is the last No. 1 song Brian Wilson wrote.
via bookofjoe
Simone Leigh: Sovereignty / Pavilion of the USA at Venice Art Biennale 2022.
For ‘Sovereignty,’ the exhibition in the U.S. Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale of Art, artist Simone Leigh has created a new body of work: sculptures in bronze, ceramic and raffia placed inside and outside the pavilion that highlight the often unseen and unacknowledged labor and resilience of Black women.
Melting Mannequins
Creepy photo of the day: It was so hot in London in 1929 that these wax mannequins in a department store window melted.
This photograph was originally published in the June 1, 1929 issue of “The Sphere,” a British newspaper that ran from 1900 to the 1960s.
Friday, June 17, 2022
One More Try
This experimental skate video shows skateboarders falling multiple times until they finally land their tricks.
Los Angeles Had an Alligator Farm?
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| Public Domain via Los Angeles Public Library |
The Los Angeles Alligator Farm was a major city tourist attraction from 1907 until 1953. Alligators slid down chutes and young children rode the backs of large reptiles outfitted with a saddle.
One Year Of Renovations In 10 Minutes
A British family stumbled upon the Château de Lalacelle in North-West France which had been abandoned for over 40 years and was in a state of extreme disrepair. They saw the potential and took on the painstaking job of restoring it to its former glory.
(Thanks Bruce!)
The Search For Dark Matter
Astronomers think there should be 5 times as much dark matter as ordinary matter – a shadow universe that makes up most of the mass in the universe.
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Happy Bloomsday!
Watch famous Dublin writers embark on their own, slightly disastrous, Bloomsday tour, 1954. The first Bloomsday of renown. Some alcohol was consumed
Read more about their revelry here.
The First Cat Film
Renowned French physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey was also a pioneer of photography and was influential in the history of cinema. The first motion picture to feature a live cat is believed to be his 1894 short where he drops an inverted feline to watch it land on its feet. Marey created the chronophotographic gun which could take twelve consecutive frames a second. This enabled him to study a cat which was dropped from a height in order to see if it always landed on its feet.
(More: Cat Righting Reflex)
Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6
Read more: Public Domain Review
Just When I Thought Airplane Travel Couldn't Get Any More Unpleasant…
I say "no thanks" to this seating. It looks like it would induce claustrophobia and would make me feel even more like an anchovy crammed into a tin.
So why would an airline do this? Núñez Vicente nails it when he says: "It makes money. That's the goal of the airline at the end of the day, not to make your flight better."
Doting Dad Made Charming Books To Teach Daughter To Draw
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| An origami bird made by Pablo Picasso for his daughter from exhibition invitation cards. Photograph: Adam Rzepka © Private collection |
Pablo Picasso was known to borrow the lines of children’s drawings in his artwork. When his daughter, Maya Ruiz-Picasso, was five years old she wanted to learn to draw and her father obliged. Maya's daughter (Picasso's granddaughter) has discovered an extraordinary collection of sketchbooks used by the artist to teach his daughter to draw and colour.
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| A detail from one of Picasso’s sketchbooks for his daughter. Photograph: Marc Domage/© Private collection |
A new exhibition, Maya Ruiz-Picasso, daughter of Pablo, runs until 31 December and includes his many portraits of Maya, personal possessions and photographs, along with the sketchbooks and origami sculptures, which are being shown for the first time. It shows how Maya’s presence nourished and amplified the artist’s fascination with childhood.
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
Squirrel Cinema
Jason Lenzi of Detroit built a movie theater for squirrels, complete with concession stand, marquee, auditorium, and a toilet. It's adorable.
Building The Great Pyramids
John Heisz demonstrates the method he believes was used to construct the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
(Thanks Bruce!)
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Eldorado To The Moon
The music video for Eldorado to the Moon by Michael Nesmith (my favourite Monkee). This music video premiered in the first episode of Television Parts in 1985.
Greywater
In Daniel Lombroso’s “Greywater,” a Queens resident discovers an alleged wildlife- poaching ring in his back yard.
The Feline Ukiyo-e Prints of Utagawa Kuniyoshi
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| Cats Suggested As The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, (1850), woodblock print. Source: WikiArt |
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| Detail from Cats Suggested As The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō showing cats suggesting the towns of Miya (left) and Narumi (right) (1850), woodblock print. Source: WikiCommons |
I love vintage road trips
Rare Kodachrome home movie of trip to California (including shots of San Francisco landmarks such as he Bay Bridge), Pacific Northwest.
(via Memo Of The Air)
Monday, June 13, 2022
The Witkar Project
The Witkar (White Car) was one of the first technology-based carsharing projects in the world. It took place in Amsterdam between 1974 and 1986 and provided daily service for more than 4,000 registered users over those years but the project never got beyond the demonstration phase due to a lack of government support.
Phygital Supermarket
Filmmakers Nix Liu Xin and Zhu Yuting explore the diverse expressions of everyday objects in the virtual world of Phygital Supermarket.
via NOWNESS
Smoking or Non-Smoking?
It's hard to believe that smoking was allowed on airplanes. This mid 1980s Pan Am training video showed flight attendants how to handle a difficult passenger.
via Vintage Everyday
Italian UNESCO World Heritage Archaeological Sites
via Web Curios
Gorgeous Garden Time-Lapse
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| Photo: Marilyn Bellamy |
I have a garden (photo above) and in May and June I'm always amazed by how quickly everything changes from day to day. It's almost like a time-lapse but not quite. This beautiful 4-minute film from the National Geographic channel captures an awakening garden:
How City Design Influences Children
YouTube channel Not Just Bikes tells stories about urban planning and urban experiences from Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Here's a video that explains why he decided to raise his children in Amsterdam rather than in London, Ontario.
(Thanks Bruce!)
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Sunday Links
It's a quilt! Late Day Shadows - Nancy Messier (above)
The Noise of the City a mapped sonification of noise pollution in New York, Paris and London.
The Sphinx House, a modern interpretation of an Egyptian House built in Oxfordshire in 1994, can now be yours for £2,500,000. (via Things Magazine)
"For two years, a flamboyant, out-of-work rock guitarist rode out the pandemic in our Hollywood Hills home. Then, one day, he was gone." The Rock Star Next Door
Bosco Verticale recreated in LEGO (via perfect for roquefort cheese)
Fredrik Gran is a Swedish composer and robotist who explores the potential of mechanical processes using new performative strategies. (In simple terms: robot music) (Thanks Bruce!)
UK's first Stolperstein installed in Westminster. A few years ago I stumbled upon Solpersteine for the Frenkel family in Dordecht Holland.
A chameleon changes colour in the blink of an eye.
A smoking octopus and pointy-eared aliens: LBJ's Presidential Doodles
Solving the Mystery of Harriet Tubman's Family Cabin
Just a couple of parrots talking
How I Learned To Draw Black People Like Me (Thanks Bruce!)
Selling churches to pay for sins: Dozens of Newfoundland churches will be sold to compensate survivors of sexual abuse at Mount Cashel. Catholics are scrambling to buy buildings they thought they already owned.
Batagay, the "gateway to the underworld," has expanded year by year, as the permafrost thaws.
Be Like The Lobster - An interview with narcissistic right-wing Canadian professor, Jordan Peterson. (via Memo Of The Air)
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