June 2011
36 posts
Players, Princes, Militars & People from The... →
The Faglianos had measured the unusual feet with a customary precision that borders on devotion. The shape of the boot had been adjusted - a new fit for every foot - in keeping with over one hundred years of tradition. But the man with the six-toed feet died before he could pick up his boots. “I’m sure they would have made him very happy,” says Héctor Fagliano, sincere...
You Haven't Even Heard Of →
Kurt Cobain once said in an interview that long before he’d heard any actual punk rock music, he studied magazine photos of punk musicians and imagined what the music sounded like. It must have sounded to him — who knows? — something like what would later be called grunge.
Instant accessibility leaves us oddly disappointed, bored, endlessly craving more. I’ve often had the experience of...
“…last but not least, Clarence Clemons. That’s right. You want to be like...”
– Bruce Springsteen on Clarence Clemons - via Clarence Clemons: Some special memories from over the years | NJ.com
“Cigarettes & Coffee” - Otis...
Lovely Design, Shame About the Biscuit. →
Writing in 1986, to mark the cookie’s 75th birthday, Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger declared that the Oreo “stands as the archetype of its kind, a reminder that cookies are designed as consciously as buildings, and sometimes better.” Comparing the Oreo to its less successful competitor, the Hydrox, Goldberger notes:
Still, it is the Oreo...
“Although we read with our minds, the seat of artistic delight is between the...”
– Vladimir Nabokov (via dialogues)
“I shall call you visual
And multiply your image.”
– Paul Éluard, from Surrealism and the Book (adapted from frenchtwist)
I Sleep a Lot
I sleep a lot and read St. Thomas Aquinas Or The Death of God (that’s a Protestant book). To the right the bay as if molten tin, Beyond the bay, city, beyond the city, ocean, Beyond the ocean, ocean, till Japan. To the left dry hills with white grass, Beyond the hills an irrigated valley where rice is grown, Beyond the valley, mountains and Ponderosa pines, Beyond the mountains, desert and...
“We were sitting on their front porch, cracking macadamia nuts pulled from the...”
– “We Have No Bananas, by Mike Peed [The New Yorker, January 10, 2011]
1 tag
Midweek Destination Wishlist: Indulgence Divine →
Vittoriosa, Malta/Indulgence Divine
Vittoriosa, or Birgu as the locals refer to it, is an ancient city located on the south side of the Grand Harbour in Malta. It was also once home to the Inquisitors Palace, the headquarters for the Papal Inquisition in 1574, which was built in the Norman period to house the court of Justice.
Indulgence Divine is a “notel”—a 16th century...
WatchAurel Bacs, International Head of the Watch Department, shares his passion and knowledge of the only known matching pair of gold and enamel singing bird pistols. Among the most valuable and important works of art remaining in private hands, the value and ingenuity of these pistols are beyond description and must be seen and heard to be truly appreciated.
*This gets especially interesting...
“Always Waitin’” by The Paris Sisters...
Hot Wheels.
In celebration of their famous 1940 win at the Indianapolis 500 known as the “Boyle Special,” Maserati teamed up with cult Italian bike builder Cicli Montante to create a limited-edition bicycle resembling the victorious fixed head, eight-cylinder 8CTF race car.[via CoolHunting]
“Gouge Away” (Pixies cover) - The...
“Manhattan’s skyline was wrought by the single-minded pursuit of profit and...”
– [“The Point of the Skyline” - New York Magazine]
1 tag
It T-shirt Tuesday, Yo.
Prehistoric chic found on Blood is the New Black.
“Technology is a glittering lure, but there is the rare occasion when the public...”
– A prescient observation by Don Draper, during Mad Men Season 1, Ep. 13 (“The Wheel”).
