1. Ron’s Place: England’s secret Outsider Art palace
Behind the facade of this unassuming Victorian villa in the heart of Birkenhead, Merseyside, lies a hidden treasure trove of creativity and passion that was hidden for decades.
This is Ron’s Place, a conventional flat transformed by Ron Gittins into a dazzling shrine of art, drawing from the wellsprings of ancient civilisations and classical beauty. The home, now under the stewardship of the Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust, is a beacon of ‘Outsider Art’, the first in the UK to be given Grade II designation by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England.
Found on The Spaces.
2. A restaurant in Italy offers free bottles of wine to customers who hand in phones
Owner of Al Condominio in Verona says response to the initiative during meals has been very positive.
People will be given the choice to set aside their phone, which will be placed in their own box, under lock and key, at the entrance. They then show the key to the waiter, who serves them their bottle of wine.
“Ninety per cent of customers have opted to leave aside their phones in exchange for wine. It really is a beautiful thing to see people embracing it – they are talking to each other rather than looking at photos or responding to messages on their phone.”
Article found on The Guardian.
3. An archive of 19th century life hacks, courtesy (ironically) of cigarette cards
View the full collection on the New York Public Library, found via Present & Correct.
4. How the Year 2440 Was Imagined in an 18th century French Sci-Fi Novel
Found on Open Culture.
5. Rabbit Hole, a new museum which consists of 40 book-themed dioramas made life-sized
The tale behind a new museum of children’s literature is equal parts imagination, chutzpah and “The Little Engine That Could.”
The Rabbit Hole is a short drive from downtown Kansas City, Mo. Once a tin can factory, its home was also used for storage by a paint company.
Article found on The New York Times.
6. Stevie Nicks Kicking Butt in platform shoes in a 1983 Self Defense Manual
The little-known 1983 book, Hands Off!: A Unique New System of Self Defence Against Assault for the Women of Today, written by Bob Jones, an Australian martial arts instructor who doubled as a security guard for Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Joe Cocker and other stars. Stevie Nicks agreed to take part in a photoshoot where she would help demonstrate the nine mnemonic movements. Jones recalls,” This lady was a professional: in two hours I had a hundred of the most magnificent photos ever offered to the martial arts, and just one would make the cover [above].”
Found on Open Culture and more photos from the out of print book on Voices of East Anglia.
7. Asking a Gen Z About Sex and the City
I think it’s similar to how and why I’m watching Friends. It’s so of its time and everyone’s seen it and it’s something that everyone has been watching for decades. And it’s a part of pop culture. I just want to understand the pop-culture references. There’s a TikTok right now [laughs] … It’s an edit, clips set to music, about Carrie and Mr. Big’s lore. It’s so … beautiful? It’s like, “There Big was, on whatever street, wearing Armani on a Sunday,” and it’s set to “Take My Breath Away.” [She sings.]
So you’re watching it as a source document to better understand TikToks?
That sounds so horrible. [Laughs.] Not to understand TikToks but to relate to most people who have seen it. Like Friends, everyone has watched it and talks about it. Maybe not my generation but yours. I think I enjoy it as an artifact. It’s interesting to look back and try to understand why people liked it so much when it was coming out. A lot of my friends haven’t seen Sex and the City. I wonder what will happen now that it’s more available. But yes, I also wanted to understand the behind-the-scenes of that TikTok.
That’s sort of the quintessential Sex and the City experience. You’re in it. Do you find the show “cringe”?
I don’t think it’s cringe. Just more shocking. Miranda is weird as fuck. She’s always being weird. I’m like, Girl, keep it in the drafts. You don’t have to say all that.
Full Gen Z review on New York Magazine.
8. Parlor Game Skirts, circa 1953
From Life Magazine, Nov 2, 1953, found on Yesterday’s Print.
9. The Soviet Night Witches
The Night Witches was a WWII German nickname for the all female aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment. They would idle the engines near their target and glide to the bomb release point with only wind noise to reveal them. The Germans likened the sound to broomsticks, giving their nickname.
Found on Wikipedia.
10. Yves Tanguy earrings for Peggy Guggenheim circa 1938
Found on the Peggy Guggenheim collection.
11. Can a Film Star Be Too Good-Looking?
Alain Delon, in his prime, was the most beautiful man in the history of the movies. The defining of beauty is a thankless task. It has taxed and eluded professional thinkers, bibulous poets, and writers of billets-doux so cheesily heartfelt that they have to be kept in the fridge. In the dusk of the eighteenth century, Immanuel Kant argued for a disinterested evaluation of beauty—“the beautiful is that which, apart from concepts, is represented as the object of a UNIVERSAL delight”—and was roundly abused, almost a hundred years later, for his presumption:
From the very beginning, we get from our philosophers definitions upon which the lack of any refined personal experience squats like a big fat stupid worm, as it does on Kant’s famous definition of the beautiful. ‘That is beautiful,’ says Kant, ‘which pleases without interest.’ Without interest?! Compare this definition with this other one, made by an ‘artist,’ an ‘observer’ truly capable of aesthetic appreciation—by Stendhal, who once called the beautiful une promesse de bonheur.
Full article found on The New Yorker.
12. Behind the scenes with Wes Anderson
Design photographer Valérie Sadoun has been capturing the artists at work behind Wes Anderson films since 2016. “Wes has the final approval. It’s like Alfred Hitchcock. When Wes starts, everything is already set in his head. Nothing is shot if there’s a detail missing.”
Full article on the Financial Times.