1. The Empty Louvre
Paul Almásy, a Hungarian photojournalist who immigrated to France in 1934. Almásy’s photograph was taken at the Louvre Museum in Paris, articulating the theme of artworks needing to be remembered by documenting an actual historical event. In 1938 with the threat of war looming, the Louvre curators, under the direction of the museum’s deputy head Jacques Jaujard, were compelled to evacuate the entire museum collection, moving it to châteaux deep in the French countryside and away from imminent danger.
In Almásy’s photograph we can see the artist names and inventory numbers for each absent painting inscribed inside the empty frame apertures. Clearly, while the image is suggestive of loss, there was hope too in the form of an expectation that all the works would return and be re-installed in their original locations.
Found on This isn’t Happiness.
2. Muhammad Ali’s childhood home (a museum) is for sale
Co-owner George Bochetto told the Associated Press that ‘finding a buyer willing to maintain Ali’s childhood home as a museum would be “the best possible result’”. The Louisville property at 3302 Grand Avenue is listed for $1.5m via Christie’s International Bluegrass. It actually encompasses three homes—Ali’s family residence plus two neighbouring homes, one of which was converted into a welcome centre and the other envisaged as a short-term stay. The museum opened shortly before Ali’s death in 2016.
Found on The Spaces.
3. A Tumblr dedicated to peculiar sitings on Google Street View
Browse more on 9 Eyes (found via This isn’t Happiness).
4. China’s landscapes seen through the frame of train windows
An instagram feed by Thomas Chu, found via Present & Correct.
5. Some obvious but great travel advice
- Mindset matters more than where you go.
- There’s not much point in packing light unless everyone is packing light.
- A restaurant in some out-of-the-way neighborhood will likely pursue a make customers happy strategy. But a cafe across the street from the Colosseum will probably use a get people in the door strategy—no matter how good the food is, most people will never come back, so resources invested in making them happy after they’ve committed to pay are “wasted”. Don’t blame them, blame the remorseless market forces they’re trying to survive under.
- Travel isn’t always fun. Obviously, planes and airports aren’t fun. But just being in a foreign place is often kinda alienating. So don’t expect constant fun.
- If you spend a ton of money and stay in very expensive hotels and whatever, you can eliminate almost all of the frustration and uncertainty of travel. But it also feels like you never leave the global capitalist monoculture.
- In touristy places there are often nature things (hikes, beaches, views) that make it into guidebooks and become insanely crowded while there are almost equivalent things nearby that are nearly empty.
- Buses have much more interesting views than subways.
- You’re really, really better off not drinking alcohol on long flights. It screws with your sleep when your sleep least needs to be screwed with.
Read the full list on Dynomight.
6. This seaside Scottish holiday rental lets you live out your bookselling dreams
The Open Book is both an Airbnb rental and a bookshop. It lets travelers from around the world live out their bookseller fantasies. You can spend a week in the dreamy Scottish town and dip your toes into the world of running a bookstore—without having to commit to becoming a business owner.
Found on Atlas Obscura.
7. This Swedish dollhouse from 1912
Four-storied, features a functioning elevator made out of the metal innards of a clock and electric lighting in all its rooms. Crafted by one very patient and generous John Carlsson for his younger sister, it also housed a telephone that rang; a mini typewriter, sewing machine, and chandelier; and 30 dolls.
Found on Mansions of the Gilded Age.
8. A very honest article about “Medium” Friendships
Medium friends are genuine friends. You share history (such as the same alma mater), circumstances (an employer) or interests (rude jokes, the royals, thrifting or squash). Medium friends make you laugh, bring news, offer insights or expertise. But, unlike the closest friends, medium friends test the limits of your time, love and energy. There are only so many dinners in a week, so many people with whom you can be incessantly texting. Medium friends prove the lie in any naïve attempt to be all things to all people […]
The anxious silences around medium friendship are recognizable to anyone who has ever fibbed about the duration of a business trip to postpone a date in the calendar, and to anyone who has heard “I’ll call you” too many times. The stakes increase in crises or celebrations, when the lack of clarity — and any lopsidedness — reveals itself. In a personal emergency, the inner circle knows to rush in, while the acquaintances feel safe to commiserate from the sidelines. But the medium people orbit in a wobbly way, unsure of their obligations around how, when or even whether to act.
Read the full article on the New York Times.
9. British Interiors Painter Anna Alma-Tadema (1867-1943)
Found here.
10. This lampshade
Found on Anthropologie.
11. The stone phalluses of Pompeii, Italy – pointing to the nearest brothel
As Pompeii was a port city, it’s assumed that these were to direct foreign sailors who may be heavily intoxicated and/or unable to speak the local language. In the ancient Roman empire, Prostitution was legal and did not have the stigma that it has today. Because Pompeii was a port city, sailors commonly visited the brothels to blow of some steam after a long voyage.
More found on the dirty secrets of Pompeii here.
12. Spiral Turbine or Time Machine?
Answer: Fibonacci Spiral Turbines from the 1930s, found on Google images from the German National Archives.
