This Italian Prison has its own Designer Restaurant

When you are looking for somewhere to go out for dinner a prison probably isn’t the first place you would think of. However, this unique restaurant may change your mind… Located inside the largest prison in Piedmont, Italy, Casa Circondariale Lorusso e Cutugno, with over 1300 inmates, ‘Liberamensa’, which literally translates to “free canteen,” offers…

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

1. England’s Smallest Castle is For Sale This is Molly’s Lodge, a Grade II Listed castle that sits on a 0.61 acre plot of land near the village of Long Compton in Warwickshire. Originally a gatehouse for the Weston Park Estate on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, Molly’s Lodge was built by the famous…

A Book Lover’s Guide to the Literary Bars of New York

For those who like their evening tipple with a literary twist, Manhattan is resplendent with bars where famous writers once visited. Whether to seek inspiration over a Sazerac, or escape over a Gin Fizz, some of these bars have become synonymous with some of the great writers of the 20th century, whilst others remain unnoticed.…

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This Ghost Town was aiming Nuclear Missiles at America from just 200km Away

When looking at abandoned places, I often think, ‘how sad’, and, ‘if only it could come back to life’. This place? Not so much. This is the secret Soviet city of Gudym, which once held enough nuclear weapons to wipe out half a continent. And during the height of the Cold War, had things gone south,…

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The Underappreciated Art of Imaginary Wastelands

It’s my party and I’ll geek out if I want to and today I dove into the world of concept art, depicting dying, abandoned, lifeless, or post apocalyptic landscapes … as you do. On the endless rabbit hole that is Reddit.com I found a few sub forums dedicated entirely to imaginary wastelands and I got…

An Ode to Vintage Book Design

You may or may not be aware that I’m coming out with a book in July 2017, an atypical guide book about Paris, the city where I’ve been writing this blog to you for the past seven years. It’s currently in the design stage, specifically, the cover design stage, and I’ve found myself burrowing through Pinterest for inspiration…

America’s “Secret Sonic Weapon” Against Communism

This is the story of that time the United States decided to influence countries “at-risk” of falling to communism … by introducing them to jazz. In a Cold War “Jazz Ambassador” initiative, they sent famed artists such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Galespie, and Duke Ellington, among others, to share “their Western music” and to hopefully, introduce some American…

This Flapper’s Dollhouse Cost More than Most People’s Homes

Of her most famous film, Jazz Age icon F. Scott Fitzgerald proclaimed, “I was the spark that lit up Flaming Youth, Colleen Moore was the torch.” She was a chief rival of Clara Bow and became one of the highest-paid and most fashionable movie stars in 1920s Hollywood. Colleen Moore had two passions: movies and dolls. Over…

Italian Summer Nostalgia with the Original Talented Mr. Ripley

If you didn’t grow up with French films, there are some real gems to be discovered from the ‘Nouvelle Vague’ golden age of French cinema. One of my most recent ‘how-have-I-never-seen-this’ moments came while watching Plein Soleil (a.k.a. Purple Noon), the original film adaption of Talented Mr. Ripley, starring French sixties heartthrob, Alain Delon in his first major role.…

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

1. Middle Class Harlem in the 1920s & 30s “In a controversial show, photographer James VanDerZee revealed middle-class Harlem to the wider world. It drew record crowds to the museum [Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1969]. And while it incited a picket line of protesters disparaging the show as a culturally patronizing and racist white man’s view…