Bubbles they bounce

Photo by Melvin Sokolosky

After the Flood

Sopha

I'm looking for a new sopha.  I want this one:

I imagine myself spending countless hours reading on it.  If you know of one that costs 100 rupees, call me.

We want YOU to join the Steampunk movement!

Didn't you know we are in the middle of the Steampunk movement!?!

Me neither.  Until three days ago when doing intensive online "researching."

Well, ladies and gentleman, according to the steampunkopedia (no, I'm not making this up), Steampunk is defined as:

"Everything Jules Verne could have written. Everything H.G. Wells should have written. Everything A. Conan Doyle thought of but never published because it was too fantastic. "

~Frank Chadwick, 1988

 

Steampunk is an entirely modern aesthetic born of disenchantment with the world-that-is and a desire to create an ephemeral world-that-never-was. It combines the Victorian, the modern, and the fantastic.

~Sister Shuriken of Sweet Reason

 

Am I the last person to hear about this?   There's a really informative article about it from Time, written by Lev Grossman (writer of The Magicians...yes Micah, that's the book I gave you, the one getting dusty on your bookshelf) that really clarifies it for those of us still trapped in the modern age.

 

This keyboard for a laptop is AMAZING.  You can find more transformations on this webpage. I suggest you check it out.

 

 

 
Now grab your pipe, violin and partner-in-crime and join me for Heaven's sakes!

Mother?

Comrade's Quest

The evening last I watched the sprawling drama, Reds, about Jack Reed and Louise Bryant, writers during the time of the Great War.  They took initiative to go the action in Russia during the Bolshevik uprising and became notables for the Communist Party.  Go see it!

Now see the above photo of Jack Nicholson playing Eugene O'Neill?  Look past the mustache, to the  beautiful room he sits in.

Well, this short section of the movie spent at a gorgeous beach house with creative types in Cape Cod, got me thinking.  The house they used was perfect:  Light, airy, filled with books, linens and whitewashed walls.  So often seaside homes are left feeling light, airy and...stagnant.

(Trust me, I grew up five minutes from the beach. Bouys in the front yard as decor?? Pourquoi?)

Anywho, my quest for images of homes by the sea that look bookish, elegant and lived in (YEARround) begins!  Here is what I've gathered as of yet:

Now go netflix Reds, pause on the scenes of the cottage, observe and leave your report on my desk first thing tomorrow.

Class dismissed.

Self-Portrait as The Thing in the Forest

Julie Heffernan

Candlelit Cads

Who wants to join me as I journey back in time?

Eric Fortune

Astonishingly almost Art Deco.  More hither.

Decidedly Decadent

via {this is glamorous}

Isis Moriendo Renascor

"When I woke it was to a vision of paradise: through the window was the Mediterranean, even bluer than in the postcards.  And there were the square sun-baked houses, the red earth, the grey-green vegetation, the palm trees.  My throat was as dry as ashes, I was coated with a mixture of soot and sweat and aching all over; but the sight of that tideless ocean, mother of gods and men, nurse of poetry, changeless grandiose fact of the ancient world, made me dizzy with joy."

-John Glassco

Reading this last night with the wind and rain spitting at my window was such a nice reminder of the trip I took with my sister when I was 16 to the Cote d'Azur.  One village, Eze, perched atop a high mountain like "a phoenix on a bone," overlooking what seems to be the entire province and Monaco, was pure Mediterranean magic. I surely hope these photos capture the panoramic views combined with the quaintness of it all.  This had Monte Carlos beat with aces.

The title of this post comes from the village motto:

"In death I am reborn"

Calcutta Blues

The new soundtrack to my life, thanks to Lenaya:

Chris Barber-Petite Fleur

Breathless

My dear Marc,

We've certainly had our ups and downs, but I'd like to say that we can remain apart no longer.  Your latest show for Louis Vuitton has left me gasping for air and clutching my bossom.  This is not to be born.  The beauty you've shown will forgive all previous sins.  It's a tender reminder of when I first found fashion, alone at that lunch table, and you were my greatest icon.

I'll be waiting at the secret spot,

D-H

Quintette du Hot Club de France

Wanted: Working Time Machine

"Won't you dance with me, prance with me...

...be my pal on the Place Pigalle."

I try not to be a judge-a-book-by-it's-cover sort of fellow but the other day at the library THIS was on the display shelf:

I had to do everything in my power not to triple toe lux over the circulation desk to grab it! It's SO good. 1920's Paris. Literary crowd. Stein, Toklas, Hemmingway, Man Ray, McAlmon and the Surrealists. Beautiful writing to boot.

What more do you need?

The world's in slumber..

I'm have a difficult time commenting on certain blogs. Is anyone else having this issue?

There's something wild about you child

(from National Portrait Gallery)

Favored guests from Towne are descending to the country estate this weekend! Must brief servants, clear grounds, stock bubbles, bathe dachshund and other perfections. I wish life could always be like this weekend and look like the above picture of the BYT's of yore.

A huntress for a husband lost at sea

from Chateau Thombeau

Decieving Davis

A year ago I must have put all of Bette Davis' movies on my netflix queue, because for the last few weeks it seems she's in EVERY movie I get. Does anyone else have an exorbitant amount of films on their queue as well? It's taxing.

Want to hang out tonight?

Nope, I have to work on my queue.

Well, my favorite so far is Deception. A film noir filled with shadows, infidelity, classical musicians, Mid-century lofts and of course, Deception.

I was also impressed that she actually played the piano in a few scenes, instead of the chest shot with the hands waving helter skelter thats the norm. Pet Peeve.

Black Powder

After seeing some amazing black Art Nouveau tiles this weekend and this picture, wouldn't it be nice to have Gothic latrine?

from: Design*Sponge

Funny Face

If you're anything like me, when you were little and made a weird face, your charming wise-ass mother would tell you, "Watch out I knew someone who's face stuck like that!" (insert Kennedian accent)

It's not my fault my parents thought it a good idea to get rid of TV, depending on books and front-of-mirror-laughing to keep me busy!

Well, I'm pretty sure after making these faces for years, mine's about to stick. My jaw gets locked like this:

When a story shocks my constitution, my brow freezes like this:

Or if I'm bored with the story about how you know Liza Minelli, I look like this: