A lighthouse of the mind:
Pharos, the ancient lighthouse of Alexandria that was slowly destroyed by a succession of earthquakes, now exists only as a conjectural work.
Source: invisiblestories
The Globe Céleste at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris “catered for armchair space-travellers: spectators leaned back in easy chairs while panoramas depicting the solar system were rolled past.”
The Globe Céleste was a giant planetarium. It was part of Paris’ 1900 world’s fair, which introduced to the world: escalators, the Eiffel Tower, Ferris wheels, Russian Nesting Dolls, Campbell’s Soup, Diesel engines, talking films, and the Telegraphone. The fair was largely in the Art Nouveau style.
More on the 1900 exposition on Wikipedia.
Mardi Gras Float from New Orleans in the 1880s.
More here: http://www.retronaut.co/2012/07/mardi-gras-floats-new-orleans-1880s/
(via Retronaut)
In 1997 Plymouth, the capital of Caribbean island Monserrat, was overwhelmed by volcanic eruptions and abandoned. Two-thirds of the population went abroad and never returned. The eruption continues today, and although visitors are not allowed into the ‘exclusion zone’, the destruction of Plymouth can be seen from the top of Garibaldi Hill in Isles Bay.
From a live show by A Number of Young Lovers recorded in the living room of 4A Hartington Rd, Brighton, UK. This song begins with birth and then tracks back through evolutionary stages… Also, I’d just started a new job with an old friend of mine. I hadn’t seen him since primary school and he had grown up to look almost exactly like Rod Stewart.
Lyrics
I was born…
I was born
a swimmer.
Before I was born
I was a swimmer.
I’m a whale who walked right into your heart.
I’m a monkey filled with opinions on art.
I’m a swimmer,
oh.
Urine stings my leg.
Your best friend from school
grows up to look like Rod Stewart.
Rod Stewart,
yeah.
A good sleep is not one in a courtroom.
I was born with water and a cord on.
A good sleep is not one in a courtroom.
I was born with water and a cord on.
Let’s roll around in our underwear.
I was born without whiskers and hair.
From a live show by A Number of Young Lovers recorded in the living room of 4A Hartington Rd, Brighton, UK. This first track is called Let Your Feet Do The Thinking, and it is about a girl who was obsessed with two famous quantum physicists. I was born on the same day in the same hospital as her. The two physicists were fantastically intellectual, but failed to reconcile their personal differences when they might have quite easily done so. In the end, the girl ran away and we never saw her again.
Lyrics
I’ve never
seen you as
angry with
anyone
as you were with
Heisenberg that night.
Though their handedness
paired perfectly
their innermost
ghosts chose
to keep themselves hidden.
Great minds
are dubious assests.
Idiot hearts
can break down a marriage.
Your mother said
if she could
spit well
his mother would
be her first target.
Her hands rest
on the handlebars,
the test left
her head starved,
her feet got to moving.
Let your feet do the thinking.
Some things
are so serious
that one can
only joke about them.
