Taking its inspiration from the original Playboy Club, located in downtown Chicago, this DIY built music wall is not only a homage to the electronic entertainment wall that was installed at the Chicago club in 1964 but also takes it one step further by enhancing it with modern technology. The designer was determined to have a room to call his own and used his carpentry skills to create something that would look like going back in time, but keeping all modern conveniences and high fidelity.

The original Playboy club featured bunnies serving cocktails and live performances by legendary names such as Sid Ceasar, Ray Charles, Count Basie, Bob Hope and Mel Tormé. This modern version sadly does not come with any bunnies or with crooners. (Via)

Time again for changes here at Ultra Swank. This is the forth major revision of the website since its launch in 2005. This time I have focused primarily in usability, speed and presentation of the content. Both images and videos are now displayed much bigger than before and if there are additional images, they are presented in a easy to use gallery under the text. Other changes are the introduction of regular contributors which are attached with their credentials to their posts. This also means that it is now possible to display the posts for each writer on Ultra Swank with one easy click.

What do you think about this update? Except to see some minor changes over the coming week while I tweak and change things as needed. What's good and what's maybe not so good? Is there anything that's not working or looks strange to you? Please drop some lines in the comments link here to the right, thank you!

It was with reluctance that I took on Ultra Swank's assignment of a segment on Googie design. I am not an expert. Art historians and critics can be a vicious group. One false move and I could be forever condemned to an underworld of Louis the XIV basement rec. rooms accented with a million velvet Elvis paintings! Oh well, maybe they've got some Pepsi in the fridge?

Googie is a sub-style suburban overpass of the great and mighty 'Modern' design and architecture highway. Simply stated - Googie is 'Space-Age' and George Jetson lived in a completely Googie world. The term comes from 1949 and a cute Los Angeles wife whose nickname was... you guessed it, Googie! (the style of which we speak is sometimes called 'Doo-Wop', but that's not a good nickname for your wife). This nice lady's husband commissioned, soon to be famous, architect John Lautner to design a coffee shop which he named in her honor (the coffee shop was torn down in the 1980's — we aren't sure about the nice lady).

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“Closer Than We Think!” shouts the headline. It looks like a comic and probably ran in the funnies section of the Sunday Chicago Tribune and it's affiliates. During the late 1950's and early 1960's artist Arthur Radebaugh forecast a soon to be techno-future of magical and fantastic innovation. As a regular feature in widespread newspaper syndication, his cartoon like “Closer Than We Think!” may have fired more imaginations of the Atomic Age than any other single print source.

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Atomic Lounge is a 90 minute documentary that looks back at the Space-Age inspired architecture, design, fashion, and lifestyle of post-WWII America. The film will explore the conditions that led to a unique time in history when Americans experienced a dual sense of optimism for the future and fear of impeding nuclear holocaust. This period represents the critical point in the Western world when a culture of sincerity, confidence and conformity gave way to a general atmosphere of irony and pessimism.

More information about the documentary at Scribble Media.