In the middle of the twentieth century, fear and paranoia were ingrained into the subconscious of every American. The 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite had Americans wary of Soviet attack from the skies. And the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 assured the world that Soviet Premier Khrushchev was serious in his threat when he said “We will bury you.” The spectre of mutually assured...
Never Built: Los Angeles is an exhibition opening spring 2013 at Los Angeles’s A+D Architecture and Design Museum. It features a collection of spectacular projects that only saw the drawing board. In words, drawings, models, videos and other media the show looks at visionary works that had the greatest potential to reshape the city. The exhibition will include buildings from legends like Frank Lloyd Wright,...
Elektro, the “Westinghouse Motor Man” filmed inside the Westinghouse Pavillion at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Elektro can not only smoke, he also has a giant ego. User commands are given through a telephone with some kind of a voice recognition system. The whole presentation might look like a kitschy hoax from our eyes, but for the folks back in 1939 this technology...
After Playboy magazine made its mark in the early 1950s, imitators of all kinds sprang up with titles like Sir, Knight, and Gent. In 1957, one publisher took a devilish bent and called its new magazine Satan. Satan was little more than a Playboy clone. Both magazines had pin-ups, articles on the urban bachelor lifestyle, a jokes page, and an iconic anthropomorphic mascot. But maybe...
The Golden Age of Las Vegas has been over for quite some time. If you don’t count auxiliary members like Shirley MacLaine, Buddy Greco, or Angie Dickinson, the last member of The Rat Pack, Joey Bishop, passed away in 2007. He outlived Frank by 9, Dino by 12, Sammy by 17, and Peter by 23 years. Even the buildings, which are supposed to outlive those...
The man and his wheelchair sat silhouetted against an endless vista of bright unblinking stars and twisting nebula. He was a very old man. Born in 1920. That made him one year into his ninth decade of life. Very old indeed he mused … except for the fact that he was already dead. Well, if this was Heaven it wasn’t half bad he thought. Sitting...
Remember those school dinner days, when desserts were stodgy, substantial and satisfying? Do you yearn for a bit of nosh-stalgia? Join us on a trip down memory lane as we revisit the all-time favourite retro British puddings, those classic heartwarming staples that have stood the test of time. Spotted Dick A serious pudding with a very silly name, this steamed suet sweet contains dried currants...
