On The Streets of New York City – 1977-1978

This album from Spanish photographer Manel Armengol features some of his photographs of a trip to New York City in the 1970s, particularly in 1977 and 1978. As Manel walked the streets, his eye focused on architecture, street scenes, young people, old people, cars, trucks, streets and parks.

- Flashbak

Normies by day, fetish obsessives by night

The latex-clad patrons of Bound. During the day, they’re office regulars working a 9 to 5. At night, the kink and fetish gear comes out.

“I remember descending the narrow staircase [at East Williamsburg venue Tilt], which is plastered with old show flyers into what can only be described a goth candy-nightmare dreamscape. Every kind of body dressed head-to-toe in black leather, PVC, latex, chains, fishnets, silk and lace… I instantly felt at home.”

Jessica, a plant scientist working for a startup in Brooklyn, is describing her first experience at Bound, a quarterly (yes, four times per year) fetish night that took place at Tilt (now gay bar Vault), before finding a home in Bushwick club Elsewhere.

- The Face

Avec « Alien », « H. R. Giger a rajouté à l’imaginaire lovecraftien une dimension sexuelle »

Marc Atallah, directeur du musée suisse de la science-fiction, la Maison d’Ailleurs, analyse la dimension métaphorique d’« Alien », le monstre créé il y a tout juste quarante ans.

A l’occasion du quarantième anniversaire du film Alien : le huitième passager, de Ridley Scott, distribué le 25 mai 1979 en Amérique du Nord, Marc Atallah, directeur de la Maison d’Ailleurs, musée de la science-fiction à Yverdon-les-Bains (Suisse), et maître d’enseignement et de recherche à l’université de Lausanne, détaille le lien entre l’œuvre de H. P. Lovecraft et la plus célèbre créature du cinéma d’horreur.

- Le Monde

How to flirt according to science

When it comes to flirting, love meters have nothing on these researchers' findings.

Flirting is a universal part of human life. As social animals, we require a natural way to express sexual interest in others and promote ourselves as worthy partners. This is why flirtatious behaviors appear in every culture in some form. Without it, our species would be in reproductive gridlock.

- Big Think

Watercolor Paintings of Imagined Trash Structures Packed With Advertising by Alvaro Naddeo

Brazilian artist Alvaro Naddeo‘s watercolors imagine a dystopian world left in ruin by overconsumption and littered with the branding and logos of the past. Store walls, rusted out vehicles, and arcade machines gain new value as building materials and are combined with other objects and parts to form pop surrealist stacked structures.

- Colossal

Free the Nipple, says History

Nipple slips must have been a real problem in the 17th century. Or rather, not so much a problem per se, as an everyday practice. If you’ve ever walked around a portrait gallery of Renaissance European art or watched a few period films set around that time when the cup did truly runneth over, you might have wondered – how low did they really go?

- Messy Nessy Chic

The Case for Doing Nothing

Stop being so busy, and just do nothing. Trust us.

Keeping busy? Running from place to place and laboring over long to-do lists have increasingly become ways to communicate status: I’m so busy because I’m just so important, the thinking goes.

- NY Times

The 15 Year Layover

He is a man without a country, a family and a home. For more than a decade, Merhan Nasseri has been living in terminal one at Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting. For what, he doesn't know anymore.

- GQ

The Lost Floating Pools of Paris

Once upon a time, the banks of the river Seine were lined with giant floating swimming pools. In the 19th century, one could take swimming lessons next to the Pont Neuf and in the 1970s, sunbathe topless on the upper deck of the Piscine Deligny, which was moored in the 7th arrondissement right in front of the National Assembly.

- Messy Nessy Chic

Martin Thibault, l’Indiana Jones de la bière

Professeur au cégep le jour, « chercheur en bière » la nuit, les week-ends et pendant les vacances : Martin Thibault, coauteur du réputé ouvrage Les saveurs gastronomiques de la bière, lancera la semaine prochaine un nouveau livre consacré aux traditions fermières de la bière. Richement détaillé, Le goût de la bière fermière, publié chez Druide, s’adresse autant aux « curieux de l’univers de la bière qu’aux gens intéressés par l’achat local et l’écoresponsabilité », assure le pédagogue.

- Le Devoir

This British Colonial Report Offers a Rare Glimpse Into India’s Historic Cannabis Cuisine

THICK, SUGARY, AND CREAMY, RICH with saffron and almonds, bhang thandai is so sweet that at first it’s hard to pinpoint the drink’s secret ingredient. After a sip or two, however, the telltale taste lingers: spicy and slightly musky, it’s the signature whiff of cannabis. After a few minutes, the high comes, dreamy as the rainbow play of Holi colors. An Indian festival staple, drunk especially during North Indian Holi celebrations, bhang thandai is part of a long history of South Asian cannabis culture.

- Atlas Obscura

A Future World

This sci-fi story about resilience and hope by Kristine Ong Muslim was originally published in Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation.

- Dazed

THE MEN WITH URINALS IN THEIR HOMES

Having heard their stories, I’m now convinced that a urinal is the greatest possible fixture you could ever add to your home.

If you look online, you can find countless articles about why you need a urinal in your home. From The Guardian to Men’s Health to Apartment Therapy to Marketplace, they all boast about how the urinal is great for saving water; how it’s more sanitary than a regular toilet; how it’s perfect for a man cave; how it will eliminate the need to lift the seat up; and most importantly, that you should get one simply because you can.

- Mel Magazine

The BDSM Essentials

Frequently overlooked details to help kinksters find themselves.

Whether you’re an experienced kinkster or someone who’s curious to know what all the fuss is about, here are nuanced answers to basic questions that don’t often make it into the veins of mainstream media. I’ve included some details regarding my own BDSM experiences to shed light on the subject.

- Medium

How 'Smallville's' Allison Mack Went From Actress to Sex Cult Slaver

Like many in Hollywood, Mack sought spiritual guidance outside the mainstream. But 12 years after checking out a women's empowerment seminar, she stands accused of recruiting "slaves" and branding women with a hot cauterizing pen. Through interviews with close friends and ex-members of the Nxivm cult, THR reveals how a charismatic fan favorite allegedly morphed into the leader's No. 2 and explores the persistent allure and pernicious effect of cults on entertainment.

- The Hollywood Reporter

The Adorable Custom of ‘Telling The Bees’

There was a time when almost every rural British family who kept bees followed a strange tradition. Whenever there was a death in the family, someone had to go out to the hives and tell the bees of the terrible loss that had befallen the family. Failing to do so often resulted in further loss such as the bees leaving the hive, or not producing enough honey or even dying. Traditionally, the bees were kept abreast of not only deaths but all important family matters including births, marriages, and long absence due to journeys. If the bees were not told, all sorts of calamities were thought to happen. This peculiar custom is known as “telling the bees”.

- Amusing Planet

Dolphin Genital Discovery Suggests Their Sex Lives Are Remarkably Human

Over the past 10 years, there’s been a revolution in how we think about sex. In the past, the predominant theory was that humans were the only animals who have sex for pleasure, and that others merely copulated to reproduce. That mindset is now changing and scientists presenting their work on Saturday at the 2019 Experimental Biology meeting add an important, stimulating female perspective. It’s time, they say, to talk about the dolphin clitoris.

- Inverse

Sur les toits Havane: dans la canopée urbaine

Lorsque le jour se lève dans chaque grande ville du monde, les rues s'agitent dans un brouhaha de plus en plus intense. La Havane n'échappe pas à ce phénomène universel. Mais dans la capitale cubaine, la vie s'anime aussi sur les toits.

- La Presse

The difference between a snafu, a shitshow, and a clusterfuck

Let’s say the situation at work is not good. The project (or product, or re-org, or whatever) has launched, and the best you can say is that things aren’t going as planned. At all. It’s a disaster, though the best word for it is the one you drop over drinks with your team and when venting at home: it’s a clusterfuck.

- Quartz

ON EACH COVER, A HISTORY

Our recent history can be told through magazine covers. This blog stands for the good covers. These are the best of a world of covers.

- nascapas

Et si nous n’attendions pas d’être morts pour dormir un peu?

« Je dormirai quand je serai mort », chantait en 1976 le défunt Warren Zevon, sans se douter que son mot d’esprit deviendrait 40 plus tard le credo d’une époque exténuée, où un horaire moins que rempli à ras bord n’est rien d’autre que le symbole indubitable de ses échecs professionnels et personnels.

Aux cernes toujours plus creux, aux dépressions qui guettent sans cesse, aux fins de semaine qui ne rechargent pas les batteries plus qu’à moitié, Isabelle Dumais oppose Les grandes fatigues, recueil qui tente de laver de la honte qu’il charrie cet art ancien qu’est celui de ne pas constamment courir après sa queue. Est-il encore possible de ne rien faire sans être foudroyé par l’angoisse de son inutilité ?

- Le Devoir