Paper Clock

One year posting. Time to knock it on the head?

Suriname 1599-1975

Nearly 13,000 images including maps, postcards, posters, photographs, illustrations, etc, held at Amsterdam University. The above selection is from 'P.J. Benoît, Voyage à Surinam (1839)'. Link…

Sea City

"Project for Tel Aviv, made for the Venice Biennale 2004. 'Sea-City' is an extension of the city into the open sea. Each of two compact city clusters placed on 80-metre-high service towers accommodates a population of 100,000 inhabitants who can live and work there in a unique atmosphere. Tunnels under the seabed connect these new urban centres with each other. The clusters are linked to the mainland by short, easily secured routes.
From the 'Excellent lost competitions and designs that really ought to be built', section of Ortner & Ortner.


They don't only design buildings. Link…

Xipe Totec – Our Lord the Flayed One

Xipe Totec flayed himself to give food to humanity, symbolic of the maize seed losing the outer layer of the seed before germination. Without his skin, he was depicted as a golden god. Annually, slaves were selected as sacrifices to Xipe Totec. These slaves were carefully flayed to produce a nearly whole skin which was then worn by the priests during the fertility rituals that followed the sacrifice. Link…
A Xipe figure might be a representation of the god itself, a deity impersonator, an ’assistant-type’ impersonator (the xipeme), or the ruler wearing a Xipe battle costume–or, perhaps, any combination of the above. Link…

Dalai Howard Argy Bargy

What I don't understand is why Howard calls the Dalai Lama, "Ned". "It's too hard Ned".

Musical Instruments

See and hear (click on the note) examples of instruments from museums around the Francophone world. Link…

Crate Art

Fruit crate labels from the early 1900s to 1950s. [related] Link…

San Diego Navy Historical Association

Preserving the story of the Recruit Training Command and Naval Training Center through postcards, posters and documents. Link…

Ed Pranger

WWII cartoons from The Hoist newspaper and Wing Tips training booklets. Link…

Andamanese

This is a clip from a French documentary. It's about first contact with the Jarawa. Link…
[I wanted to try out the new video uploading feature from blogger]

Buildings in Africa

Some wonderful examples of architecture on some of these French postcards. Link…