little fluffy clouds

 




'what were the skies like when you were young?'
ain't that the most beautiful question you can ask anyone?
thank god we live now, because now is the only time that question can be asked
these gorgeous skies are from 1930 by the way

book tip : a collection a day

obsessive collector Lisa Congdon
shows in this fantastic book 365 of her
(partly imaginary) collections
fascinating how the beauty of ordinary things 
suddenly becomes visible just by putting 
a few of them together  
published by our favorite magazine UPPERCASE
order from www.uppercasegallery.ca

hey there little insect

 

in the Dutch Encyclopedia for Women from 1951 there is a chapter called 'Her Job in the House'

the chapter describes the 6 tasks a woman has at home: cleaning (sure), washing (of course), 

budgetting (smart), warming the house economically (o.k., makes sense), arranging flowers (nice!) 

and last but not least ... fighting all the insects and bugs shown below and many more 

appaling? maybe, but dangerous? no

except if you use the advised weapon that would kill most of the little bastards: D.D.T.

on the positive side: spiders are mentioned explicitly as helpful friends not to wipe out

do the evolution

 

the social behaviour of men in 1971 was evidently closer to that of baboons than nowadays

why else was it necessary to tell them  
not to use dancing as an excuse to put their hands on a woman's ass?

or not to use a flowerpot as an ashtray?

or not to let a woman climb up the tree first so he can look up her skirt?

are friends electric?

this brilliant machine from 1957 surely deserves the name electric friend

it can help you with everything!

first you vacuum-clean the house with it, then you make a nice fruit cocktail 

with that same miracle machine (with a topping of dust flocks, yummie!) 

and after that you can use it as blow dryer

it gives you that exotic look with real pieces of pineapple in your hair!

exhibition tip : bezeten van stoelen

now in the magnificent Zuiderzee Museum: a great exhibition of chairs by the famous
Dutch designer Richard Hutten

interesting prototypes, studies and sketches give an insight in the brain of the Hutten

some more is revealed by the vintage chairs Hutten personally selected as designs that inspired him

the blue chair in the pictures is the Zuiderzee-chair Hutten designed especially for the museum

until october 10, www.zuiderzeemuseum.nl

you're the best thing

the best thing that happens to us every spring is ... aspargus
Al Pacino is a great thing too of course, a man of impeccable style and taste
the seventies were his best years  
no wonder aspargus was amongst his favorite food then
the other two recipes he gives here go very well with that:
'mob lamb' and raspberry pudding

everything that flies (is not a bird)

most certainly not!

it might as well be someone from the seventies 

with a magical customized denim jacket

been caught stealing

we couldn't read the story because it was in a funny language - probably Swedish or something like that - 

but the beautiful pictures from 

this 1964 children's book are 

clear enough

the kids grab what they like, 

put it in their baskets, do some naughty things with their dog and walk out the store with big smiles on their faces

we haven't seen them pay, 

nor have we seen any parents 

to correct them 

where have those good times gone?

exhibition tip : hidden heroes

in a very nice and beautiful exhibtion the Vitra Design Museum pays tribute to 
35 simple things we all know, use and love
the pencil, the bottle cap, the safety match, the rubber band, the corkscrew, 
the condom, the paperclip, flip-flops ... could you imagine life without them?
the exhibition is on world tour and can be seen in Designhuis Eindhoven untill may 15 

www.designhuis.nl

the virtual version www.hidden-heroes.net is great to watch too

two, three, break

in 1969 mysterious forces from the far east and hippies wanted us to believe 

that everyone could and should do yoga

it is good for your physical and spiritual health, they argued

nowadays we know yoga is quite dangerous in fact

cd tip : not the same old song

this month the Dutch record label Excelsior released a cd with tv tunes from the past called televisie tijd! (television time!)
wow, that brings back happy memories of wednesday afternoons and saturdays, the only times there were childrens programs on tv over here untill the eighties or so
flipper, ivanhoe, ti-ta tovenaar, pipi langkous, stuif es in, calimero ... it's all there!
still, the highlight of the Excelsior catalog remains Congo Jazz from last year:
infectious 78rpm recordings from African jazz combo's collected by the fantastic 
dj Blue Flamingo - Mississippi Records couldn't have done it better
good to know: Blue Famingo is in Africa right now, searching for new old sounds ...

justify my love

it's spooky how much a dog and it's owner look like each other sometimes 
here we have another curious couple: ain't the girl the spitting image of her llama?
she says her woolly friend makes very good company

but that was boring 1964 of course, when a girl didn't have records like je t'aime 
moi non plus, love to love you baby or justify my love to get down on the floor with

exhibition tip : Vincent Mentzel photographs

Coming up: a beautiful exhibition in Kunsthal Rotterdam titled 'Het oog van Nederland'. On show are pictures by the famous Dutch photojournalist Vincent Mentzel, who made quite a bunch of very intriguing portraits in his 40 year carreer. Like this one of rock 'n roll junkie Herman Brood and Amsterdam folk singer Andre Hazes from 1983. There are also fantastic portraits of Audrey Hepburn, Mohammed Ali and Daan van Golden, to name a few others.
march 5 - june 13, www.kunsthal.nl  

what made my hamburger disappear?

what a gorgeous picture! the composition is really amazing

feminists might be not too happy with the sexist header though: steak, a man's job

but things in this modern 1958 house are much worse in fact

notice how the grown-ups in the background are sitting in comfortable chairs

while the young lady is positioned slightly lower on an ottoman

but then the boy: his place is on the floor with the dog!

he has to fight with the beast over the leftovers thrown in their direction

because let's count: there are 8 people and only 7 of those mouth watering steaks

why don't you kill yourself?

what did people do in the long, long evenings, like the ones of 1970, 

when they didn't have 1000 channels to watch on tv or computers with internet?

well, besides making lots of babies they had all sorts of creative hobbies

it is often said that those times were much more fun then ours

but why did they come up with such sad results then?

pablo picasso was never called an asshole

so in 1965 people bought a heater 
because it went so well with their art? 

who are you calling an asshole?

just can't get enough

developed in 1979: the best therapy ever for everyone who wants to quit smoking

if you want to try it, you'll find the instructions below (in Dutch)

heigh ho

this was called sporty fashion in 1964

we have to admit: the guy is a good sport to wear 

this ensemble his lady made for him