A collection of themes, begun in 2008.
Still from "Clotheslines," directed by Roberta Cantow, 1982. * Sawyer Made split-step stool, for Walker Street Market , photographed by Winnie Yang via The Secret Strategist . * "Ideal Hollow" by Nichola Manning, via drifting lament. * Shell buttons, via slow roads . * Detail of "an exquisite, finest muslin early 1800s French hand embroidered shawl," sold by starchedandcrumpled . * Photo of H.D.…
* Jacques Henri Lartigue, "Florette, Piozzo, Juillet 1959." (Other Lartigue clotheslines here. ) * James Tate, " At the Clothesline. " * Related: " Love calls us to the things of this world. "
Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a…
Fourth of July, 1954. Photographs by Peter Stackpole for LIFE Magazine. Originally posted June 30, 2011.
Notes from two weeks in Italy, March 2026: Venice: A shop crammed with velvet gondolier slippers, tiny glass snails and mushrooms and dachshunds (saw dachshunds everywhere). Old wells around every corner and brass door buzzers that looked like doodled faces. Shops selling turned-wood geometric shapes, convex witches' mirrors, and wool sweaters and skirts of elegant plainness and eye-popping…
Naively mistaking all aspects of this situation Lean in to tension I see it all, I pay attention A small dose of humiliation It keeps me humble, it keeps me waitin'
* Albert Marquet (1875-1947), "Flowering Tree," undated, via le jardin robo . * "Gertrude always loved her flowers 1937," from the Peter J. Cohen collection . * Poem by “Michael Field,” the pen name of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper, published in 1893 . * Sawkille Minnewaska sconce . * "Medaljonger" tapestry designed by Märta Måås-Fjetterström in 1926. * One pressed dried rose which had been…
Silver paper flower by Momoca . The Shenandoah Mansions linen robe (and/or the matching pajamas and eye mask ) by Desmond & Dempsey and Ash Hotels. Beehive bonbons from Shane's Confectionery filled with honey and black sesame praline. English Garden Eccentrics: Three Hundred Years of Extraordinary Groves, Burrowings, Mountains and Menageries by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, about: [A] series of obscure…
We're setting sail To the place on the map from which no one has ever returned Drawn by the promise of the joker and the fool By the light of the crosses that burn Drawn by the promise of the women and the lace And the gold and the cotton and pearls It's the place where they keep all the darkness you need You sail away from the light of the world on this trip baby Pay, you will pay tomorrow You're…
* 1980s British Telecom Picturephone at wertwerk.kr , via Mildew . * Button seemingly referencing Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics in "The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze" from Act 2 of The Mikado : Ah, pray, make no mistake, we are not shy We're very wide awake, the Moon and I * Ray Johnson's "Evaporations" book stamp, via the London Centre for Book Arts : Johnson had his "Evaporations by Ray Johnson"…
Alison Knowles , "Score Direction for Bean Sequences." Via Drifting Lament . * Stereoscopic view of the Devil's Bean Pot, Purgatory, Mount Vernon, New Hampshire, ca. 1877-1894. Via the NYPL Digital Images Collection . * Flicking the bean carved sapphire seal by TrumpetforTwo . * It was a singular experience that long acquaintance which I cultivated with beans, what with planting, and hoeing, and…
* Maurice Denis, Avril ou Les anémones , 1891. * Glimpses into Plant Life by Eliza Brightwen, in the collection of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. As described in the catalog of Honey and Wax Books : "First edition of Glimpses into Plant Life (1897) by eccentric English naturalist Eliza Brightwen, in a publisher’s binding depicting a skeleton leaf. Born in 1830,…
* Detail of an American red moiré silk dress, ca. 1837. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. During the nineteenth century, women's periodicals specified the types of dress appropriate for the variety of evening activities. In 1832, The Ladies' Cabinet alerted its readers, "Moiré is coming much into favour for dinners of ceremony or evening parties." The modest neckline, long sleeves, and subtle moiré…
* Cloud Appreciation Society: "A 22-degree halo spotted near Lake Crystal, Minnesota, U.S., by David, the brother of Sarah Richards (Member 5,763) ... The bright spots on either side of the halo and level with the Sun are known as parhelia, or sun dogs. These phenomena form as a result of sunlight refracting through microscopic prisms of ice glittering in the low air, known as "diamond dust.'" *…
Thousands of masked, heavily armed agents, some with minimal training, have been unleashed on the streets of an American state. They have been promised near-total legal immunity by the president, effectively unshackled from any constitutional constraints. They have been given limitless license to abduct anyone, not just the undocumented immigrants but American citizens who happen to look foreign,…
Koyuko "A String of Beautiful Days" unravelling calendar . * Photo via Nico Muhly. * View of the sun at Enoura Observatory . * so this is the sound of you here and now whether or not anyone hears it this is where we have come with our age our knowledge such as it is and our hopes such as they are invisible before us untouched and still possible W.S. Merwin, from " To the New Year. "
*Originally posted 12/26/2010 + 12/24/2017. Merry Christmas.
The train snakes through the icy mountains, its steady, churning roar breaking the quiet of snow-stilled space. Inside, the traveler gazes idly out the window into the darkening world. An eight-rayed star and glittering snowflake shine from the shoulder of her structured copper cardigan, while wooden adornments dangle from her ears and circle her finger. Slouchy velvet trousers break for a gleam…
Clara Peeters, "Stilleben mit Façon-de-Venise-Glas, Römer und einer Kerze (Still life with dainties, rosemary, wine, jewels and a burning candle)," 1607. * Cecelia Glasher's sketches of snowflakes , ca. 1855. * A tree in winter , photographed by Dr. S.B. Ward ca. 1889 , via Anonymous Works. * Fruit bowl carved by Robert "Mouseman" Thompson , ca. 1950s. * From Listen and Hear by Kathleen Shoesmith,…
The holiday season is careening toward culmination—candles lit, songs sung, gifts exchanged, a new calendar unwrapped—and as usual I don't feel ready. (That's me above: the blockhead groping her way toward 2026.) To steady myself, I like to look at my books, because they hold time differently. With stacks around me, I am rich in options: each book a door, each door a different future. And the…
The ultimate in reading stands, by Bruno Mathsson . Synonym , a magazine that tells immigrant stories through food. To mark a place, Lucky Star Candle's burnable bookmark braid . Brother in Elysium George Oppen broadside . Fornasetti's Libri magazine rack, because of the key, the butterfly, and the tasseled bookmark. COMBO , an annual magazine "conceived as an archive of our collective dreams."…
For medievalists/miniaturists: a decorate-your-own castle blank , complete with inspiration , craft glue , and an assortment of craft paints and popsicle sticks ( old egg cartons make especially good masonry ). Add a working catapult kit for siege warfare re-enactments. For painters: Akashiya watercolor brushes and a big ol' New SoHo SKETCH pad. For creative writers: A fuzzy one-eyed creature…