Via the ever excellent Everlasting Blรถrt, we are treated to one of the side projects from the extensive portfolio of designer and art director Lauren O’Neill with this curated gallery of airport runways and landing fields captured from above. Working nearly directly under a busy flight path myself, it’s an intriguing idea to contemplate and marvel at the symmetry of safety and logistics and wonder what sorts of aerial imagery I can find myself.
Tuesday 16 October 2018
Sunday 7 October 2018
oldtimers
The vast halls contained a really impressive amount of Mercedes (including some infamous ones custom-made for Benito Mussolini and Heinrich Himmler) and some extraordinary Maybachs produced for the anonymously, forgotten well-off, with a significant portion maintained in fully-function condition.
Also on display for inspection were an original model DeLorean and a motorised unicycle from 1894, whose time has come around again. Of course the exhibits are worth marvelling at and pretending to sit in the driver’s seat and quite a few are up for demonstration, but moreover it’s something inspired to think about the level and depth of engineering that went into each of these machines, some three thousand all told.
catagories: ✈️, ๐, ๐, antiques, Baden-Wรผrttemberg, libraries and museums
Monday 10 September 2018
the truth is out there
Rather than the usual under construction signs begging off any inconvenience caused, the authorities at Denver International are instead embracing the lore that’s been built up since its opening in 1995 while major renovations are undertaken at the airport’s Jeppesen Terminal.
Conspiracy theories abound and the airport expressed a willingness to parody itself, including its apocalyptic murals, “Templar” marking, coded Masonic words printed on the carpet (which are questionable transliterations of Navajo topographical terms), and a purported network of subterranean passageways that connect world leaders with aliens lodged at the relatively nearby military installation colloquially known as Area 51. See more of the publicity boards at the link above.
catagories: ✈️, myth and monsters
Saturday 1 September 2018
trending now
Rather than exploring neologisms for their novelty, Weekly Word Watch, is taking a different tack and examining a few terms that have demonstrated some endurance and may have the traction to enter into common-parlance.
I imagine that this is a daunting task and would surely court disagreement no matter how conservative and seemingly safe the choices and not feedback that I’d relish confronting. I would have included bespoke in this group—a word that I thought sounded pretentious when it gained wider context—or perhaps zeitgeisty but I can’t say whether or not either of these words are employed anymore. One term that’s shown some staying power although it rings brand new to me included set-jetter: a play on jet-setter, it first appeared in print in 2007. Set-jetting describes the phenomenon of media (television set) driven travel, with tourists seeking out shooting locations featured in film (beginning with the Tolkienisation of New Zealand) and continuing with popular series and the advent of prestige television, often a mixed-blessing with deleterious effects for natives.
Tuesday 21 August 2018
seaplane
Financed during the inter-war period by the Germany Ministry of Transportation partially to circumvent peace treaty conditions which limited the range and speed of aircraft produced and to captivate the public—who were impressed with this feat of engineering but it never proved commercially viable—the prototype Dornier Do X had its first test-flight in July of 1929 on the Swiss part of Lake Constance (die Bodensee). The largest and heaviest flying boat (Flugschiff) ever built, it was designed to accommodate a compliment of fourteen crew members and between sixty-six (long-haul) and one hundred (short-haul) passengers and after trials that achieved the requisite altitude for a trans-Atlantic crossing, the craft began a tour of Europe with the aim being to introduce the flying boat to North American markets.
A series of accidents and mishaps instead diverted the plane to meandering course to Brazil via the Azores and Cape Verde and north to Puerto Rico and finally landing ten months later in New York City and Newfoundland before a return flight to Berlin. Public jubilation could not overcome financing hurdles (made all the more difficult to secure due to the burgeoning Great Depression) and further botched excursions, though the Dornier Do X concept demonstrated what could be done with amphibious aircraft and opened up business to the idea of international passenger service.
Monday 13 August 2018
departures and arrivals lounge
As Curbed reports, the restored 1962 Eero Saarinen’s iconic TWA Flight Centre—originally designed as the terminal for the Trans World Airline’s hub at the John F Kennedy International Airport of New York City—the “Grand Central Station of the Jet Age” to be revitalised under protective status (not all were so decorously spared) as a historic landmark (Saarinen also designed the Gateway Arch of Saint Louis, Missouri) as a conference space and hotel that reference the Mid-Century Modern trappings of its inception is, construction work continuing a pace since 2016, already accepting bookings for a projected opening date early next year. Check out more photographs of the interiors with retro furnishings, skyboxes and other amenities at the link up top.
catagories: ✈️, ๐, ๐ฝ, ๐งณ, architecture
Sunday 5 August 2018
7x7
zoรซtrope: a group of humans on a merry-go-round create an astounding animated effect—previously
estate sale: mystery surrounds the discovery of a priceless Willem de Kooning painting among the effects of an unassuming couple who recently passed away
in-flight entertainment: LEGO Minifigs present the pre-takeoff safety video for Turkish Airlines
streptomyces grisus: New Jersey poised to become only the second state in the union to designate an official bacterium, the first significant antibiotic strain discovered there since penicillin was isolated
䷩: the I Ching is as much about divination as it is about keeping an open mind and being receptive to new angles
gratulera: IKEA celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary by re-issuing some vintage lines
we’re here all week, folks: Ordinance Survey Maps Fan Club performs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Tuesday 31 July 2018
8x8
home-grown: a design studio in Brooklyn grows gourds in moulds to create an alternative to disposable cups
hidden in plain sight: Greenwich’s secret nuclear reactor
mea culpa: social media turns to television advertising in an attempt to win back users’ trust—we’ve seen these on German prime-time too
the colour of pomegranates: rediscovering the suppressed films of director Sergei Parajanov
quiet skies: the US Transportation Security Agency directs air marshals to arbitrarily monitor frequent flyers
an der schรถnen blauen donau: a time-lapse of a bean germinating into a plant, accompanied by the waltz
king cotton: an art exhibit, referencing the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, disabuses notions of American exceptionalism
clickbait: a shop sells tee-shirts that purposefully enrage pedants by getting movie quotes and titles slightly wrong, invoking Cunningham’s Law
Saturday 14 July 2018
ultramarine
John F Kennedy with significant input from the First Lady choose the iconic design of the airplanes bearing the designation Air Force One and that standard has endured out of respect for both Kennedy’s memory and aesthetic principles for fifty-five years. Now reportedly, Trump plans to change the design, decrying that the fleet of planes don’t look American enough unlike his signature transport whilst campaigning and are lacking red accents, calling the particular shade of blue a relic and a Jackie Kennedy colour. One can only guess what sort of crass and gaudy redesign that might be proposed.
Wednesday 23 May 2018
streamlining
Our gratitude to Nag on the Lake for introducing us to the Franco-American industrial design pioneer Raymond Loewy whose multidisciplinary vision informs a magnitude of iconic brands and defining how form follows function.
Among his contributions are the interior of the Boeing Stratoliner, various locomotives, coaches, the Sears Coldspot refrigerator, the Schick electric razor, the Lincoln Continental, a jukebox, a version of the Coca-Cola bottle and the Coke can, Lucky Strikes cigarette packaging, subway cars plus the interior and living space of Skylab and the Concorde. Additionally, Loewy created logos for TWA, SPAR, Exxon, Shell and many others. Go over to Nag on the Lake at the link up top to see an insightful 1979 CBS television interview with Loewy, dubbed by the press as the Man who Shaped America.
Monday 14 May 2018
saor รณ dhleacht
Having passed through the gates of Shannon Airport ourselves a few times, we found it quite fascinating to learn that the terminal in western Ireland on the river’s estuary was home to the world’s first duty free shop and will be sure to make special notice of it next time around. Planet Money fills us in on the life and times of consummate hospitality professional and marketing expert Brendan O’Regan (1917* - 2008 †) whose talents intersected with the limitations of early trans-Atlantic air travel and recognised a business opportunity.
After realising the popularity of Irish Coffee (his first contribution to the world), O’Regan catered to regular arrivals of weary, battered travellers whom had just made the rather arduous hop from North America to Europe and had to land at the first opportunity or were outbound for the same daunting journey, since early planes lacked modern amenities and range and had to make landfall at the first and last opportunity for re-fuelling—which Ireland geographically availed herself of—and saw that his rather captive consumers, elite jet-setters to a person, whose money was burning holes in their pockets, and O’Regan wanted to alleviate their boredom on this layover leg of their trip. Referencing an ancient custom still codified in the law books of allowing sailors to purchase booze without taxes if it was for export and personal consumption, O’Regan successfully pled his case to the Irish government in 1947 to allow him to experiment with an exercise that undercut the government itself by not collecting taxes and losing out on revenue with the promise that by showcasing local items, keepsakes and souvenirs including speciality Irish whiskeys—and manufacturing provenance after a fashion—at a discount, the scheme would encourage local tourism and more than make up for lost revenue on the trinkets.
Saturday 6 January 2018
8x8
mother will protect you: Billy Butcher re-imagines Black Mirror episodes as comic book covers
memory hole: the fickleness of contemporary media and format-shifting could create a digital dark ages for future historians
attitude polarisation: the elusive nature of the backfire effect
gorillas in our midst: despite how plausible it may seem, White House staff did not fall over one another to create a custom entertainment channel for
Dear Leader
to tell the truth: ladies and gentlemen, Miss Kitty Carlisle
dammit janet: become an flight attendant for the US’s most secret airline, the one that shuttles employees between Las Vegas, Nevada and Area 51
take two of these and call me in the morning: vintage Bank of America spot for “Instant Money”—caution auto-play
much amaze: a crypto-currency based off an internet meme created in 2013 has a market-capitalisation of over a billion dollars, via Slashdot
Wednesday 13 December 2017
flugverkehr
On this day in 1917, the German Air Shipping Company (der Deutsche Luft-Reederei) was incorporated to service a mail route between Berlin and Weimar (regular passenger flights came two years later) and a series of mergers pre- and post-war eventually led to the establishment of Luft Hansa—presently Lufthansa. The scope and mission of the company has certainly changed over the years but the stylised crane (Kranich) designed by architect and graphic designer Otto Firle has remained a constant.
Saturday 9 December 2017
roiling-stock
As if Christmas weren’t already coming early for many industry titans with the planned repeal of net neutrality consumer protections which is to include removing the burden of fair disclosure, it seems that the US kakistocracy has also expressed a willingness to ease the regulatory onus on the airlines by no longer requiring them to be upfront about fees for baggage and handling, seat-selection, boarding-priority and other services described as optional. These rollbacks would make it much harder for consumers to compare fares and would eliminate the reporting requirement that stipulates that the airlines publish what profit they make from these ancillary fees for things that used to be a courtesy. I wonder what affronts are to follow.
Tuesday 19 September 2017
port authority
Though we’ve previously encountered some of these fantastic, never realised plans for buildings and infrastructure in New York City as isolated proposals, like a gargantuan skyscraper by Antoni Gaudรญ or an elevated ten lane highway crossing Manhattan, having the chance to see many of this past visions as an ensemble superimposed on a scale-model of the great metropolis is completely transformational.
Among the many innovative and utopian ideas that we were introduced to by this nicely researched and curated exhibition to be held in the Flushing neighborhood of the bureau of Queens the urban air authority was our new favourite—a massive airport and runway built over the docklands along the Hudson River.
catagories: ๐บ๐ธ, ✈️, architecture
Friday 8 September 2017
plane-spotting
Hurricane Irma is still unleashing her wrath and is leaving a path of destruction in her wake including the famed Maho Beach of Sint Maarten, where visitors could formerly watch the aircraft take-off and land on the nearby runway of the Princess Juliana International Airport. Directly under the flight path of aircraft, airliners passed just thirty metres overhead but the spectacle was not without its dangers and risk to observers.
catagories: ๐ณ๐ฑ, ✈️, ๐ช️, the Caribbean
Tuesday 5 September 2017
in-flight entertainment
Fascinatingly, we learn via Just a Car Guy, that the 1925 silent film “The Lost World,” featuring a cameo by its writer, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle—perhaps better known for his character Sherlock Holmes, was the first in-flight movie screened to commercial passengers in April of that year during a hop from London to Paris. An eccentric takes his team of explorers to search for a lost expedition through the Amazon rain forest to a remote plateau in Venezuela and encounter a sheltered population of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. As clever as this technically challenging act was and how we might take it for granted today, the fact that the reels were highly flammable nitrate carried aloft on a wooden-framed aircraft seemed particularly ill-advised stunt to assay. Luckily, nothing happened on this trip—otherwise, cinemas in the sky might have never taken off. And condemned to infamy, The Lost World might have not gone on to inspire King Kong and the Jurassic Park franchise.
Monday 7 August 2017
la strada
Click on the images for a larger view.
Believing that large cities could be transformed into vertical utopias with good administration, his designs relied heavily on the use of towering skyscrapers—grattanuvole, already familiar to the aspiring architect.
Though perhaps ahead of his time and a cross-town superhighway’s moment has passed for our present (not that other solutions are being proffered) but the overpasses, underpasses and dedicated lanes that are common place may not have been integrated into city planning without Picasso’s appreciation of how complex systems function and intersect and the nature of the snarls and slums to avoid.
Thursday 13 July 2017
6x6
fish and visitors: Icelanders are growing weary of insensitive tourists
meal-ticket: clever man works hospitality loopholes to eat for free for nearly a year before people got wise to his scheme
by jove: amazing, arresting images of the Giant Red Spot of Jupiter
je pense, donc je suis: our sense of self understood through the power of attention
theatre-in-the-round: the workshop of a LEGO expert constructs a zoetrope with minifigs, plus an original precursor to animation encoded as a GIF in bacterial DNA
sanli tu: medieval abridged guide to the Chinese classics of protocol and divination goes on display alongside some of the artefacts pictured therein
Tuesday 27 June 2017
biblioclasm
Disturbingly, not only can US transportation security agents demand that travellers disclose the social media profiles and passwords but are now—after trials in select airports—making it standard practise to oblige passengers to remove books and other paper goods from hand-luggage for inspection, as Hyperallergic reports. Counter to the legal legacy of keeping reading habits out of prying eyes, this change surely means that a person’s literary tastes—to include research materials, titles and covers easily misconstrued by those deputised critics and censors, will become a criteria for barring entry and making transit a very difficult matter.