fujiyamarama

Staff writer Rebecca Onion for the thriving Slate blogosphere presents us with this beautifully crafted woodblock print map of Mount Fuji from circa 1848, which cleverly folds into the peak’s iconic cameo, and presents us with the tale behind its publication as trail marker and spiritual focus for pilgrims, both those physical present for the climb and those who might only mediate on the ascent. At The Vault, there’s an interactive version of the map (not pictured here) that lets one explore the points of interest referenced and various shrines along the many paths to the summit.

oration or the sound and vision

Thanks to a sharp eye perusing a 1984 edition of some teen Tiger Beat magazine, the response to an inquiring reader’s question about the rumoured role of the Great Emancipator to be portrayed by none other than David Bowie, we learn about an unperformed but still immense spectacle that was to be played at one of the Olympic venues of the Los Angeles games that summer.
Far outstripping those cross-over, special guest-star sitcom episodes that kept my rapt attention (like when Fred and Ethel Mertz appeared as Darinn Stevens’—the second Darrin—parents or when the Harlem Globe-Trotters were shipwrecked on Gilligan’s Island or the angry ghost of Valerie Bertinelli haunted the Love Boat), an experimental, day-long bit of musical theatre was being orchestrated, called CIVIL warS, it was to feature the musical stylings of Mister David Byrne with libretto that included Mister Bowie as Abraham Lincoln, delivering the Gettysburg Address in Japanese. Corporate sponsors were a little anxious, and with the boycott of the American games by the polarised Communist world, the project was shelved. Read more about this amazing opera that would have perhaps been too grand and overwhelming for this Universe at Dangerous Minds. The closing ceremonies did include a UFO landing to the fanfare of Thus Spake Zarathustra and a giant grey alien that saluted humanity’s peaceful coming together.

case study house

An extensive gallery of familiar, homey images—as opposed to official photographs or appearances in film—of Mid-Century Modern and Modernist architecture is coming online that will make these iconic and inspiring structures available to everyone. Though many of these places have deservedly been afforded landmark status and thankful the protection and preservation efforts that accompany it, many of these marvels, commissioned as private residences of course are not regularly open to the public—if ever. Discover many more scenes of America’s answer to the Bauhaus movement at Hyperallergic and the vast collections of University of Southern California’s school of architecture.

oubliette or down in the underground

An artist by the name of Biancoshock is converting disused manholes in Milan into tiny luxury apartments. In an installation called Borderlife, meant to draw attention to the plight of immigrants and the vanishing ordinary residents priced out of affordable housing in urban centres over gentrification, a functionally decorated suite of rooms is sunk down a series of rabbit holes. Be sure to visit the artist’s gallery found at the source-link up top.

set phasers to stunning

From the ever brilliant Nag on the Lake comes news that MAC cosmetics will be honouring the five decades that have passed since the debut of the Star Trek franchise with a line of beauty products inspired by the fashionable and strong female characters of the franchise, including LT Uhura, Counselor Troi, Seven of Nine and (perhaps less of a role-model) Vina, the Orion slave girl. Make me up, Scotty, indeed!  Riker is a little jealous, I think, but I can envision a men’s line on offer real soon.