Blog it Forward: What Inspires Me?

French fashion bloggers! Pandora and The Cherry Blossom Girl use fashion as an expression of their love of history, art, and their beautiful city -- Paris.

It's time for the "Blog it Foward Mashup." This project was started by the talented San Francisco Girl by the Bay as a way for bloggers to share what inspires them. It's a bit like a chain letter for blogs, and today it's my turn. Check out the links at the end of this post to see who is coming up next...I'm pretty sure you'll be addicted {like I am!}. Or, you can find your favorite bloggers on the full schedule here.

Traveling to strange, out-of-the-way destinations. I've visited some bizarre places, like the Surrealist Folly Gardens in Xilitla, Mexico, and the desert art communes in Marfa, Texas, but there are so many unusual spots I'm dying to explore: the Absinthe Museum in New Orleans and the Seti satellites in Puerto Rico are at the top of my list.

Strong, eccentric women with a flare for the dramatic. Tilda Swinton is always unflinchingly original {left, dressed as the Marchessa Casati}, and Anais Nin lived a life more fascinating than even her books reveal.

Art, both new and old. The brilliant Hayv Kahraman is a recent discovery {left} and decadent artist Aubrey Beardsley is an obsession that will never fade...

Books that move, challenge, disgust, and inspire in equal parts... these are two books that changed my perception of literature forever.

Eating...and cooking: the ultimate creative act. It inspires and nourishes. Since discovering my love for cooking, I have come to realize that making food can be as fulfilling {and filling} as making art...corny but true. {Images via Canelle et Vanille}.

Vintage magazines and vintage advertising. I would wallpaper my apartment with vintage ads if I could! I think vintage ad designers are truly forgotten artistic geniuses...

What inspires you, dear readers??

And coming up in the Blog it Forward Mash-up:

• not your average ordinary 3/3 • occupation housewife 3/4 • oh hello! 3/5

• oh, hey great 3/8 • oh, mishka 3/9 • oh so beautiful paper 3/10

• old sweet song 3/11

Next Stop: Rabbit Hole

This week has been altogether crap-tastic, if you ask me. The holidays are over and real life has started again. I have a student in the class I am teaching who seems unable to hide his disgust at having to be there {and tripping me up during lectures when I catch him rolling his eyes}. And the situation in Haiti is saddening and terrible. It's times like this that I feel a little like falling down a rabbit hole and getting lost somewhere for a while...

::On the upside {and speaking of rabbit holes} Alice in Wonderland comes out in March.

{photos via FFFound}

Grandiose Decay: Ruins of Detroit

The new collection of photos by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre are mesmerizing and romantic in their baroque beauty; the decaying Detroit buildings they capture seem to beckon us to wander through their crumbling ruins, to peek into their dark corners for ghosts -- both the historical and paranormal varieties. But there is also a lingering, deep sadness attached to them, sadness for what for what once was and has been lost...

I cannot help but ask why I feel sadness when I look at these photos, but do not feel the same emotion when I look at photos of, for example, the ruins of ancient Greece. The answer certainly lies in their relative newness: most of these structures were built in the early 20th century, a time not so disconnected from our very own. But they have become something akin to pre-historic ruins. The life and collective importance of the buildings are gone and only the shell remains. I wonder, what buildings which we cherish today will become ruins in the future? Do you, lovely readers, get this same feeling of loss and regret when you see a beautiful old building wasting away?

I want to leave you with a fragment from Charles Baudelaire's poem "The Flowers of Evil" in which he mourns, not the old, crumbling buildings of Paris, but the new, modern construction that began taking over the city in the mid 1800's. He already saw the new city as a collection of impending ruins:



"The old Paris is gone (the face of a city

Changes more quickly, alas! Than the mortal heart)



Paris changes, but nothing of my melancholy

Gives way. New palaces, scaffolding, blocks,

Old suburbs, everything for me becomes allegory,

While my dear memories are heavier than rocks..."





::Find Marchand and Meffre's book here; some beautiful quotes on ruins; a link to Baudelaire's poem; you can take a guided tour of Detroit's ruined buildings.

Weekend Links.

I can't even believe how quickly this week has flown by! I've actually been quite productive this week and hope the momentum will continue. What are your weekend plans? My mom postponed her trip to this Saturday, so I will be spending some time with her. I also have another round of wine-tasting to look forward to -- this time, the theme is Australian and New Zealand wines. Any recommendations??

I thought I would post this amazing video for you -- I was listening to Portishead's album Third today in the car, and remembered this eerie video I came across some time ago: a four-minute version of the 1960 horror film Les Yeux sans Visage set to Portishead's song Hunter. Chillingly beautiful.

Enjoy your weekend and enjoy the links!

::Just in time for November's political shenanigans, check out this fantastic {and funny} collection of political signs over at Yes and Yes.

::Blood Milk's JL Schnabel celebrates her one-year anniversary with her husband, and posts pictures from their ceremony at Philadelphia's Mutter Museum...yes, they were married at a museum of medical oddities. Coolest. Wedding. Ever.

::Sheaff Ephemera -- This endlessly addictive site houses image collections of everything from "extreme typography" to "people holding fish."

::I don't personally own...or even like...velvet paintings. But they do hold a tender place in my heart due to the fact that my grandmother had a giant velvet Last Supper of Christ painting hanging over her dining table when I was growing up. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure grandma would appreciate the velvet paintings at Velveteria.

:: One of the things on my "101 Things to Do before I Die List" happens to be to live in a house or apartment with a chandelier. I can't even begin to dissect the psychology behind my obsession with shiny, dangly things, so I will just say that this NotCot post featuring some of the gorgeous chandeliers at Versailles has me working overtime trying to figure out how to meet this goal...

An Okie Expedition: Bartlesville

I thought I would share some photos from our little getaway to Bartlesville...

Oh, Oklahoma. I might complain about you a bit now and again, but I love your quirkiness! Where else can you find beautiful mid-century architecture, roaming buffalo, taxidermy, and Native American art all in one place?

It still rather amazes me that Frank Lloyd Wright built his one and only skyscraper right on the open prairies of small-town Oklahoma. The building itself is like a giant copper entity from another planet -- covered in gorgeous green angular designs and strange layers and appendages jutting out in horizontal and vertical patterns. It's so unexpected against the flat horizon, yet it seems somehow at home there. Wright based the building off the design of a tree, as well as the tall repeating columns of buds on a prairie flower, and he hoped its organic yet modern shape would compliment and reflect the landscape...

It was built in the 1950's, and the interior slowly became run down over the years, but was recently remodeled for use as office and hotel spaces. My boyfriend and I stayed the night, and I have to say it was one of the more impressive hotel experiences I've had. The rooms themselves are spacious and modern, with long rows of ceiling-to-floor windows and copper accents on everything from the lighting fixtures to the bed posts. My boyfriend is a huge architecture buff, and he was blown away by Wright's seeming ability to create a space that was both sparse and modern, while still being warm, comfortable, and completely unique. Wright's vision was certainly a distinctive one: part futuristic, part organic, and part sheer personality!

While in Bartlesville, you HAVE to visit Woolaroc -- a sort of museum / meets nature reserve / meets reliquary of the Wild West. I grew up visiting Woolaroc in the summertime, and have vivid memories of the herds of buffalo roaming freely [and my grandfather explaining that they were once very endangered]. The fact that you can buy barbecue buffalo burgers at the food stand always confused me...though, admittedly, they are yummy!

The man behind the museum and preserve was Frank Phillips, an oil man from Oklahoma's early days of expansive oil production. He collected native American art and he also had a penchant for collecting exotic animals. At one time, there was everything from giraffes and peacocks to rhinos and bears roaming his acreages. He loved them so much, in fact, that after they died, he would have them stuffed and mounted! I think my obsession with taxidermy must have started as a child, seeing his old cabin filled with every species of bird and mammal, lovingly mounted and displayed. {And yes, that is me above left, being ridiculous...}.

The entrance of the museum features a sky blue entryway, covered in tile mosaic, and depicting native dances. This guy on the right is just plain creepy and awesome...my boyfriend and I decided he was something straight out of a horror movie...Oh, did I mention there were shrunken heads and a huge doll collection? I didn't get a good photo, but believe me, they are impressive!

::If you're ever passing through Oklahoma {I say rather jokingly}, I will take you on a tour!!

Modcloth: Winston the Pug

There are some days when all you need is a cute picture of a pug wearing nerdy glasses to make you happy. Winston is Modcloth's sunglasses model -- he pretty much raises this already-awesome vintage/indie design shopping site to the next level for me. I'm thoroughly determined to arrange a meeting between my pug Gidget and the fetching, clever Winston...you know, just to see if there's any chemistry...

On another topic entirely, I'm going to be signing off for the rest of the week, which means I won't have my regular Friday post. I'm heading out for an overnight trip to stay at Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower, and then to Woolaroc {a quirky museum of sorts, filled with taxidermy and shrunken heads}. After that, my mom will be visiting from Texas, and I'll be hanging out with her. I will definitely try to get some good photos!

::I am going be taking some breaks here and there until December; my dissertation prospectus deadline is coming up in mid December, and I am going to need to simplify some of my obligations {though my blog is the most enjoyable "obligation" of all...damn}. I know you all totally understand, and I hope you'll stick with me despite the breaks in regular programming!

Have a stellar rest of the week,

xoxo

Tara

Back from Eureka Springs.

::Here are some snapshots of my weekend trip to Eureka Springs. Downtown Eureka Springs has such Victorian charm! Some people find the town a bit creepy...locals believe the town is bustling with paranormal activity. The theory is that because the town is surrounded by limestone {and many of the buildings are also built from limestone} the town acts as a spirit-conductor. Paranormal researchers assert that limestone is a magnet for ghosts...

::This is an old Catholic church on the grounds of our Hotel, The Crescent {which was built around the 1880's}. There was a kitty wandering through the little church graveyard, which I thought was an appropriate motif for our haunted getaway...

::I'm just a sucker for flowers...I can't help taking pictures of them. These were taken on the church grounds.

::Views from the grounds of the Crescent Hotel. The hotel itself is up on a hill. During the early 1800's, the hotel was converted into a girl's school. One of the main ghosts who wanders the halls is supposed to be the spirit of a girl who jumped {or was pushed} from the top floor of the building. Some people say they have heard her falling to her death outside their window!

::More views from the grounds... In the 1930's the hotel was bought by "Dr." Baker -- a quack cancer doctor who practiced horrendous medical experiments on his patients. Hundreds of people are reported to have died inside The Crescent. Bones were even found buried in the basement floor, walls, and on the grounds itself.

::Some eerie decor inside the hotel.

:I love the entrance...the bronze crescent is so striking!

::The locker on the left is located in the basement of the Crescent hotel {which was a morgue during the 30's}. This is the exact location where TAPS and the Ghost Hunters team captured a full-body spirit entity! No such luck for me...On the right is the old staircase -- see the ghostly orb floating on the left?? Is it dust...or a ghost??.

::Eureka Springs is bustling during the fall -- everyone comes for the ghost and cemetary tours!

::The leaves were turning, and it was so serene. On the right is a dilapidated staircase that leads deep down inside Onyx cave, which is located on the outskirts of Eureka Springs. We decided to check out the cave on our way out of town. It was the first self-guided tour of a cave that I have ever taken...it was just me, my boyfriend, and a few bats hiding out in there -- creepy but fantastic!

**We had such a lovely time, and I'm feeling very refreshed from the trip {and from the massage and body wrap I treated myself to!}. I hope you all had a refreshing weekend yourselves...