I couldn’t find much about 19th century German artist Heinrich Lossow’s “smutty” alaphabet. In fact, I could only find one single online source that had all of Lossow’s dirty typeface together on one page. Perhaps there’s a reason why: these illustrations are also credited to a French artist namedJoseph Apoux. According to Apoux’s brief Wikipedia page, the series is called Erotic Alphabet and date back to 1880.

Heinrich Lossow (1843-1897) was known for his Rococo-style paintings and pushing the envelope when it came to inserting pornographic details into his paintings. The most notable one being The Sin, circa 1880. French artist Joseph Apoux had the same reputation as Lossow.

In the end, I’m going with Joseph Apoux as the one responsible. There’s slightly more information pointing towards him concerning these naughty letters.

 

 

 
More after the jump…
 

Bauhaus school costume party, 1920s
 
As we get ready to tell yet another year to kiss our collective asses on its way out the door, that also means it’s almost time for that annual liver-killing bacchanal known as New Year’s Eve. But no matter what you have planned this year, I’m fairly certain that your party will not even come close to the costume parties thrown by students and teachers of Germany’s Bauhaus school back in the 1920s.
 

 
Sadly, there are not many surviving photographs of the costumed shindigs thrown at the school, which was founded by the revered German architect Walter Adolph Georg Gropius. It has been said that attendees of the costume parties took the preparation of their costumes as seriously (if not more so) as their studies at the school and the results were a spellbinding array of imagery created by the upper crust vanguard that made up Bauhaus’ academic population. Such as Russian abstract painter, Wassily Kandinsky and the great painter, Paul Klee both of whom taught classes at Bauhaus for approximately a decade starting in the very early 1920s.
 

Bauhaus costumes by Bauhaus Mural and Sculpture Department head (and later Theater Workshop director), Oskar Schlemmer (1925)
 
As for the the school itself, Gropius was very specific about the type of students he and his free-wheeling, arty-administration wanted roaming the halls of Bauhaus. As detailed in his 1925 essay, “Life at the Bauhaus,” then student and Hungarian architect, Farkas Ferenc Molnár, described the very specific “party people” attributes a prospective student should possess before deciding to pursue their studies the school:

For someone to be admitted to the Bauhaus workshops he or she must not only know how to work but also how to live. Education and training are not as essential requirements as a lively, alert temperament, [464] a flexible body, and an inventive mind.  Nightlife at the Bauhaus claims the same importance as daytime activities.  One must know how to dance.  In Itten’s apt phrase: locker sein [loosen up].

I don’t know about you, but if this was a part of my former higher education institution’s “mission statement,” I probably would have stuck around longer. As many photos of the fantastical Bauhaus costume parties that I could dig up follow.
 

 

 

 
More after the jump…

 
An amusing instance of the new genre of “cargotecture” emerged earlier this year when a Swiss architecture firm called Bureau A re-created the famous neolithic monument of Stonehenge in Geneva, using only blue shipping containers.

If nothing else, the structure, known as “Steelhenge,” was an intriguing blend of the prehistoric and the postindustrial.

Bureau A created the edifice for the so-called “BIG Biennale,” a nickname for the “Biennale des espaces d’art indépendants de Genève,” the Biennale of independent art spaces of Geneva. The location of the Steelhenge project was Plaine de Plainpalais, a large pedestrian area in the city of Geneva; the BIG Biennale was scheduled for the last weekend in June.

Leopold Banchini of Bureau A commented, “The biennale was only organized for a long weekend. With a restricted budget, we had to go for a fast and easily reusable material: the container. ... We like to work with references, displacement or even direct quotes.”
 

 
“In this case, the ruins of Stonehenge and the pagan rituals that it evokes seemed like an interesting landscape relating to the disappearing alternative and squat culture in Geneva,” said Banchini.

The containers were placed side by side to recreate the outer circle of monoliths. In order to evoke the taller structures of the original Stonehenge monument, located in Wiltshire in southern England, pairs of containers were placed on their ends to support horizontal units that would bridge their tops.

“The biennale was only organized for a long weekend,” said Banchini. “With a restricted budget, we had to go for a fast and easily reusable material: the container. ... Containers are a symbol at the new globalized economy; it was also interesting to replace the stones of the original monument by these steel box,” said Banchini.

The entire structure was built in a day using a crane. Concrete blocks were added to provide greater stability to the structures, while the design of the interiors were designed by gallery participants at the biennale.
 

 
Below, Tony Hendra and Anjelica Huston usher in Spinal Tap’s unforgettable rendition of “Stonehenge”:

 
via Coudal Partners
 
Photographs by Dylan Perrenoud

 
It’s getting near that time for buying presents and shit. The one present I’ll certainly be adding to my holiday wish list of hoped-for Christmas goodies is a Ken Russell T-shirt from Hirsute History.

The l’enfant terrible genius of British cinema, Unkle Ken—the man responsible for such classic movies as Women in Love, The Music Lovers, The Devils, Tommy and Altered States—is just one of the many hirsute heroes to be found on a range of colorful clothing available from Hirsute History at Amphorphia Apparel. Here he joins Sylvia Plath, John Waters, Susan Sontag, Jerry Garcia, Ada Lovelace and a whole bunch of other artists, scientists, ideas and stars that’ll look good on your body.

So, if you fancy wearing a Ken Russell or an Ada Lovelace, then hop over to the site or get a retina burn from the selection below.
 

Ken Russell.
 

Sylvia Plath.
 

Groucho Marx.
 
More fab T-shirts, after the jump….
 

Big Bee-autiful Bee Lady “Mìfēng”
 
I must be on a nana kick today. I just blogged about Golden Girls “granny panties” and now I’ve moved on to altered versions of your grandma’s favorite “valuable” porcelain figurines. I’m not a big fan of knick-knacks or trinkets in my home, but I really dig these alien-like insect figurines by Curious Cryptid Curios. These I would display proudly, with no fear that my future grandchildren would be embarrassed by them.

I’ve attached links under each image in case you are interested or want to see more images.

Fancy Dancing Mantis Madam
 

Careful Courting Mantis Couple
 
More after the jump…
 

Nina Simone blanket can be found here.
 
I never know what to get people during the holidays. The Holiday season is stressful. I worry that my gifts aren’t unique enough and will end up in the trash or at Goodwill. This year, however, I’m think about giving out some throw blankets. I mean, who doesn’t need a blanket when it’s cold? EVERYONE needs a blanket. Blankets are winners, but especially these blankets.

What I like about them is that not everyone has them. The links for each one is under the image. The prices range anywhere from $49 - $129 depending on the size.

The idea that there are Bootsy Collins and Peter Sellers blankets out there in the world is kinda rad.

Get Zappa here.
 

Talking Heads here.
 

Bootsy Collins here.
 

William Burroughs here.
 

My Bloody Valentine here.
 
More after the jump…
 

 
Okay, this is a pretty clever design of a ouija board area rug and a coffee table in the shape of a planchette. The conceptual design was imagined by Dave Delisle of Dave’s Geek Ideas. Dave came up with idea back in 2013. The good news is that apparently now you can actually own this set!

According to Dave, “If you absolutely want one, contact my friends at Tom Spina Designs for an estimate, they can build it for you.”

I just checked out Tom Spina Designs’ website. I couldn’t find any images of a finished area rug and coffee table on there. I’d love to see it in the real world.

 
Though the argument could be made for Eero Arnio’s “Ball Chair,” the coolest chair of all time is the “Manila” or “Philippine,” better-known-as the wicker peacock chair.

The chairs which originally came into vogue in the United States in the early 20th Century when they were imported from the Phillipines, became a staple for photography studios as well as parlors and smoking rooms in wealthy homes. The throne-like chair, made of sturdy but lightweight material, was valued for its exotic look.

In the first half of the 20th Century, the chair was often associated with Hollywood celebrities who were regularly photographed in them. In the latter half of the Century, it came to be associated with hipster youth, as well as the Black Power movement—thanks to a very popular poster photograph of Huey P. Newton.
 

 
Today, many people associate the chair with Morticia Addams of the Addams Family, many often describing the peacock chair as a “Morticia Addams chair.”
 

 
The chair has been a part of our pop cultural landscape for over 100 years and according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, it’s seeing a resurgence in popularity.

The peacock chair can make anyone look absolutely regal. Even Al Di Meola.

Enjoy, here, this treasury of wicker peacock cool:
 

Marc Bolan
 
More famous folks in the wicker peacock chair after the jump…

 
Wow, wow! Laughing Squid hipped me to these jaw-dropping pneumatic articulating feather wings by Alexis Noriega. They were made for her kickass Halloween costume. I can’t wait to see the final product. Noriega says she’s going to post a step-by-step tutorial soon so folks can build their own pair. Excellent.

I wonder how much time and money was put into this wonderful creation? Probably LOTS.

 
The architect and designer Carlo Mollino had a secret life—one that only came to light after his death in 1973.

Born in Turin in 1905, Mollino first established himself as an architect designing a house in Forte dei Marmi–a seaside resort and commune enjoyed by Thomas Mann and Aldous Huxley. By the 1930s, he was acclaimed for his Fascist House in Voghera and the Art Deco concrete and glass Farmers Association Building in Cuneos. His most famous work was the Equestrian Centre in Torinese, which was demolished in 1960.

Mollino was also a designer of furniture—one of his tables sold for $3.8 million in 2005—and described himself as an adventurer, a racing driver, an athlete, a skier (he designed two ski lodges in Aosta Valley and Piedmont), a poet, a writer, a student of the occult, occasional drug addict, professor, artist, photographer and bachelor. Surprisingly for such an enterprising life, Mollino lived nearly all of his days at his father’s house, who considered his son a “fantasist,” a “dangerous erotomaniac” and “feckless.”

In the early 1960s, Mollino bought his first Polaroid camera and developed a secret passion for creating erotic photographs. On certain evenings he would be driven down to Turin’s red light district where his driver negotiated to hire “ladies of the night” for a brief photographic session at his small city apartment—a villa he actually never lived in which was designed to be a “house for the warrior’s rest,” now the Casa Mollino by the Po River. Mollino dressed the women in clothes he had bought, then posed them against specially constructed backdrops filled with his furniture designs. The portraits range from Pirelli calendar titillation through lingerie catalog to the more painterly and artfully contrived. These images were supposed to be his idea of what a “warrior” would appreciate—however, the photographs remained secret until after his death.
 

 

 
More of Mollino’s erotic Polaroids, after the jump…