redvelvetteacake:

But if Paris, Texas is a love letter to America and American cinema, it now also has something of the feel of a farewell. The world to which Wenders pays homage is vanishing fast: not the desert, which is close to eternal, but the pay phones and diners and motels that used to line the approach to every small U.S. town, now replaced by cell phones and McDonald’s and multistory Doubletree Hotels and Quality Inns. All offer a sterile, branded comfort—and all deny the lure of the road, the impulse to keep moving, by affirming that, nowadays, however far you go, it’s still going to look just like home.

Maybe, as he fades back into the Texan darkness, Travis knows more than we thought. These days, Paris, Texas is not just an odyssey: it’s an elegy too.

Google BBS Terminal: What Google might have looked like in the 1980s

[via]

You can’t get a feel for what the artist intended by downloading an MP3 off the Web. Music was supposed to be delivered in this handmade way.
—Veronica Vasicka, “Electronic Music’s Own Archaeologist” [via colleennika]

[Photo Credit: Chester Higgins Jr. / The New York Times]

gq:

Back When The Clintons Looked Cool

Before the Clinton Foundation and the State Department, before losing to Barack and getting impeached, before the White House and saxophone solos, before the governor’s mansion and Chelsea, the Clintons looked, well, pretty damn cool. 

newfaithinloss:

fuckyeahbrutalism:

Habitat ‘67, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

(Moshe Safdie, 1967)

so maybe it’s just these klonopins floatin’ around in the ol’ bloodstream here but the way brutalist architecture is regarded in this country (US) is an actual fucking travesty. the movement grew out of need for immediate, durable and inexpensive improvement to fallen cities (namely london after the WWII bombings) and, when the history is taken into account, can be seen as a truly impressive and beautiful response to massive problems (that a good portion of the world is still plagued with). however, dickheads without regard for such things would rather tear down striking pieces of a very specific period of historical growth for shitty faux-prewar brownstones (simply because people find concrete and and harsh angles to be offputting) than restore these structures to what they were intended to be. also the ‘link’ that many americans subconsciously see between brutalist architecture and failed social projects (public housing etc) has made it difficult for the general public to get past the fact that the movement itself is an important, tangible example of our human history, our attempts to better ourselves, and a design shift that was at once utilitarian and attractive.

everyone is a fuckin’ idiot

I could not concur more.

magnificentruin:

The coveted straight-legged R

nwkarchivist:

FOUND: Important Facts For Smokers Discovered By Science!

Newsweek July 28, 1934

timelightbox:

Add this one to your calendars — New York based photographer John Milisenda is having an exhibition of his work made on the Lower East Side during the 1960s at the Grand Central Library, 135 East 46th street. (exhibition takes place April 2 - 20th) Milisenda will be giving a lecture about his worth on the April 14th at 10:30 am. Read more here.

The photographs are a candid portrait of everyday life experience, balanced between romanticism and mean streets. Many of the photographs were made when he was a teenager and before he received his education in art at Pratt Institute.

To see more of his work visit his website.

East Village Map by Ephemera Press
[via Lower East Side History Project]

boldesol:

Alan Turing is the father of computer science. He is largely responsible for development of the Turing-Welchman bombe, which effectively cracked Enigma-encoded messages during WWII. He created a formal definition of the algorithm and created the Turing machine. Without him, we may not have computers as we know them to be today. 

In 1952, Turing was arrested in the UK for being gay. Instead of serving prison time, he chose the alternative– chemical castration through estrogen therapy. He lost all of his security clearance and could no longer work on his life career of cryptology as a result. 

Turing’s favorite children’s tale was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. In 1954, he was discovered dead in his bedroom. He had committed suicide by eating an apple soaked in cyanide. A memorial for Turing depicts him holding an apple- a symbol for forbidden love. In 2011, a petition was made asking the British Government to pardon Turing’s conviction of gross-indecency. It was rejected by Lord MacNally, who summarily stated Turing knew his actions would result in a criminal offense and therefore should have been prosecuted.

Mr. Turing, I’m sorry. The world can be a cruel place. You are respected and won’t be forgotten. The same can’t be said of many.