The Cliff House revisited

cliffhouse1.jpg

Adolph Sutro’s Cliff House restaurant, San Francisco, has appeared here before but these are some additional photos of the improbable structure from the Library of Congress archives, including a picture of the fire that destroyed the building in 1907. As noted in the earlier post, Blue Öyster Cult aficionados may recognise the house from the cover of the group’s 1988 album, Imaginos.

cliffhouse2.jpg

cliffhouse3.jpg

cliffhouse4.jpg

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Adolph Sutro’s Gingerbread Palace

Gothic details

gothic1.jpg

Chimeras, Notre-Dame de Paris.

These aren’t all as old as they look, the chimeras are part of Viollet-le-Duc’s 19th century restoration of Notre-Dame, but the sepia tone makes them seem complementary. There’s a lot more at the Andrew White Architectural Photographs Collection at Luna Commons.

gothic2.jpg

Wrought iron torch holder or horse tether from the Strozzi Palace by Benedetto da Maiano.

gothic3.jpg

Flying buttresses, Reims Cathedral.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Schloss Falkenstein
• Pite’s West End folly
• Viollet-le-Duc

The Ursulines’ winter garden

ursulines1.jpg

Another winter garden, this addition to the Institute of the Ursulines, a Catholic school in Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Waver, Belgium, is a lot smaller than previous examples but is celebrated for its beautiful Art Nouveau-styled stained glass canopy. The winter garden was added to the main building in 1900 and—surprisingly—no one seems to know who the architect was. The photo above is by Eddy Van 3000 from Wikimedia Commons, while the one below is from the same photographer’s Flickr set showing many other views of a building which is only open to the public one day a year.

ursulines2.jpg

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Hothouse panoramas
• Ludwig’s Winter Garden
• The Schönbrunn Palm House
• The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken

Hothouse panoramas

kew.jpg

Kew Gardens, London, by Davide Cornacchini.

I would have done this earlier if I hadn’t been distracted. Favourite panorama site 360 Cities doesn’t have any views of the Laeken greenhouses but they do have a view of a capacious interior of the Palm House at Kew Gardens, London. And as a follow-up to the post about the Schönbrunn Palm House, panorama photographer Bernhard Vogl shows us several views of that distinctive building, inside and out.

schoenbrunn1.jpg

Schönbrunn Palm House, Vienna, by Bernhard Vogl.

schoenbrunn2.jpg

Schönbrunn Palm House, Vienna, by Bernhard Vogl.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The panoramas archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Ludwig’s Winter Garden
• The Schönbrunn Palm House
• The Royal Greenhouses of Laeken

Weekend links 50

selski1.jpg

Invisible Light by Margo Selski.

The Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery has an online collection of paintings by Margo Selski, many of which feature her cross-dressing son, Theo. Coilhouse profiled artist and model earlier in the week. Some of these paintings mix oil with beeswax which is something I’ve not come across before.

• The Periwinkle Journal‘s first issue will be available online, free, from March 22nd until mid-June, featuring work by filmmaker and artist Hans Scheirl (Dandy Dust), artwork and collages by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, a 7-page colour comic by Mavado Charon, artwork by Timothy Cummings, artwork and installations by Cody Chritcheloe/SSION, photos by Megan Mantia, Science-Heroes by Peter Max Lawrence, an illustration portfolio by Diego Gómez, selections from the queer photography pool on Flickr, reviews and other stuff. More later.

• The Quietus wanted to remind us that this year is the 25th anniversary of the NME‘s C86 compilation tape, a collection that sought to capture a moment of ferment but which inadvertently inspired too much dreary sub-Velvet Underground pop. I’d rather celebrate the 30th anniversary of the NME‘s C81 compilation, a far more diverse collection and musically superior. If you want to judge for yourself, both tapes can be downloaded here.

selski2.jpg

Machine in the Garden — Our Island Shall Know Abundance Without End by Margo Selski.

• Rick Poynor continues his exploration of Ballardian graphics with a piece about the paintings of Peter Klasen. Related: Where Will It End? JG Ballard interviewed by V. Vale & introduced by Michael Moorcock (Arthur No. 15/March 2005).

In his autobiography, Miracles of Life, JG Ballard suggested that illustrated versions of The Arabian Nights helped prepare him for surrealism.

Robert Irwin, author of The Arabian Nightmare, on the illustrators of The Arabian Nights.

• Another Coulthart cult movie surfaces, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Deep End (1970), out of circulation for many years but newly restored by the BFI. A re-release is scheduled for May so I’m hoping now that a DVD release will follow soon after.

• Thom Ayres’ photostream at Flickr, and more long-exposure photos.

• Fuck You, A Magazine of the Arts, number 5, volume 8.

• Nicolas Roeg: “I don’t want to be ahead of my time.”

• MetaFilter looks at the films of René Laloux.

• The Eerie covers of Frank Frazetta.

• Indie Squid Kid.

• Requiem (for String Orchestra) by Toru Takemitsu.