Inspiration Folder: East Berlin

One of my favorite eras of Berlin’s past is more recent: the period of time when the wall came down, when U2 came here to record an album and wedge haircuts were still in style.  When the Western world flooded into what had previously been sort of hidden behind the iron curtain.  Back then the East German apartments seemed so dated.  Twenty years later I feel a bit differently.

I just love the jean jackets, the trench coats, the pastiness… and oh yeah: the freedom stuff.

Inspiration Folder: Lydia Lunch

This weekend I did some not-so-in-depth research on Lydia Lunch, whose avant-punk stylings I was in the unique mood for listening to.  When I say not-so-in-depth, I mean I read about this far in the Lydia Lunch Wikipedia entry

… After arriving in New York City at the age of 16, Lunch moved into a large communal household of artists and musicians in NYC,

before launching into a daydream montage of New York loft spaces cira 1981.  All style and no substance.  Yup.

Inspiration Folder: Typhoid Mary

From 1900 to 1907 Mary Cullen, a.k.a. “Typhoid Mary,” worked as a cook in New York City.  She was one of those lucky folks who contracted typhoid but somehow evaded syptoms, illness and death.  Still, she refused to cooperate with the health department, continued to work as a cook in several houses around New York City, and left a death toll wherever she was employed.  She was forcibly quarrantined, but after living in isolation for 3 years she convinced public officials to release her under the condition she no longer work as a cook.  But jobs were scarce and she eventually found her way back into the kitchen to kill again.

Eventually she was arrested again and died in quarratine.

Inspiraton Folder: Hanging Bedside Lamps

I’ve been toying with the idea of hanging vintage swag lamps in the bedroom to give the space a feel that’s a little less Danish Modern, a little more “Eastern harum.”  So I thought I might present to you a recent collage I made of bedside lamps that don’t require bedside tables.  Some are vintage, some are a little more modern.  What do you think?  (Click on the photo to arrive at the original Flickr photo.)