My Shameless Nostalgia: "Accessories of Old"

Accessories of Old is not just an evocative title to talk about vintage findings, it's a shop in Frederick, Maryland and an online shop. I wandered in today, after delivering an order of stationery to sell at The Muse. My mother and I went back in time, she found memories of her childhood and her mother's heartland glamour, I took photographs and tried to justify buying some accessories of old for myself. I ended up with a nice stash of vintage ribbon, for business use. We wondered...how does one amass all this old stuff in one place? The answer is better than imagined. Read it HERE. The shop is going out of business so head over to the 50% off sale at 151 N. Market Street.
I wished Afton was still here. I think she would have loved Accessories of Old.

My Shameless Nostalgia: Wish I was a Farm Security Administration Photographer

These rare photographs, from color slides, seemed the perfect companion to Norman Rockwell's painterly scenes of American life of the early-mid-1900s. These FSA and Office of War Information images are also drenched with color and reality. They are dirty and precious and frought with humility and survival and dignity.
The photographs were published online by the Denver Post and came to me, in perfect timing, by my friend, Paul.

Afton took me on a photo tour of their Maine summer last night, with stories of life lived as it was thirty years ago: moose, sea chowders for dinner, small towns with big crowds in for an annual pirate festival, booming fishing and ship-building industries faded so that Maine towns are a ghost of their former selves, buying a loot of real good old stuff for not a lot of money...

The stuff of dreams.

My Shameless Nostalgia: Awed by Norman Rockwell

Oh, my! Norman Rockwell is a genius. I've been hoping to get to see this exhibit from the collections of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas at the National Portrait Gallery. My very good friend, Afton, visiting with her husband en route from Maine to Arkansas, was my cohort yesterday in exploring The National Mall, its monuments and museums, by bicycle. We soaked in the paintings and their accompanying stories, both the background story of how and why Rockwell made the piece and imagining our own narratives that naturally form from such tender images. I felt so patriotic and hopeful and genuinely touched, leaving that gallery of stories.

I hope I haven't denigrated the work to post these images here. My message is GO SEE THE SHOW! Info HERE.

I've been listening to Christmas songs from the 1950s, now, for the entire evening. No doubt inspired by My Shameless Nostalgia.

I would like to take you to PS 1

The MoMA security guards don't like it when you take photos of the art - or even the view out the window of the museum. Though I did surreptitiously capture this giant negative strip, I could not get the amazing mountainscapes carved into glued stacks of Architectural Record magazines - with a dremel, perhaps? - in the next classroom/gallery over. Schools built when daylight was encouraged indoors make good galleries.

I do love a solid-built brick school that gets another life, owing to smart folks and solid "dumb" construction that lends the building to new uses because it is simple enough. So many schools and other public buildings the result of corporate-like consolidation and 1950s flight to the suburbs met the bulldozer in the 1960s, 70s, 80s. The history brief on PS 1 is HERE. Thanks to art lovers of the 70s, we have PS1 - and Savannah College of Art & Design, among others.

The wrought iron rail in the school's hallway conjured some interesting images... I hope no schoolchildren were impaled upon its spikes.

The boiler room's got bling.

Young Architects like PVC and net -

I would like to take you to the Brooklyn Flea

The schoolyard turned Antique Mall: taxidermy, holsters, bikes, books, vintage clothes, jewelry, toys, furniture...fresh fruit + herb popsicles, lobster rolls, asian dumplings. A feast on all fronts. I was devouring it with my camera while enjoying the company of dear Brooklyn/Savannah friends. I seem to have almost no desire to buy anything as I am too absorbed in acquiring everything with my lens. I had to have a peach chamomile popsicle from people's pops, though, and indulge the savory senses, as well. Brooklyn Flea rocks!

So does the sky after "hurricane" Earl -

And the Brooklyn Bridge - what a marvelous feat of engineering...

And...

Julia Rothman's delightful drawings of New York, brightening the subways and highlighting the city's other charms...besides the subway.I do admire a person who delights in drawing her city.