This is a short clip from Terrence Malick’s “The Thin Red Line” which never ceases to inspire and engage the mind and soul with its thoughtful narration and invigorating visuals that take the viewer through the complex voyage of a soldier to war hidden by the beauty of “paradise“. . .
It really must have been something to find yourself in a strange new world, another Earth far away from the hometown you left months before. You might never want to leave. You might hope to be left on a deserted island for the rest of your days; left alone by the complications of society.
Malick does a great job at creating this world, and you can get an even cooler glimpse into this world by digging into the world of vintage vernacular.
Ask your grandparents and they probably have vintage snapshots to share with you, or dig through the bins of them at your local Flea Market or antique store. There are treasures to find. These memories of some lost paradise always seem to be like faded remnants of some beautiful black and white dream. . .
Here’s a few to quench your thirst! Soak it up, and bring this lost paradise with you wherever you go.
Why should I be afraid to die? I belong to you. If I go first, I’ll wait for you there. On the other side of the dark waters.
Be with me now.
What’s this war in the heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself? The land contend with the sea? Is there an avenging power in nature? Not one power but two?
Growing up in the dirty thirties, with a rough and tough childhood, our lady crooner has been through a lot more than most have to experience!
Bouncing around from city to city through her childhood gave this woman real tenacity. Money troubles abound kept her family on their toes, shifting from town to town running away from the Police.
She had a father who walked out on her family to runaway with another woman, and the only word again from him was a telegram alerting the family of Mr. Hutton’s suicide.
Maybe her irreverence to her father helped fuel her fire for this tune. Betty does her rendition of ‘Murder he says’ in 1943, and we are moved!! We’ve love her styling of ANY song , and we are suckers for her straight-shooting bluntness and of course we’d love any tune that cries out ‘MURDER’.
Those are the words we have stuck in our head, as of late. With the world in such a dizzy spell of violence and outrage, its hard to believe in a world where war doesn’t exist. But, like the faithful dreamers we are, we will have hope.
War has been around for centuries, and probably since the dawn of man; and yet between the moments of fiery battle and angry destruction, we somehow all find moments of tranquility and joy.
We uncovered a huge collection of beautiful war time photography dating to World War 2 that capture brilliantly and honestly those moments of humanity that really make us the grand creatures we truly are destined to be.
There are smiles, and laughs, and plenty of love and friendship – so much so, that it becomes heartbreaking to imagine the lives of these young boys, and the persistence of wondering whether or not they even survived the tragedies that awaited them.
Here is a look at some of the mysterious moments captured that we now possess to share with the world never to be forgotten.
So, there’s an itty bitty taste of what our collection contains! You’ve seen other unique photos from our collection before, and many of them have been shipped off to museums and/or universities where they will be safely stored and studied for their remarkable sense of composition, as well as place and time.
We are so proud and honoured to have these vintage snapshots as a part of our brand, and I think it is so important for us to keep obtaining these and other photographs, as so these moments will not be lost in time, and the artists, though unknown, can retain some respect and admiration for their spur of the moment creative thought and action!
You’ll probably see a few of these posted on our Etsy {SHOP} over the next few days, so please check it out! Vintage vernacular photographs are one of a kind, and is an affordable way to start collecting art! You can guarantee these pieces will start a million conversations, which is just another aspect that is incredibly enjoyable when collecting vintage snapshot photography.
There is no doubt that the world would not be the same place if it hadn’t been for Alan Turing [b. 23 June 1912 – d. 7 June 1954]. In fact, you wouldn’t be reading this delectable morsel if it weren’t for the incredible genius of this British mathematician in developing the modern day computer.
A prophet of mathematics, with a natural inclination to numbers and science, Turing entered King’s College in 1931 and graduated Honors in Mathematics pioneering the working model for the Turing Machine, which operated on “Algorithims” that would make computing any mathematical problem conceivable. Obtaining a PhD from Princeton in June 1938, Turing furthered his concepts introducing oracles that could plan and solve complex problems that the Turing Machine was unable to compute.
It wasn’t until war time that Turing’s incredible genius would truly be implored, joining the German code-breaking team at Bletchley Park in September 1938. Using his profound wizardry in the realm of numbers, Turing was able to develop a statistical approach using computing machines to decode the impossible German Enigma-codes. This would ultimately provide the Allies with a major advantage in winning the war.
Turing was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services during wartime.
Turing also applied his mathematical brilliance in the fields of biology, imploring mathematical thought to the idea of pattern formation in nature. He also used mathematics to develop the foundations for the science behind morphogenesis – how biological forms come to be.
So in short, a {Hero}.
However, although interesting, it’s not his mathematic, scientific, or civil achievements that really caught our attention. It is, in fact, his mysterious and bizarre death.
It all began quite innocently – the way these things always begin. After being victim to a petty burglary of his home in January of 1952, police investigations opened the flood gates, revealing Turing’s homosexuality, which in fact was illegal in the UK at this point. Wanting to evade going to prison, Turing was able to go on probation after agreeing to a chemical castration that would require him to take injects of stilboestrol, a synthetic estrogen hormone.
Perhaps the injects caused moments of weakness or uncertainty, as various mood disorders and physical ailments have now been attributed to stilboestrol. And while he is recorded as throwing “such a jolly [tea] party” for a neighbour and her son four days before he died, he was found in the most macabre of circumstances: laying in bed with a half-eaten apple at his side.
If this sounds like fairy tale, don’t be mistaken, the past is a twisted and dark place, but there’s no denying the comparison to Turing’s death and the story of Snow White and The Seven Dwarves – Turing’s recorded favourite fairy tale. Novelist David Leavitt quotes that the mathematical genius took “an especially keen pleasure in the scene where the Wicked Queen immerses her apple in the poisonous brew.”
Many have speculated that Turing may have soaked the apple in poison as an homage to his favorite tale of dark pleasure and deceit, others (his mother particularly) have asserted that Turing was in fact just careless when it came to storing his lab chemicals. Whatever the truth may be, the circumstances surrounding Turing’s untimely demise are as fascinating as his science. His death was ruled a suicide, but recent discoveries seem to point in other directions.
Perhaps it was just a way to say good-bye to a cruel world, unwilling to accept the man, no matter how great his genius. He was but the innocent, and it was a truly unjust society that would poison the likes of such an incredible mind.
Luckily, Turing’s legacy lives on every we look. From this computer screen, to our televisions, and phones, the airplanes in the sky, the subway beneath my feet – all these things and more would not be possible without Turing’s ingenuity and courage to innovate.
Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait on Folding Bed (1963)
The latest exhibit from the AGO gives us Moore with a side of Bacon, and we want seconds!
“Francis Bacon & Henry Moore: Terror and Beauty” which runs at the AGO from April 5 to July 20 is a compelling retrospective overview of the two artists’ parallel lives and works, and how they were affected by the evolving world around them. Impacted by war, society, and religion, their works went on the become some of the cornerstones of modern art, and the images we see in our mind when we think of it.
+FRANCIS BACON+
Francis Bacon, Second Version of Triptych 1944 (1988)
Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait VI (1953)
We have always been huge fans of Francis Bacon’s work so it was such a treat to get to see some of his most iconic and monumental pieces in plain sight. His use of colour and his treatment of form are to this day as raw and exciting as they were over fifty years ago when they first made their premiere to the world at large. His vivid triptych, with its monolithic expanse, as well as his haunting portrait and studies of the Pope are alive with wonder, and indeed, beauty and terror.
Bill Brandt, Henry Moore in His Studio (1940)
Henry Moore, Spanish Prisoner (1939)
Henry Moore, Falling Warrior (1956 – 57)
No stranger to the work of Henry Moore, the AGO has always housed an impressive collection of his work since first stepping foot in the museum as a child, and has since remained a pleasure to gaze at. His contorted figures which resonate with an almost ancient wisdom and mystic mystery were given new life juxtaposed amongst Bacon’s equally amorphous figures and mysterious backdrops.
Curator Dan Adler has done an excellent job of showcasing equally the similarities and discrepancies between the two artists, and is sure to bring fresh views on both artists’ life and works.
Not only does the show offer a comprehensive and distinct juxtaposition of the artists, it also lends the viewer a greater vision of the world as a whole, and how history and the events therein contribute to the creation of our culture.
Some of the most stunning, but quiet works include Moore’s beautiful depictions of sleeping figures inspired by the surrealistic memories of the thousands of people who made their ways to the underground during the London Blitz.
These sketches, and photographs of London during the blitz provide further insight into our own world today, and the devastating affects they have had on our society, and the musings these travesties have inspired.
The most interesting thing about the show was that although the artists’ aesthetic similarities are plain to see, it is impossible to ignore the individual voice of the artists and seeing the differences between the two. The mind easily deciphers them, and while so much in their lives run parallel, I never felt like there was a true intersection. Henry Moore was very much in his realm, and Bacon very much in his, and it’s these differences that really sing throughout your time walking amongst the spaces filled with their individual iconographies.
We hold them both very close to our hearts now, and no doubt, our soul will be pumping with the inspiration the AGO has brought forward with this exquisite showing of two of the world’s finest architects of the mind.
We also can’t wait for what they have in store for us next!
Rumor has it: MICHELANGELO!!
In the meantime, lets invoke the spirit and seek our style inspiration from the master of modernity himself-
+FRANCIS BACON+
Here he is rocking out a black PVC trench coat in front of one of his wicked fine masterworks. The classic mens trench coat is given an ample boost of modernity and edge crafted from oil slick black vinyl, giving the look a dark cool that is the epitome of Bacon’s style. He wears it with slim cut trouser and a black turtleneck for a sophisticated and timeless togetherness.
This 1956 classic had movie star Sal Mineo playing a street wise gang member just a year after his Oscar nominated turn as a misunderstood teenager in the legendary “Rebel Without a Cause”.
The film also featured a young bad-ass John Cassavetes before he was pawning off Mia Farrow to Satan or directing his own killer films.
The look of the film is, what we like to call, Rebel Noir :
“Crime in the Streets” promised to tell “the whole story of the Rock’n’Roll generation”, which seemed to be on everybody’s mind. Who were these outcast teens in their washed denim pants, flashy sports coats, and slicked back hair? I’m sure somewhere deep down inside there’s a reason behind the madness.
The film plays better than one might expect, and is definitely a classic of the 1950s street gang film genre. Definitely a must see for real players of vintage style reincarnation. All the time. Anytime.
Check it out!
We have lots of raw, rare, and special finds for you from The Eye of Faith {Vintage} to relive these moments, among many others, so be sure to check out the {SHOP} ASAP to get your fix.
On a journey through the mystery of the most beautiful place on Earth.
Taking us to a world both wild and exotic, this series was inspired by the faded 1940s dreams and memories of life on the high seas in the South Pacific. It is the tale of society’s soldiers taken hostage by the wild. In many ways, it is a true Paradise Lost lived . . .
In a place where the air is hot and its perfume sweet it is hard not to be intoxicated by your surroundings –
lost in a paradise.
+”Nothing is quite as strange, as a day spent in Paradise”+
In 1995, 400 suitcases were recovered from the attic of the Willard State Asylum in Upstate New York. Many patients died at the asylum and were buried in graves marked only by numbers. For many, these suitcases are the only traces left of these sad, lost, and lonely lives.
Dating between 1910 and 1960, photographer Jon Crispin has begun the chilling endeavour of cataloguing each suitcase and the contents therein. These people were deemed unfit for society, but Crispin’s photographs reveal a tragic humanity to the individuals whose memory remain in the mysterious objects and photos in these many bags and luggages.
Being the lovers of mystery we are, we couldn’t help but share some of these photos with you here, and the strange enigma they leave for us to ponder.
Well, well…what have we here? Come back for some more?!
While we’re on the topic of Devils, it seems, we couldn’t resist bringing you this little niblit of the Film & Style Divine. Kenneth Anger. From “Invocation of My Demon Brother”, to “Fireworks”, “Lucifer Rising” , “Scorpio Rising”, and “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” – this auteur to the max has brought to the world an esoteric, rebellious, and divine sensibility to all of his works.
Inspiration we are still reaping today! Take for instance, Ryan Gosling’s iconic gold satin jacket with scorpion on the back in 2011’s “Drive” – it was Kenneth Anger’s “Scorpio Rising”, an experimental film made by Anger in 1963 about bikers, the occult, the underground, Catholicism, and Nazism that inspired the logo that would become synonymous with Gosling’s “Driver” character.
Throughout his work you can see his love for cinema, for art, for style, for fashion, for creative people that don’t see the world the way other people do. People who gather together to be the truest, and most extreme versions of themselves they can be. It takes a true creative mastermind to bring that into fruition.
Blending the world of the occult with pop culture and art-house cinema, Anger’s films are all one-of-a-kind, kaleidoscopic dreams (and sometimes nightmares).
For instance, take “Invocation of My Demon Brother” from 1969. With music by Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones Mick, Yes), and cameos by some of 1960s California’s most notorious esoteric celebrities including Founder of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey (making yet another appearance here at EOF), and Bobby Beausoleil (later charged in committing a first degree murder with members of the “Manson Family ).
Invocation of My Demon Brother” is a rare glimpse into a dark underground world, as well as a visual poem to the horrors of War, humanity, and nature itself.
There’s nothing really to be scared of here. Just a bunch of Hocus-Pocus…Movie MAGIC, if you will. It’s really lucky to recieve an entire commentary on the film by the artist himself, as there are not many interviews with the often recluse director.
Anger usually centres his work on ideas of the divine, spiritual, decadent, sexual, and supernatural. The now 86 year old auteur (Happy Belated! His birthday was February 3) got his start in the glorious heydays of Hollywood Babylon itself, as the Changeling Prince in Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle’s 1935 adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
Having seen the ins and outs of Hollywood and such a young age- a land full of magic, glamour, decadence, and of course, EVIL – it is fantastic to invite yourself into a Kenneth Anger piece, as you can always leave from it feeling a certain “je ne sais quoi”, as the French would say.
The French, and Europe in general, have always lauded this Prince of Darkness for his unique dark styles, as well as humor (yes, Humor!). Though it took upward of 40 years (40 YEARS!!!), the Fashion World finally seemed ready to let out a little Anger, and the American Auteur was given the helms of a short fashion video for Missoni’s “A/W 2010-2011.
We’re having that “je ne sais quoi” type of feeling again, how about you? If you want to learn more about the dark Prince of style you can visit his official website here. And to buy his masterworks, click here.
![betty-hutton-movie-poster-9999-1020246292[1]](https://theeyeoffaith.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/betty-hutton-movie-poster-9999-10202462921.jpg)
