Who she was, and whether she was led astray that night, are lost to history, but I hope she was celebrating New Year’s in the way she thought best. Happy New Year, everyone.

This 1974 book cover has everything including mod 3D typeface, superimposed naked women in psychedelic colours, and an author named bureau of consumer research, in lower case. The 1970s are a foreign country; they do things differently there. Now I can’t get the 1973 lyric “painted ladies and a bottle of wine” lyric out of my head, but probably only Canadians will know what I’m talking about. Oh, 1970s, you’re so groovy.

Overheard dialogue on Twitter, if Twitter is capable of such a thing as dialogue:

GammaCounter:  Seriously lamenting that I missed out on the era of long Belted Sweaters http://bit.ly/belts
GreatDismal:  LSD was the gateway drug to long, belted sweaters

For those of you who don’t know, GreatDismal is fellow Vancouverite William Gibson.

Linda and John Meyers of Wary Meyers Decorative Arts assemble these mod, chic, distinctly 1960s and 70s interiors almost entirely from furniture and objects they find in thrift and vintage sales. They’ve produced some great interior design projects for clients but shown here is their own house in Portland, Maine, which is by now quite well-known. I’m showing it rather than their other excellent projects because here they’re free to be the wildest and the most purely 60s. Their entertaining new blog documents their peripatetic treasure-hunt in what amounts to a decor road movie (photos at bottom are from the blog). There’s something really unerring about their  creative re-use and re-work of the past, their re-introduction of the 60s with its emphasis on pleasure and experience and its occasional psychedelia, and just generally their sense of adventure and adept historical juxtaposition. Much of their material is actually early modernist to midcentury modernist but the ultimate effect is the specific risk-taking quality of the post-50s era. I wish there were more members of this particular design army but it’s gratifying to see that their work is getting plenty of recognition. See the article in the NYT (or click below to read the text). 

Below, from the blog: 

Still life with Dansk salt and pepper shakers.

Above, “Linda walking toward disappointment.” Below, their post says “This worn old Le Corbusier Basculant chair was at a middle school’s sale on Saturday amidst piles of shin guards and Harry Potter books.” Further below, Gerald Thurston lamp. Photo at bottom is just captioned “dreamhouse.”

Lastly, “Waffles grabbed a bee.”

(more…)

Joe Colombo, 1930 – 1971, a prolific Italian architect, designer, artist and filmmaker, produced a substantial, instantly recognizable body of work before dying far too young at 41. 60s space age design owes much of its look to Colombo, who seemed to innately understand the capabilities of new injected molded plastics and other contemporary materials and who innovated with them to explore ergonomics and a kind of  space age psychedelia. The Tube Chair above, like many of his pieces, is an art object as well as furniture. The small selection of his work below is from Flickr.

This gets points for adventurousness and imagination and magic, if not success. It’s another image from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Greystone Press, 1970.