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.”

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Photos are all from the 1975 edition of Inside Today’s Home  by Ray and Sarah Faulkner, Holt Rinehart Winston. (The 1954, 1960 and 1968 editions of this book are all worth collecting too, if you can find them on abebooks.) The word ”today” somehow sounded more optimistic then than it does now, though of course back then you did have the bomb to consider. The book’s collection of photos is pretty eclectic but it’s all held together by a romance with the idea of the new. Authors Ray Faulkner, Professor of Art and Architecture at Stanford and Sarah Faulkner, a trained interior designer, wanted the book to function as both an academic text and as a coffee table book, so it’s an interesting mix of both DIY and historical information. Most of the photos are black and white, but there’s also a small selection of good colour plates. The bathroom above is by Charles Gwathmey; the airy stucco pool house and pony wall below are by architect Charles Moore.

Japanese-influenced bedroom and open plan house, above, are by architect Paul Rudolph. If you click on the photo directly above there’s a great story in the comments by a member of the Paul Rudolph Foundation.

“Zome” solar houses by the Zomeworks Corporation, which is still in operation. One hopes it will revisit the solar house idea. “Zomes” opened during the day to admit sun, and closed at night to retain heat.

That’s according to the New York Times, and since nostalgia seems to work in 20-year cycles, I guess anyone could have seen it coming. If, as the article says, the 90s were the sci fi thing and the Breeders, then excellent, but … what is that orange outfit! Do I not remember the 90s correctly? No matter what they were, though, anything is better than the 80s, the decade that just makes me go Reagan Thatcher Reagan Thatcher Reagan Thatcher Shoulderpads in a loop. I realize this view is unpopular. Sorry. From the NYT’s blog The Moment :

Show after show this week in London, the Y.B.D.’s were designing like it was 1995. Topshop’s Unique collection, in the hands of the stylist Katie Grand, mined the junkyard-rave aesthetic of the cult classic “Tank Girl” to mixed results. Charles Anastase’s “autobiographical” collection paid homage to the unsung icons of grunge — think the D.I.Y. style of Kelly and Kim Deal, of the alt-rock band the Breeders, and Rayanne Graff, the too-cool-for-school character played by A.J. Langer on the teen drama “My So-Called Life.” Chances are that only the hipsters who crash his shows will be savvy enough to appreciate this.

See also Aeon Flux and read this review on gawker.