M.J. Rose

Time capsule houses!

We adore them. They get our creative molecules buzzing. For example, take a look at the photo of this virtually undisturbed 1950’s kitchen (below). Doesn’t it give you a little creative tickle, a tiny spark that excites the urge to create stories or films or photos of people living here?

Dreamy…strange…pink….

Here‘s a link to a gallery of these.

Speaking of muse-like inspiration, our friends Sue and Lauren have a very creative and highly regarded blog of daily writing prompts that we know you will enjoy: here.

As the sun begins to tease us, so does the dream of a long road trip. Sun visors and sun glasses, strange isolated rest stops dotting the endless hot asphalt, and the promise of a destination…

From Hyperallergic,

Ryann Ford, Lajitas, Texas

Documenting the Disappearing Rest Stops of the American West
by Carey Dunn

…“It’s strange the details you transparently absorb/When you think you’ll never see them again/things like curio shops/that i once despised/now i look on as curious beauty,” wrote singer-songwriter Joe Ely in his 1987 ode to the American road trip, Lord of the Highway. The sentiment applies to the kitschy Americana rest stops along Route 66, small structures with parking, picnic tables, and toilets, many of which are being replaced by fast food joints or demolished as states cut budgets.

While on a solo road trip from California to Texas in 2007, Austin-based photographer Ryann Ford became enamored with the quirky designs of these famous rest stops: faux covered-wagons in New Mexico, metal teepees along the Rio Grande. After learning that these rest stops were endangered, she spent years on the road photographing as many of them as possible, creating an archive of mid-century American design. The Last Stop: Vanishing Rest Stops of the American Roadside, forthcoming from PowerHouse Books, compiles hundreds of Ford’s images shot in New Mexico, Texas, California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, and Louisiana…”

For the rest, click here. These photos are spectacularly eerie and wonderful!

So fascinating! The colors are spellbinding.

MJ posted a link to this show on her Facebook, and wrote:

I can’t wait to see this show at the Met! I ran away from home when I was 8… to the Egyptian wing… it’s been my home way from home ever since. (Don’t worry, it was only 1 block away from where we lived. Only one block to cross.)

Temple of Dendur’s Lost Colors Brought to Life at the Met
By JOSHUA BARONE

“As depicted in popular culture, ancient Egypt is awash with the color beige. A trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art would seem to reflect that notion: The Temple of Dendur, with its weatherworn sandstone, could fit in naturally with the earth tones of “Aida” or “The Mummy.”

But Egyptologists know that this temple, like many others of the ancient world, was painted with vivid colors and patterns. In “Color the Temple,” a marriage of research and projection-mapping technology, visitors to the Met can now glimpse what the Temple of Dendur may have looked like in its original, polychromatic form more than 2,000 years ago.

The Met’s MediaLab has installed a projector that fills in the temple’s carvings with color. Through March 19, one section of the structure’s south side is on view: a scene of the Roman emperor Augustus, dressed as a pharaoh and making an offering to the deities Hathor and Horus. Because the sun would wash out the projector’s light (the gallery has floor-to-ceiling windows), the scene is illuminated on Friday and Saturday evenings, when the Met offers extended hours…”

For the rest, click here to go to the NYTimes.