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Showing posts from May, 2023

The Big City Dream of a Cottagecore House

  People deal with stress in a variety of ways; some healthier than others. Some people throw themselves into their work. Others turn to vices. And then there’s a growing sect of people who put on puffy-sleeved shirts and floral print dresses, start their own sustainable vegetable gardens, and ask themselves “What would Laura Ingalls Wilder do?” That oddly specific last example sums up a somewhat recent aesthetic called cottagecore. And while it’s mostly about fashion, you can find cottagecore records, the perfect cottagecore house, even a cottagecore lifestyle. But can the promises of cottagecore actually be delivered? Or is it simply the futile dream of a generation hopelessly shackled to runaway technology?  The Most Fashionable Milkmaid on Instagram Photo credit:  Envato The style we’ve come to recognize as cottagecore began steadily building inertia sometime shortly after 2010. Yet, it wasn’t officially dubbed “cottagecore” until Tumblr users popularized the term in 2018. It’s oft

Los Angeles Architecture 101: Mission Revival Architecture

  Featured image credit:  Keizers In our Los Angeles Architecture 101 series, we’ve yet to cover any of the “revival” styles. Yet revival architecture was a major part of a time popularly referred to as the Eclectic Movement. Revival styles involved contemporary resurgences of European and American (typically from the colonial period) architecture. Today, we’re specifically looking at Mission Revival architecture, a popular revival design style often mistaken for Spanish Revival but with some key differences. Drawing inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions found across Southern California, Mission Revival architecture promised the wild panoramic romance of the American west. Did it deliver?  In the Days of the Divine Mission Photo credit:  Bauman Rare Books It was 1769 when Spanish colonizers erected California’s first mission, a structure designed to shelter their Catholic community. Spanish missionaries built similar structures all over California, thou

The Speed Project Finds Meaning in a Race From LA to Las Vegas

  Talk to anyone who’s completed the LA Marathon and you’ll hear about a life-changing experience. It’s not quite hiking Mount Everest, but it’s a feat that commands a fair amount of respect. So, what happens when the participation medals and the t-shirts lose their meaning? What happens if they never had any meaning in the first place? For some elite runners, the Speed Project happens. This Los Angeles to Las Vegas no holds barred race is like a track-and-field take on an ayahuasca retreat. Esoteric. Mysterious. And, at certain points, pretty hardcore.  340 Miles of Intensity Photo credit:  Bernard Gagnon While it’s only been around for eight years, the Speed Project has already built a reputation for being the most challenging relay race in the world. And that’s impressive considering it doesn’t try particularly hard to get on anyone’s radar.  You won’t find a website or even any way of applying for the race. As cliché as it sounds, the Speed Project finds you.  For such an intense r