@mersereau - Tumblr Blog

This 18th century bridge over the river Uvac is today at the bottom of Lake Uvac. September 19, 1975. Serbia. Mirko Kovačević

marthajefferson

history meme : 05/?? moments | the Night of September 3rd, 1951

The night in question has gone down in history as Tʜᴇ Bᴀʟʟ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ Cᴇɴᴛᴜʀʏ , an orgy of luxury and excess - and those who were there were so consumed by the opulence and theatricality that they had no reason to care. Taking place in his Venetian Palace on the Grand Canal, the host, Count Carlos de Beistegui, was apparently too eccentric to have many friends, but that hardly stopped the upper crust from gossiping about the upcoming Italian fête for months leading up to it. “At the time, Beistegui’s fête seemed like a moral indecency,” David Herbert, the British socialite would later write. Perhaps Cocteau put it most neatly when he said of the half a billion francs Beistegui was spending: “It costed about as much as a warplane, and I prefer a ball.” Venice never had and never would again see anything like it. Over the coming days the city would witness the sort of grandiosity, imperious behaviour and outrageous displays of opulence not seen since the days of the doges. A thousand guests attended, including Salvador Dali, Christian Dior, Gene Tierney or Orson Wells, and many that weren’t invited arrived by yacht, desperately anchoring at the Venice Lido in the hopes of an invitation or a way in. Everyone dressed as “retro aristocrats”, and arrived via gondola, in an almost surreal atmospher, reminiscent of the Venetian life immediately before the fall of the republic at the end of the 18th century. Every window in the palace was lit the same way it would have been in the 18th century, and not by electricity. Even the private detective who screened each guest on arrival was in period clothes. Anyone who did not adhere to the dress code was quickly whisked out of sight, though most people had invested months and huge sums in their costumes. A night that will live long in the memory of each of the guest…

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mist-the-wannabe-linguist

When I say the phrase "we die like men" I don't mean men in general, I specifically mean men aboard a pre-20th century sailing ship with frock coats and early stage scurvy

chiropteracupola

the shrike to your sharp & glorious thorn

the thing i think about constantly is getting stranded in like 1580 CE and telling people about electricity and they're like "oh sick how does that work" and i'm like well i don't know but i do know all the words to trap queen by fetty wap still

vympr

"so then he's like 'we just set a goal, talking matching lambos' and a lambo is a car and a car is basically a metal horse that you can sit inside but to make the horses go you have to put this black liquid inside that's made out of like bones or something. it smells kinda good to be honest but they say you're not supposed to huff it or you like kill your brain cells. have you guys discovered cells yet"