60+ Years of Tom of Finland

For 60+ years, Tom of Finland (aka Touko Laaksonen) has inspired and empowered viewers, while pioneering expressions of gay desire through his art. While certainly erotic, much of his artwork wasn’t overtly sexual, rather playfully suggestive—making male-on-male lust somewhat everyday and casual (nothing if not brave in the ’50s, when he began showing his work). In a new show at Detroit’s MOCAD, “Tom House: The …

Moscow Home Designed by Zaha Hadid

Located just outside of Moscow, a retro-futuristic home built for Vladislav Doronin is the only private residence Zaha Hadid ever designed. With the only brief being that Doronin wanted to “wake up in the morning and just see blue sky,” Hadid created a fascinating structure whose first floor merges with the forest and a 22-meter high tower rises above the trees. Inside there’s a pool, …

4,500 Dachshund-Related Items at New German Museum

In the German town of Passau, former florists Josef Küblbeck and Oliver Storz have opened a museum dedicated to the delightful daschund, aka the wiener dog or sausage dog. Known as Dackelmuseum, or Dachshund Museum, the destination features 4,500 sausage dog-related items. According to D. Caroline Coile’s assessment in “The Dachshund Handbook,” this particular breed originated in Germany to assist in badger hunts. They were …