Summer is almost over, finally. The heat is finally subsided a bit and despite the random torrential downpours, the days couldn’t be better. Here’s a photo update thanks to photographer, Ryan Johnson, who shot the store for some upcoming editorial coverage.

The Arc newsstand is still growing. Current titles of i-D, Dazed & Confused, Monocle, French Vogue, Vogue Collections, Another, Another Man, Tar, Art Review, The Gentlewoman, Acne Paper, A Magazine and a new title from Italy called Pizza.

Expect to see: V, Pop, Love, Pin-up, Apartmento, Pyramid Power, Tate, Palais, Fantastic Man, Vogue Homme International, Paradis, Bon, Purple, Self Service, Man about Town, Zoo, Wonderland and 032c.

The headlines may have changed and the way in which we read them too but everyone still wakes up and puts on their pants one leg at a time, slips a tie through their collar or a scarf around their neck and waits til last to put on jewels and just when the sunshine beams across their made-up eyes, puts on their favorite pair of shades.

I picked up these little gems at a bookshop on Melrose this afternoon. The Cocktail Party, a play by T.S. Eliot from 1950 was praised by the New York Post back then, “The Cocktail Party is an authentic modern masterpiece, one of the two or three finest plays of the post-war English speaking stage. It is not only beautifully written but extraordinarily effective dramatically. This is the stage as its illustrious best,” reads the cover flap. The cover is beautifully, and simply designed and the play itself takes place in a London drawing room throughout, with the exception of Act two.

The other book entitled, Four Days, documents the days before and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The photographic essay includes commentary and documentation including telegrams and eyewitness testimonies. A steal at $1.

Kate Moss on the right, taken in 1993

Kate Moss with her CK Barbie doll. Nov.1996

What ever happened to this little piece of Kate Moss memorabilia? In searching through the Life Magazine photo archives, it appears as though Calvin Klein also designed for Barbie, using Kate Moss as the spokesmodel. I can see why the then fresh faced girl would have been chosen to represent the brand, but a Barbie? It would be interesting to see what kind of face is hiding behind that shiny, polyester mane and denim pagegirl cap.

I went to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market last month and got these items. I know the first one is from 1924, not sure about the photograph. 40s, 50s?

And so it begins…

For three days in the April of 1996, the belongings of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis where put on display for interested bidders to see. A total of 1195 lots in all were put up for auction including her jewelry, art collection, furniture, private letters and memoirs, clothing and even her green BMW. If you weren’t lucky enough to snag a piece of Jackie O, the nearly 600 page Sotheby’s catalogue was a nice enough gift. Filled with images and commentary about Jackie’s life and her belongings, the catalogue is something to be treasured. I found one in a used bookshop on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and was initially drawn to its connection to someone’s things. It isn’t her life at all but in some ways it’s all most people ever knew about Jackie. Her dress, her pearls, her art and the china they ate off of when they came for a dinner at her house.

Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum.

I received an e-mail recently from an Austrian artist friend, Kasper Kovitz. He’s been spending some time in Spain and was sending his hellos from Bilbao, where that not-so-good collection is displayed inside the Frank Gehry Guggenheim. He was thinking of the city’s expansion since that molded metal masterpiece of architectural invention was completed. He was telling me that the urban planning of the town was right up there with cities of the Persian Gulf like Abu Dhabi and Dubai. “It’s an interesting city, between beautiful and gritty and obviously very successful at reinventing itself through signature buildings,” he explained. It’s interesting how significant architectural feats can unite and alter a city and at the same time separate it from its own cultural history and still be widely acceptable. It feels like we’re living in a time where new architecture has no connection to a culture or time period. The most extreme visions, ie. Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao, of the future are planted and rooted into a city richer and older than any Los Angeles intersection could ever imagine. Somehow the building is allowed to grow and while it may never blend aesthetically, it does find a way to become accepted by the people who live and work around it, even if they hate it at first. I can only imagine what people will think about our culture hundreds of years from now. Were we the culture that simply experimented and tinkered with history, turning cities upside-down, essentially making anything and everything acceptable?

“I enjoy learning more about the Basque culture, which is independent and proud, yet enterprising and prone to exploration and capitalism. They are some of the oldest people of Europe, with a unique language, the first whalers that ruled the world seas until they sold out that technology and since they weren’t a nation, subsequently lost the fishing rights. But they seem to be able to always reinvent themselves. And they had a mass exodus over the years all over the world but particularely to the Amercian continent, Argentinia, Chile, Boise, Idaho… Persons as diverse as the dictator Pinochet and Panch Villa were of Basque origin. For me their role in the exploration of America is the most interesting,” Kasper continues.

I wonder if my ancestors were of the Basque people. I think this idea of reinvention and prosperity is strongly engrained into most American people and if it’s not, it will be someday.

Kasper Kovitz is currently working on a series of paintings on paper of images of galleons at sea and conquistadors landing, like the ones used for little children in school. “I am using ox blood to paint  (there’s a color called rouge basque, which was originally made using ox blood) and a tropical fruit juice mix from the Indians.”

Jeff Koon’s Puppy standing guard over Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum.

This afternoon I bought my $5 lottery ticket for Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing. My four hand-scribbled and one quick-pick option ticket was handed to the cashier at the corner gas station. I was given my print out and as always a “good luck” from the cashier followed. I’ve been playing twice a week now for the past few weeks, watching the unclaimed jackpot slowly rise after each drawing from around $100m to now $224m. I have only won $7 since my first $5 bet back when I was hoping to win a cash buyout of $70m. With Friday night’s buyout option, this dream win would be $138m. That amount of money is enough to inspire people. If not for the very idea of winning, much less possessing $138m, people wouldn’t play. I think in some ways we imagine that we’re going to be that guy one day. The one driving the Lamborghini, living in that mansion by the sea. But in reality it’s truly unimaginable, no matter how hard we try and wrap our minds around it. What happens to those who achieve the unimaginable. An award as grand as the lottery, the highest on record being $390m. An amount so large, from an amount so little, $1. Not even an investment. A value less than a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread multiplying $390m times. What happens to the man who goes from having nothing to suddenly having it all? In once instance, it was a man who already had it all and was given more and then lost everything.

The Big Game stared in 1996 with just six participating states and has since expanded to 38 states with 3 more being added next month and has gone under name changes to ultimately end up as Mega Millions. Having some of the world’s largest wins on record, yet the lottery also gives huge amounts back to its state holding participants with 35% of ticket sales going to government services, like education. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the lottery has expanded to so many states, so quickly. As a depression ensues, people play the lottery more than ever, adding to the cycle of give and take and in hopes of having that life like no other, imagined by millions of people twice a week around 11pm eastern standard time.

Their website advertises all the great things you could do with the money. “Save for retirement,” “buy your dream house,” “go back to school,” but what about the real-life headlines from some of the big game’s winners. “$20 million winner, kidnapped and murdered by own sister-in-law,” “16-year marriage disintegrated,” and the multiple headlines for one of the most infamous winners, Jack Whittaker.

In 2002 he won $314,900,000.00 dollars, the biggest lottery winner of all time up until 2007. The already self-made millionaire won the Powerball game on Christmas day and took home a lump sum of $113m after taxes. In just a short amount of time Jack has gone through a list of devastation. His granddaughter died by drug overdose, he’s been sued for bouncing checks at casinos, multiple burglaries and arrests for drunk driving. $500k was stolen from his car parked outside of a stripclub and he has been sued by the Father of an 18 year old boy whose body was found dead inside his home. To whom much is given, much is expected I guess.

Here’s to Friday night’s big win!

Above, $315m Lottery winner, Jack Whittaker