published works
Why film and TV get Paris so wrong
By Addison Nugent
BBC Culture - Netflix’s Emily in Paris is the latest work to portray the French capital as a postcard-pretty playground for an American. Where do these fantasies come from, asks Addison Nugent.
The story of queer country music – and its message of hope
By Addison Nugent
BBC Culture - As LGBTQ+ country artists like Orville Peck and Lil Nas X blaze a trail, Addison Nugent looks at the surprising and little-known tradition of queer country music that preceded them.
The prairie look that keeps coming back
By Addison Nugent
BBC Culture - What is #prairiecore? Addison Nugent explores why fashion can’t get enough of the ruffles and romance of Victoriana – and its US equivalent.
Baltimore’s Celebration of Working-Class Glamour
By Addison Nugent
BBC Travel - “Hons” have become one of Baltimore’s most prominent mascots – but the subculture's roots can be traced to humble beginnings.
By Addison Nugent
BBC Travel - Tucked amid the city’s urban sprawl, dozens of secluded vineyards dot the French capital and produce some of France’s most exclusive wines.
By Addison Nugent
ozy.com — The cab driver used to enjoy his job on summer evenings. Driving through the winding streets of Ishinomaki, he would often pass the port where white sailboats bobbed on the water and turned from blue to silver in the moonlight. In summer, his passengers were also more pleasant — giddy with the arrival of warm weather. But the summer of 2011 was different in the idyllic Japanese coastal town. The streets once alive with people were now empty and dark.
The Great Inventors Who Really Wanted to Talk to Ghosts
By Addison Nugent
ozy.com — Spiritualism, or the practice of speaking with the dead, came into existence as we know it in 1848, just four years after the first telegraph message. Two sisters, Margaret and Kate Fox, proclaimed to the world that they had made contact with the spirit of a dead drifter named Mr. Splitfoot in their home in Hydesville, New York … and the world believed them.
'Bi-National' Marriages Are Booming ... in France
By Addison Nugent
ozy.com — Nearly seven years ago to the day, I married a French man. I was 24 years old, fresh out of college, and my student visa was going to expire in a matter of months. Of course, I loved my boyfriend at the time — I had left my life in America behind for him after a whirlwind romance of just two months — but our marriage, which has since ended, was equally about the fear of me having to leave. At our wedding, I wore a flower crown.
The Secret Seat of the Knights Templar
By Addison Nugent
BBC Travel - Under the cobblestoned streets of Paris’s chicest district lie the remnants of the mysterious Knights Templar’s mightiest stronghold.
BBC Future - From a terminal’s colours to the security queue, here’s how airports are designed to keep travellers calm, quiet – and ready to shop.
This Roman Emperor Lost His Lover And Turned Him Into a God
ozy.com — In the last week of October, 130 AD a man died and a god was born. Primeval King Osiris drowned in the mighty waters of the Nile River, and upon his death became ancient Egyptâs most powerful god. But this man was no king. In fact, not much is known about his lineage at all.
The Woman of His Dreams Died. But He Didn't Let That Pull Them Apart
ozy.com — The body of Elena Milagro de Hoyas went on display at the Dean-Lopez Funeral Home in Key West, Florida, in 1940. But the onlookers who flocked to view the body, covered in morticianâs wax and paper-mache, werenât drawn by the morbid curiosity that led crowds to famous corpses like the Elephant Man or the deformed fetuses in formaldehyde jars that were common oddities in the 19th century. Instead, it was a story.
She Outsold Dickens, So Why Don't We Know Her Name?
ozy.com — Queen Victoria awaited her package. The grand matriarch of the era that bore her name was not one for frivolity, but she allowed herself a few pleasures. The parcel that her servant handed her was one of them: a copy of The Sorrows of Satan, the new book by her favorite author, Marie Corelli. An enormously popular author in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Corelli has been all but forgotten by today’s literary canon.
Better Living Through ‘Active’ Building Design
By Addison Nugent
Undark — Researchers and architects are refocusing building and city-planning practices towards supporting healthy living — and fighting disease.
Why Americans are Refusing to Pick Up the Phone
By Addison Nugent
ozy.com — Robocalls are rising sharply in the U.S., and there’s no disconnect in sight.
Parisian Street Gangs or Fashion Icons: Why Not Both?
By Addison Nugent
ozy.com — In the early 20th century, the French capital’s streets were ruled by this fabulous gang.
In Ireland, a Taste of the Underworld
By Addison Nugent
BBC Travel - For millennia, warrior Queen Medb was the most intoxicating thing to come out of Oweynagat cave. However, things have changed, thanks to a new beer brewed from its wild yeast.
For Centuries, Alewives Dominated the Brewing Industry
By Addison Nugent
atlasobscura.com — Beer has been an essential aspect of human existence for at least 4,000 years—and women have always played a central role in its production. But as beer gradually moved from a cottage industry into a money-making one, women were phased out through a process of demonization and character assassination. It’s telling that the oldest-known beer recipe comes from a Sumerian hymn to the goddess of beer, Ninkasi.
The Outrageous French Aristocrats Who Mocked the Reign of Terror
By Addison Nugent
ozy.com — As with most Parisian high-society gatherings, the Bal des Victimes had a tough door policy. But unlike today, when exclusive party lists are made up of fashion glitterati and movie stars, the guests at this event all had just one thing in common: One of their relatives had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror. But this party was far from a somber funeral procession. It was an orgiastic evening of aristocratic irreverence.
The Metrosexual Knights Who Defended Medieval Korea
By Addison Nugent
ozy.com — In a breathtaking Korean valley, a group of young men gathers by a stream to dance and sing and pray to the spirits of nature. The boys are beautiful and wear makeup, elegant clothing and jeweled shoes. As the sun sinks behind the mountains, they head home, trailing incense. Meet the Hwarang knights of medieval Korea. By today’s standards, their metrosexual look suggests a K-pop boy band parachuted into the Silla Dynasty, which ruled the Korean peninsula from 57 B.C. to A.D. 935.
Iceland's extraordinary, futuristic churches
By Addison Nugent
BBC Culture - The unique, modernist masterpieces that reflect mythology, nature and the country’s turbulent history.
A history of Invitation To Love, the soap opera within Twin Peaks
By Addison Nugent
dazeddigital.com - David Lynch’s cult show was a meta-exploration of the medium of TV itself – and this soap opera is the show all its characters adored.
The Day Herbie Hancock Met the Electric Piano
ozy.com — On the third and final day of recording Miles Davis’ transitional album Miles in the Sky, Herbie Hancock walked into Columbia Studio B on East 52nd Street in New York to find his instrument missing. A piano prodigy since age 11, Hancock scanned the room — no keyboards. Confused, he turned to Davis, his mentor, and bandleader.
When Miles Davis and John Coltrane Scandalized Paris
By Addison Nugent
ozy.com - The mood was tense in the backstage area of the illustrious Olympia Theater in central Paris. It was the first night of Norman Granz’s “Jazz at the Philharmonic” European tour, and the lineup on the marquee was impressive: the Oscar Peterson Trio, the Stan Getz Quartet, and headlining the Miles Davis Quintet. Fresh out of the legendary Kind of Blue recording sessions, the group led by the seminal jazz trumpeter was expected to be tighter than ever. Instead, it was about to fly apart.
The Rise of Unfundamentalist Parenting
ozy.com — For several summers in my preteen years my parents sent me to church camp. My parents weren’t particularly religious, but I guess they thought that a little outdoor socialization would do their bookish daughter good, and for the most part, they were right. Though some activities were imbued with a very gentle Christian message, and campfire prayer meetings were held each night, the camp always seemed more focused on nature and exercise rather than creating an army of God.
How Nina Simone Used Her Musical Art for Racial Justice
ozy.com — The full house at Philharmonic Hall in New York City erupted into applause when Nina Simone’s guitarist, Emile Latimer, plucked the final haunting note of “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair,” the concert’s opening number. Simone, whose commanding stage presence earned her the title the High Priestess of Soul, still hadn’t spoken to her audience.
How the British Fooled the Germans - With Cubist Paintings
msn.com — How the British Fooled the Germans — With Cubist Paintings By Addison Nugent of Ozy | Gettyimages 150336400 The troopship USS Leviathan in a dazzle camouflage pattern in 1918. The Leviathan was formerly the SS Vaterland, a German Hamburg-America Line ship seized by the U.S. government in 1917. Designed by Norman Wilkinson to confuse enemy ships, dazzle camouflage was intended not so much to hide vessels but rather to make it difficult to determine the direction in which they were traveling.
Wrong byline?
The Day Louis Forgot His Lines
ozy.com — With no record executives around to kill the buzz, the mood of the recording session at Chicago’s legendary Okeh Studios was relaxed and informal as Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five band recorded tracks with uninhibited, improvisational brio. While laying down “Heebie Jeebies,” Armstrong happened to drop the lyric sheet that bandmate and composer Boyd Atkins had written out for him — or so the legend goes. Armstrong kept going anyway, scat-singing his way through the band’s soon-to-be hit song.
When a Jazz Musician Shook Up Classical Music
ozy.com — A racially mixed audience settled into the red velvet seats of Carnegie Hall, their faces gazing up at the gilded proscenium in a mirror image of the orchestral piece they were about to hear: Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige.” It was Jan. 23, 1943, and segregation was at its height, even in cosmopolitan New York City.
Women Are Increasingly Turning to Violent Digital 'Lovers'
ozy.com — The conversation begins normally. Your boyfriend tells you that you’re gorgeous, asks you how you are, calls you “baby.” But you can tell there’s something wrong: He gets mad at you all the time, often for reasons that you don’t understand. This time, he’s found out that you’ve been texting your male cousin.
From Satanic Priest to ‘Apostle of the Rosary'
ozy.com — Emaciated from fasting and cloaked in a black robe, Bartolo Longo entered the satanic church in Naples, Italy, determined to go to the dark side. The 23-year-old law student with the devilishly pointed beard walked skull-lined halls to the sacrificial altar, his eyes glittering. Much later, Longo would recount that night in 1864, when the walls of the church shook and the air filled with the unearthly shrieks of demons
How an Insatiable Prince Became a Patron Saint
By Addison Nugent, Johann Leberecht Eggink
ozy.com — Because if a pagan prince can turn his game around, what else is spiritually possible? Prince Vladimir of Kiev wanted more. The youngest son of Grand Prince Sviatsolav Igorevich, Vladimir was by no means a poor young man, but his two older brothers, Oleg and Yaropolk, stood in the way of what he really wanted: the crown. While his brothers fought a bitter civil war following their father’s death, Vladimir fled to Norway in 977, where he amassed an army of soldiers
How Crossing Jordan Turned an Egyptian Party Girl Into a Saint
ozy.com — After weeks of wandering the wilderness near the Jordan River, Abba Zosimus saw the silhouette of what he thought was a demon. He had set out into the barren landscape for Lent, as it was customary for the monks in his monastery to spend the 40 days leading up to Palm Sunday in meditative isolation. He had hoped to find a man who would lead him closer to God. Instead, he encountered a naked creature with leathery skin, wild hair and a crazed look.
Meet the Murderous Viking Princess Who Brought the Faith to Eastern Europe
ozy.com — The Drevlian people of medieval Ukraine were happy and optimistic. They had just murdered Prince Igor of Kiev, regent of one of their enemies, the Kievan Rus, and had done so in grand fashion — by ripping him in half while still alive. The technique? Bend two birch trees to the ground, tie the victim’s legs to the trunks and then release the trees, which spring back to their original positions.
Meet the Genocidal Viking Princess Who Brought the Faith to Russia
ozy.com — The Drevlian people of medieval Ukraine were happy and optimistic. They had just murdered Prince Igor of Kiev, regent of one of their enemies, the Kievan Rus, and had done so in grand fashion — by ripping him in half while still alive. The technique? Bend two birch trees to the ground, tie the victim’s legs to the trunks and then release the trees, which spring back to their original positions
Stamp Out the Sexist Legacy of the Dollar Coin
ozy.com — The United States is one of the only countries in the world with both a dollar coin and bill. For whatever reason, Congress has refused to pull the trigger on fully replacing Washington greenbacks with the more cost-effective coin. In 10 separate reports over the past 24 years, the Government Accountability Office has recommended that switching to the dollar coin would save American taxpayers billions of dollars.
Spiritual Guru or Dangerous Cult Leader?
ozy.com — The Sheraton Hotel at Charles de Gaulle Airport looks like a set piece from Blade Runner — as if a spaceship docked in the middle of a poorly lit terminal and never left. A fitting setting for the interview I’m here to conduct with Teal Swan, the 33-year-old YouTube sensation whose followers speak as if she is a transcendent gift to humanity — and whose critics paint her as an authoritarian cult leader, the Regina George of gurus.
The English Courtesan Who Stole the Hearts of Parisian Aristocrats
ozy.com — The dinner guests at Château Beauséjour in the Bordeaux wine region came with an expectation of being scandalized. Not that it would take much. It was 1864 after all, and Queen Victoria’s conservative influence extended even across the English Channel to more libertine Second Empire France. So when dessert was about to be served and the hostess, the famous courtesan Cora Pearl, coquettishly challenged them to “cut into the next dish,” they knew they were about to get a bit hot under the collar
The Legendary Murder of Hex Hollow
ozy.com — It was desperation that drove John Blymire to the farmhouse of Mrs. Knopt on those autumn nights. For years, Blymire was convinced he had been hexed, and that the curse was to blame for all the misery in his life — his nervous disposition, his night sweats, his bad luck.… And so the haggard 32-year-old sought out Knopt, the witch of Marietta — aka Nellie Noll, the river witch — whose occult powers were well-known throughout York and Lancaster counties in southeastern Pennsylvania.
The Terrifying Disappearance of Little Pauline Picard
ozy.com — The 2-year-old girl was playing on her family farm in Goas al Ludu, just outside of Brest, in Brittany, France. It was a quiet and safe area, and Pauline Picard’s mother never worried about letting her children play in the picturesque farmland. But when she called her daughter to supper one evening in April 1922, she was horrified by the lack of response.
How the British Fooled the Germans - With Cubist Paintings
ozy.com — The man was no fan of the modern stuff. Despite being a very successful artist, Norman Wilkinson rejected the bold, contrasting colors and aggressive geometry of the cubists, preferring to stick to his very realistic naval battles and idyllic landscapes
Can Your Home Make You Healthier - if It’s Designed Right?
ozy.com — Aria Apartments in Denver is a new kind of affordable housing project. And if “affordable housing” brings to mind dimly lit, dilapidated high-rises, then tweak the mental picture and visualize a project that consists of 72 two-story walk-ups paired with 13 market-rate town houses, all of them brightly colored and spacious with a sleek, modern design. A daylit fitness room in the on-site community center looks out onto a grassy walkway where residents sit, stroll and play.
How Social Media Went From a Distraction to Businesses' Biggest Opportunity
ozy.com — Back in the early aughts, when social media was a domain relegated to angsty teens, the adult workforce would have laughed at the idea of an employer demanding they take certification classes in managing their Friendster, LiveJournal or Myspace accounts. But that is exactly what SocialB, a U.K.-based digital marketing firm, offers its clients for today’s social media platforms.
Would You Give Up Personal Data for Free Pizza?
ozy.com — Free food. For some it’s a reward that makes us willing to do some strange, perhaps even out-of-character, actions. Like wearing something on your head, posing for a silly pic … or giving up your friends’ email addresses to a third party? That might sound far-fetched, but, according to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research released in June:Most people will choose free pizza over online anonymity.
ozy.com — They used to be normal. Stolen away into the jungle by evil wizards who cut out their tongues, the Asiki children were transformed, their woolly hair morphing into long, sleek locks. Witchcraft destroyed their memories, and the poor, cursed children wandered the streets on dark nights in search of their long-lost homes. Or so the story went. But Dr. Robert H. Nassau wanted to set the record straight
Cults Are Making a Comeback in France - Why?
ozy.com — I stand at the bottom of a staircase with red walls and a dirty red carpet. An elderly woman wearing a powder-blue suit and matching eye shadow stands in the middle of the stairs, illuminated by a chandelier. “Are you here for the conference?” she asks with an otherworldly smile. I follow her into a room with five rows of chairs facing a large screen. Most of the chairs are occupied by young people looking around expectantly, but interspersed throughout are long-haired, middle-aged men, all wearing large medallions that look like a cross between a swastika and a Star of David.
Meet the Spiritual Guru Suspending Himself by Fleshhooks … at Age 86
ozy.com — Fakir Musafar, a founding father of body modification — meaning the deliberate altering of one’s physical appearance — is usually pictured in leather corsets or elaborate piercing apparatuses. But when we connect via Skype from his home in Menlo Park, California, he’s wearing khaki pants and a T-shirt stamped with the periodic table of elements.
Paris' New Love: 'Murica's Southern Comfort Food
ozy.com — It’s the Fourth of July and the smell of low-country boil wafts through the air along with Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing.” A tall, burly man in a shirt emblazoned with the American flag hands me a plastic basket filled with crawfish, and I sit down to eat and sip Southern Comfort with fresh peach cocktail. As I watch a garrulous group of young men over in the corner try their hand at a Metallica pinball machine, I pretend that I’m at some roadside bar in the American Deep South.
The Forgotten Religions That Worshipped Electricity
ozy.com — The Rev. Aaron Bickley stood on a rough wooden crate inside his revival tent in the middle of an open field in Salem, Ohio. It was the summer of 1875, and the sun blazed mercilessly over the holy man’s makeshift church. He could tell that his parishioners, most having come out of bored curiosity, were becoming drowsy and disinterested. Suddenly, a young woman in the crowd stood up, perfectly erect, and pointed her dainty finger toward a boy waiting to be miraculously healed by Bickley.
Europe’s Wolves - They’re Back
ozy.com — On the evening of June 5, 2015, Romain Ferrand, then 16, was on his family’s cattle farm in the Maritime Alps in the south of France. Sitting outside, the young man suddenly heard a commotion erupt from the ordinarily tranquil mountain darkness: Cows mooed loudly in the distance, and the dogs began to bark and growl ferociously. Romain called his brother, Benjamin, and the two set out into the night armed with flashlights and their father’s hunting knife and rifle.
Want to Earn $20K in Paris? Become a Fake Shopper for Luxury Bags
ozy.com — Every morning, a line forms outside the Hermès store at 24 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris’ eighth arrondissement. Hot or cold, rain or shine, by the time the store opens at 10:30 a.m., the queue stretches around the block. Taya Strzygowsky, 22, who is visiting from Kazakhstan, has been in line since 7:35. “Did you see the fight?” she asks me excitedly.
The Socialite Who Hid in a Dingy Hotel Room for 24 Years
ozy.com — Margaret Kilkenny, a chambermaid at the Herald Square Hotel in New York City, knew not to turn down the beds in suites 551-552. The only signs of life she’d seen come from those rooms were pale withered hands that reached through a small crack in the door occasionally to collect clean linens and a few groceries. So Kilkenny was more than a little surprised when the door to the suite opened on May 5, 1931, and a raspy voice yelled, “Maid, come here! My sister is sick.”
Think You Hate Banks? You’ve Got Nothing on the French
ozy.com — Isabelle Dupuy can’t stand banks. “I truly hate those guys,” the 44-year-old French mother-of-two says with a look of disgust. “I know they are not thinking about me as a human being but as a way of making more money.” Madame Dupuy does not stand out among her fellow citizens. According to a new study published by YouGov.com:Just 27 percent of the French public has a positive view of banks. Compare that no-confidence vote to attitudes in the U.S.
The Serial Killer Who Fought Alongside Saint Joan of Arc
ozy.com — As she watched her son ride away on the back of Gilles de Rais' horse, Peronne Leossart realized she had made a mistake. When Gilles de Montmorency-Laval - the famed Baron de Rais who fought alongside Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orléans - passed through La Roche-Bernard, France, in September 1438, the young lord was welcomed as a hero.
Hellbent on Designing Cars in Motor City
By Nick Fouriezos, Addison Nugent
ozy.com — In this occasional series, OZY takes to streets and neighborhoods across the globe to ask a simple question: "How was your day?" I got up in the morning, played with my kids. Went downstairs and came up with some retro art ideas - the nostalgia for that sort of thing is still pretty good.
Cinema's First Sex Symbol was also America's First Goth
messynessychic.com — From Mae West to Eva Green, the cinema archetype of the ‘femme fatale’ has fascinated and frightened audiences since Hollywood’s golden age. But nearly a century before Sharon Stone bore all as the deadly seductress Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct, silent-film actress Theda Bara, the silver screen’s very first sex symbol, hypnotized filmgoers with her ‘evil’ stare, vampy makeup, and scandalous outfits.
dirgemag.com — When one pictures an author of cosmic horror, the image of a sickly pale and perpetually nervous-type comes to mind. H.P. Lovecraft's famous character, the writer of weird fiction Randolph Carter, is emblematic of this archetype. What certainly does not come to mind is bodybuilding, shark fighting, sailors with movie-star good looks, and a debonair manner.
Electric Jewellery and the Forgotten Genius who Lit Up Paris
messynessychic.com — Known as 'The City of Light' for nearly two centuries, Paris led the way during the Age of Enlightenment, and yet history has forgotten one of the most bizarre and beautiful uses of light ever witnessed by Parisian society: electric jewelry.
The Married Woman Who Kept Her Lover in the Attic
atlasobscura.com — Dolly Oesterreich, her "Bat-Man," and one of the strangest sex scandals ever.
Text-To-Speech in 1846 Involved a Talking Robotic Head With Ringlets
atlasobscura.com — On a summer day in 1846 at London's grand Egyptian Hall, Joseph Faber unveiled one of the strangest inventions to come out of the 19th century's technological boom. For one shilling a head, spectators were ushered into a dimly lit back room to see the Euphonia, a machine that boasted the ability to replicate human speach.