Content Catnip
Quirky Internet Wunderkammer
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Comforting Thought
Bite-sized comfort and spirituality in a turmultuous world
Comforting Thought: Don’t resist or block off your feelings
Real love for ourselves, by definition includes every aspect of our lives – the good, the bad, the difficult, the challenging past. the uncertain future as well as all of the shameful, upsetting experiences and encounters that we’d just as soon as forget. This doesn’t mean that we have to celebrate everything that’s happened to…
Comforting Thought: The Summer’s Day by Mary Oliver
“Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” -The Summer Day by Mary Oliver.
Powerful Thought: The dead bird urges you to write
Rachel Carson was urged to write ‘Silent Spring’ by the dead birds she held in her hands who called her to write. She could not live, knowing what she had learned about DDT, without speaking, without – her gift – lifting her pen to write.
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Ancient Word of the Day
Words dredged up from the pelagic zone of language
Ancient word of the day: Celandine
This pretty yellow star-like flower is from the buttercup family. It is common to see it flourishing at the beginning of spring in new grasses, hedges and in at the banks of rivers. It blankets forest floors. Commonly thought of as being a weed, it is still absolutely beautiful to behold.
Ancient Word of the Day: Siamang
Endangered siamangs are the largest type of the gibbon family. They have distinctive black coats and communicate using a complex system of booming calls. They have gorgeous throat sacks that swell up as they sing together. Like other gibbons they form gregarious and close-knit family groups. They face a major existential threat from palm oil…
Ancient Word of the Day: Sussurate
Sussurate: n: to whisper or murmur. The noise produced by a hive of bees, a rustling of leaves in the forest or the crackling of a fire It turns out that elemental experiences for ancient humans echo and whisper back over aeons and are universally received and recognised. No matter where we are on this…
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10 Cool Things I Found On the Internet
A weekly palate cleanser of quirky wonder
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #107
Haere mai and welcome to edition #107 of the ever-lasting gobstopper that is 10 Interesthing Things I Found on the Internet just when you thought all weird things have been exhausted…here comes a few more to tickle your fancy and light up your nether-regions. Let me know what you think below in the comments…Ciao for…
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #106
Enjoy ASMR from an ancient library, paintings to evoke childhood wonder, a yummy lentil curry, a punk loving goat and how to cope with climate anxiety and much more this week.
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #105
Watch a beautiful kitten transform into an adult, journey along with a dog school, learn how to help a grieving person, enjoy some roaring 20’s art of birds and blooms, some floaty ambient sounds and much more in edition #105. Hope you enjoy it
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Book Reviews
Mind-expanding fantasy, quirky history books and more
Book Review: Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Publisher: Text publishing. Genre: Fiction, psychological thriller. Review in one word: Perky Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet is the author of one of the best Scottish crime novels ever written His Bloody Project, which I have reviewed on this blog before. Burnet’s new book is yet another step back in time and another…
Book Review: Something out of Place, Women and Disgust by Eimear McBride
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Genre: Non-Fiction, Feminism, Sociology, Philosophy, Sexuality. Publisher: Picador Review in one word: Provocative This is a fascinating, provocative and stirring book. It enrages and stimulates in equal measure and will make you think differently about the world if you are a woman or if you are a man then you will come to understand the disturbing ways…
Book Review: Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Genre: Fiction, Coming of Age Novel, Historical Novel. Publisher: Faber & Faber Review in one word: Halcyon (and On and On) *Contains no spoilers This is both an unsentimental and deeply emotional novel, a book about past, present and future friendship set over the course of 30 years. It’s beautifully written, witty, funny and like a sweeping,…
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Artists, Writers & Musicians In Their Own Words
Unique and inspiring art by interesting people
Artists and Writers In Their Own Words: Jane Cornwell
Jane Cornwell creates soothing and emotional art that speaks to the soul I was accepted for Glasgow School of Art age 16 and I loved it… I have a notebook from school, age 5, with a little drawing of me standing at an easel. I’ve always had a compulsive need to draw, paint and make…
Artists and Writers In Their Own Words: Wayne Wolfson
Northern Californian artist and writer Wayne H.W. Wolfson is completely self-taught and has had an expansive career. He has amassed a large body of work in a riot of colours and eclectic styles. This makes him one of the most striking, interesting and chameleon-like artists around. I have written and compulsively doodled since my earliest…
Artists & Writers in their Own Words: Monica Olivia
Introducing my poetic, spiritual, wise and beautiful friend from Norwegian Lapland Monica Olivia. She is a self-taught Sámi artist who makes art of mind-blowing beauty using a palette of vivid hues found in the most northerly regions of the earth. Monica also has a spiritually nourishing and beautiful blog ‘Ask the Mountains’ where she writes…
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The Natural World
Organisms, real, imagined, extinct and extant.
An Anatomical Guide to Godzilla and other Gigantic Japanese Monsters
These amazing diagrams showing a medical cross–section of Godzilla along with other Japanese monsters such as Mothra, Gamera and Agurius. These illustrations were created in 1967 by Shogo Endo for a book called ‘An Anatomical Guide to Monsters’. This cult book was crafted by Shoji Otomo (writer) along with Shogo Endo (illustrator) (1967). An Anatomical…
Ancient Fable: St. Francis of Assisi and the injured wolf
13th century Italian saint, St Francis of Assisi never understood earth as being a garden of resources over which we have dominion. Instead, he saw the earth as a mother or a sister who governs us.
Environmentalism boils down to faith in the end
Faith in the possibility of change, the prospect of a better future. For green shoots in the rubble, fresh water in the desert. And our faith is often tested. Everywhere I have looked, everywhere I have been – places bent and broken, despoiled and desolate, polluted and poisoned, I have found new life springing from…
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Te Ao Māori
All about the indigenous culture of Aotearoa, New Zealand
Comforting Thought: Saying sorry will go a long way
Kuoa rongo ake au…Akakoa iti noa te kuru pounamuHe taonga tuku iho kia kaha, kia toa, kia māiai, kia mataarakia manawanuiI have learned…A thoughtful note to someone you’ve avoidedSaying sorry will go a long way
Phone someone today and say, ’I care…’
Kua rongo ake au…I tēnei rangi tonu toro atuTōu ringa ki tō tamaiti, whāngaia tōu hinengaroPatua he waea ki tetahi atu, ki atu,’Ko au e whakaaro nui atu nei, kia kaha’I have learned…Today reach out Hug your childPat a cat, appreciate our country,Phone someone today and say, ’I care…’
Words and Music: Call on a karakia
Kua rongo ake au…Mā te karakia mā te īnoi, mā te noho pukuKa taea e au ngā mea katoaI have learned…That I can call upon a karakiaWhen I look for solutions to theChallenges that face me.
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Content Catnip TV
Transportative videos made by Content Catnip
Travel: Kolejcowo is a cute and creepy version of Poland in miniature
When I was in Poland in 2019, I didn’t hesitate to visit the Kolejcowo in Świebodzki Station in Wrocław. This is the largest model railway in Poland, but also a rather amazing depiction of how life in Poland actually looks. Everything, right down to the petrol stations, graffiti, and the shops actually exists in real…
Content Catnip TV: Team Lab Borderless, Tokyo
TeamLab Borderless in Tokyo is a remarkable audio-visual attraction in Tokyo and a must-see in the city if you ever visit. It’s on expansive, harbour-facing area of Odaiba which is encircled by the very scenic train ride, along with excellent shopping centre Diver City, which features a showcase level of award-winning ramen restaurants from throughout…
Enoshima Dreaming on Content Catnip TV
This surfy, ultra chill and slightly magical island was more amazing than we imagined.
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Travel Tales
Nostalgic travel from the time before ‘you know what‘ happened
Travel: Arashiyama boat ride, Kyoto
This is a nostalgic trip down memory lane for me and the Polish Bear, we went on a boat tour in Arashiyama in Kyoto in 2019, it was unforgettable. I took a lot of footage from my Canon and used a gimbal to smooth out the rocking on the boat and put it together as…
Travel: The Beautiful Terrace Windows of Triana, Sevilla
Back in 2010 during a particularly sweltering summer, I visited Andalucia and soaked in the beautiful architecture in Sevilla. The best way to see all of the charming neighbourhoods and historic monuments was going the tourist routes with an open-top bus. This also afforded me excellent views onto all of the terrace houses with their…
Cuba Dupa Wellington 2021
Each year at the end of March there is a street festival in Wellington. Cuba Dupa is always vibrant, vibrational and brings out the wild and vivacious side of the little city. Even though I’m a total introvert, strangely enough I really like loud concerts and street festivals where I can dance and have a…
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Obscure Music
Unusual little-heard music to inspire creativity
Moondog: The enigmatic jazz wizard of post-war NYC
I came across Moon dog on one of those long and meandering trips through obscure music on YouTube. He was a true innovator and an avante-garde enigma. For one he looked like Gandalf or Hagrid. Aside from this, he also invented several new musical instruments including a small triangular instrument he called the Ooo and…
The art of Kulning: Night-scented stock are called in for the long summer evening
Kulning is an ancient, sweet and sorrowful form of Scandinavian music used to herd cows and goats back down from their high mountain pastures in parts of Norway and in certain provinces of Sweden, Jämtland and Härjedalen. In practical use since medieval times, the mysterious tones were also thought to be a deterrent to potential predators like wolves…
Awesome low-fi / house / ambient / psychedelic artists from New Zealand
Skip to the end for an amazing playlist of these artists on Youtube Aldous Harding From Christchurch, Aldous Harding is known throughout the world for her strange, unnerving stage presence and her delicate and yet raw brand of folk. She’s quite enigmatic and unlike any other artist. You may take a while to warm to…
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Quirky History
Lesser-known morsels of olden day stuff
Surreal vintage mental health posters from Japan
I found these amazing Japanese advertisements and vintage posters advertising Abilify, Zoloft, Ritalin, Serenase and other medications that are used for a variety of different mental health conditions. Despite me not knowing how to read Japanese, the storytelling here through design is evocative, straight-forward to understand and incredibly imaginative. It brings to mind Dali and…
Netsuke & Gashapon toys Ancient Japanese treasures and modern collectibles
Netsuke are uniquely Japanese and sublime in their beauty. They are tiny objects carved of ivory, ceramic, wood, tortoise-shell, gold or many other materials. They tell the story of the culture of Japan during the old Edo period and before. Netsuke featured fishermen and farmers, who rubbed shoulders with scholars, samurai warriors, royalty and even…
Ancient word of the day: Twankle
Twankle To twang your fingers on a musical instrument or absent-mindedly strum or play an instrument without thought. Other concatenations include: Twiddling, twandling, tootling, plunking, noodling, thrummling or tudeling. Tudeling (origin) German dudeln – to perform badly. The crappiest song that almost everyone can play on the piano Chopsticks was invented in 1877 by composer…
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Content Catnip 