Iconoclasts, rebels, challengers of the status quo. Custodians of all that’s beautiful and good in the world.
In November 2016, the singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, renowned for his melancholic and romantic ballads, died a few months after the woman who inspired many of his famous songs - his Norwegian lover and muse, Marianne Ihlen. On the summery idyll of Hydra, Greece in 1960, there was a bohemian community of artists and musicians living…
Continue reading ➞ So long, Marianne: Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne Ihlen
Philosopher Michel de Montaigne lived in a time (the 16th century) when nobody batted an eyelid at the ritual murder and wholesale destruction of people, natural environments and cultures – let alone animals. Yet he was shocked and disgusted at these horrors. He was undoubtedly a kind and gentle man. An anomaly for his time.…
Continue reading ➞ What Montaigne And Deep Sea Aliens Teach Us About Humanity
Oh, my God. What if you wake up some day, and you're 65 or 75, and you never got your novel or memoir written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools or oceans because your thighs were jiggly or you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on…
Copyright Content Catnip 2008 Souls love. That’s what souls do. Egos don’t, but souls do. Become a soul, look around, and you’ll be amazed-all the beings around you are souls. Be one, see one. When many people have this heart connection, then we will know that we are all one, we human beings all over…
One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. Something more will arise for…
Helen Keller was not just some blind lass from the last century. She was a fierce socialist, pacifist, author and sufragette who believed in birth control, workers rights and women's rights. The first blind person to complete a Bachelor's Degree, she was a bold trailblazer with a sweet nature. Keller won hearts all over the…
Continue reading ➞ Helen Keller’s Fierce Friendships and Bold Legacy
Copyright Content Catnip 2014 We should meet in another life, we should meet in air, me and you.Sylvia Plath
Yeonmi Park has to be the bravest girl/woman in the world. She was born in the North Korean city of Hyesan which is separated by a river to the Chinese border and at the age of 13, she boldly and bravely managed to escape from there and gain her freedom. Yeonmi Park’s autobiography written at the…
Continue reading ➞ Book Review: In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who…
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.David Foster Wallace Dusk at Okahu Bay Copyright © Content Catnip 2018 www.contentcatnip.com I love this quote from David Foster Wallace. In…
Clarissa Pinkola Estes is a Jungian analyst and a Doctor of Ethno-clinical psychology. Her book Women Who Run with the Wolves is a dense and fascinating foray into the myths and wonders of oral storytelling throughout history. It's a book that makes you more playful, affectionate, joyful and more authentically joyful in every way. Pinkola-Estes…
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 that he invented several new muscial instruments including a small triangular instrument he called the Ooo and another…
Continue reading ➞ Moondog: The enigmatic jazz wizard of post-war NYC
Op Art descended out of geometric art of the 50's and the Bauhaus movement in Germany, which I have previously written about in the Origins of Flat Design. The 60's was a period of discovery in science, psychology and new technology. This type of art reflects the experimental mood of that era. The pieces normally…
Photographer Duane Michals pushes the boundaries of photography with evocative, erotic and sensual images. I've written about Polish poet Anna Świrszczyńska before, she also has a similar aesthetic. I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody’s face in a photograph.…
Continue reading ➞ The Sensual World of The Unseen By Photographer Duane Michals
“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.” – Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou has been one of the most influential literary voices of our time. Born in 1928 she has been in turns a poet, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, historian, film-maker and civil rights activist. She worked for Malcolm X…
Continue reading ➞ Ten Life Lessons We Can Learn From Maya Angelou
David Bowie is a voracious book reader, reportedly reading at least one book per day. As a part of a new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, he has lovingly selected his 100 favourite books of all time. According to the exhibition's curator Geoffrey Marsh, Bowie has an ''interest in the life of the…
Recently Lee Lin Chin bowed out as SBS World News' most loved news anchor for the past 30 years. She is well-known in Australia for her graceful presence, avante-garde fashion sense, acid tongue and a strangely monotone way of delivering the news. Her twitter account is totally outrageous and she has won a cult following…
Continue reading ➞ Badass Bitch and Fashionista Lee Lin Chin
Last night I went to see Jack Charles V The Crown at the Auckland Arts Festival. Jack Charles is an Australian legend. He has traveled from movie sets to state prisons in Australia and run the full gamut of life as child of the stolen generation as well as a gifted Indigenous Australian actor, potter…
Continue reading ➞ Theatre Review: Jack Charles V The Crown at Auckland Arts Fest
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not…
Lisa Bonet aka Denise Huxtable from the Cosby Show was a 80's and 90's style maven who had a timeless way of pulling together an outfit and then carrying it off with poise and grace. Her funky and unusual fashion choices left a mark on many young women of that era (including me). Her hair…
Continue reading ➞ Style inspiration: 90’s era Denise Huxtable
