This is one for all the history nerds out and anybody who likes cooking and eating, which probably means you. When you try to recreate an ancient recipe, you may end up with a stinking cesspool of inedible muck or a culinary wonder. Two very famous US universities Harvard and Yale collaborated together to cook…
Continue reading ➞ Cooking 4,000 year old Babylonian recipes, how do they taste?
This amazing explanation of narrative arcs by Kurt Vonnegut had me laughing out loud. To actually be present at this lecture would have been totally awesome. This video is great starting point for narrative structures and point of view, although really only the tip of the iceberg of a very gigantic topic. I hope other…
Continue reading ➞ Narrative arcs: a funny and simple explanation by Kurt Vonnegut
“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul.” Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Women Who Run with the Wolves.
I was a bit dubious when I first tried this product because I had never heard of this brand. Although a winning product feature was that it wasn't tested on animals and was made from all organic ingredients. This is yet another hair calming and soothing balm. It can be used in place of a…
Continue reading ➞ Product review: My Organic’s Goji Miracle Mask
“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you…
The Lookout Bothy, Rubha Hunish in Trotternish on the Isle of Skye. There's something uniquely Scottish about bothys. These tiny mountain shacks are normally found in remote parts of the Scottish highlands and islands. They can be found in all kinds of conditions - some with running water and a fireplace and even electricity! Other's…
Continue reading ➞ Explore the cosiest bothies in the Scottish highlands
Have a look at the exquisite pages in Mira calligraphiae monumenta or the Model Book of Calligraphy, which was crafted by Croatian-born mastercraftsman Georg Bocskay, and Flemish artist Joris Hoefnagel. This is a real work of art and shows beautiful attention to detail with the gold leaf writing and sublime illustrations of flowers, insects and…
Continue reading ➞ An Exquisite Model Book of Calligraphy, 1560
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…
It's summer right now in Melbourne and everyone is recovering from Christmas overindulgence by rolling and tumbling to the beach to drink beer in the sun. I've got a wine spritzer in hand and I'm feeling really guilty about doing absolutely nothing. Today in 37 degrees and there is absolutely nothing you can do in…
About Natio Natio is an Australian brand of cosmetics that is available in department stores and chemists in Australia and New Zealand. Underpinning their brand is a philosophy about creating make up and skincare that's kind to the environment and uses only plant-derived, vegan ingredients. Also most importantly for me, is that they do not…
Christmas is great if you can spend time with your family and see them. It's also great if you have money for food or a place to call home, as many of us do. It can be a magical time for many people, but for others it can be hellish. I know of a family…
Guido Zimmermann is a German graffiti artist who recently created Cuckoo Blocks, a remix on the traditional Germanic wooden cookoo clock of olden times. Forget about cutesy animals and people popping out of a wooden clock on the hour, this remake of a cuckoo clock takes inspiration from Brutalist architecture of tower blocks build in the…
Continue reading ➞ Would you buy this kooky modernist cuckoo clock?
Litha, also known as midsummer, is the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere.And it's also a great date for planning and transition, a good day to ponder the year ahead. Litha
"It was hard to be a tsar. Russia is not an easy country to rule. Twenty sovereigns of the Romanov dynasty reigned for 304 years, from 1613 until tsardom's destruction. by the revolution in 1917" The Romanovs were actually the most spectacularly successful empire builders since the Mongols" , So begins an epic 300 year…
Continue reading ➞ Book Review: The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore
After much pussy-footing around and oscillating around the place like a pinball, trying just about every aspect of marketing and comms in the commercial world I realised finally what I knew all along....that I need to just simply do what I lose myself in deeply and conclusively. By that I mean I can simply dissapear…
Continue reading ➞ Find the thing that you lose yourself in…and do that for the rest of your life
Thanks Tish for your wonderful reminder the other day of the legendary writer Clarissa Pinkola-Estes. In case you don't know of her, Clarissa wrote the book Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of The Wild Woman Archetype, This book calls upon the eternal feminine qualities in each of us and asks us…
Yet another great cruelty-free product, this one is far superior to its non-cruelty free competitors. I have tried many hair oils and frizz calming serums in the past but none actually do what they claim and stop my head from looking like a poodle that just walked out of a hurricane. If you have frizzy,…
Continue reading ➞ Product review: Palmer’s Shea Formula Curl Cream
This very weighty and important subject is as relevant right now as it was in the 16th Century. That was when a Dutch engraving by artist Pieter van der Borcht the Elder managed to capture the complexity and challenging nature of geopolitics and ruling in a country with many different ideologies and in the midst…
Continue reading ➞ The challenge of ruling a diverse nation never changes
On a recent trip to Japan I took mountains of footage. Advertising is totally out of this world and so I created this homage to Japanese ads, on trains, JR stations, the streets and so on. I created these gifs with colour distortion to properly convey the feelings you have in situ. Initially, after a…
In 2009 I went to Morocco and the blue-walled city of Chefchaoen. This was probably one of the most unexpectedly photogenic and beautiful places I have ever seen. A beautiful and hot oasis that arises out of the African desert like an exotic flower. Unlike the bigger cities in Morocco, Chefchaouen had a quiet market…
Continue reading ➞ Every Picture Tells A Story: Chefchaoen, the blue-walled city
