“Describing something is like using it – it destroys; the colours wear off, the corners lose their definition, and in the end what’s been described begins to fade, to disappear. This applies most of all to places. Enormous damage has been done by travel literature – a veritable scourge, an epidemic. Guidebooks have conclusively ruinedContinue reading “Comforting Thought: Describing versus experiencing places”
Category Archives: Blog
Book Review: ‘Industrial Scars’ The Beautiful Toxic Scars of the Earth
What happens when humans burn too much waste and destroy the planet? Modern Art. Photographs of the aftermath of environmental devastation aren’t normally considered art. However photographer J Henry Fair has reimagined the decaying and suffering environmental landscape in the aftermath of human abuse in his mesmerising book entitled Industrial Scars. Fair wanted to poignantlyContinue reading “Book Review: ‘Industrial Scars’ The Beautiful Toxic Scars of the Earth”
Travel: Wellington’s Chinese New Year Lantern Festival
#Wellington’s annual #Chinese New Year Festival went ahead in early 2020 despite COVID-19. The waterfront became a sea of dancing colours with luminous koi fish, red dragons dancing, and illuminated Māori wahine and much more #travel #NewZealand
Book Review: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” by David Graeber and David Wengrow offers an awe-inspiring, surprising and dizzyingly beautiful rethink of human history. It is an mellow ode to ancient human experimentation, creativity, fun and how before there were rules and hierarchy – people just had of a hell of a great time!
Comforting Thought The challenge of a life’s time and a lifetime
It may be when we no longer know what to do,
We have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go,
We have begun our real journey.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) is a poet, farmer, writer and activist.
10 Interesting Things I Found on the Internet #119
Join me this week for a hypnotic aural journey into Polish Drum and Bass, debunk some boomer memes, uncover the rudest sounding town names in America, dozens of abandoned mini castles in Turkey and much much more!
The most important invention of my lifetime? Chat GPT
The most important invention in your lifetime is… It’s a double-edged sword you know, AI. It has the potential to elevate people out of poverty, cure diseases, etc. However the flip side is it could also be ungovernable, unregulated and out-of-control, meaning it could do anything, anything at all. We just don’t know yet whatContinue reading “The most important invention of my lifetime? Chat GPT”
Book Review: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
In this funny, odd-ball and deeply emotional novel by Japanese debut novelist Sayaka Murata, we follow the book’s heroine Keiko, who is in her late 30’s and is working as a sales assistant in a convenience store, while living unmarried and childless (a mortal sin in Japan).
Book Review: How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
I didn’t expect much from this book and was delightfully surprised by its immense depth and foresight. ‘How to Do Nothing’ is a profound and glittering jewel about the big topics of politics, internet culture, consumerism, capitalism and consciousness. It takes well-worn assumptions about how you spend your time and the tyrannical monopoly of banal “stuff” on your attention – and then rearranges your brain forever!
What would you do if you won the lottery?
What would you do if you won the lottery? I would invest a third of the money, use a third to buy myself a home (I have never owned one, as where I live, houses are outrageously expensive) and use the other third to set up an animal advocacy charity or an animal sanctuary forContinue reading “What would you do if you won the lottery?”
Content Catnip 