‘There is nothing new in art except talent.’ Anton Chekhov
Online Oracle
Above and beyond trivial blogs, vacuous tubes and irrelevant spaces lies Slate.com. Let’s accept that newspapers are no longer delivering the most innovative content and that the online revolution is all but complete. Slate is leading the charge, so use your bandwidth intelligently and fill up on articles like ‘Why Modernists Were Obsessed with Teapots’, ‘Why the iPhone Isn’t Revolutionary’ and ‘What Is An Immigrant’s Life Worth Exactly?’. It also has some of the best US presidential campaign coverage and commentary.
A Palace for the Weekend?
If your travel reveries involve very specific cultural destinations, sumptuous homes with private art collections, academic discovery at major institutions or unlisted exotic accommodation, then Aleramo and Riccardo Lanza and Antonio Licata di Baucina can make it happen. They have been opening the secret and obtaining the elusive from their London, Palermo and Venice offices since 2001. Ask about the Palermo palace with an in-house chef who will make tortellini to your exact specifications.
The Acoustically Perfect Tablecloth
Poor restaurant acoustics can sour the finest culinary experience. A mere whisper to a passing waiter should be sufficient to produce another glass of your chosen wine. According to acoustics wizard Alan Saunders, the right tablecloth can play an important part in achieving sonic balance. (Melbourne restaurant Ezard has perfected this, along with its food.) Saunders offers services and information to achieve acoustic harmony. And his tips on dealing with obstreperous and noisy neighbours may be more immediately useful.
http://www.alansaunders.com
http://www.ezard.com.au
More or Less Extreme Sports
New Zealand remains the mecca for extreme sports with a capital E, but US-based Recreational Equipment Incorporated – a 2.8-million member co-op best known for its outdoor gear stores – offers outdoor action to suit everyone’s definition of ‘thrill’. Choose from hiking with dogs and geocaching in San Francisco or outdoor photography and mountain biking around Boston. Everyone should enrol in Climbing Self-Rescue in Virginia out of curiosity alone.
http://www.rei.com/outdoorschool
Pastis Take-Out
Anyone about to move to New York should choose an apartment within the free home delivery zone of Pastis restaurant – that’s Houston to 23rd Street and West Street to 6th Avenue. Not only is Pastis one of New York’s more acceptable coffee options, but chefs Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson offer all-day eating with Provencal-inspired dishes of rare quality. Try the omelette aux fines herbes for breakfast, moules frites aux Pernod for lunch and the roasted codfish ‘aioli’ for dinner. For a taste of envy, non-New Yorkers can take a virtual tour at http://www.pastisny.com
Into Great Silence
This mesmerising documentary is yet another example of the benefits of doing things slowly. In 1984 Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian Order seeking permission to film inside the Grande Chartreuse Monastery near Grenoble. The response was: Not now, maybe later. Sixteen years on he was invited to spend five months living and filming inside the walls. The long scenes filled with chanting, eating, sleeping and breathing make for an insightful and meditative experience.
http://www.diegrossestille.de/english
Household Form and Function at Manufactum
Most everyday household items are dull to look at, tedious to use and make simple jobs harder than necessary. Peeling vegetables is a classic case, a task that is therapeutic with a restaurant-quality peeler, but frustrating, even dangerous, with poor equipment. Manufactum instils form and function into hundreds of home essentials. Everyone needs a push reel mower, steel book-corner protectors, a copper hot water bottle and, of course, a Rex vegetable peeler.
Raise Your IQ at Magma
Magma Books in London seeks out obscure and challenging books, journals and magazines to raise your eyebrows and pique your interest in all manner of unexplored worlds. Combine the books with the store environments, where the ambient music is argued over with zest and the lighting is functional yet subtle, and you’ll feel more intelligent simply by walking in.
Three Rooms Naturopathy
In a warm, concealed environment far removed from naturopathy’s baba-cool roots is Three Rooms. Saurenne and Steve collaboratively pursue a considered and holistic approach to health and wellbeing that includes thorough evaluation, bespoke treatment plans and combining their naturopathic treatments in context with other traditional medicinal services. Located above our Aesop Fitzroy store in Gertrude Street.
Return to Mukinupin
Written by Dorothy Hewett in 1979, The Man from Mukinupin is now playing at the New Theatre in Newtown, Sydney. Set in a sleepy wheat belt town in Western Australia, the play deftly reveals the light and dark sides of Australian life after World War I. The host of disparate characters and storylines effectively recreates a vanished time and place and reminds us of the much-missed Hewett’s brilliance. Playing until August 18th.
http://www.ramin.com.au/online/newtheatre
Monocular Vision
As a recent publication Monocle may have slipped under your radar. If so, pick up a copy of Tyler Brule’s latest venture today. Describing itself as a ‘briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design’, Monocle delivers a monthly memorandum on such diverse subjects as the rise of novels written for mobile phones in Japan and the branding of professional tennis, as well as interviews with intelligent people like Australian Green politician Bob Brown. The magazine’s uncoated stock is a pleasure to touch and look at, and the crisp website offers multimedia follow-ups and add-ons.
http://www.monoclemagazine.com
‘I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written on it.’ William Faulkner
Andrew Hunting 