Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
Theyyam is a synthesis of tribal, Dravidian and Aryan cultural practices. It seems as if Northern Kerala believed that the Indian pantheon of 33 crores (330 million) Gods was not a large enough contingent, they added ancestors and heroes to the list and gave them a special space in the Theyyam rituals.
Continue reading
If these are not available where you live, try a homecrafted version of the same using this organization’s schematic plans:
What Is A Windowfarm?
A Windowfarm is a vertical, indoor garden that allows for year-round growing in almost any window. It lets plants use natural window light, the climate control of your living space, and organic “liquid soil.”
In the hydroponic system, nutrient-spiked water is pumped up from a reservoir at the base of the system and trickles down from bottle to bottle, bathing the roots along the way. Water and nutrients that are not absorbed collect in the reservoir and will be pumped through again at the next interval. Continue reading
Petunias are a low spreading plants with downy leaves and multicolored flowers. These attractive plants are members of the solanaceae family. There are about 35 different species of petunias. Continue reading
Yelapa, Mexico
Thevara Ferry Junction, Ernakulam
Thanks to this book review in the New York Times we see Katrina in a light similar to that of several other remarkable people we have strongly urged to visit our neck of the woods. Katrina’s work is illustrated above and in these images from her website.
From the description of her new book we would find some of this work challenging (as anatomical renderings can sometimes be), but from an artistic, craft/technical and scientific point of view, phenomenal:
There is more to a bird than simply feathers. And just because birds evolved from a single flying ancestor, doesn’t mean they are structurally all the same. With over 300 stunning drawings representing 200 species, The Unfeathered Bird is the most richly illustrated book on bird anatomy ever produced and offers a refreshingly original insight into what goes on beneath the surface. Continue reading
Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
Flower Garlands play an important role in the culture and traditions of India, crossing all religious and economic lines. Garlands are used for all ceremonies and welcome rituals: weddings, birthdays, offerings to Temples and blessings, now not exclusively for Hindus. Continue reading
Your public servants are hard at work, innovating at the intersection of waste, love and water. Make a Valentine’s Day reservation with your romantic counterpart to visit this spot in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, as per the press release:
Department of Environmental Protection Announces Second Annual Valentine’s Day Tours of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant
For Those Seeking an Alternative Valentine’s Day Experience, a Tour of the Greenpoint Plant Will Both Educate Visitors on the Essential Wastewater Treatment Process and Provide Breathtaking Views of the City from Atop the Famous Digester Eggs
Continue reading
Searching for the truly authentic image: Gerhard Richter’s paintings invite a deep engagement. Abstraktes Bild 809-4. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
We are finding more reasons to pay attention to this publication each time we dig deeper into it. This artist, his art form, this writer, and the intersection of these ideas are all worth the 30-40 minutes this article grips your attention for:
I was in my teens when I first started to really look at paintings. Although I didn’t just look, I bathed in them, and I was perpetually teased by my friends for the tremendous length of time it took me to navigate an art gallery. This pleasure of looking and of being completely absorbed in painting has remained constant; whether ancient or modern, figurative or abstract, and whatever the style, I am prepared to give every work the chance to lure me in.
What is so compelling? When art was an adjunct of religion, its power was clear. But from the Renaissance on, painting, at least in the Western tradition, has preoccupied itself as intensely with secular as with overtly religious subject matter, or else with no subject at all. Continue reading
‘Outstanding opportunity for change’ – Global Ocean Commission launches
The Global Ocean Commission, an independent body of international leaders, launches today (12th February) with the aim of reversing degradation of the ocean and restoring it to full health and productivity.
Chaired by former Costa Rican President José María Figueres, South African cabinet minister Trevor Manuel and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband MP, the Commission brings together senior political figures including former Heads of State, Foreign Ministers and Finance Ministers from around the world, alongside business leaders and development specialists. Continue reading
Strawberries belong to the family Fragaria ananassa, a genus of flowering plants in the rose family or Rosaceae. The popular fruit are cultivated worldwide. Continue reading
Patagonia’s connection to the wilderness has a big impact on the company’s approach to environmental issues, says Vincent Stanley, vice-president of marketing at Patagonia. Photograph: Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images
From the Guardian‘s Sustainable Business blog:
Patagonia plans global campaign for responsible capitalism
The outdoor clothing and equipment company says we need to develop very different measures of success if we are to prevent environmental collapse
In the true spirit of adventure, mountaineering and surfing company Patagonia reaches one summit and immediately searches for an even tougher peak to climb.
Fresh from taking a pot shot at our consumerist society with its challenging “don’t buy this jacket” advertising campaign, Patagonia now has the whole capitalist system in its crosshairs. Continue reading
Jalisco, Mexico
Thrissur
We are not in the business of selling books nor promoting purchases at any particular outlet, but we do have a thing for bicycles. More would be good. Better regulations would be too. Safety rules that everyone follows, check. A book that covers these and other topics? Yes. Will zany be more effective than serious-wonky? Judge for yourself. Only certain island nations can pull off this sort of thing:
‘Cycling is the King of A to B. Whatever our differences, we love one another: Lycra mankini or tweed trousers tucked into your sock? Traffic lights – a suggestion or an order? Racer or hybrid, helmet or commando, freewheel or fixie? Nothing sours the bond.’ Zoe Williams Continue reading
Photo credits: Ramesh Kidangoor
With its abundant paddy, Kuttanad has been termed the “Rice Bowl of Kerala”. Kuttanad is a large area made up of land from the three adjoining districts of Alappuzha, Kollam and Kottayam. Most of Kuttanad consists of paddy fields that spill out into vast stretches inland from the backwaters. Heavy monsoon rains bring top soil and minerals from the high ranges of the Western Ghats, depositing them in the low-lying Kuttanad region in a periodic replenishment that keeps the soil fertile.
We have already sung Stephen Greenblatt‘s praises several times, but why stop there? He has done something remarkable, making classicism classy:
Glories of Classicism
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
Stephen Greenblatt and Joseph Leo Koerner
The Classical Tradition
edited by Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis Belknap Press/ Harvard University Press, 1,067 pp., $49.95
Over a thousand pages in length, with some five hundred articles surveying the survival, transmission, and reception of the cultures of Greek and Roman antiquity, The Classical Tradition is a low-cost Wunderkammer, a vast cabinet of curiosities. Take the entry on the asterisk: you learn that this ubiquitous critical sign, named from the Greek for “small star,” originated in Ptolemaic Alexandria, where the great textual scholar Aristophanes of Byzantium and his student Aristarchus of Samothrace used them to mark repeated lines in the Iliad and Odyssey.
Polyphemus the Cyclops (Tomb of Orcus)
The Etruscans are, for all their great cultural influence on the Romans, a poorly understood people. We know they once dominated northern Italy and much of its western coast and that they interacted extensively with not only the Romans but also many other native Italic tribes in the 1st milennium BC. Some of this contact is reflected linguistically: the modern English word “person,” deriving from Latin persona, entered the Latin language from Etruscan phersu Continue reading
