Month: April 2021

Crate of Curios part 30

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Moody April is coming to an end, which in this case is festive as it happens to be the Orthodox Easter. Lockdown measures are slowly beginning to be relaxed and the week after the next will hopefully see us sipping coffee in outdoors cafes instead of from takeaway cups on park benches. Until then we’ll enjoy the 20+C weather and the socially distanced celebrations of the Great Week – and of course, this week’s Crate of Curios, that I’ll proceed to open right away.

  1. Masks have been all the rage for the last one and half years, but let’s not forget that masks have been around for much longer and for much more varied reasons than health. Empress Elisabeth of Austria (more widely known as Sissi) wore an elaborate mourning mask after the scandalous death of her son Crown Prince Rudolph. A multi-faceted monarch with a tragic life story, Sissi was one of the earliest collectors of photographs (at the time when the technique was still at its infancy), she had an anchor tattoo on her shoulder and her character in the Hollywood movie trilogy mapped out actress Romy Schneider’s film career.

2. When we think of slums, we tend to think of Charles Dickens novels and Victorian apple-cheeked urchins, but the days of decrepit living quarters are much-much closer – these photos of Liverpool and other Northern cities were taken by Nick Hedges nearly a decade after the Beatles had their first hit single in the UK in 1962.

3. Expressionism and avant-garde had a hard time behind the iron curtain during the Cold War – Gyorgy Kovasznai‘s story is unfortunately not unique. His work, however, is.

4. Human emotions can be classified in different ways, but these feeling wheels based on the six basic emotions are a visually brilliant way of presenting the variety.

5. If, like me, you enjoy having something to listen to in the background while working or doing chores, History Cache is a wonderful narrative history podcast that’ll keep you well-entertained. However, forget about the work of chores when you get to the five-part series about blues musician Leadbelly or Shackleton’s voyage to cross Antarctica on foot – you won’t get anything done anyway.

6. And to finish off for this time, a little very relatable comic from Hannah Hillam.

And that’s it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!

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If you want to receive the Crate to your mailbox, you can subscribe here at Substack.
The Crate is now also available on Medium.

Crate of Curios part 29

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The ubiquitous Sahara dust has made the last few days rather hazy and probably rather unbearable for anyone prone to allergies, but soon enough we should be out of the dust cloud and heading into the spotless blue skies territory again. People are out regardless and there is impatience in the air about knowing whether it would be allowed for people to visit their families in other municipalities for Easter. So in order to distract ourselves during the waiting time, let’s open this week’s Crate without further ado.

  1. The original romantic Bohemian artists – the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were famous for their devotion to red-headed model-muses. The most famous of them was the tragically short-lived Elizabeth Siddall, who like Kate Moss in 1990’s helped to redefine the governing beauty standards of the 1850’s and in her case make willowy figures and copper hair into desirable assets (which they hadn’t been thus far). (The photo is thought to be Siddall, but unconfirmed.)

2. Forced to read business jargon on a regular basis? Here’s a delightful website that helps to turn it back into regular language.

3. Vegetarianism as a conscious approach to eating (as opposed to a practical reality of not being able to afford meat) has been around for a rather long time and followed a pattern of ebb and flow. It’s most recent flow started mid-19th century, where meat-free diets were seen as a part of temperance movement.

4. Why do we tend to think that fixing something automatically means adding something when subtracting is an equally valid choice? Apparently it’s complicated.

5. Down in the dumps? Lacking inspiration? Mystified by adulting? Worry not, Zen Pencils has got you covered with the most excellent comics about historical creators and their trials and tribulations.

6. And to finish off for today, here’s a handy guide to waterbodies of knowledge by Tom Gauld.

And that was it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!

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If you want to receive the Crate to your mailbox, you can subscribe here at Substack.
The Crate is now also available on Medium.

Crate of Curios part 28

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Another beautiful blooming Sunday, slightly chilly, albeit the cold-resistant people are already out in shorts and short sleeves. Jewelry sellers were out in Thiseio, people taking Sunday walks and queuing in the coffee shops to get their takeaways, so except for the still-ubiquitous masks life felt almost… normal. As the Sufi poet said – “This too shall pass”. The same, however, goes for this evening hour and as I need to get up early tomorrow, let’s get to opening this week’s Crate without further ado.

  1. We like to pooh-pooh selfies as a modern malady that our forebearers supposedly were blessedly free from. As it shows, what kept them from plastering their visages everywhere was rather a lack of finances, proven by the Countess da Castiglione, a famous socialite of 19th century, who bankrupted herself paying for her over 700 portrait photos.

2. Why do we consider people with a negative outlook more intelligent than their counterparts with a sunnier disposition? There are a few theories about that.

3. The English language has a funny feature – it uses a number of animal names as verbs. Not all of those verbs do justice to the creature in question.

4. The feel-good feline for this week is Smol Paul, the wobbly tuxedo kitten (by now more of a cat though), living his best life and getting up to shenanigans in Holly’s Home for Manky Moggies. (Paul is wobbly due to cerebellar hypoplasia, a type of inborn brain damage to the part of the brain that controls motor impulses.)

5. Ever wondered how low we can go in Europe in terms of temperature? Find all the answers on this map.

6. And to finish off for this week – a little comic from Nathan W. Pyle for the introverts among us.

And that’s it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!

_____________________________________________________________________

If you want to receive the Crate to your mailbox, you can subscribe here at Substack.
The Crate is now also available on Medium.

Crate of Curios part 27

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April is here and Athens is in full bloom in a whole gamut of colours, starting with the violet of jacaranda to the dainty white of the fragrant nerantzi flowers. The lockdown-weary Athenians are finally embracing the city parks that pre-pandemic were mostly treated as a poor substitute to their village houses and it’s a joy to see a mix of families, couples, teenagers, Greeks, immigrants, babies, dogs, bicycles, skateboards occupying the plentiful benches. However, as it’s already a couple of hours into Monday, let’s get to opening this week’s Crate without further ado.

  1. Local mythology can be a source of great glory or unimaginable nightmares and Northern American mythology is no exception with creatures like Wendigo, Jersey Devil and Bigfoot to show. (Illustration by Monkey-Paw)

2. Overpopulation of pre-World War 1 Europe found its new home in the US, Canada and Australia – the overpopulation of Japan from the same period found its new home in… Brazil.

3. Do you know what does a fox say? No? In that case let Finnegan Fox from SaveAFox Rescue enlighten you in this delightful matter.

4. The humble potato has acquired a slightly dull reputation in Europe, but one has only look a bit further – in this case all the way to Peru – in order to see that it’s nothing but. They even have a kind with a menacing name of pusi qhachun wachachi or “make your daughter-in-law cry”.

5. This week’s poetry spamming is from the pen of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa and the year 1934.

6. And this time I’ll finish off with a word instead of a comic.

And that’s it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!

________________________________________________________________________________

If you want to receive the Crate to your mailbox, you can subscribe here at Substack.
The Crate is now also available on Medium.