Month: April 2023

Crate of Curios part 76 – a shirt of violent green

Posted on Posted in Interesting, Uncategorized, Weekly interesting snippetsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Time has passed by surprisingly fast and it’s just about time for a new Crate of Curios. The theme ‘a shirt of violent green’ comes from the R.E.M. song that my brother sent me some time ago – it made an impression as you can see, and sparked the brain into gear.

  1. First of all the theme song itself – R.E.M. “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”
  2. Violent green apparently does exist as a particular colour and so do many other greens.
  3. “The Green Lady of Brooklyn”
  4. Noone did green like Tom Ford when he still designed for Gucci in 2004. Speaking of Gucci – “The House of Gucci” is absolutely worth watching.
  5. As Gucci and neon green lead us to the 90’s, ‘Dirty Lines‘ miniseries brings it all back.
  6. Why is the green room actually called the green room?
  7. An unbelievably steampunk computer powered by algae (unfortunately not in production yet).
  8. In northeastern India, some bridges are not built but grown.
  9. Book with only 50 words? No problem – want some ‘Green Eggs and Ham?’ (plus Dr. Seuss’ amazing illustrations)
  10. Nobody loved green like the postimpressionists and expressionists – from the left: Cezanne ‘In the woods’ (1885), Matisse ‘Montalban landscape’ (1918), Pissarro ‘Landscape at Pontoise’ (1882), Kirchner ‘Five women on the street’ (1913), Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso ‘Green landscape’ (1915)

So long and until the next Crate!

Crate of Curios part 75 – piano, piano

Posted on Posted in Interesting, Weekly interesting snippetsTagged , , , , , , , Leave a comment

As I can see from the publishing date of the last Crate – part 74 – one year and one month have passed since then. It’s Easter Sunday, warm, the fat blackbird is back in my little yard and beeping with all its might. It’s so confident that the cat is intimidated by it and even refuses to go and sit on the windowsill as long as the blackbird is shuffling through the crumpled leaves on the ground.

Why did I stop writing Crate of Curios last year? Good question, I think deep down it was very simple – the weekly schedule had become a bit of a burden and didn’t leave me enough time to actually enjoy composing the Crates. So, when life intervened with a busy period of time, I let it go. Now, however, I feel it’s time to return with season 2. However, this season is going to have a lighter touch, a more permissive schedule (which I haven’t even decided yet) and the Crates are going to have themes this time around.

This, the 75th Crate is called “piano, piano” – not after the musical instrument, but the Italian expression that means ‘gently’, ‘softly, softly’ or ‘slowly, slowly’ – I do think that the Greek ‘σιγά-σιγά’ is quite closely related to it. In any case, it will offer some reading and watching for a calm quiet Sunday.

  1. A bear hibernating under a cabin in Lake Tahoe area (in the Sierra Nevada on the border between California and Nevada). Apparently it’s quite an issue for cabin owners in that area.
  2. Giorgio Morandi, the Italian magic realist and still-life painter in his own words from 1928.
  3. Vilhelm Hammershøi, the taciturn Danish painter in the words of Michael Palin.
  4. This incredibly smooth mashup from Pomplamoose.
  5. This 26-min drive on Swedish island of Fårö.
  6. Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven” (“Σταθμός Έντεκα” in Greek edition), both as book and series. The most poetic dystopia I’ve ever encountered.
  7. The South Korean movie “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring“.
  8. This little comic by Grant Snider

So long and until the next Crate!