Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes: Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange. Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell Burthen Ding-dong Hark! now I hear them,–Ding-dong, bell. Text from “The Tempest”, a play by […]

HE: You saw nothing in Hiroshima. Nothing. SHE: I saw everything. Everything. SHE: The hospital, for instance, I saw it. I’m sure I did. There is a hospital in Hiroshima. How could I help seeing it? HE: You didn’t see the hospital in Hiroshima. You saw nothing in Hiroshima. SHE: Four times at the museum… […]

Telling the story like this, I feel like I’m talking about someone else, he said with a chuckle, then fell silent. And when it was all over, the king and his retainers burst out laughing, he finally said. That line always comes to me whenever I remember what happened. It’s like a conditioned reflex. It […]

Everyone carries around art in their wallet but most people don’t really realize it. Most folks don’t pay much attention to the artistic aspects of paper money. But it is true to say that almost each culture’s heritage in every nation is simply and beautifully reflected in small banknotes and even smaller coins. Colorful illustrations […]

Prologue Well it’s easy to immerse yourself in Haruki Murakami’s world: a fantastic journey into a subconsciously unknown destination, a labyrinth, and a library. Yes, somewhere in between cats do converse with humans and a magical forest surfaces when something like an interstellar gate of consciousness, the so-called ‘entrance stone’ is opened up. Difficult to […]

Thanasis Veggos has passed on. If you don’t know him, he was the man who single-handedly defeated the Nazis, had a meaningful conversation with Harvey Keitel and the snow, was Greece’s answer to 007 and made the biggest, brightest and loudest displays of love–see video below–for a woman he had just met and fell in […]

A crossover between art and geography To many of us maps conjure up topographies of our world and topological surveys of countries or continents that serve a purpose of cartography or perhaps of propaganda. Yet aside from the additional aesthetical quality inherent in the artistry of these beautiful crafted maps, they also pertain a seductive […]

Arid lands and sacred deserts, the idea of vast, sand and rock has fired our imaginations for a thousand years and raised a thousand questions: What do the deserts look like? What kinds of plants and animals live there? How do its human residents feed and clothe and defend themselves? Literate travelers, naturalists, missionaries, adventurers, […]

Josh Haas is the last glass eye maker in Britain. Captured on 16mm film in this short documentary by Ben Todd he is one of a dying breed, still inspiring as much as it is ‘lypophrenic’. It’s simply mesmerising to watch such dedication, such intuitive accuracy, and such mastery over matter. This man’s poise, speech, […]

Born in 1946 in Nagoya, Japan, Hiroyuki Doi has been working as an artist in Japan for the past thirty years. Since the death of his younger brother 20 years ago he has been working on pieces that express the transmigration of the soul, cosmos, and human cells using pen and ink on the Japanese […]

The flounder is an ocean-dwelling flatfish species that is found in coastal lagoons and estuaries of the Northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Taxonomy of the Flounder There are a number of geographical and taxonomical species to which flounder belong. Western Atlantic: Summer flounder (also known as fluke) – Paralichthys dentatus Southern flounder – Paralichthys lethostigma […]

Captain Harlock, Space Pirate Captain Herlock or Albator. For the 30’s-plus these names might ring a bell. This animated series was something more than an awesome combination of pirates, spaceships, big-eyed girls and Japanese drama; it was a cult. For 8 year old boys it was experience, dreaming, wishing and learning. Not only cool, but, […]