It’s December, so you know what that means: it’s the start of a whole new advent calendar of things worth sharing from the past year. As with last year’s advent calendar, I’m aiming to share a mix of things I’ve loved, been amused or overwhelmed by.
December 1st: Sounds…. natural
For the start of this year’s series, I have to start with a major shout-out to Blue Planet II for a number of reasons: a. David Attenborough continues to be an absolute national (international even) treasure, delighting us all and revealing incredible detail and behavior from the natural world. b. Planet Earth II, now Blue Planet II, have been therapeutic while the real world is at an intolerably high pitch of drama, tension, catastrophe c. the production! The teams sent out to capture these natural wonders – real or rumored – are full of patience and tenacity. The camera work is astonishing, and the studio production, narrative and pacing are second-to-none.
In real time now, we’re half-way through the series, and some standout moments include: the terrifying (but gorgeous) Portuguese Man of War, coiling up paralysed fish in its trails of ribbon-like tentacles; the enchanting bioluminescent phytoplankton display in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez – never before captured on camera (and undetectable to the naked eye) – as mobula rays whip and course through plankton-rich waters; gender-switching Kobudai fish (that – in portrait – have the most bizarre silhouette, evocative of that confusing drawing that looks either like a young woman looking over her shoulder, or an old witchy lady); toxic brine ‘lakes’ at the ocean floor that paralyze eels, and somehow are contained deep in the ocean down there, separate, not easily mixing with overlying sea water; surfing dolphins, or dolphin and whale pod buds, rediscovering each other; an incredibly clever and resourceful octopus escaping a pyjama shark attack by building a suit of armor/camouflage out of shells; and Sperm Whales sleeping: they sleep vertically! ‘Standing up’!
At the time of sharing, we still have a handful of episodes ahead of us to enjoy. But my advent might be a little bit unexpected. Watching Blue Planet II especially, I’m struck by the sounds of the animals they’ve captured. This brought to mind an episode of 99% Invisible, a great podcast for design and architecture, amongst other things (also most of what is invisible, unseen or overlooked). They put together an episode focusing on the production – the engineering really – of animal sounds to accompany shows like this, where clear, uncorrupted natural recording is nearly impossible. If I wasn’t already overwhelmed by the effort and skill that meets face value in these shows, this is a bit of the unseen iceberg.
Listen to Sounds Natural on 99% Invisible, an episode on animal sounds.
December 2nd: The Barkley Marathons
One of the most eccentric, entertaining documentaries we watched this year has got to be the Barkley Marathons. Started by Gary ‘Laz’ Cantrell, this guy in the Tennessee backcountry, and inspired by James Earl Ray’s 3-day escape from nearby Brushy Mountain State Prison, the challenge essentially rolls together 100 miles (not far off 4 consecutive marathons) which must be completed within a 60-hour timeframe. Ray was found just 8 miles from the prison when he was recaptured, but had 54 hours of freedom. His escape inspired Laz to think about what the body would be humanly capable of in terms of performance under duress. He figured some could run 100 miles in that time (the race actually started at 55 miles, then ramped up), not that he imagined he could, but that some could.
There are only a few more than a dozen runners who have ever successfully completed the race since 1985, with 40 competing each year. When the race jumped up from 55 miles to 100, there were zero finishers in the first 6 years. Completion is a major feat, though you haven’t heard anything yet. This run is insane.
How might you enter, you ask? Well, it depends year-to-year. And hundreds apply, but only 35-40 are awarded spots. Skipping past the criteria and place allocation for overseas, elite runners and returnees, entry is $1.60 (non-refundable), and if it’s your first year, also a license plate from the state or country you come from. For veterans (those who’ve tried before and failed): a pack of gold-toe dress socks. For alumni (any of the 14 or so who completed): a pack of regular camel filter cigarettes.
The race though! What an insane delight. The runners have to run ‘laps,’ but these are laps they have to orienteer. And you can’t use GPS. The course is unmarked, and there are thick brambles and thorns at points. Much of the run goes straight up mountains through thick briar and rocky terrain (1,500 feet up).
The runners are given non-consecutive numbers as they start each new lap, and they have to run to a particular point to find a paperback novel in a zip-lock baggie, tear out the page which corresponds to their bib number, and keep hold of the sweaty little pages until they return to drop their number and ‘evidence’ of having made it around the full course.
The whole thing is just ridiculous and thrilling. Watch the trailer below, and the full documentary on Netflix!
(First recommended to me by Johannes and Anne.)
December 3rd: Crumpet the Elf as Billie Holiday
One of the best things I heard on the radio when I was home for Christmas last year was this short excerpt from David Sedaris’ Holidays on Ice, as read by the author. The book is a collection of personal essays from Christmases past, and in this episode, Sedaris describes his short occupation as a mall Santa’s elf in Macy’s.
David ‘Crumpet’ Sedaris responds ingeniously to Santa-Santa’s command to sing a small child ‘Away in a Manger’, which he performs in the style of Billie Holiday (reference from 5:35, but go ahead and listen to the full 7 minutes).
December 4th: Get Your Sh*t Together With the Ballietts
My cousin Dylan Balliett is one phenomenally talented dude. I’ll highlight just one of the ways. My first memories of Dylan, when he was just 5 or 6 years old (okay, probably younger), are of a quiet, bemused child with a keenly perceptive sense of others (and a barometer for bullshit). When one or another of the adults in our family were clearly stretching the truth or making an absurd declaration, I loved watching his face while his instant appraisal went to work, betraying some interior commentary. Always polite and self-possessed, he channelled these observations into humor.
Separate to this, but very much related, I also can’t recall a time before Dylan’s art. If I ever entertained a vague sense of my own abilities, they were dashed when I saw his illustrations. Realistically rendered, his drawings clearly reflected an innate talent.
Now that Dylan is older, I am thrilled to see him creating the time and space for his irreverent, farcical sense of humor and skill of observation in prolific illustration. Even more stoked that his work is getting picked up and noticed.
See more of his work at his Etsy site, on Instagram, or in his books of cartoons and illustrations (also available through Etsy, in addition to individual prints and pins).
Speaking of Ballietts, kween Bridgett, is celebrating a big birthday today! Actually she’s a secret birthday lady, so I can’t be 100% about this (but it is in my calendar, so…).
Bridgett is incredibly creative, particularly in styling, design, and making everything she touches extremely aesthetically pleasing. Aside from learning Russian (and French), running the best airbnb spot in NY, working for Etsy and running her own shop… one of my favorite recent grams comes straight from her. Check out her new kitten’s topical Halloween costume!
“In the history of time no cat has been treated as unfairly by the media as this cat has. UNFAIR!”
Happy birthday, Bridgett!
December 5th: China and its ‘duplitecture’
Today’s advent is a dizzying combo of delights (and one of my longer advents). Gmail was giving me grief over the images I wanted to include, so I’ve put today’s advent into a standalone blog post.
If you follow Instagram, you might have seen a few shots from my trip to Austria with Jack. This advent gives you a few more pictures of our visit to one tiny town (Hallstatt), but also touches on China’s town plagiarism (it will all make sense shortly), and a small, heady treasure from Hallstatt’s heart to yours.
December 6th: How to fight malaria? Genetically modify mosquitoes
This past October, I had the huge privilege of seeing Bill Gates and Francis Collins (head of the NIH) in conversation at the American Society of Human Genetics. I was blown away by Gates’ wide-ranging expertise on genetic technologies, proteomics and genomics (not to say I know much myself, but he was a convincing geneticist, and the minutia of detail in his responses was stunning).
The full conversation was recorded, so you can listen to it if you’d like, here:
One detail that Gates touched on is the new approach to fighting the spread of malaria: genetically modified mosquitoes. We’re starting to see the future of disease control, and it is creative!
Funded by the Gates Foundation, research teams are working on techniques to modify mosquito populations capable of transmitting malaria to humans. By genetically engineering DNA, which they then insert in very small doses into mosquito embryos, they are able to create a population of mosquitoes in which the females are sterile, halting their further proliferation (but also spreading the new genes throughout the population to minimize further procreation). The idea is that these populations, introduced into the wild, can spread their DNA to other mosquitoes capable of carrying malaria, thereby eliminating this susceptible population while leaving other genetic families unharmed. These are called ‘transgenic mosquitoes’ and the technique being used is CRISPR.
Although a few scientific watchdog organizations are wary of the ethics, unknowns and (unlikely) possibilities of corrupting this technology to use for weaponisation, the potential benefits are huge, and the possible application beyond mosquitoes (for example, in eradicating the use of pesticides) is significant.
Listen to a short, 8-minute NPR podcast on the subject: To fight malaria, scientists try genetic engineering to wipe out mosquitoes
December 7th: Cookbook club
Friend of endless great ideas and plans for making life fun, Anne came across the concept of a Cookbook Club last year when the NYT published an article profiling a club set-up in Martha’s Vineyard. As an alternative to a book club, which often demands a great time commitment, Cookbook Club focuses on a new cookbook every month, which members of the club pick a recipe to make from for a monthly potluck party.
You don’t necessarily need to buy the cookbook every month – they’re shared between members, rented from the library, or for most, taken from the books’ free recipes online. The beauty of the meal is that the meal brought together, if sourced from a good cookbook, pairs well (particularly if it’s a regional cuisine), and everyone can then compare notes about the recipes they followed. Were the descriptions adequate, or did they assume a more advanced ability and understanding of cooking? Were the steps too elaborate? Did the dish come out as expected? Would you cook from the book again? If it’s a winner, it’s a good way of trying before buying.
Rather than just loving the idea, Anne started a ‘chapter’ (which is not really how it works) in Raleigh, which has been going strong for about a year now. Add this to the pile of reasons I miss North Carolina buds!
My advent includes a handful of recipes that we would recommend (I say ‘we’ but really should say Jack because he’s made them. I’ve tasted ’em, though) from what my Cookbook Club choice would be if I were close enough to join!
The book is Fresh India by Meera Sodha (winner of the 2017 Best New Cookbook by OFM readers), which is completely vegetarian, and focused around inexpensive, uncomplicated dishes. I also love Meera’s tips throughout, on making the perfect rice, guidelines for which beans are creamiest when soaked from dry (and which you can use canned with no discernible difference). She also does something that I haven’t seen done in another cookbook, which is create meal suggestions picking recipes if it’s a meal for two, dinner for four, a feast, or if you want to prepare a regionally-specific feast (Gujarati, South Indian or North Indian).
Recipes we’ve made (some again and again, top lunchbox specials):
- Pumpkin, black-eyed bean + coconut curry (favorite)
- Aubergine and pea curry
- Savoy cabbage, black kale + potato subji (savoy aloo gobhi)
- Spinach, tomato + chickpea curry (chana saag)
- Runner bean subji
- Fresh matar paneer
- Park Street kati rolls (need the book for this one!)
On the list of recipes to tackle next!:
- Chickpea pancakes with paneer + lime pickle (paneer cheela)
- Goan butternut squash cafreal (need the book for this one!)
- Gujarati dal with peanuts + star anise
- Lime pickle rice with roasted squash (really feeling the lime pickle these days. This is another that you need the book for!)
- Salted jiggery kulfi with bananas (gur ki kulfi kela ki saath) (need the book for this one!)
December 8th: Finger painting, grown up
Judith Braun’s finger drawings, or ‘fingerings’ as she calls them, are incandescent. She creates huge, symmetrical patterns and sweeping landscapes using only her fingertips and a carbon-based medium. Her drawings are generally symmetrical and abstract, often elegant doodles, which loop and curve, multiply and double (and redouble) into magical, shimmering masterpieces that radiate outwards.
Now in her 60s, her work has taken on new dimensions and proportions. A few years ago she created ‘Diamond Dust’, a piece she worked on live over seven days, which was streamed over the web at the Chrysler Museum of Art.
December 9th: Jack and the Beanstalk
Of all the advents I have for you, this might just be the one I’m most excited to share. Jack and I moved to a new house in May 2015, and one of the best things about the new place is its gigantic garden! When we moved in, there was a ton of work to do to weed and turn the beds, improve the soil, and start afresh. For the first time ever, Jack really had an opportunity to start a garden, which is something he’s been dreaming about as long as I’ve known him.
Jack and the beanstalk: in his words
This is a look back at the process, the harvest, and what’s to expect from our garden next year!
December 10th: Snow day!
It snowed! There is more snow on the ground – that crunchy, soft, perfect packing snow – than I have ever seen in Oxford. Jack’s parents are here visiting for an early Christmas down from Derby, and a short visit has turned into a full weekend (and: we’ll see! It’s 0 degrees Celsius (32 F) and still snowing. They would have a 2-hour drive home if the roads were clear and traffic-free, so we’re all playing it by ear). Although the orientation of our day will be around what we all want to do, it’s made me think about all the activities that are great for snow days. The list is slightly biased towards things that have been on my list for some time, and the fleeting ideas I have that never come to fruition. If this continues to pile up and we find ourselves with snow days this week, I’ll plan to work my way through it.
Make sugar or ginger bread cookies and have a bit of fun with the decoration. I love what Elisabeth Dunker, artist and founder of Fine Little Day, did this year when she decorated hers. Hilarious. (I also just had a little nose around her blog and it’s quite nice to look at…!)
Pull out a puzzle that you’ve never had time to put together and put on a good podcast series to enjoy while you piece it all together (suggestion: listen to Serial’s second season focusing on the case of Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his base in Afghanistan and was taken prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years. His case has just recently been concluded with a sentence of dishonourable discharge and no prison time. Listen and decide what you think yourself!).
If you’re feeling stir crazy, try out some free exercise videos on YouTube. I’ve long meant to try Yoga With Adriene.
Meet your neighbors! I am terrible at doing this, but nothing brings people out like a good snowfall. See if anyone needs anything, or ask for help yourself. Know an elderly neighbour with a dog? Offer to take it for a walk if it’s a bit icy.
Download the free template to plot out your next big project from Passion Planner. I’ve used this planner for the past three years and love the space it provides for life more broadly (not just appointments or to do lists). There are questions at the end of every month that encourage you to reflect on the past month – who you’re grateful to, how you spent your time, your highlights, what you learned – and I always complete this exercise as it’s really enjoyable to look back on months (or years) down the line. The start of the project is thinking about your big goals – over the next 3 months, year and 3 years. Here’s the template if you want to sketch it out at home and carve some time out yourself to think about 2018 and beyond!
Play a game that requires no pieces: charades is always a classic, but don’t forget Pictionary. My friend Jess showed me during a visit a few years ago how easy it is to create a version of Scattergories even if you don’t have the game. Just get some paper, pens, and use a cell phone timer.
- Everyone chips in to suggest ‘categories’ – something like 20 – which can be broadly interpreted (ex. British male actor, a spice, country capital, car make, card game, etc) and jots them all down.
- In turns, someone silently recites the alphabet in their head – can be fast or slow – and when another plays yells ‘stop!’, the letter is declared
- So starts the timer (3 minutes) where each player works quietly to try filling in each category with an appropriate word starting with the letter named, as many as possible before the timer goes off.
- Everyone goes around saying what they put down, which can be vetoed by other players.
- Someone else starts reciting for the next round. (Tip: we write categories landscape and fold the paper in like an accordion to reuse the categories for several rounds).
There’s also a game ‘concept’ called 1,000 Blank White Cards that sounds interesting.
Make a hot chocolate (try spiking it with a splash of whisky!), make a batch of flavoured popcorn (like Birthday Cake Popcorn – holy shit!) and watch a good, snow-oriented thriller (The Shining or Fargo, always great options…) or snuggle in and get ready to re-enjoy a favorite trilogy! We’re about to start LOTR downstairs, which I haven’t watched in many years.
Break out some of your scraps of wrapping paper and try making origami ornaments with the paper you don’t want to toss out, like this origami ball or these adorable German stars. Apartment Therapy has consolidated instructions to a bunch of designs ranging from the easier to the more complex.
Make sure you’re doing all the obvious if available to you, too! Go sledding, make a roasty-toasty fire, take some keepsake photos while your normal world is thrown into the upside down of snowy wonderland, or make a snowman doing something different.
Would love to hear some of your ideas for enjoying the hell out of your own snow days.
December 11th: Death, Sex and Money. Good conversation starters.
One of my absolute favorite podcasts, and definitely the one I’ve listened to the most in 2017, is Death, Sex and Money. Hosted by the charming, perceptive, truth-speaking Anna Sale, the show’s coverage and range is vast, but always comes back to the topics that we think about a lot, but don’t seem to talk about enough.
The podcast came to me as a recommendation from Erin, and the first episode she pointed me to was one guest hosted by Ellen Burnstyn, where Ellen is in conversation with Gloria Steinem. It’s a lovely place to start, but misses out Anna! Who holds the power of the show together. The episodes are almost all under 30 minutes, so they’re perfect for short windows of time commuting, on a run, or doing errands around the house.
A handful of the episodes that have stayed on my mind the most:
In I Had Babies To Pay For My Baby, Sarah talks about her unplanned pregnancy as a (religious) teenager, which then left her with a pile of debt. When the debt went to collections, it continued to climb. When she tried selling her eggs to come up with the money, she was told she would be a great candidate for surrogacy… and the story goes from here. This story is fascinating on so many levels – the emotional attachment (or detachment) that comes with surrogacy; societal norms and propriety when you’re pregnant with someone else’s child; inclusion or exclusion from the child’s life after birth; how our medical system is so completely broken in the US that this could happen in the first place…
Newlywed and Paralyzed follows Rachel and Hiroki, shortly after they bought their first home and had got married after years together. Very soon after their wedding, Hiroki had a cycling accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. They talk about how the accident and trauma, as well as how navigating their new normal has strengthened their bond. They talk about their first fights since the accident, when the emotional fragility calloused into normalcy, as well as physical intimacy. It’s a moving, bittersweet account.
In We’re Not Going To Have Karl Again, Amber and Lee talk about the completely inconclusive, inexplicable death of their four month old, Karl, on his first ever day at daycare at the end of Amber’s maternity leave. It’s incredibly sad and disorienting, particularly experiencing the story from their perspective, and they talk about where they went from there. Now pregnant again, they talk about the future and how this time is different.
In I Was Your Father Until I Wasn’t, Tony talks about finding out that a woman he’d had a one-night stand with was pregnant. She was going to keep the baby, but they weren’t together. It’s the story of awkward co-parenting between two people who are biological parents, but not together romantically (never together with a romantic history). The tensions that arise in shared parenting with a stranger you’re almost thrown into it with, and the indescribable love that grows. Years later, Tony learns that he isn’t actually the father. This is a story about that reckoning, too.
In The NFL Made Me Rich. I Won’t Watch It Now. Domonique Foxworth talks about how hard it is to watch young men receive blunt, lifelong head injuries, as well as reflect on the power dynamics (of sex and race) he was privy to in college as a star football player, and a black man in America. Now a successful business man and Harvard graduate, he offers his incredibly insightful and wise take on the NFL, manhood, family, wealth, and work ethic.
December 12th: Said I loved you… but I lied
A little one today. Pitchfork put together a little listening session of all the songs Michael Bolton’s name is dropped in, from pop punk to rap to Beck, so he could listen and reflect on how he felt about the references. Better known for terrible 80s hits such as the classics “How am I supposed to live without you” or the wonderfully titled “Said I loved you… but I lied”, Michael Bolton often finds himself the butt of many jokes.
In all honesty, he’s actually fairly adorable in this little video. It is super awkward (that earring!), but his shy earnestness and that fact that you can almost see he doesn’t understand some of these jokes is really sweet. There’s also very much a ‘Between Two Ferns’-type-feel to this whole experience, adding to the overall awkward effect.
Ha! Why is that even funny, Michael!
December 13th: The Botanical Drawings of Katie Scott
I first stumbled across one of my favorite illustrators because of the work she has done for Kew Gardens. Katie Scott, a north London-based artist, makes illustrations that are intricate, elaborate, and drop-dead gorgeous. Inspired by Japanese medical illustration and the styles of such scientific artists like Ernst Haeckel or physician Fritz Kahn, Katie’s is a modern take on anatomical illustration.
She’s published three encyclopaedic books, which make excellent gifts: Botanicum; Story of Life: Evolution; and Animalium (the latter of which was awarded Children’s Book of the Year by the Sunday Times).
She got her first big break when she was featured on It’s Nice That as a 3rd year arts major in Brighton. A site worth exploring!
I read a few interviews with Katie in the making of this advent, and stumbled across another artist doing some crazy stuff who I am super excited about, too. Makoto Azuma, who now collaborates with Katie, is a Japanese florist-come-artist who has pulled such stunts as blasting a white pine bonsai tree into the stratosphere, freezing bouquets in gigantic blocks of ice, and creating wild pieces reminiscent of Andy Goldsworthy.
The stratospheric project I mentioned earlier, Exobiotanica, is nuts! This 50 year-old tree, as well as 30 bouquets, were launched into space in a little vessel, which looks like a glass cube in a swing. It was fitted with extremely high res cameras the whole way up taking thousands of pictures.
I also love his Bottle Flower collection.
December 14th: 5th Anniversary Timeline
This past October, Jack and I celebrated 5 whole years together!
For this year’s anniversary gift, I took inspiration from a game my friend Al introduced me to called Timeline. It’s a super simple concept: you have a pack of cards, each of which features a moment in time (when something was invented, when a particular baseball team won the World Series, when a major scientific discovery took place, etc.) with a date hidden on the back. The object of the game is to place the card correctly in time, in context with other historical events (cards) laid down already. At the start it’s easy, but the longer your game lasts, the more challenging it is to guess accurately. As long as you guess a date correctly without over or under shooting, you can have another turn. This game is a great stocking stuffer (particularly if you have a family member who loves their history), and it’s very portable. There are several variations on the concept, so last year for Christmas I got my dad the Americana version.
Over our anniversary brunch, I presented Jack with a few big packs of photos, printed from our trips and memories over the years, all mixed up and out of order to challenge him to figure out what events came before others (“Now let’s see, we went on this trip right before we moved…”). Some were harder to be sure about, and some could have been one of several different places. At the end of the process, I pulled out an empty photo album for us to fill, putting it all in chronological order.
Feel free to borrow or adapt the idea for someone else! This might be a good if you’re tight on a budget, but want to give something thoughtful and come out the end of it with something you’ll treasure.
December 15th: “Wow, that’s bleep good.” Travels with Bourdain
On a night when I want to watch something short, interesting, entertaining but low-commitment, I often go to one of the many versions of a familiar formula: an eating and travelling show starring Anthony Bourdain. He’s starred in a proliferation of hardly discernible shows: No Reservations (2005 – 2012), The Layover (2011 – 2013), a Cook’s Tour (2002 – 2003), Parts Unknown (2013 – now) and narration of the Mind of a Chef. What is the difference between them all, might you ask? Eh, not a whole lot. He’s younger and cockier in early No Reservations, but I suspect the shows must get cancelled as his personality wears down the production team and a new contract with another team presents itself.
The show I’ve enjoyed the most – as the production, editing and wider context is far better editorialized – is unfortunately the one that isn’t on Netflix. I catch some episodes on YouTube, but if you can watch Parts Unknown somehow, then try it out.
Parts Unknown gets further credit as it isn’t wholly centered on Bourdain getting drunk and saying absolutely nothing interesting about food he likes (“Wow, that’s bleep good.” Slow clap for the real articulate food critic there). I honestly don’t know why I’ve watched so many hours of Bourdain this year, or why I’m complaining at all, because something about it just clearly works.
The episodes – and places – that have stood out the most to me over the many hours of my life I’ve already trailed his exploits include:
Hong Kong (on Netflix, the Layover S1:E3)
Lyon (on Parts Unknown – I found this on YouTube at the time)
The Highlands (on Parts Unknown – ditto the above)
Singapore (on Netflix, the Layover S1:E2)
Rome (on Netflix, the Layover S1:E7)
Penang (on Netflix, No Reservations S8:E9)
Earlier this spring, Bourdain launched an online travel guide called Explore Parts Unknown, a site that takes a deep dive into some of the places featured on the show. You can explore the map by region (for example, we’re going to spend some time with ‘The Greek Islands’ to help us decide where our trip to Greece will take us this year… the sheer power of Bourdain is now literally dictating where we go, but nevermind) and then go right into the guide. If you know you’re headed to a major US or European (or otherwise) city next year, it might be worth poking around the site to see if it’s included. If it is, it’s a very good resource for deciding where to book your reservations.
We’re currently finding any clips from Vietnam that we can in preparation for our trip at the end of March! ICYMI, Vietnam is where Obama popped into the show out of nowhere to share a meal of slurpy noodles on little plastic chairs with Bourdain.
December 16th: Trees! Coming at you
In the lead up to Christmas, many of us have welcomed the unthinkable into our homes: whole trees! Jack and I tried ‘borrowing’ a small, potted tree last year from the earth so we could plant it back in the garden after the holiday season, but the tree was so shocked by the sudden change and lack of acclimatisation that it promptly started browning and died as soon as its roots hit the cold soil. Which I was pretty bummed about.
For today’s advent, I’ve rounded up four tree-related memories and adventures from the past year, all of which I never got around to blogging about. Including: the New Forest (with its wild horses, heathers, ferns and deer), Wytham Woods (with its birds and bugs), Harcourt Arboretum (in fall, with peacocks), and Sea Pines in South Carolina in all its glorious, murky, Swamplandia wintertimes from last Christmas.
There’s also an excellent documentary I’ll mention that you need to track down (thanks Jen!). Again, in a standalone blog post here to retain links, images, etc.
December 17th: Hawkeye Huey, National Geographic’s youngest ever photographer
I suspect that at least some of you will already be familiar with today’s advent, but Hawkeye Huey has to make my list. Hawkeye Huey, son of National Geographic photographer Aaron Huey, started his own photography career at age 4 when his parents gifted him a Fujifilm Instax 210. Now the youngest ever photographer to have his work featured in National Geographic, Hawkeye Huey has taken thousands of photos, 120 of which made it into his first book: ‘COWBOYS INDIANS HOBOS GAMBLERS PATRIOTS TOURISTS & SUNSETS’
I love his photography. To look through his photos is to re-experience the world. His subjects are open, smiling and warm; the perspective is slanting and distorted, like you’re a 4 or 5 or 6-year-old yourself, always having to look up to see the world. I’m also delighted by what catches his eye.
Treat yourself to a trip through his book project and virtually flip through some of the snapshots from his road trips with his father. And join the other 223 K people following him to see his on-going work.
Huey is now a 7-year-old analog photographer.
December 18th: Anjali Pinto. Loss, grief and gratitude.
I have been intensely moved this year, every. single. day. of this year, by Anjali Pinto. A friend of a friend, a gifted photographer, and an absolute gem of a human being, Anjali lost the love of her life, Jacob Johnson, on December 31st, 2016 when an undiagnosed aortic dissection took his life. He was only 30.
Since his death, she has celebrated his life, remembered their smallest and biggest moments, and been incredibly open about her own grief in its every tone and expression. She is exceptionally articulate, unrestrained, and what she has shared through her narrative feed is a gift to humanity. Her perspective, insights, and descriptions go further and deeper to somewhere more genuine and enlightened than I have ever seen. Every day she celebrates his life and pushes herself to continue discovering herself more deeply. I will always stop what I’m doing and give her my full attention when I see a post of hers, and am very grateful to her for challenging my own perceptions of grief and how best to be there in the right way for others going through intense grief.
I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not to include this one, because it kind of breaks my rules. Heart-breaking, devastating, gut-wrenching all fall short of describing the pain, disorientation, and misery associated with losing a spouse, partner, parent, child, but this is urgent, important, and universal. Grief will touch our lives. I urge you to – at some quiet point in the future (near or far) – spend some time with her. You will not regret it.
Worth following, exploring, sharing with others: http://www.instagram.com/anjalipinto
December 19th: Spice Adams and the stank face of delight
After yesterday’s advent, as well as Saturday’s pretty lengthy foray into this year’s tree-scapades, this is just a little one to give you a reading break. I have definitely shared this with a handful of you already, but as it’s been more than a year since I saw this and since it continues to amuse me whenever it crosses my mind, I’m resurrecting it.
Spice Adams is a retired NFL player (after a 9-year career, split between the 49ers and the Bears), and he now creates ridiculous videos which are a mix of skits, public performance, and reactions to music. He released this one shortly after the A Tribe Called Quest album dropped in late 2016 (We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service).
Listening to “We The People…” for supposedly the first time, his characteristic stank face of happiness got stankier and stankier and then… well, this one is just legendary. Don’t watch this if you have to go to the bathroom.
Watch from 0:47 (he’s now embedded the video in a longer ‘reaction to ATCQ’ series.)
December 20th: Coffee table books with a shelf life
If you’re getting down to the wire and are still struggling to think of the perfect gift for that curious, interested/interesting relative that seems to have it all, I have three potential gift suggestions for you. These are three books – two coffee table and one ~reference – that I come back to regularly.
First up: Atlas Obscura
You may be familiar with the Atlas Obscura brand through their website, which is full of the weirdest wonders of the world. If you don’t know about their website already, that is definitely worth checking out. Self-described as ‘a catalogue of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional guidebooks’, you can even find the strange local stuff (here are the 740 strange things to see in England, for example).
Personally I like the book (published late 2016, received as a terrific Christmas gift last year) because it seems pre-filtered for the wildest and most wonderful sites. And the format supports the exact way that I like to digest this stuff: curled up on the couch, flipping through beautiful illustration and roving from one end of the page to the other.
Inside are geysers, mystery sculptures, lightning fields, Escher-like steps in India…
… poison gardens, taxidermy, planetariums, crooked forests, salt mines, catacombs, facial prosthetics (above), battleships, tunnels, lava lakes, living baobab trees with bars inside, tree lobsters, death masks, laboratories, sinkholes, caves…
…spider web farms, spirit houses, hotels made entirely of salt, springs, famous ‘sole survivors’, monuments, cathedrals, crystal caves, or famous lake monsters of the US (above).
So many wild and wonderful gems to learn about.
The Flavour Thesaurus
This one isn’t as new (in fact, it published in 2010), but the book is pretty, it’s interesting, and best of all, timeless. The Flavour Thesaurus is great tool for the chef in your life as it shows you ideal food combinations, including the ones that only somehow work, even inexplicably. There are narratives about the combinations of foods which the author deals with briskly as there’s a lot to get through, but she’ll offer cooking tips and charming anecdotes, so you could really, truly read it like a book in addition to using it as a guide.
The book also unlocks ideas for what to make. Say you have a veg box and don’t know what to do with your beetroot, you artichoke, your parsnip. You can reference the vegetables most interesting, complementary flavour pairings here and try something you’d never otherwise tackle. Maybe you’ve opened a jar of horseradish that you need to use up, have spare herbs you’d rather not toss out, or aromatics that aren’t called for in any recipes you have coming up. Approach with an open, creative mind.
Some standout combos:
Black pudding & rhubarb
White fish & grape
Egg & coconut
Banana & chicken
Chilli & anise
You learn interesting facts in this, too. For example, would you have known that in pre-revolutionary Russia, the Tsar’s children started the day with a plate of mashed bananas and caviar?
I bought the book on my Kindle as well, so it’s one of the rare books I have in multiple formats. I think the hard copy of the book is handier, personally.
Explorer’s Atlas: for the incurably curious
The Explorer’s Atlas is one I stumbled on recently, another coffee table book worth picking up and flipping open (or consulting if you’re headed to a new country for the first time). It’s a beautifully illustrated, large format atlas full of facts and curiosities from around the world, in a similar vein to Atlas Obscura perhaps, but more traditional in its scope and focus. Also more organized, possibly.
It includes local and regional facts of the area’s history, economy, nature, geography, sporting events, and individuals. Great for people who are well-travelled, those up for adventuring, or for map lovers generally. Or all the above.
December 21st: Julie Blackmon
Julie Blackmon’s photography is everything. She stages domestic tableau, at-home dramas, frozen movement, and suburban scenes that are humorous for their irreverence and familiar chaos. Her eye is tender and subtly satiric, and the work she creates is instantly vintage.
I absolutely love her stuff. Explore her portfolio, or a small collection created by the New York Times entitled ‘Irreverent Photos That Satirize Family Living’.
December 22nd: Heart Eyes
I’ve got a two-for-one for you today, because I simply couldn’t decide which celeb-I-have-hearteyes-for-with-Netflix-shows to feature.
First up: Ewan McGregor, and Long Way Round
Ewan has put together two series with one of his best friends, Charley Boorman, where they’ve gone on super long motorcycle journeys. The first one, Long Way Round, is probably the superior of the two (Long Way Down is the second). In Long Way Round, the show chronicles a trip around the world, starting in London and ending up in New York. Once you’ve endured the first few ‘logistical’ episodes of getting bikes, camping equipment, cameramen, required visas, cultural training, and mapping out the routes, the show is really quite something. Their ride takes them through Western and Central Europe pretty quickly, and then onto Ukraine, Western Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, and Canada (~19,000 miles). They encounter incredible hospitality, bizarre architecture, accidents, drama, poor (or non-existent) roads, strange wrestling competitions, ole petrol in the eye accidents, interesting cuisine, and real life river fording adventures.
The countries they visit are stunning, I particularly remember Kazakhstan and Mongolia blowing me away. I also love how open they both are to experiencing the cultures they’re travelling through, to staying with some interesting characters, and all the UNESCO-related projects they visit. Their relationship with one another is also pretty inspiring.
Here’s a trailer for the show:
(And a preview of its corny / dated music!)
And second: Rob Brydon, and the Trip
Surely the Trip has made it to the US, right? Widely? I honestly have no gauge, BUT, if you haven’t yet watched the Trip or the Trip to Spain, bump it up your list. I’m pretty sure both are on Netflix in the US as well as the UK.
Rob Brydon is a lovely, hilarious little Welshman who is an incredible impressionist, stand-up comic, show host of Would I Lie To You?, and generally self-possessed and self-effacing in the loveliest way. I’m not sure how much Steve Coogan plays up to the sort of disgruntled ass character that he plays as a counterpoint to Rob in the show, but their chemistry really works. Steve is a bit more precious about himself, his reputation, and what he perceives to be a fading appeal with age (and career pigeonholing). In the Trip and the Trip to Spain, the Observer send the two of them to tour expensive restaurants and hotels in the North of England (for the former), and Spain (obviously, for the latter). It may sound dull – watching millionaires on a road trip, speaking somewhat pretentiously about almost everything, and eating in extremely expensive restaurants on someone else’s dime. But it is gold. They both slip into characters, actors, even actors playing other characters. Rob has told his Mick Jagger story in a number of venues now, handling and refining his delivery regularly. He’s met Mick a number of times – and both he and Coogan deliver brilliant impressions of him (Coogan especially, honestly) – and they love imitating him so much that they often have versions of Mick act out other characters (like Mick as a Shakespearian actor). In the memory Rob often recounts, Mick leaned over the banister to yell out, “stop throwing those bloody spears at me”, which was intended to be a Michael Caine impression, but sounded pretty much like Mick. Rob eventually figured out what he was trying to do (Hey Rob! I’ve seen your impression of Michael Caine!) and responds in kind, which delights Mick to no end.
Here’s a short clip of their Mick Jagger imitation:
December 23rd: Chloe Giordano, not your grandma’s embroidery artist
I remember when I first saw Chloe Giordano’s work – probably on Pinterest – and I went down a veritable rabbit hole. Chloe is an embroidery artist specializing in freehand needlepainting. Without any formal training, she has evolved her own brilliant approach to embroidery entirely on intuition.
She starts out with a disappearing fabric marker, sketching her idea out on unbleached calico, and then works over it to draw out stunning, tiny little animals with realistic texture and proportion.
She’s also started working with publishing companies on their book jacket designs.
It turns out she lives in Oxford! I’m not sure she sells her work anywhere but the internet, though. It’s worth looking at her Etsy site for that completely one-of-a-kind gift for a loved one (or, yourself).
December 24th: The Last! Salzburg and Upper Austria, early Christmas
Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Hope you all are with your loved ones today and looking forward to tomorrow (or at least enjoying the time off if Christmas isn’t your thing).
For my last advent of 2017 (!) I’ve pulled together an overview of my early December trip to Salzburg and Upper Austria. Get ready for lots of snowy photos, more Hallstatt than I shared the first time around, and a whole lot of Krampus. We were, after all, in Alpine Austria/Southern Bavaria, where the Krampus mythology looms large. The references are everywhere, from the creepiest of creepy demon goat guys marching through your restaurant to the cupid-like cartoon chocolates in the supermarket. Ubiquitous, unavoidable, and curiously unflinching. It’s way more intense than you might imagine.
Merry Christmas all! Thanks for sticking with me, and hope you enjoyed it!
Love, Cailin
Bloggy Brown 