Can’t turn around without bumping into an exhibit on water - how we need it, how much is potable, how it enables life as we know it. We are more focused than ever on this resource. And it’s interesting to see how our fascination is reflected in newly built sea parks and biospheres. Here’s Calatrava’s Oceanografico in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain as well as the new Science museum in Barcelona, Cosmocaixa which features a stunning and awe-inspiring flooded forest.
As the walls come down between formerly siloed disciplines, the long tail rules and web pages everywhere celebrate and aggregate truly odd and arcane pieces of information, it makes sense that Cabinets of curiosities, those old-fashioned collections, are again top of mind in the real world. The one dollar item next to the one-of-a-kind piece, the grotesque next to the refined, the shabby next to the shiny and sometimes just the weird all presented by master curators like those at London’s Selfridges. Enjoy the unexpected connections and juxtapositions. It’s just a physical mash-up.
Anorexic models may own the runway, but on the street we’re preoccupied with what we consume – and these outfits create an eclectic collection of plenty and waste, our ravenous appetities on full display. Like most fashion shows, this one is open to interpretation. Whether the gaudy parade is a creative celebration or an attack of a guilty conscience depends on the point of view. We’re all dressed up. Where are we going?
A recent trip to Toronto revealed man’s
best friend has moved up in the marketing world and the roles seem somewhat
reversed, where our four-legged friends now sell to us. Clearly a dog’s name and
many good traits come in handy when selling phone services where dependability
is crucial. But it works both ways, because we don’t want to let down Fido
either. How cruel to abandon a dog, ahem, phone company! In other dog-related
news: pooches now give their paws up for a couture label, go to fido castings, let mom wear the ridiculous rain cover and still guard the house in good old
fashion.
Across generations, socio-economic differences,
occasions and country borders, European women continue to consider beer a valid
option. Not Karla, the women’s beer sold
through German pharmacies, or any of the other beers with added health benefits
that are flooding the European market.
No, a simple, straightforward beer: over lunch in Brussels, at a hip spot in Amsterdam, or on a hot summer afternoon in downtown
Munich. Trust us, they are not models, they are real
women. We will bet you a pint or
two.
