Surprising illustrations by Scott McKowen for 1602

I am currently taking a Coursera.org course on Comic Books and Graphic Novels so I took advantage of the opportunity and I thought I would treat myself to some Neil Gaiman. The surprise of the book where the covers by Scott McKowen, an illustrator that I had seen in the New Yorker but not payed much attention to. Here's some of the covers and I totally recommend reading 1602, for Marvel fans and non-fans too. :-)

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Presents

When you least expect it, life gives you a present. Today it was in the shape of ceramic pieces.
I went to see the author of the only pieces that decorate my life Yoko Kataoka and as guests she had a great couple. Tom and Kanoko were there after finishing an exhibition of Tom's pieces in the Akashi Gallery in Barcelona and as a present they brought 2 small and beautiful ceramic pieces.

Why did I like them so much?

• Their faces where very abstract and because of that they were very powerful. You know when undefined sculpture is extremely touching? Exactly like that!
• Expressive bodies. You couldn't see their facial expressions but their body was speaking so much!
• Strokes: you could see the strokes that they are made of, not too much, not too little, just enough to help the sculpture more communicative.
• Colour of the pieces. They had colour and then a black patina. Here you can find more information about his technique.
• Posture: Tom tells us that they are admiring a fireworks show that took place in 2011 as a display of solidarity with the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. You can read more about it in the gallery's page. But like in all art pieces, it is good to know what the artist was thinking but it is not the only way to read the piece. In this case the pieces talked to me about wondering, about stopping time, about slowing down, about enjoying, about being amazed,... so many things!
• Size: I wouldn't mind to see them bigger but I can see how they might loose some effect if they are bigger. Maybe they will go Juan Muñoz's size and everybody will admire them!

Tomorrow if I think about them they will probably tell me more things, but this is all I got today! You can find more info in Tom's webpage.

Sorry about the photo, it doesn't show the power of the sculptures, if I find a better one I will post it! 

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Cradle to cradle design

McDonough and his team are doing some great work with urbanism, architecture and design. Worth watching!

Best quote of the video:
Imagine this design assignment: Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colors with the season, and self replicates. Why don’t we knock that down and write on it?

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How much do you know about salt water fish?

We know that it is good for us to eat fish but how much do we know about the fish we eat?  

During my stay in Palamós (Spain) I have been able to go twice to Espai del Peix, a museum where the information panels are not on the walls but on tables that are also used as eating tables where you can sit down and enjoy some of their yummy show-cookings. As a fisherman's town, Palamós wants to preserve their most precious treasure: fish.

Their main goal is to educate about fish. Espai del Peix (Fish place) focuses in teaching people about the types of fish that are not very well known and that are as good as the rest, they teach us how to cook them, their characteristics, their substitutes and some other fun facts.

Some of my friends try to eat only the vegetables that are in season, because they taste better and to save the environment little by little with responsible actions. A lot of times, what is good for the environment, it is also good for our pocket and good for our health, so here's a list of the different fishes that you can find in the mediterranean sea by month. If you buy fresh fish when they are in season, you will do good to the ecosystem, save money and you will have a varied diet:

Remember you can also buy them when they are in season, freeze them and enjoy them throught the year!

If you find calendars of the Atlantic, Pacific and other seas I will gladly post them.

Bon appétit!

For the ones that speak catalan, here's a list of the recipes.

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Kid soldiers

Today I came across this photo taken in Somalia. What do I see in it?

• Curiosity
• Need to be recognized/liked
• Adult showing his reality to a kid.
• No fear of guns.
• The reality a lof a lot of children that are used for different military groups all around the globe. Take a look at the list of countries in this wikipedia entry, you will be surprised.
• An apperantly innocent photo taken in a country where 200.000 kids have carried arms or have been recruited in the country's militias against their will during the last 12 years.
• Need to stop making devices to kill other humans.
• Images by J. Gettleman. Here's a story of the image
• A fact that leads to other images, this time not so happy looking:

Kids carrying guns for a US ally

What do you see?

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Humour and Airlines: Thank you for paying attention to our safety presentation

In school it was clear, the teacher that caught our attention the most was the one that was unpredictable, passionate and funny. Today for the first time I listed to 2 different safety presentations in airplanes:

Delta Airlines, Domestic flight

The plane was small and had no screens so the flight attendant made all the explanation and added some things like this:

• "In case of emergency, first stop screaming, then pull the mask..."
• "During this really long flight to..." (flight is about 30 min)
• When demonstrating how to use the seat belt he did it in slow motion
• "If you have any complains or commentaries you are welcome to contact us via our webpage and you can also keep them to yourself"
• After we landed: "be careful when opening the compartments and get out of here!"

Delta Airlines, International flight

A little bit more low key, but still great because it catches people's attention, here's a version of the video they showed:

Thanks Delta Airlines for making the experience a little bit more relaxing!

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Great US History Crash Course: Natives and Spaniards

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Do we exercise freedom?

According to Wikipedia, free will is the ability of agents to make choices unconstrained by certain factors. Factors of historical concern have included metaphysical constraints (for example, logical, nomological, or theological determinism), physical constraints (for example, chains or imprisonment), social constraints (for example, threat of punishment or censure, or structural constraints), and mental constraints (for example, compulsions or phobias, neurological disorders, or genetic predispositions).

We can say in general terms that our societies have freedom of action, freedom to do things and freedom of will, freedom to like things, freedom to have phobias, freedom to be whatever we want to be and feel what we want. But how many of us exercise this freedom completely? How many of us take time to think who we are/what we do/the repercusion of our actions and ask ourselves if we like what we see? If we don't do this last step where we can analize what we are and change what we don't like, are we really exercising freedom?

by Genis Carreras

Some will say "yes, you choose not to do something, that is exercising your freedom", I agree but how many of us make this decision in a conscious way? And how many just go with the flow and complain about our lifes and victimize ourselves?

I am not talking about succeding, just asking ourselves how we can be better, trying to change what we want to modify and therefore exercising the ultimate freedom of will, even if we fail on the attemp. Also about beeing responsable for what we do and who we are, but I guess that is another topic :-)

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Where is the chocolate?

Yesterday I wanted to make one of my favourite desserts ever: toasted bread, olive oil, salt and chocolate on top. I went to the store I was expecting to find a huge variety of chocolates, but to my surprise there were only 3 kinds of chocolate bars!

• Lindt 70% 
• Hersheys
• Symphony bar

Should I complain? 

No, they had 1 variety of dark chocolate and 1 variety of milk chocolate and a thing they can no longer call chocolate but that it resembles the taste aka Hershey. So there was enough to make everybody happy. No reason to complain.

Loosing the essence

What made me sad was to see that the rest of the products that occupied a space of around 3mx2m where products with chocolate in them like goji berries coated with dark chocolate, chocolate bars, chocolate cups, chocolate balls, rice in chocolate and other chocolate variations, but as far as pure chocolate they only had 3 that took probably 1% of the shelf space.


It made me sad because I thought that we are forgetting the essence of things and because probably nobody buys chocolate bars anymore, we prefer the products that make the mix for us and sell us the total experience instead of letting us combine the chocolate with other things and letting us imagine/play with one of the most delicious things that exist.

Here's the recipie for Bread with chocolate and Olive oil, :-D

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Yoko en la Akashi Gallery (Barcelona)

La Yoko ens convida a la seva propera exposició "Els Habitants del Bosc" que tindrà lloc @ Akashi Gallery (c/Rosselló 197, Barcelona T93.125.08.77) i que romandrà oberta del 21 del maig fins el 9 de juny.

Akashi Gallery és un espai molt bonic i cómode d'estil japonés on, entre altres coses podeu gaudir de té japones de qualitat. És un lloc ideal per estar tranquil al cor de la ciutat.

El dimarts 21 de maig serà l'inauguració:

a les 19h Inauguració de l'exposició i lectura de poesia de Kenji Miyazawa (gratuït) 

a les 21h Sopar Menú del Bosc, a carrec de Toshie Nagashima

Cuina Macrobiotica apta per a vegetarians, la meva amiga japonesa prepararà el sopar amb collita del seu hort ecològic, sentireu l'aire net del bosc per dins. Places limitades, cal fer reserva prèvia (20 euros per persona).

Hi ha +info actualitzada amb més detalls @ la web oficial: http://elshabitantsdelbosc.carbonmade.com

I també al facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/152407854931944/

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Yoko nos invita a su próxima exposición "Los Habitantes del Bosque" que tendrá lugar @ Akashi Gallery (c/ Rosselló 197, Barcelona T93.125.08.77) y que estarà abierta a partir del 21 de mayo y hasta el 9 de junio.

Akashi Gallery es un espacio muy bonito y cómodo de estilo japonés donde, entre otras cosas podreis disfrutar de té japones de primera calidad. Es un lugar ideal para estar tranquilo en el corazón de la ciudad.

El martes 21 de mayo van a hacer la inauguración:

a las 19h Inauguración de la exposición y lectura de poesía de Kenji Miyazawa (gratuito)

a las 21h Cena Menú del Bosque, a cargo de Toshie Nagashima

Cocina macrobiótica apta para vegetarianos, mi amiga japonesa preparará la cena con cosecha de su huerto ecológico, podreis sentir el aire limpio del bosque por dentro. Plazas limitadas, se necesita reserva previa (20 euros por persona).

Hay + info actualizada con más detalles @ la web oficial: http://elshabitantsdelbosc.carbonmade.com

Y también en facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/152407854931944

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For information in English, please visit Yoko's blog: http://koko-yoko.blogspot.com

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