Present in the Mail from Mousse

I don't think there is possibly anything better than getting an unexpected present in the mail. Mousse sent me one of the maps she bought in Iceland that is part of a series of 115. Half of them are mostly water so we were talking about doing map prints of fish we've eaten on them (like this one on the right).

I got lucky #18:


(Sorry, the photos are a little dark, I was eager to post.)



A blank canvas of my favourite ocean. What should I put in it?



Below is the beautiful card that came in the package, from egg press in Portland. I love the texture on the paper that letterpressing makes.



P.S. Mousse, keep your eye out for the postman too, there should be something coming in the mail for you any day now, though it may not have my name on it. :)

Old Taïpeh

These are amazing. Photographs of Old Taipei with French captions. I love how Taipei is spelt, "Taïpeh". A New Zealander friend who I met through teaching English in Taiwan discovered these and posted the link on facebook. Thanks, Noel.



Courtesy of Thomas H. Hahn:

Scans of all 55 plates of Ogawa Kazumasa's outstanding (and now very rare) publication Souvenirs de Formose et des Îles Pescadores (Ogawa, Tokyo 1896).

The sites and scenes depicted here follow roughly the main western transportation artery of Taiwan (Formosa) at the end of the 19th century, i.e., from Taipei in the north towards Kaohsiung in the south via Jiayi and Tainan. Of great interest are the images related to the Pescadore Islands (Penghu 澎湖), and those photographs documenting a foreign (Spanish, British, French) presence on or historical involvement with the island."

For a decent map of Taiwan dated to exactly 1896, see the Map of Taiwan [Formosa] 1896 From the Scottish Geographical Magazine. Published by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and edited by James Geikie and W.A. Taylor. Volume XII, 1896.

Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY

Istanbul

These pictures of Istanbul just got posted on facebook. I am going in September. I can't wait!

Have Heart, Will Travel

I was going to just let this be and get on to finishing my exam marking, but I simply can NOT get over these guys...


Heart and Guts visit Japan.


Lung and Uterus visit Hollywood.


Heart and Guts stop at a diner for some un-heart healthy carrot cake.


Heart and Guts pick out MedicAlert bracelets.


Organs posing with an electric organ.

i Heart Guts is available to do non-profit work for medical causes involving their adorable organ plush toys. They even have a plush pancreas from their work with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I am in complete AWE.

via Seesaw Designs

Mousse in Reykjavik

I am making a concerted effort to be productive for the next few days so I am offering up Mousse's incredible series of posts on her Icelandic food tour from our shared blog, The Mousse and The Pamplemousse, in my place. She will be posting even more from her trip in the next few days so keep checking.



This definitely moves Iceland to the #1 spot on my travel wish list. I am totally jealous and look forward to having my own travel stories to post again soon (I will be in Europe come September until March!!!).

I Heart NY

Have I told you how New York is my new favourite city? This post from A Cup of Jo...


...reminded me of two things that have brought me immense joy lately.

1. My recent trip to visit Mousse in NYC:



Remind you of a character in the video? We also saw a personality in this pipe... who knows what creatures lurk in the dark sewers of the city.



(Do you see the alligator?)

A tiny bit more flavour of NYC:







(P.S. one of my favourite photo subjects is graffiti art... you'll have to bug me for the rest of our graf photos from NYC. You can also check out an archived collection from my time in Taiwan: graf from Taipei.)

2. The second thing Joanna's post reminds me of is an incredible music art piece I found via CBC radio one fine day, and B and I have been obsessed with playing since. Here is an interview introducing the work that includes some sound samples:
Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project


Listen to tracks from The Happiness Project album. The artist responsible is Charles Spearin from Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene. Spearin interviewed his neighbours on the subject of happiness, then digitally mapped their voices into music scores and asked professional musicians to record the pieces. Read more on his website.