Hopefully when you read this, I’ll be somewhere in Kenya, fresh covfefe in one hand, bagel with cream cheese in the other, and sushi in the… other? Below are a few links to see us both through the rest of the week. Here’s to Rest & Relaxation, or getting nearer to it, anyway.
25 famous women, including Solange, Cheryl Strayed, Margaret Cho, and Maya Angelou, on the pleasures of traveling. (via NYMag)
Last weekend I discovered Elissa Altman‘s blog, Poor Man’s Feast, and spent hours making my way through post after post. She’s a no-holds-barred writer, and deeply intimate. I’m way late to the game–Altman has written 4 books and received a James Beard Foundation Award for her blog–but I’ve downloaded her 2015 book, also titled Poor Man’s Feast, for some airplane reading, and I’m looking forward to diving in. Here’s a beautiful essay from Altman On Eggs, Sustenance, and the Maternal.
Spanish artist Cinta Tort Cartro, known as Zinteta, embraces aspects of femaleness (the biological variety, that is) with which many women struggle in the modern day (see: menstrual blood, stretch marks), and she does it with glitter and rainbow paint, creating visual art that aims to help women love themselves and their bodies, a revolutionary act, in Cartro’s words. (via The Daily Mail UK)
A hive 35,000 bees strong was discovered in a Brooklyn apartment!
“Beekeeping has been legally permitted in New York City since 2010, and there are now hundreds of urban beehives all around the five boroughs…Even more interesting, Hegedus collected and gave a whopping 70 pounds of honey to the Mulzac family, saying it’s “probably better than the stuff you can get in the store.”
I can’t stop laughing over these failed panoramas: “People who tried to take panoramas and ended up opening the gates of hell.” (via Sad and Useless)
The form memoir takes can be equally compelling as the wisdom found within. (via The New Yorker)
A colleague just turned me on to WNYC’s A Piece of Work podcast, hosted by Abi Jacobson, co-creator of Comedy’ Central’s “Broad City.” The episodes are quick (max length so far is 26 minutes) and fun, getting into different movements and forms of art. A favorite so far is Episode #2: Tavi Gevinson Wonders When It’s Done, on abstract art, and making “sense” of it. She talks about one of my personal favorites, Cy Twombly.
These mental illness monsters, by Toby Allen, made the rounds a couple of years ago, but I come back to them every now and then because they’re such a unique, almost light-heartedly creative take on some seriously debilitating conditions.
Check out this “Boddities” quizz from StatNews, on how well you know your body. Also, since when did I start reading StatNews? Maybe my 10th grade biology teacher would overlook my quiz score in favor of celebrating the fact that I’m reading (and enjoying) this nerdy media. (Quiz hint: The nerve endings in your hands are the largest in your body!)
Lastly, Free diving the world’s deepest pool: Terrifying, compelling, fascinating. Would you do it?