This area is not unlike St. John’s Wood, that is, the quant leafy location on the iconic Abbey Road Beatle’s album cover. Taken opposite the Boston Common during a BLM protest, the sizable police and military contingent cordoned off a commercial area in the Downtown Crossing neighborhood. To my back is the Boston Common, a location initially used for colonial livestock fodder. St. John’s Wood is also renowned for its sweeping green spaces, including, but not limited to, Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill. Of course, Beacon Hill, also to my back, is a historical neighborhood where many of Boston’s power brokers live and circulate (the state capital building, the Massachusetts seat of power, sits atop the hill like a golden bulwark). Similarly, Primrose Hill is the watering hole for London’s minted elites. Rihanna sold her stucco villa on St. John’s Park in September for a cool £32 million. At 6,332 square feet, that’s about $7,000 per square foot, admittedly more expensive than anywhere in Boston. As the global pandemic ebbs, it will be interesting to see where the real estate tides will take humanity, but what is increasingly certain is that the rapidly changing climate will have some cascading […]
Read More
The Grand Canyon in Australia’s Blue Mountains is not necessarily “grand” in the US sense of the word, that is, it isn’t ginormous. But what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in unadulterated lush beauty. Enjoy the panorama, and happy bushwalking!
Read More
Ted Cruz’s latest trip to the Yucatan provoked a bit of nostalgia in me. It was not for good governance or common sense (nostalgia, of course, suggests a longing for something past), but for a Yucatan, I had the good fortune to encounter on very different terms than the two prevailing Cancun vacation categories. The sedate beach holiday (al la Ted Cruz absconding during an unprecedented ecological catastrophe) being one and the Jose Cuervo-fueled “Senor Frogs” spring-break bender that many Americans have experienced as a sort of heady coming-of-age difficult-to-recall foamy romp. Yucatan has much more to offer than just a beach Unfortunately, the many treasures contained in this ecological and cultural wonder are often relegated by the “beach vacation” or “spring break” itinerary (partly as a result of its proximity to the continental US and its relatively low cost). I was in the Yucatan for about three weeks several years back. It was my first time visiting our southern neighbor, and it left an impression far removed from the plasticity of the MTV Spring Break showcase that was all the rage in the 90s. There were essential pop-culture landmarks during this didn’t-age-so-gracefully-over-time musical showcase (e.g., Notorious […]
Read More
In 2017, Thomas Freedman hosted a National Geographic mini-series entitled Out of Africa. Not to be confused with the captivating Robert Redford and Meryl Streep starring romantic epic directed by Sydney Pollack. In the opening sequence, Freedman travels to a trading post in Agadez, Niger, where millions of Africans coalesce for the risky and costly journey to the European continent. Citing swelling migration numbers to the European continent, Freedman poses the question, “How much of this massive human migration is being pushed by climate change?” As you watch Freedman’s series, the interviews tell an increasingly familiar tale: the desertification of communities bordering the Sahara. Desertification is a natural phenomenon, but one that is being supercharged by climate change. That desertification makes previously arable land completely unfarmable, hence, the climate refugee issue. Cala Marioulu The above image is of the picturesque Gulf of Orosei. Cala Marioulu (the featured beachscape), while remote and seemingly insulated from the world’s woes, is part of Sardinia, a central transit point for many African climate migrants. It also happens to be the location of one of my favorite Monty Python sketches: the Olympic final of the men’s hide-and-seek. Incidentally, it was harder for them […]
Read More
This is the village of Dozza, a small but remarkable town in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. Dozza hosts a biannual art festival, called the Muro Dipinto, inviting muralists from the far reaches of the world to adorn the stucco walls of this medieval enclave. Murals are almost necessarily public-facing, and as a result, often take on more spiritual and/or political themes. Murals and frescos have long been a source of Italian national pride, historical tradition, and technological innovation. In the 14th century, a technology developed in Italy called Fresco Secco would result in artists being able to capture a level of realism previously unattainable using traditional fresco methods. Immersive Artistic Expression Fresco secco provided several advantages over the prevailing method of the day, which required the muralist to commit pigment to plaster while the plaster was still drying. This meant that muralists had to paint within a very confined and hurried window, and revisions would not be possible once the plaster set. In many ways, The Last Supper represented the culmination of the fresco secco method. And while it is easy to get lost in the obscurity of technological shop talk, it is important to understand […]
Read More
The Temezcal has become an increasingly fashionable “spiritual”, “cleansing”, and “restorative” practice, even among some of America’s well-heeled elites. The metaphor of a grown man sliding through a brick and mortar uterus notwithstanding, a Temezcal, that is, a Mesoamerican steambath ceremony evokes thoughts of Plato’s Cave Allegory and evangelical “spiritual rebirth” dunking ceremonies. That said, this particular moment of “rebirth” was a bit marred by what preceded it. At the beginning of the ceremony, rocks were stoked in a nearby fire and brought into the dark and dank interior. Some unintelligible chanting ensued while water was added to the hot rocks at the center of the “house of heat”. For the cynic in me, witnessing white “new age” sweat lodge acolytes was a bit much without any additional irregularities. As steam started to envelop this womb-like space, I noticed an illuminated rectangle piercing the ethereal space like an apparition. At first glance, I wasn’t sure what it was. But as my mind started eliminating the possibilities, it became unambiguous: it was an iPad in a waterproof case. My uncontrollable laughter reverberated through space like a fart in a yoga studio, that is, it cut through the silly solemnity of what […]
Read More
This is my friend Donatella and her beautiful and absorbingly congenial daughter Analisa. Donatella helps manage the wine cooperative in Dorgali that is responsible for the production and distribution of one of their increasingly popular wine exports: Cannoneau. The Cannoneau grape, which you might also know as Grenache, has become trendy in recent years, due to its noted association with long life. In short, the preponderance of grey hairs in this area of Sardinia has been attributed—dubiously, I’d say—to the high level of polyphenols in Cannoneau. And as health trends go in the US, as soon as something is coined a superfood or associated with longevity, it becomes a fad item that becomes, in some ways, a stand-in for all of the other important variables that make it a “health” food. The seniority of Sardinians is obviously more than just a matter of drinking large volumes of Cannoneau, though it apparently has not done any discernible harm. Interestingly, in a recent Lancet study (and in the American medical community more broadly), researchers claim that NO amount of alcohol is safe for consumption. Sardinians drink two glasses of wine per day on average, and while Sardinians alcohol consumption is well above the […]
Read More
I half-jokingly asked an oyster farmer, “Do you reckon I should get a tax write off for buying oysters and mignonette? I mean, am I not doing an ecological service by eating oysters?” He laughed and said, “Yeah, you really should. It serves the environment much better than eating cheeseburgers!” This may have been a sort of tongue-in-cheek exchange, but having thought about it a bit, it isn’t such an outlandish idea. An individual adult oyster filters about 50 gallons of water per day–a staggering quantity considering their diminutive size. The general public is also becoming more conscientious about the environmental impact of the food they put in their mouths. In part, that is why so many environmentalists are encouraging people to eat less red meat, eat in season, and buy local. Oyster cultivation is an arduous task, or as I like to say, a labor of love, but the results are both very tasty and of service to waterways that supply our streams and rivers. Oysters are like the nitrogen-busting swat teams of our estuarine waters. To give you an idea of the scale of the nitrogen-related issues and their impact, it is important to take a step back. […]
Read More
“I crashed into a South American mountain and lived — without ever leaving my couch” - the title of a wonderful review by Stav Dimitropoulos at Experience mag for our Patagonia VR app. Thanks Experience Mag for the coverage - we’re glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Read More
As we approach President Trump’s ego-fueled fireworks extravaganza, it is important not to overlook the history of the garish Mount Rushmore monument, its sordid historical roots, and that of the national and state park system more broadly. Though it is unreasonable to expect a man that barely reads to understand the historical implications of throwing a campaign infomercial at Mount Rushmore, American’s ought to understand how provocative such an act is to the Sioux in particular, and Native-Americans generally. The history of Mount Rushmore and it’s role in Ethnic Cleansing The Black Hills from which Mount Rushmore was carved sat on land, codified in the Sioux Treaty of 1868, granted to the Sioux “in perpetuity”, that is, until George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry expedition reported gold deposits in the Black Hills in 1874. By 1876 the Sioux were ordered to vacate the Black Hills or be deemed “hostile” intruders. White prospectors would flock to the Black Hills in droves, forcibly displacing the Sioux in the process. By 1911, the park would be given “game preserve” status, thereby cutting off yet another vital economic resource from the Sioux, and subsequently named Custer State Park in 1919. To date, it is […]
Read More
