—Hunter S. Thompson

London, England

“Anyone strolling through Canonbury Square in Islington recently might have noticed this interesting graffiti around some particularly pubic foliage. T’was rather a lovely bush. Sadly it was painted over and now remains only in ghostly shadow of its former glory…”

Thanks to my friend Matt Warburton… (source).

(wherever)

I usually only try to feature design, art, initiatives, ideas, quotations, and work by others that I feel is good, edifying, or exemplary in some way. Today I’ve succumbed to passing on a selection of pretty awful tripe… more here, if you have the stomach for it.

“Thanks” to my friend Marie-Aline Oliver… please accept my apologies. 

New York, New York

Chilean-born artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz seeks to create works “that can remind people of their mortality, invite them to look again at their lives and question their daily routines.” His obsession with the dichotomies of life and death are present in his sculptures, public art works, consumer objects, furniture, and even fashion…

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

My girlfriend Evelin Richter has been busy getting ready for the 11th Wave Interlake Artist’s Studio Tour, happening on two fun-filled days (9 and 10 June) this weekend. A selection of her iconic ceramic sculptures will be on display, as well as smaller fired pottery ware, jewellery, and curios. Her studio What? Clay Art & Curios is number 13 on the tour — see you there?

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(thanks to my longtime colleague Carol MacKay; original sources unknown)

(thanks to my colleague Adrian Shum for this; original source unknown)

Click on the image for a link to a larger view.

(thanks to my climbing friend Rod Colwell, and the original author…)

Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.”

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough… to save our environment for future generations.“

She was right about one thing–our generation didn’t have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on “Our” day, here’s what I remembered we did have….

Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 240 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Wales. In the kitchen, we blended & stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a water fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

(it seems I had to re-learn this lesson today, once again…)