Category Archives: Reviews

Diet & Nutrition Health: Benefits Of “Turmeric And Chili Pepper” Spices (BBC)

From a BBC.com article by Jessica Brown (April 6, 2020):

Red chili, black pepper and turmeric at local market
Red chili, black pepper and turmeric.

“The major findings were that higher intake of spicy foods is related to a lower risk of mortality, particularly deaths due to cancer, heart disease, and respiratory diseases,” says researcher Lu Qi, professor of nutrition at Harvard’s school of public health.

Many researchers believe the health benefits of spices actually come from what we eat them with. For example, there’s a tendency to use them to replace salt, says Lipi Roy. “Spices make food delicious and flavourful, and they can be a healthier alternative to salt,” she says.

BBC Future logoSpices have been a part of our diets for thousands of years – it’s second nature to sprinkle our chips with pepper, sip on ginger tea and add chillies to our meals. But recently, some spices have been unofficially promoted from everyday culinary staples to all-healing superfoods.

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New Art & Nature Books: “What It’s Like To Be A Bird” – David Allen Sibley (2020)

While its focus is on familiar backyard birds–blue jays, nuthatches, chickadees–it also examines certain species that can be fairly easily observed, such as the What It's Like To Be A Bird David Allen Sibley Cover April 15 2020seashore-dwelling Atlantic puffin. David Sibley’s exacting artwork and wide-ranging expertise bring observed behaviors vividly to life. 

The bird book for birders and nonbirders alike that will excite and inspire by providing a new and deeper understanding of what common, mostly backyard, birds are doing–and why.

“Can birds smell?” “Is this the same cardinal that was at my feeder last year?” “Do robins ‘hear’ worms?” In What It’s Like to Be a Bird, David Sibley answers the most frequently asked questions about the birds we see most often. This special, large-format volume is geared as much to nonbirders as it is to the out-and-out obsessed, covering more than two hundred species and including more than 330 new illustrations by the author.

What It's Like To Be A Bird David Allen Sibley April 15 2020

And while the text is aimed at adults–including fascinating new scientific research on the myriad ways birds have adapted to environmental changes–it is nontechnical, making it the perfect occasion for parents and grandparents to share their love of birds with young children, who will delight in the big, full-color illustrations of birds in action. Unlike any other book he has written, What It’s Like to Be a Bird is poised to bring a whole new audience to David Sibley’s world of birds.

Author Website

DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY is the author and illustrator of the series of successful guides to nature that bear his name, including The Sibley Guide to Birds. He has contributed to Smithsonian, Science, The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Birding, BirdWatching, North American Birds, and The New York Times. He is a recipient of the Roger Tory Peterson Award for Promoting the Cause of Birding from the American Birding Association and the Linnaean Society of New York’s Eisenmann Medal. He lives and birds in Massachusetts.

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The Art Of Home Design: “Stairway House” In Japan – “Fusion Of Household And Environs” (Nendo, 2020)

Stairway House - Nendo Japan 2020…a stairway and greenery gently connected the upper and lower floors along a diagonal line, creating a space where all three generations could take comfort in each other’s subtle presence. Not only does the stairway connect the interior to the yard, or bond one household to another, this structure aims to expand further out to join the environs and the city —connecting the road that extends southward on the ground level, and out into skylight through the toplight.

Stairway House - Nendo Japan 2020A two-family home in a quiet residential area of Tokyo. With other houses and apartment buildings pressing around the site, the architectural volume was pushed to the north to take in daylight, ventilation, and greenery of the yard into the living environment by a large glass front southern façade. The layout plan made it possible to preserve the existing persimmon tree beloved by the previous generations. Considering the potential difficulties of going up and down the stairs, the rooms for the older couple were arranged on the 1st floor. The eight cats living with the older couple roam in and outdoors more freely, and encourages the mother to enjoy her hobby of gardening more freely. The younger couple and their child reside on the 2nd and 3rd floors. To avoid the two households being completely separated at the top and bottom, a “stairway-like” structure was designed in the south yard, continuing upward into the building and penetrating the 1st through 3rd floors. Enclosed inside the “stairway” are functional elements, such as bathrooms and a staircase for actual use, with the upper part taking on the look of a semi-outdoor greenhouse with abundant greenery as well as a sun-soaked perch for the cats to enjoy climbing.

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Art Of Food: Portugal’s “José Gourmet” Canned Seafood & “Iconic” Artwork Of Gémeo Luís

“God wants, Man dreams, work is born”
Fernando Pessoa

 

Jose Gourmet Lisbon Portugal Canned Fish and Seafood OctopusJose Gourmet combs the coasts of Portugal and Spain to find seafood of distinction. They believe in the principles of fair trade, often paying in advance and never negotiating for better pricing. The artwork of Luis Mendonça on the packaging is meant to pay homage to the these fishermen and canneries who rely on manpower and life long dedication to their trade.

Adriano Casal Ribeiro, aircraft pilot, dreamed! The work was born!

Adriano Ribeiro and Gemeo Luís
Adriano Ribeiro and Gemeo Luís

A Q&A with Gémeo Luís of José Gourmet

JOSE Gourmet was born when Adriano Casal Ribeiro, lived in Macau and dreamed of Portuguese delicacies that he was unable to buy.

Portugal lived written in markets of longing, without shine, and ACR dreamed of selling our country on the front line. Together with his wife, Sofia Almeida Santos, flight attendant, a designer friend, Luís Mendonça, reinvented the iconic products of Portugal!

 

Jose Gourmet Canned Fish and Seafood Lisbon Portugal products

Canned foods, olive oils, jams, Port wine, cherry and brandy. They chose the best producers in Portugal, encouraged good fair trade practices and created very attractive and sophisticated packaging to sell the best we produce.

They are passionate about human nature and their ability to create, cooperate and involve a society that aims to be more attentive, sustainable, diverse and socially responsible. That was how JOSE GOURMET was born!

Website

Caputo’s Gourmet Food Website

Travel & Architecture: Inside The Greek “Villa Kérylos”, French Riviera

From a Cereal Magazine online article

Villa Kérylos France - Interior from Cereal Magazine 2020Throughout, the attention to detail is meticulous: mosaic floors of mythical beasts; intricately painted ceilings of interlocking wooden beams. The walls of the Andron, traditionally the male quarters of an ancient Greek household, are streaked with three types of Tuscan marble: ochre Siena, mauve Fleur de Pêcher, and grey-white Carrara. In Mrs Reinach’s bathroom, an immense bathtub weighing one tonne is balanced on two lion paws. Above its ornamental bronze taps, a low-relief frieze depicts the chariot of Demeter. From every window stretches a panorama of glittering blue.

 

“THE GREEK SPIRIT WAS FOR HIM BOTH DREAM AND REALITY, MEMORY AND PRESENT…”

Villa Kérylos France - Interior from Cereal Magazine 2020

The descent is steep, winding, and impossibly verdant for mid-winter. It is a clear blue day in the aptly named Beaulieu-sur-Mer, a pastel-hued seaside village on the outskirts of Nice. The road is lined with climbing vines and succulents, the air redolent of pine trees in the heat. Then, after a short drive alongside a golden bay, it appears, perched atop a promontory, jutting defiantly from the Côte d’Azur.

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Future Of Mobile Living: “HAAKS Opperland Camper” Easily Detaches From Chasis – “Open Living Area”

At the push of a button, the HAAKS camper extends its support legs, so that the car can be driven out of it; it remains available for day trips. The module self-levels and the automatically extendable roof unfolds your sleeping area.

Haaks Campers inside view

HAAKS campers offers you the freedom and flexibility  for your adventures, with a new way of  camping. A way of camping with luxury and  comfort, but also more sustainable and with natural  materials. Closer to nature.

A motorhome should feel like a second home. Building a HAAKS motorhome is a  process that we go through together. Take us  on your journey. What does your ideal adventure look like? Where have  you been and what do you want to do? Together  we design the perfect camper for all your  travels. Do you want a specific type of upholstery,  a different layout, or a different toilet? We fully adapt the camper to  your wishes. So that you feel at home in it.

Website

Travel & Architecture: Inside An Exotic Home In Tangier, Morocco (AD)

From an Architectural Digest online article (March 14, 2020):

Tangier Home Interior - Architectural Digest“Tangier is the crossroads of so many civilizations,” says AD100 talent Frank de Biasi of the evocative Moroccan port city that he and his partner, the multifaceted designer Gene Meyer, have made their home. “There’s a central energy here,” he explains, “where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, where Europe meets Africa. It’s a psychic point like no other place.”

Many of the traditional houses here, however, have a claustrophobic lack of light, so when the couple found a ruinous place on a little open square, with exposures on three sides, they knew they could make it their own. Their renovation ultimately took four years as they rebuilt paper-thin walls, replaced a life-threateningly vertiginous staircase with one inspired by the Old Fort Bay clubhouse in the Bahamas, and installed a light-well based on one de Biasi had seen in India and such mod cons as under-floor heating.

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International Design: “Sustainable Home” (484 SF) By Brazilian Firm Gustavo-Penna Architects (2019)

Gustavo and Penna Architecture Brazil“Our SUSTAINABLE HOME is made of matter and spirit. The raw material, the unused by-products of the mining activity, is the main component: from it we take advantage of its qualities and properties. Finding an ecologically suitable use for this waste determines the unique character of the housing unit. In its spirit, the housing unit intends, in addition to its technical function, to be a home, a place for each person to feel valued, welcomed in their dreams, hopes and desire to live together. Each house, even in its simplicity, must be able to create a sense of pride and self-esteem ”, adds Gustavo Penna.

The pilot project is part of the environmental education equipment of the Gerdau Germinar Program, which presents the public with new concepts of sustainability applied to mining activities and the concept of circular economy in housing – one of Gerdau’s social investment territories.

Gustavo and Penna Architecture Interior Brazil

The Mining Engineering Department of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in partnership with Gerdau has developed a solution for the production of blocks, drainage floors and mortar with iron ore tailings, a solution that can transform mining waste management in the future.

Website

New Art Books: “Edward Hopper: A New Perspective on Landscape” (April 2020)

Edward Hopper A New Perspective on Landscape April 2020Edward Hopper’s world-famous, instantly recognizable paintings articulate an idiosyncratic view of modern life, unfolding in a world of lonely lighthouses, gas stations, movie theaters, bars and hotel rooms. With his impressive subjects, independent pictorial vocabulary and virtuoso play of colors, Hopper’s work continues to this day to color our memory and imaginary of the United States in the first half of the 20th century.

A fresh look at Hopper’s iconic vision of the American landscape—its gas stations, diners and highways.

Hopper began his career as an illustrator and became famous around the globe for his Edward Hopper Landscape Paintingsoil paintings. These paintings testify to the artist’s great interest in the effects of color and his mastery in depicting light and shadow, at work whether the artist was painting alienated figures in dreamlike interiors or desolate American landscapes.

Edward Hopper: A New Perspective on Landscape is published to accompany a major exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler of Hopper’s iconic images of the vast American landscape. The catalog gathers together paintings, watercolors and drawings made by the artist between the 1910s and the 1960s, and supplements them with essays by Erika Doss, David Lubin and Katharina Rüppell, focused on the subject of depicting the landscape.

Edward Hopper (1882–1967) was the master of American Realism. His paintings captured the mood and atmosphere of his era. His style of painting and subject matter became the stylistic foundation for a distinct type of American modernism. A source of inspiration for countless painters, photographers and filmmakers, Hopper’s body of work continues to be influential to this day.

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New Literary Podcasts: Author James Shapiro On “Shakespeare And Plagues”

Octavian Report Rostrum PodcastsOctavian Report “Rostrum” spoke with him about a major theme in Shakespeare’s work and life: disease. Specifically, pandemic plagues, which ravaged London repeatedly throughout Shakespeare’s career, shuttering the theaters, and which appear (obliquely and otherwise) in some of his greatest plays.

The latest episode of the Rostrum’s coronavirus series features James Shapiro, the Larry Miller professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, and a leading expert on Shakespeare. Shapiro has published widely on this subject, most recently Shakespeare in a Divided America. He is also an advisor to the Royal Shakespeare Company and to the Public Theater.

Website

James S. Shapiro (born 1955) is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University who specialises in Shakespeare and the Early Modern period. Shapiro has served on the faculty at Columbia University since 1985, teaching Shakespeare and other topics, and he has published widely on Shakespeare and Elizabethan culture.