Beyond Kew Gardens

Back when I lived in London, I remember skulking around Kew Gardens on one cool autumn day. It was a  lovely park and a lovely day. I never went back though. Strange really as I went past it on the District Line to Richmond countless, countless times.

This series of videos takes you behind the trees and the glasshouses into the back of house of this splendid treasure  of a place.

Spend five minutes with people who study fungus at Kew. I was glad that I did.

And then soak up the amazing work of the Seed Bankers, aiming to pass on our entire botanical heritage to future generations intact.

“Every seed bank should have a Wolfgang,” she says matter of factly.  Indeed.

Kony 2012

Just watch and be inspired by the scope of social media, of a new type of participatory democracy and the power of NOW.

I recommended that you watch the documentary Us Now  a wee while ago. Fascinating take on what we might expect in the coming years as media intersects with us as citizens and the way we collaborate and communicate. Seems its really starting to happen. Exciting times. Watch it here if you haven’t already

Seductive Marni at H & M

Its this kind of campaign that rails me. Soooooo seductive. Hot-horse Sophia Coppola has directed the latest ad campaign for a collaborative range between the fashion house of Marni and high street megastar H & M. And boy does it look gooooood.

It has it all – Marrakesh, retro sun-soaked backing track, delicious eye-makeup, warm sun, greyhounds, candles, a pool and hot, hot people wearing covetable patterned threads living a life of enviable lax. What’s missing? Hmmmm, maybe just the small fact that H & M haven’t paid their garment workers a living wage for making this s**t.

Such a thin veneer of glamour over the labour behind the label.   What would the ad look like if it were telling us the truth? For one, it would be set in the slums of Bangladesh or India, and not in the resorts of Morocco. But hey ho, it looks good on their wealthy bodies so who cares where it came from right?

 

Sounds like heaps of fun to shop on the launch day too. Gee whizz.

For more information about H & M’s labour record, see our blog post here, and this here, and this here,  and well – there’s a lot of it. Google away.

 

Happy Sundays people!

Thanks to Jason for the heads up on this truly beautiful time lapse video of the Yosemite National Park. Take a moment and be transported. My golly gosh, this planet is so beautiful.

Join the Watch

This year, 25 countries will decide the fate of the Antarctic Ocean, potentially opening it up to a scale of commercial fishing that would devastate this pristine environment.

The Antarctic Ocean Alliance, have begun a global campaign to put pressure on those making the decisions. Their vision is to create the world’s largest network of no-take marine reserves to protect this area’s precious biodiversity

You can Join the Watch by signing your name to their petition. Super easy, super quick – and so, so, important. To understand what’s at stake click here or download their full report off their homepage.

Boy

Oh boy. Taika Waititi is great.

From a culture of me, to a culture of we

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) are basically a bunch of clever clogs using their big brains to sort out our problems in the 21st century. Thank goodness for that eh?

Each year, they invite film makers to animate some of their talks in the RSA film competition, and the top five have been selected to vote on. Go have a look at them all. This one in particular though resonated with me.

Not that actual event of The Big Shwop works online in any big way at all, but I do see shwopping as part of the new movement of collaborative consumption, from a culture of me to a culture of we. Its exciting to think that we are in the nascent stages of  a tide turn toward a way of operating that is big and wonderful and long-lasting ( and don’t you just love the word nascent? Its beautiful.)

This video is awesome too. It brings to live some of the global food issues through moving broccoli and a half eaten apple. Clever indeed.

The Take Home Series

Good, honest and useful videos for super simple hair. From the dude at Pacing the Panic Room DId you see his wife’s maternity series? She knows how to do it well.

Happy Sundays People!

Mr Happy Man. Awesome, beautiful short film.

Have beautiful happy Sundays everyone!

A Love Story

Yet another compelling reason to recycle your plastics. You don’t want unrequited love in your hands along with everything else now do you?