JUNE 2020 FINDS

june 2020 finds is very late. i hope you don’t mind that though.

BOOKS

1. eat your greens is a 800-recipe gestalten book meant to help you include more vegetables into your diet. i love it! i see myself consulting it a lot in the future.

2. i’ve read a dictionary of quotations i had laying around for ever. published in 1995, it’s full of mostly outdated opinions of mostly british and french figures. the section on women is almost 98% misogynistic. what was interesting to observe was how the English language morphed in time, from the point of view of the spelling and of the word sequence.

i did gather about 50 good quotes from the whole book.

3. i bought a second hand copy of i am zlatan ibrahimovic on a whim. i thought it was going to suck and i was wrong. he’s a one-man show, full of bad jokes and stunning goals. it’s a simple book about a special trajectory.

4. british vogue celebrates uk’s essential workers with a triple cover.

5. breathe is a wellbeaing, mindfulness, creativity, etc. magazine i picked up from curiosity. i’ll never buy it again: it’s full of truisms and platitudes.

GOING OUT

1. i had my birthday dinner at casa de cha boa nova in matosinhos. chef rui paula is running this 2 michelin starred restaurant in an alvaro siza vieira building that was declared a national monument. it was a nice meal but not 2 star level. there were flecks of gold on too many dishes.

2. hollywood legends is an exhibition of black and white pictures at the centro portugues de fotografia in porto.

4. we went to casa das artes to see a little mies van der rohe exhibition. i loved the house, it’s a souto de moura design.

5. we visited the catedral de porto and we were lucky to see it completely empty.

6. we spent half a day in serralves. the museum is currently hosting yoko ono, lourdes castro and arthur jafa exhibitions. and the pink art deco villa was hosting a paula rego exhibition, i think it’s ended in the meantime. we had great lunch on the terrace. a wonderful day.

7. we went to see the souto de moura exhibition in casa da arquitectura. we enjoyed it, very informative.

8. we climbed up the clerigos tower. i loved it.

9. we took a day trip to neighboring amarante. a very nice town.

10. copo d’uva is a fine liquor store we like. it’s one of the 3 stores we discovered in bairro das artes this past month.

11. la loja is an antique furniture store. i liked their selection.

12. bardot creative ground is the new shape taken by the old wise porto. it’s a creative studio which also sells interesting magazines and books.

13. i went all the way to the end of the metro line to see this vhils mural dedicated to the people fighting covid. the figures represent real employees of the sao joao hospital in porto.

TV SERIES

14. i watched queer eye 5. same conclusion: nice episodes, but the hosts have become charicatures of themselves.

15. i enjoyed dating around 2. the atmosphere was warm and the characters likeable.

MUSIC

16. machine gun kelly covers together with travis barker killing in the name of by ratm. good move. perfect timing. the video was shot in the streets during the recent blm protests.

17. the first rage against the machine album came on the background of the la riots, in 1992. i didn’t understand the context back then, but i understood the anger. ratm was supposed to go on a reunion tour in 2020, but the pandemic changed their plans.

look into ratm, kids. the songs you need now have already been written a while ago. start with the ratm album. there is no weak track on that one.

read more about the band in this rolling stone article.

18. 100 million views in one month! that’s the klout of agust d aka suga from korean super band bts.

19. this was this month’s wonderful earworm.

20. benjamin biolay has just launched a new album i love called grand prix. also, he’s touring in europe in the fall. shouldn’t i go?

21. but i also listened a lot to this gem from back in 2007.

22. this is a good bowie cover.

23. oscar and the wolf and a belgian band. joaquim is my favourite song.

24. a little bossa nova from a korean band called oh jinwoo.

ART

25. i’ve been saving some documentaries about basquiat. and this month i watched them all. my fascination only grew for this brilliant and gentle young man.

COSMETICS

26. i got nars velvet matte lip pencil duo in shades cruella and dolce vita. dolce vita is a nude and cruella is a red. i like both colours and i like the formula, although i don’t prefer the matte finish in general.

FASHION

27. this is a documentary worth watching if you are interested in conceptual fashion.

28. and, since my love for margiela is undying, check out this video. it uses a mm template to make a sock sweater. deconstruction, reconstruction, diy, recycling, upcycling.

YOUTUBE

29. interesting video about how fast we’re reading.

30. okura is an interesting hotel in tokyo.

31. this guy bought an abandoned house in japan for 30k. but then put ten times as much into fixing it. i guess it’s not for everybody, but i liked the videos.

32. yes, rick owens again.

33. you must’ve heard of wim hof. he’s the guy who can do a lot of superhuman things with his body. watch the video. on his website, i found a soon to be available advanced course of 54 lessons for 66k usd! there are cheaper things, too.

34. very interesting anthropologist thinks we could use a little help from other cultures.

35. it takes a lot to be a gymnast, doesn’t it?

36. wagyu is one of the best kinds of beef out there.

37. if you are like me, you’re at least a little bit interested in the ballet world.

38. i like cooking. i never use recipes, but i like borrowing techniques and ingredients. this is a dim sum recipe from a chinese cooking channel. it’s in english, you can follow it.

39. how did taiwan dealt with the covid crisis?

40. british vogue is way ahead of the game when it comes to social inclusion. bravo!

41. french voguing at the french vogue offices. i liked.

42. i liked this interesting video about a lady who lives in a tiny house.

43. where does caviar come from?

44. 5 chinese architect friends join forces to revive an old building.

45. i don’t like it when b/vloggers use their kids to make content.

46. i watched many house & garden videos. these are my favourites.

axel vervoordt is a very interesting person.

47. this month, i looked a little into ikebana. i realised it’s a bit too restricted for me. i looked further and discovered a cute korean channel of flower arrangements. i chose 4 different techniques.