Which Master Of Good Living Has The Best Advice For You?

“The true hedonist can find as much pleasure in a glass of chilled water as in a feast for a king.” (most likely to have been said by Epicurus)
Back in the day, Greek philosophy was not just about thinking, it was about living. And not just about living, but about living well.
Six main schools emerged, [...]

Something Novel For Christmas

Well, I’ve always been more of a “don we now our gay apparel” than a “good tidings we bring” kind of guy anyway, so let me give you the bad news…
Assuming you live in a 7-day-a-week shopping country, you’ve got 65 days left for your Christmas shopping, and really, let’s make it the year we [...]

Coworking, Public Spaces and Sniff

This is SNIFF, an interactive work by Karolina Sobecka and Jim George.
“As you walk down the street you are approached by a dog. He is on his guard trying to discern your intentions. He will follow you and interpret your gestures as friendly or aggressive. He will try to engage you in a relationship and [...]

Step Right Up And Enter The Pavilion Of Fantasies

In Shanghai I found a gap in my considerable mental database of the trivial, obscure and probably-useless. They’re busy enthusiastically ripping the city to pieces for World Expo 2010 (that tooth-like creature in the photo is the mascot)… but what exactly is a World Expo?
So I Wikied it, as you do, got a bit of [...]

Civilisation – Until You Try Hailing A Cab

Yesterday I hit the more gentile side of Shanghai… the M50 arts district and New Heights on the Bund.
Along Moganshan Road where M50 is, I managed to stop in at m97 Gallery who have been my penpals for quite some time. Well, not penpals exactly. They email me notices of their exhibitions and I read [...]

The Chinese Are Better Dressed Than You [And They Have Nicer Stuff]

I’m not sure what I expected of Shanghai, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t expecting everyone to be so well dressed and accessorised.
Really. I don’t know if it’s because they have more shopping time or if they just have nicer, more affordable shops, but the average Shanghai resident is very well coordinated.
On the other hand [...]

Pearls from the Orient

I’m in Shanghai at the moment. Six hours in the air and what felt like six tedious hours in a taxi getting from the airport into the centre of the city.
Being xiao long bao freaks we dropped the bags and oriented the map for a walk to Yang’s Fry Dumplings (54-60 Wujiang Lu). Messy but [...]

Singapore’s Ghost Ships

Apparently at the moment Singapore and southern Malaysia have the “biggest and most secretive” gathering of ships in maritime history anchored off our coast… bigger than the US and British navies combined. No crews, no cargo. They’re just anchored there waiting for a swing in the economy.
The Daily Mail reports that they’re tucked away off [...]

Beautiful Garbage

I’m not one to name-drop for social status baby, but I saw Song Dong and team constructing Waste Not at MOMA in NYC. No interaction of course, we were separated by a glass wall. But really, I was **this** close.
And at the time I thought WTF(?!). It’s 50 years of the stuff the artist’s late [...]

Panic Box

The government has a “dob in a sign in bad English” scheme going on in Singapore at the moment, but how about signs that are just downright strange?
I fancy myself as being visually literate, but I’m not sure what this one, on my train this morning, is trying to say to me. Why is the [...]