Words About Things

Helena Christensen was one of the most recognizable supermodels of the 1990′s, she stared in the video for Wicked Game by Chris Isaak and was a Victoria’s Secret Angel. Now she has turned her hand to photography in order to document the effects of climate change in Peru. Her latest exhibitions is called Meltdown and focuses on the farmers and Alpaca herders of  the Peruvian alps.

Helena’s mother is Peruvian so she was keen to show how the environment in Peru is being effected by the pollution from more developed countries. She wants to highlight the effects of climate change on farming communities  as she feels that it is easy to get caught up in the scientific side of climate change and overlook the impact on individuals. she says the the effects of global warming are already visible in Peru:

In some pictures you can see a bit of snow but these were mountains that were, until 10-20 years ago, entirely covered. We saw firsthand how the rivers are drying out, and it’s raining less frequently so the sources of income the local farmers and alpaca herders have been living on for generations cannot be relied on.

An exhibition of Helena Christensen’s photographs will be shown at the Proud Gallery in London from November the 23rd. The exhibition has been organised by Oxfam who are trying to highlight the effects global warming in advance of the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen. The Copenhagen climate summit will be attended by delegates from 192 countries with the aim of establishing a new global treaty on climate change.

For more information on the exhibition see Oxfam’s Climate change page or the Proud gallery‘s website.

I found this interesting video about the history of Espresso and Coffee in general. Did you know that Coffee was invented by an Ethiopian goat herder called Kaldi? This video was made by Douwe Egberts and features this an other interesting facts about black gold.

Sorry for the lack of posts of late, I have been having problems with my database. Hopefully everything is sorted and normal service will resume shortly…

A new guide book aims to be an eccentric guide to the coolest spots in five of the coolest European cities. We have all read stuffy guide books which haven’t been updated in 20 years which point out areas of historic interest but lack a personal touch. Le Cool (what an awful name) was created to offer an up to date alternative with details of all the best hard-to-find spots and hidden gems.

If you want to find cheap hotels in London or car hire in Barcelona these aren’t the guides for you. But if you want a locals guide to the best record shops, undiscovered pubs and art galleries then Le Cool is the guide for you. The design is adventurous and the tone is light which isn’t something you could say about most guide books.

The London guide is edited by former Suade bassest Mat Osman. He says that the guide is for

“…people who love the city. People who love scooter shops that turn into coffee shops, and flats with aeroplane wings through them, and manga libraries, and doll’s house furniture shops, and bubble-and-squeak stalls, and hairdressers-cum-art galleries-cum-nightclubs, and rollergirls, and so on and so on …”

More info on the Le Cool website.