I have stayed in literally hundreds of hotel rooms over the years, but I rarely pay close attention to the furnishings or amenities. Unlike Japanese architect Kei Endo who focuses intently on her hotel surroundings. She then creates beautifully rendered watercolor paintings of the hotel rooms that she’s stayed in. You can check out her charming work on Instagram and her website. The paintings incorporate floor plans of the rooms, exterior and interior views, illustrations of hotel meals, and even images of the bath products. The architect and artist also has a Youtube channel called Draw with KEI that shows the process of each drawing and encourages viewers to draw along.
This week marked the 50th anniversary of the nationwide release of what in my humble opinion is the finest American film ever made. The Godfather is an epic American story directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo’s best-selling 1969 novel of the same name. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, and Diane Keaton. It is the first installment in The Godfather trilogy. The story, spanning from 1945 to 1955, chronicles the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone, focusing on the transformation of his youngest son, Michael Corleone, from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafioso.
The fantastic poster above was created by California-based designer and poster artist Anthony Petrie. Titled “Carta Criminale” the four-color screen print is available in a signed and numbered edition. My favorite touch is the little olive oil can. You can discover more about the poster and purchase your own copy at Petrie’s website.
Regular visitor to Travel Between The Pages know that I have a healthy obsession with maps. In my humble opinion, it’s impossible to truly understand the world without well drawn maps to guide the way. Throughout the current crisis in Europe created by Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion it’s been clear that many people lack even a basic grasp of the geography of the region. The map above, which was created by Nick Routley, can be very useful in visualizing the situation.
The modern Ukrainian nation was re-established on August 24, 1991 when it withdrew from the Soviet Union.
Here are a few key facts about the country:
I love the internet for the surprising randomness of its gifts. The other day by chance I spotted the wonderful video below about a magical candy store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that I haven’t visited since I was a kid. Economy Candy was opened by Morris Cohen in 1937 . These days the store is now run by his grandson, Mitchell Cohen, a Wharton graduate and former banker.
If you ever find yourself in New York City, be sure to visit one of its traditional candy stores, but for now, check out the short film about this 85 year-old institution.
If you visit here on a regular basis, you are well aware that we at TBTP World HQ are big fans of urban transit networks. So we get preternaturally excited when a new service launches in one of our favorite cities.
Technically, the Elizabeth Line is just the first part of Crossrail, an expansion of the London’s rail system so extensive that it is most certainly it’s own thing, not part of the London Underground. But is does run under London, so it is the London underground.
You can get a sneak peek and a virtual ride on the Elizabeth Line, which opens this week, through the video below.
Home
by Warsan Shire
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.
no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilet
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied
no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough
the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off
or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here
It has been a difficult week for anyone who has been paying attention. Here’s a pleasant break from the depressing news of the world with some soothing, bucolic scenes from the Lake District, a mountainous region in NW England that inspired the tales of Beatrix Potter. The lovely short film is part of an exhibition on Potter at the V&A.
The Lake District is a region and national park in Cumbria, North West England known for its glacial lakes and rugged fell mountains. Beatrix Potter eventually settled here after growing up in her ‘unloved birthplace’ of London, becoming an award-winning sheep farmer and respected member of the local community. When Potter died aged 77 on 22 December 1943, she left 14 farms and more than 4,000 acres to the National Trust.
Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker and photographer Terry Abraham, this film captures intimate shots of the native wildlife that Potter would have sketched and later immortalised in her storybooks, alongside epic panoramic footage of its mountains and lakes, featuring locations where Potter lived, worked and admired.
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