And I Love The Licorice Too

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OK, I admit it, I shop at IKEA. In fact, half of my house is furnished by the Swedish furniture giant. My office is lined by the famous Billy bookcases, my file cabinets are all IKEA, even the desk that I’m writing this post on is from IKEA. My kitchen is filled with IKEA cabinets, which are packed with IKEA utensils, mugs, glasses and bowls. Even my den is furnished with IKEA sofa, chair, bookcases, and entertainment unit. So, it’s no surprise that the next time that I’m in Sweden I’ll be heading for the new IKEA Museum.

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Located in Älmhult, the brand new museum is situated in the very first IKEA retail store from 1958. The original building has been renovated and now houses a collection of 20,000 plus items sold by the chain over the years. Every piece on display is an original. When the company could not find items, they sourced them from customers. I’m not surprised, I still own an IKEA chair that I bought 30 years ago.

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The museum, which actually opens to the public on June 30th, has recreated period rooms, temporary exhibitions, and of course a restaurant where vsitors can get their fix of meatballs and apple cake.

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Posted in Architecture, Europe, History, Museums, Restaurants, Tourism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What’s In A Title

Many thanks to Lucy from Jonkers Rare Books in lovely Henley-on-Thames for this wonderful infographic. If you can’t get to the UK, you can still visit the terrific bookshop via their website.

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When The Bookstores Are Closed

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Singapore bookstore BooksActually has launched the first two of a new series of book vending machines. The machines are located at the Singapore Visitors Centre and the National Museum of Singapore. The book vendors will be rotated every three months to new locations. Each holds about 150 books, with titles from local authors. Subject matter ranges from novels and short stories to poetry and graphic novels. According to BooksActually manager Renee Ting, the inspiration for the vending machines goes back to the 1937 Penguin Books Penguincubator.

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Posted in Asia, Books, Bookstore Tourism, Museums, Tourism | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Data Visualization Is A Beautiful Thing

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These wonderful graphic representations of air travel routes were based on 600,000 flight routes from 3,200 airports around the world. Swiss programmer Martin Grandjean utilized data from OpenFlights.org to create the graphics. Check out his fascinating website to learn more.

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Posted in Air Travel, Europe, Maps, Public Transport, Tech | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Montreal in History

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Here in the New World we tend to forget that we too have a history. Montreal, one of my all time favorite North American cities, was founded in 1642. In the run-up to next year’s 375th anniversary celebrations, Montreal tourism folks have created a marvelous project to remind visitors and citizens alike of the city’s great history. The Montréal en Histoires activities include the stunning Cité Mémoire installations, which includes dozens of projections of historical figures throughout Old Montreal every night beginning at dusk. There’s also a neat multilingual app which allows visitors to use augmented reality to learn more about Montreal’s history and culture.

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Posted in apps, Canada, History, Museums, Tech, Tourism | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Pulp Fiction

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I’m a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino’s films, so naturally I’m also digging these faux vintage pulp novel book covers. The project by graphic artist David Redon (aka Ads Libitum) is called “Pulp Books”.

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Posted in Art, Books, Film, movies, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Paperback Paradise Indeed

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I don’t know who is the brilliant photoshop artist behind the Paperback Paradise project, but I love the semi-NSFW manipulations of old YA and kid’s paperback novels. Here’s a sample:

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It’s Elementary

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Everyone Likes Street Food

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The French street artist known as Lor-K has been transforming abandoned mattresses from Paris sidewalks into a variety of “street food”. The selection below covers just a sample of the pastries, sandwiches, snacks and sushi that has been turning up for weeks. Yum.

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Posted in Art, Europe | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Where Do languages Go To Die

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Posted in Africa, Asia, South America, USA | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments