"Ich kann die Welt nicht verändern, aber einen einzelnen Menschen, mich selber."

Karlheinz Böhm

Freitag's Links

★ The Internet in Real-Time
How quickly data is generated. 

★ A tiny Austiran town is reinventing the bis stop

I'm thrilled to see this beautiful and inspiring project.

★ Made me smile to see this English gardener cutting his front hedge in shape of a dragon. 

★ Bees make blue honey after eating M&Ms

★ Wishing I could be at the Africa Festival in Würzburg this weekend.  

Hanna, Jacob and I having fun banging the drums at the Africa Festival on the Talavera Mainwiesen in Würzburg last year! 

Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles

Big congratulations to our friend Jeanette, who won the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles!
(Again!)

The Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles is completely off road - 2500 km through the Sahara dessert. It is not about going fast, but about navigation and driving skills.

Over eight days the teams have to find checkpoints and reach them with the least mileage possible. Which is a tricky task, since they are not allowed GPS and are only given a map from the 1950s, coordinates and a compass.

Driving skills are tested to the limit in this diverse and difficult terrain.

I can't stop looking at images of the Rallye and the dessert. What a landscape! What a challenge!





P.S.: There is no prize money. "The money generated helps to finance teams of doctors providing medical care for the population in the remote regions of Morocco. Annually and with the infrastructure of the Rally, a medical caravan, including a mobile clinic with 8 doctors, cares for the rural population. This year 4,582 people received free medical care. In addition, aid for children’s education has been set up as well as aid for an orphanage for children under six years of age." - Wikipedia

What a fabulous idea

Airbnb Presents: Airbrb from Airbnb on Vimeo.

P. S.: April, April!

Antique wedding dress

John's mum gave me her mother's wedding dress. Of course I had to try it on. 

It's beautiful. The detail is stunning. I will take more photographs of it soon. Until then: 

Four years with this little girl ♥

Restraint has been selected for Dança em Foco

YAY! Our latest dance film has been selected for Dança em Foco, International Festival of Video and Dance.


RESTRAINT from John Coombes on Vimeo.

Home tour vs. studio tour

I just watched Sarah Jessica Parker giving an interview/mini home tour for Vogue in one take, which reminded me of the studio/home tour video we did a while ago. The single take studio tour starts at 3:30.

My TipiLotta indoor playtent on byGraziela's Blog

Ich freu' mich riesig!

Schneeglöckchen and saffron

No snow, but snowdrops and lots of rain here in Yorkshire. Yesterday was sunny for a change and all the crocuses in our garden opened up. I love these first harbingers of spring.

Did you know that the spice saffron is dried stigmas of crocus sativus, which is also grown in England.
My crocuses are a different variety, but I am tempted to experiment using them for dyeing textiles.

Freitag's Links

★ Thomas Vailly and Laura Lynn's 20 Minutes Dresses.

Beautiful 3-D effects archived by applying glueing stretch fabric together. Made me think of a project I did once. See image below.

★ Färg & Blanche stitch wood together to form furniture.
That's harder than it sounds. A friend of mine has tried. I stitched metal together and that was hard enough. 

★ New flexible paper sculptures by Li Hongbo. Made me think of the absolutely stunning Alabaster heads by Jaume Plensa I've seen a t the Yorkshire Sculpture Park a few years ago.

★ John Lennon sewing 

★ Growing out bangs, or a fringe as it's called in the UK, or Pony in German, one of the things I dreaded before I had dreads. Found on thebeautydepartment.com, one of the most beautiful beauty blogs I've ever come across.

★ People in Vienna dancing to Happy by Pharrell Williams. Made me miss Vienna, but also made me smile.

Have a lovely weekend! 

Happy Valentines Day

"The Heart Machine is an alarming little machine to demand the attention of the one you love."

I love this wonderful machine by our friend, kinetic sculptor Martin Smith. It would make the prefect Valentines present, no? See more of his work here. 

photograph copyright Martin Smith