Dearest internet friends.

I’ve just landed in Copenhagen, I’m thrilled to be talking at Naive Yearly tomorrow alongside some incredibly talented & creative people, including a few that’ve been featured in this newsletter. A big thanks to Kristoffer Tjalve who writes the excellent Naive Weekly newsletter for having me here. The event focuses on the people nurturing the small, poetic & artful parts of the internet, a topic I couldn’t be more excited about.

In last week’s issue I gave a quick update on my ongoing mission to crowdfund a manor estate, a place which will become a home from home for the Poolsuite community; a place that feels like walking into a time before smartphones & the internet existed.

I’ve been blown away by the outreach in relation to the project; from hoteliers & property developers, to architects & interior designers, to people with estates in their family they dream of bringing back to life. Thank you to everyone who reached out for the massive boost of confidence. I’ll give more insight into how this will all actually work in the coming weeks, but for now, please do reach out if you have any grand ideas or connections that could help bring this project to life.

Warmest wishes ☼

Marty

Hot Hyperlinks

☼ Adding Dubrovnik’s Old Town Basketball Court to my list of places to sit beside for hours with friends & wine (or more appropriately, some Rakija)

☼ Have you ever done the YouTube deep-dive on earthship homes? They’re sustainable, off-grid structures made from natural and recycled materials that utilise renewable energy and water systems to minimise environmental impact. Arianna Danielson and her family live in a fantastic one. There’s an amazing/wild community in the New Mexico desert building all sorts of weird & wonderful sustainable housing creations.

☼ I feel like this wine & vinyl listening bar in Madrid would be a dream to run (designed by Plantea Estudio)

☼ Our “professional scientists” over at Vacation® have just brought the latest in portable beach lounging technology out of the Leisure Laboratory… proudly presenting the Vacation® Head Hammock. I had a quick chat with Tush Magazine about such matters.

☼ Do you ever feel better after spending time in the sea? Or being by the sea? Well apparently that’s a thing called thalassotherapy and dates back to the ancient greeks. A while ago I wrote my 10 rules to live by for WeTransfer, with rule #3 being to spend as much time as you can by or near the sea.

Hotter Hyperlinks

Reserved with utmost care for the most discerning followers of leisure...

☼ What if you had two phones to help break your smartphone addiction? Trung Phan uses a “Cocaine Phone” and a “Kale Phone”

☼ The winning photographs from the 2023 iPhone Photography Awards show you do not need the latest mirrorless 9,000 megapixel image stabilising flux capacitor camera to shoot stunning artworks. Check out the app Stops to give your shots an extra aesthetic lift.

☼ That said… my lovely partner Alyssa recently bought me a Bronica ETRS camera from the ‘70s that I’m utterly obsessed with. I loved shooting 35mm film and having only 36 photos per roll… but this medium format camera shoots 120 film, giving a mere 12 shots per roll. It has me looking at the world in a whole new light; analysing everything around me trying to decide what’s worth using up my precious film for. It’s the opposite of snapping 1,000 photos of anything vaguely exciting that happens on your phone (guilty) and it feels a bit like an act of mindfulness to have that restriction. I’m not entirely sure why, but images from medium format cameras just hit different.

☼ What colour do you see when you close your eyes? This project by Jeff Thompson catalogs responses to the question. Jeff’s other projects include Every Radio Station and Computers on Law & Order

☼ The 50 best book covers of last year, according to AIGA, naturally featuring some excellent books you may want to read.

☼ I’ve just discovered artist Manon Steyaert’s mesmerising pleated plastic artworks

☼ Discover Seiko’s h-timetron watch on their design museum blog post series. “About 20 years have passed since the launch of the h-timetron series. The product still exudes a general sense of hope for the future of humanity.”

☼ Adam Savage gets a tour of The Earl Hays Press, the prop house that’s been making Hollywood’s printed props for over 100 years, from fake newspapers, magazines, currency, product labels & plenty more.

☼ An incredible home in Bangkok, which displays the owners car collection, incl. a perfect sky blue Porsche 911 (link via Emily)

☼ Just Anthony Bourdain on why you should travel more. I deeply enjoyed the documentary Roadrunner about his life. I think I’ve watched every episode of both Parts Unknown and No Reservations and credit the shows for inspiring me to take my first leap of faith and move from Scotland to live in Barcelona for a year, which kicked off years of adventures to far-flung parts of the world, that I hope will continue for as long as I’m able.

Until next time!

See you online ☼

Marty