Some entertainment for the weekend: Hel Looks is a gallery of Helsinki street fashion, showing off the uniqueness of Finnish style.

The project is by Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen and shows photos of ordinary people encountered on the streets of Helsinki. In a short interview the subjects share their inspiration and favourite sources of clothes, which range from famous designers to mum’s wardrobe!

More posts about the Baltic / Scandinavian region:
Norwegian design inspiration with Hei Astrid
Life in Sweden with Fine Little Day
Estonian cooking at Nami Nami

Photo: Pipa by Scott Allen Stevens

There’s loads to discover at Soundroots , which is dedicated to music of the world. SA Stevens, aka dj earball, writes about a huge range of world music from Bollywood soundtracks to Japanese percussion to Balkan brass and Brazilian samba. As with La Onda Tropical latin music blog MP3s are available for a limited time, to listen to the music they are talking about.

Affiliated with ‘Spin the Globe’ world music radio show, it’s an interesting and varied blog, from a writer who clearly knows his music and is also passionate about different cultures of the world.

Tags: world music, global culture

A few weeks ago we wrote about the films from around the world shown on May 10th, Pangea Day. It seems like the event was a great success, with screenings in many diffferent world locations including Cairo, London, Los Angeles and Mumbai.

If you didn’t catch one of the live showings, don’t worry because the programme has now been uploaded onto the Pangea Day website. There are 51 short films from many different places and you can watch them here.

Camels are often called ’ships of the desert’, because they can easily withstand tough conditions to travel through desert country. However they are gradually being replaced by motor vehicles, which can cover the long distances much faster.

Until recently, that is. The rising cost of tractor fuel means that once again the camel is economically viable as a means of transport. This article from the FT explains how in Rajastan camels are making a comeback (free to view but registration may be required).

Could this trend mean good news for the dying trade of the sahara camel train as well? Via Treehugger

I was hungry when I started writing this post, and after a few minutes gazing at Nami Nami I had to give in and eat before I could continue!

Photo: coconut creams with rhubarb from Nami Nami

Nami Nami brings a Baltic perspective to the kitchen, with delicious recipes using Estonian ingredients like berries, wild mushrooms and most recently asparagus, which has just come into season. Of course there are many international recipes as well as Estonian specialities.

Recipes are accompanied by mouth-watering photos so you can see what you are about to cook, and sometimes stories of Estonian life.

If you liked this…
More posts about food around the world from Topics of the World.

After Pangea Day which brought the world together through films from around the world, the International Day for Sharing Life Stories aims to bring people together through stories. In a mixture of live performances and digitally recorded stories, people from all over the world will talk about their lives.

As well as the official event, the organisers are inviting people to host local community get-togethers to share their stories. The website also has details of other events inspired by the life story day, including a Canadian project to share family traditions.

Photo from British Colombia Literacy Forum’s share a family tradition project

The International Day for Sharing Life Stories is coordinated by the Museu da Pessoa and will take place on May 16th, 2008.

A few weeks ago Global Culture blog featured a post about people who are open to new experiences. One of the points of the post was that cities of the USA which have been more open to receiving immigrants are now hubs for creativity and innovation.

In other words, immigrants can have a positive effect on a community because they bring new skills, an open mind and create global connections.

One early and important example of this phenomenon was the town of Huntsville in Alabama. Home to a space programme led by German scientists after World War II, the town supplied the brains behind the launch of the first American satellite in 1958 and put astronauts on the moon in 1969.

So what was the effect of opening up to immigration on this one-time cotton market town? It is now a thriving city of 170,000 people and has one of the highest concentrations of scientists and engineers in the USA.

Lonely Planet is well known for its travel guides to different countries of the world.

The Travel Book is a bit different though. It contains a two page summary for every country in the world! Along with stunning photos there is a mention for the main sights and experiences, tips on where to learn more about the country - books, films etc - and even a couple of words in the local language.

It’s an ambitious project but very nicely done, and a perfect (although obviously a bit superficial) introduction to all those countries you might have heard of but don’t really know anything about…

Lonely Planet’s online shop will ship for free to anywhere in the world, if you spend enough.

Photo: Orange and strawberry juice at Riad Laaroussa

The gorgeous header photo gets A Moroccan Kitchen off to an excellent start.

Samira and Sabah work at Riad Laaroussa, in Fes Medina, and here they share their recipes for Moroccan food and stories of life in Fes Medina. Some entries are in French.

Update: Marrakech Xanthe writes about an essential Moroccan ingredient - Argan oil, which is only produced in Morocco and Algeria.

If you liked this…
More posts about food around the world from Topics of the World.

Tags: world food, Moroccan cooking,