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ANOTHER ESCAPE MAGAZINEIssue 01We all get those moments in life...

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:52:00 +0800

ANOTHER ESCAPE MAGAZINE
Issue 01

We all get those moments in life when we experience, if only for a second, something that utterly inspires us; we want to be a musician, a dancer, a bee keeper, a circus performer. It may be the overwhelming desire to collect new experiences, travel, or learn a new skill or language. But what if we actually played on these inspirations-turned-aspirations?

It is exhilarating to find individuals enthralled by their own lifestyle, people who inquisitively investigate their confines and comfortability and that feel creatively ambitious, whether it be in the most minute way or by a colossal change. We can take away from these energetic individuals fuel for our own motivation, and Another Escape looks to tap and bottle this invigorating subject matter, and subsequently encourage others to actively explore their own aspirations.

We are big fans of the printed word (and image), and wanted to create a well designed tactile object, that would slot onto your bookcase, sit on the coffee table or be slung into a rucksack. We believe that the interaction and experience that printed material allows is invaluable, and we look to be a permanent fixture on your shelf.

Through our ethos we have created a magazine that looks to inspire and explore. In the future we look to expand our brand, but for now we are happy telling stories.

“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our...

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:45:08 +0800

“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.”

— from The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

“There’s nothing as significant as a human face. Nor as...

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:07:51 +0800

“There’s nothing as significant as a human face. Nor as eloquent. We can never really know another person, except by our first glance at him. Because, in that glance, we know everything. Even though we’re not always wise enough to unravel the knowledge.”

— from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

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“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. It is real.. It is possible.. It’s yours.”

— from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

“Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into...

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:30:20 +0800

“Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into ancestors, even for patients who have not lost loved ones to death. We are often haunted by important relationships from the past that influence us unconsciously in the present. As we work them through, they go from haunting us to becoming simply part of our history.”

— from The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge

Join us for a curated ART + DESIGN MARKET session that works on...

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:16:00 +0800

Join us for a curated ART + DESIGN MARKET session that works on the notion of sensible design and art practicality. It will be an afternoon of retailers and creatives showcasing the best of their best. Come and be inspired, enjoy a day-out with the creatives, and leave with your minds & spirits full.

For more details / To RSVP, please visit :
https://www.facebook.com/events/248007608672690/

URBAN SKETCHERS SINGAPOREThis inaugural compendium of sketches...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:37:00 +0800

URBAN SKETCHERS SINGAPORE

This inaugural compendium of sketches documents the escapades of the locally based Urban Sketchers Singapore group while reflecting on urban context and city planning through the eyes of a diverse group of artists and sketch hobbyists.

Anchored by the work of the earliest members, the book aims to represent the island city-state through a varied selection of sketches that show off the wide spectrum of skill, techniques and experience found amongst the urban sketchers of Singapore.

(This title is available for sale on our online store !)

THE RESURRECTIONISTby E B HudspethPhiladelphia, the late 1870s....

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:45:49 +0800

THE RESURRECTIONIST
by E B Hudspeth

Philadelphia, the late 1870s. A city of gas lamps, cobblestone streets, and horse-drawn carriages — and home to the controversial surgeon Dr. Spencer Black. The son of a grave robber, young Dr. Black studies at Philadelphia’s esteemed Academy of Medicine, where he develops an unconventional hypothesis : What if the world’s most celebrated mythological beasts — mermaids, minotaurs, and satyrs — were in fact the evolutionary ancestors of humankind ?

The Resurrectionist offers two extraordinary books in one. The first is a fictional biography of Dr. Spencer Black, from a childhood spent exhuming corpses through his medical training, his travels with carnivals, and the mysterious disappearance at the end of his life. The second book is Black’s magnum opus : The Codex Extinct Animalia, a Gray’s Anatomy for mythological beasts — dragons, centaurs, Pegasus, Cerberus — all rendered in meticulously detailed anatomical illustrations. You need only look at these images to realize they are the work of a madman. The Resurrectionist tells his story.

101 THINGS TO LEARN IN ART SCHOOLby Kit WhiteLessons,...

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:32:47 +0800

101 THINGS TO LEARN IN ART SCHOOL
by Kit White

Lessons, demonstrations, definitions, and tips on what to expect in art school, what it means to make art, and how to think like an artist.

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”№ 1 : Art can be anything.

It is not defined by medium or the means of its production, but by a collective sense that it belongs to a category of experience we have come to know as ‘art.’”

(This title is available for sale on our online store !)

“And when things get tough, this is what you should do:...

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:52:36 +0800

“And when things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Someone on the Internet thinks what you’re doing is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, eventually time will take the sting away, and that doesn’t even matter. Do what only you can do best: Make good art. Make it on the bad days, make it on the good days, too.”

— from Neil Gaiman’s ‘Make Good Art’ speech

FLOATING ON A MALAYAN BREEZEby Sudir Thomas VadakethWhat happens...

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:35:11 +0800

FLOATING ON A MALAYAN BREEZE
by Sudir Thomas Vadaketh

What happens after a country splits apart ? Forty-seven years ago Singapore separated from Malaysia. Since then, the two countries have developed along their own paths. Malaysia has given preference to the majority Malay Muslims—the bumiputera, or sons of the soil. Singapore, meanwhile, has tried to build a meritocracy—ostensibly colour-blind, yet more encouraging perhaps to some Singaporeans than to others. How have these policies affected ordinary people ? How do these two divergent nations now see each other and the world around them ?

Seeking answers to these questions, two Singaporeans set off to cycle around Peninsular Malaysia, armed with a tent, two pairs of clothes and a daily budget of three US dollars each. They spent 30 days on the road, cycling through every Malaysian state, and chatting with hundreds of Malaysians. Not satisfied, they then move on to interview many more people in Malaysia and Singapore. What they found are two countries that have developed economically but are still struggling to find their souls.

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous,...

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:41:24 +0800

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay ? Getting happy.”

— from On Writing by Stephen King

“In a relationship, one mind revises another; one heart...

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:34:00 +0800

“In a relationship, one mind revises another; one heart changes its partner. This astounding legacy of our combined status as mammals and neural beings is limbic revision: the power to remodel the emotional parts of the people we love, as our Attractors activate certain limbic pathways, and the brain’s inexorable memory mechanism reinforces them.

Who we are and who we become depends, in part, on whom we love.”

— from A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis

“What is striking about all these diverse views, from...

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:21:19 +0800

“What is striking about all these diverse views, from Christ to Freud, is that they all make love central to the ideal of life, but in their individual ways remind us how difficult it is to realize this ideal. In each case, love is seen in relation to a particular set of problems — the problems which each thinker sees as the most pressing or most interesting in life. But in each case the notion of love on offer is enriched because it is seen as illuminating the condition of life: it is in part thinking about love which makes us see difficulties as difficulties, because they are obstacles to the realization of love.”

— from Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy by John Armstrong

DOORI keep out. I keep in. I keep safe.She never really did...

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:33:42 +0800

DOOR

I keep out. I keep in. I keep safe.

She never really did understand that. She doesn’t like me shut.
As a child she used to walk from one room to another,
sometimes even one house to the next, no matter that there
was no way in. She’d wait, patiently ringing the bell till
someone came. Unabashed and unruffled by the angry or
sometimes pitiful looks she’d get, she’d ask if anyone wanted
to play with her.

She’s still that way. Never learnt that people close me for a
reason, that there are walls nor meant to be walked through,
not without being invited in. She knows her house is empty
but still she keeps me open, waiting, hoping to laugh and play
in ways as yet not known. Closed, she confesses to me, is
alone. Closed behind, she adds in a terrified whisper, is worse.
It’s homeless.

I speak to her sometimes, in my wordless, creaky way. I tell
her to shut me tight, to hold on to those who sometimes come
in to look around, wondering if what is emptiness to her could
be their space. She refuses. I remain open, watching as those
who come in go out.

— from Objects of Affection by Krishna Udayasankar

(purchase your copy online now !)

MY BELLYMy belly is a flowerpot.I sit here, cradling itbetween...

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:52:09 +0800

MY BELLY

My belly is a flowerpot.
I sit here, cradling it
between my arms and it nestles
in the crooks of my elbows.
But I don’t like the way the flower looks, distended
and bulging. It is too big.
I could wrap it up
or cut a slit,
drain the extra sap from it —
but that would be cheating.
They tell me to take the flower pot
and run until the head, too heavy,
drops off — petal by red petal.

Still everyday I water this flower and I
can’t
stop.

— from Bursting Seams by Jollin Tan

(purchase your copy online now !)

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Tue, 07 May 2013 17:29:56 +0800

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RAVEN GIRLby Audrey Niffenegger“Once there was a Postman...

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:15:42 +0800

RAVEN GIRL
by Audrey Niffenegger

“Once there was a Postman who fell in love with a Raven.”

So begins the tale of a postman who encounters a fledgling raven while on the edge of his route and decides to bring her home. The unlikely couple falls in love and conceives a child—an extraordinary raven girl trapped in a human body. The raven girl feels imprisoned by her arms and legs and covets wings and the ability to fly. Betwixt and between, she reluctantly grows into a young woman, until one day she meets an unorthodox doctor who is willing to change her. One of the world’s most beloved storytellers has crafted a dark fairy tale full of wonderment and longing. Complete with Audrey Niffenegger’s bewitching etchings and paintings, Raven Girl explores the bounds of transformation and possibility.

From the Mouth of the Whale is an Icelandic Saga for the modern...

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:32:20 +0800

From the Mouth of the Whale is an Icelandic Saga for the modern age. The year is 1635. Iceland is a world darkened by superstition, poverty and cruelty. Men of science marvel over a unicorn’s horn, poor folk worship the Virgin in secret, and both books and men are burned.

Sjón introduces us to Jónas Pálmason, a poet and self-taught healer, banished to a barren island for heretical conduct, as he recalls his gift for curing “female maladies,” his exorcism of a walking corpse on the remote Snjáfjöll coast, the frenzied massacre of innocent Basque whalers at the hand of local villagers, and the deaths of three of his children. Pálmason’s story echoes across centuries and cultures, an epic tale that makes us see the world anew.

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other titles by Sjón :

+ The Blue Fox
+ The Whispering Muse

“My mum was fond of reminding me, ‘Life may not be...

Mon, 06 May 2013 14:34:48 +0800

“My mum was fond of reminding me, ‘Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here, we should dance.’ I always found this analogy strangely callous, as she knew full well I simply cannot dance.”

— from Babble by Charles Saatchi

“Ultimately — or at the limit — in order to see a...

Mon, 06 May 2013 13:42:58 +0800

“Ultimately — or at the limit — in order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes. ‘The necessary condition for an image is sight,’ Janouch told Kafka; and Kafka smiled and replied: ‘We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes.’”

— from Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography by Roland Barthes