The Infinity of Lists is a curated selection of curious lists.
This is the next in the Ends series of lists.
These days it’s hard to keep cool, to stay cool, to know—am I still cool? Was I ever cool? I think we all like to be cool, at least some of the time, and when it gets a bit hot, a bit too much, and you’re feeling flustered, fazed, like your whole brain has slowed down, you look for ways to change that. And sure, you could get a fan, maybe even a few (any fans out there? Spreading this hot air around?), but that might not be enough. So, how about some ice? Just please don’t let it all melt. Not all of it. Please. That would really help the planet. Thanks.
10. Sea of Ice
Caspar David Friedrich, The Sea of Ice, 1823-24 (via Wikimedia Commons, from the Hamburger Kuntshalle)
Stay cool rating: Some might consider this a bit of an extreme way to stay cool, especially if you’re on that boat on the right, but it’s certainly got impact. Check out that sky. Look at those angles. Very edgy. Pretty cool.
9. Ice Climber
Ice Climber, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), 1985 (via Nintendo)
Stay cool rating: You’re blocky, you’re retro, you’ve got a hammer, a high score, and a parka in a bold primary colour. And that stays pretty cool, whatever the console generation. Especially when a new Smash Brothers game comes out.
8. Over Ice
Still from The Big Lebowski, dir. Coen Brothers, 1998 (via Focus Features)
Stay cool: Dude, there’s some ice in there somewhere, isn’t there? How many of these things have you drunk? Stay cool, man, I’m not having a go! I know, I know. It’s not the temperature you’re so bothered about. You've got other things on your mind. And that’s cool with me.
7. Ice Type
Galarian Darmanitan Pokemon (Ice type) (via the Pokemon Company)
Stay cool: It’s a strong look. You turn up like this at a party, and I wager you’re getting in, no questions asked. If you want to chuck on a bearded pokemon outfit studded with ice, then who is anyone else to argue with that?
6. Ice Sold Here
Aesop Rock, Ice Sold Here, 2025 (via Rhymesayers)
“Extremitiеs numb, frosty, I beat the heat
That strawberry field 'bout to meet the freeze
Y'all ain't cold, y'all lukewarm
Too cold is my true form”
Stay cool rating: You heard the man. Too cold. Too cool. We’re all lukewarm, but maybe we can try and keep up. Commit to being truly frosty. And it wouldn’t surprise me if that process starts with a breakbeat and a scratched vocal sample.
5. Shapes in Ice
Snowflake photos by Wilson ‘Snowflake’ Bentley (first known person to take detailed photographs of snowflakes), c.1902, via Wikimedia Commons
Stay cool rating: Call me sensitive, call me a snowflake, but these shapes bring a frosty tear to my eye. It’s cool. Feel that emotion. Let it out.
4. Cracks in the Ice
Still from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, dir. Michel Gondry, 2004, via film-grab from Focus Features
Stay cool rating: Sure, when you’re feeling the heat, you can wipe your brow, wipe some things entirely from your mind, but is that just skating over the cracks? Are we actually going to stay cool about this? Maybe we’ve got to sit up, look each other in the eye, and face this head on.
3. Portrait on Ice
David Popa, Fractured series (portraits on ice floats, Finland), via David Popa
Stay cool rating: Catch a glimpse of something wonderful, even as it floats away. Watch it break apart almost as soon as it formed. But stay cool about it. Embrace the fleeting nature of beauty. There’s a lesson in there, somewhere.
2. Pushing Ice
Francis Alÿs, Sometimes Making Something Leads To Nothing, via Francis Alÿs
Stay cool rating: Sure, you might work up a sweat pushing an ice block around Mexico City until it’s all melted, but that’s all part of the process. Show your working. Throw it out there. Feel the effort, but be cool, be comfortable in the knowledge that sometimes making something leads to nothing but a puddle on the ground.
1. Monumental Ice
Nele Azevedo, Minimum Monument project, (this instance exhibited at Kendal Castle, UK, 2016), via Nele Azevedo
Stay cool rating: Take a moment. Sit among the wet gloss of the crowd, and think on things. Let them rattle in your mind, like cubes in a glass, until you find you can focus on what’s important in this big, wide world. Before it all melts away…
(How are you doing out there? Are you feeling cool? Or melting a bit? Let me know.)