March, 2013. A sugar snap pea vine uncurls to grasp a rusted garden fence. So tentative and fragile, it’s hard to imagine that by the end of April the fence will be all but obliterated in a tenacity of leaves, blossoms and pods. Kay Ryan, the sixteenth Poet Laureate of the United States, sums up what it…
Read MoreIn the past month or so, two readers of ‘improvised life’ sent beautiful virtual bouquets in the form of emailed jpgs. You might think that a cyber bouquet would have little of the power or effect of a real one, but we’ve got to say, NOT SO. Part of the reason they were each so…
Read MoreOver the past several months, Pixar’s former story artist Emma Coates‘ 22 Rules of Good Storytelling has been flying around the web. Although we find it to be excellent advice for writers, we found annotating it made it even better: a list of fine life principles for any creative soul. Our favorite: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not…
Read More(Video link here.) This video of Sunita “Sunny” Williams giving a tour of the International Space Station came via our new friend and prolific idea-generator Susan Dworski, with this note: Totally astonishing. Have no idea how to use. Polar opposite from chairs made of dowels. Maybe you could compare and contrast somehow? Every kid should see…
Read MoreIn response to our recent post mentioning the hilarious David Sedaris pickpocket story, ever-improvisational Susan Dworski sent us this email: I recently undertook a Sedaris readathon and plowed through all his books in one fell swoop. To avoid the usual, well-thumbed celebrity-smut at my manicure salon, I introduced the notion of reading several Sedaris stories aloud to…
Read MoreA few weeks ago, after Susan Dworski mentioned that she carved stamps out of erasers, we started thinking about all the things you could do with home-made stamps. Why not stamp a pattern on sheets or rolls of paper to make your own fab holiday wrapping paper? (It’s easy, you just get yourself some Staedtler…
Read More(Video link here.) Susan Dworski alerted us to this stunning video, in an email with the subject line: “ah, the improvisational human spirit”. It’s about a remarkable orchestra from a remote village in Paraguay — a slum built on landfill — where its young musicians play with instruments made from foraged trash. The village’s inhabitants…
Read MoreIn response to our Dangerous Paths post, graphic designer and illustrator Susan Dworski sent us wonderful email: Several years ago I illustrated an 18th century Japanese saying using watercolors and rubber stamps made from hand carved, Staedtler Mars Erasers. The message reverberates across time. The message not only reverberates BIG TIME, but so does the idea of carving…
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