Perspective we need: The Onion’s sublimely funny, spot-on commentary on the pressure to be creative during the “free time” of quarantining + Riz Ahmed’s wise view.
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Kevin Kelly’s 68 Bits of Seriously Good Advice
To celebrate his 68th birthday, Kevin Kelly compiled some of the gold he’s learned over his seven decades. The brilliant list provides a roadmap to wholeness and positivity.
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5 Short Fierce Statements that Help ‘Dig a Cave into the Future’
In the face of relentlessly bad news, I randomly came across some powerful statements that snapped me awake from the daze I found myself in. Maybe they will do the same for you.
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Stephen Nachmanovitch’s ‘The Art of IS’ Decodes Improvising As a Way of Life
YoYo Ma described The Art of IS as “a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present.” We find it full of surprising ideas that are also incredibly helpful.
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How Wigs Changed My Life (Fran Black)
Fran Black resorted to wearing a wig while she was growing her dyed hair out gray. Then she realized how fun and transformative wearing a wig can be, and bought more.
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Mallomar, the Seasonal, Interactive, Pop Culture Cookie
Available only in winter months when it’s real chocolate coating won’t melt, Mallomars are a deeply satisfying seasonal cookie that inspires very personal improvisation…(and has MANY cultural references to boot).
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Opened at Random: Flights (Olga Tokarczuk) “…the engine that drives changes”
This morning we opend Flights at random and found this…
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How to Recycle Your Outer and Inner Garbage
The New York Times’ 6 Things You’re Recycling Wrong set us straight about a few things. But Epictetus really gets to the heart of the matter.
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Opened at Random: ‘Insomniac City by Bill Hayes
This morning, we opened Bill Hayes’ “Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me” to this…
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How to Stretch Those Too-Tight Shoes You Love (Really Works)
I got so many raves about my tried-and-true method of stretching too-tight shoes, that I’m publishing it again, five years later.
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Steven Pinker on How to Live a World We Think is in Dire Straits
We are not alone in feeling that things have never been so bad, that the world is in seriously dire straits. Psychologist Steven Pinker offers some clarifying strategies that shift our view.
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Get Your Financial Act Together with Mr. Money Mustache
We’ve discovered that, even with our very creative, non-linear artist’s brain, we can learn to manage our financial ecosystem IF we have the right teacher. Here’s a good place to start.
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Leonardo da Vinci’s Affirmations to Counter Failure (Including a Wild Kitchen Fiasco)
We like to open books at random to see what chunk of synchronous wisdom they might offer. Recently, we found this description of Leonardo’s wild, endearing culinary FAIL…
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Rocks and Stones Make Endlessly Useful Tools and Beautiful Objets
A personal compendium of the pleasures and uses for rocks and stones, with John Cage and Mary Oliver…
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A Practice of Letting Go of Obsessive Thoughts You Can Do Anywhere (John Cage + Huang Po)
There are twenty-one post-it notes in my copy of Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists: each an illuminating and useful tool. Here is a favorite.
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Home is Your Canvas, Finger Paint It
Watch this slideshow by photographer Margaret Courtney-Clarke and imagine yourself painting your walls, floors, houses, textiles with your fingers…
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The Wisdom of Roughneck Buddhas
When Bo Diddley shouted “This monkey is tied, now let’s skin it!” Stephen Asma got his first lesson in the art of improvisation. Here’s what he learned from “roughneck Buddhas”…
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Hunger-Crazed Cooks Confess 50 Ways to Eat Eggs
When there is nothing in the pantry, there is almost always the egg. Here are 50 ways to cook them from hunger crazed food people and Leite’s Culinaria. Just to spark you imagination.
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This Enters Through the Brain’s Back Door To Make You More Creative
Our reason for mixing poetry into articles about very practical matters is done with fierce intention: Poetry enters through our brain’s back door and shakes things up. We find that it helps greatly in envisioning possibilities…
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How (and Why) to Salt Sensually, like Salt Bae
Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe became a surprising meme when his flamboyant technique of salting meat went viral. Though many are transfixed by his rather, er sensual handling of meat, I love that he put SALTING on the map.
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