On BoingBoing recently, Mark Frauenfelder wrote a terrific overview of Cheap:The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel, who asks “What are we really buying when we insist on getting stuff as cheaply as possible?” The answers are a revelation and worth reading; they range from low-quality food supply and deserted town centers to…
Read More
Chalkboard paint is one of the best inventions to come down the line in some time, due in large part to it’s improvisation-inspiring nature. There seems to be no end in sight to the uses people are devising for it. A current favorite: this ’70’s Volkswagon painted with chalkboard paint that I stumbled on on Flickr.
Read More
This quote by Tapio Wirkkala is high on a wall in the Design Museum in Helsinki. (Wirkkala was one of Finland’s most esteemed and prolific designers; perhaps his most recognized design is the Finlandia Vodka bottle that looks like ice.) In two sentences, he captures the central operating principles of creating just about anything: the “chance” and diversion from…
Read More
On the Finnair flight home from Finland, I glanced out the window to discover this incredible vision: a vast expanse of snow and glacier falling into the sea. The route home took us across the Arctic Circle and the coast of Greenland. That gives you an idea of how far North the amazing city of…
Read More
In any creative endeavor, downtime is essential; breaking the routine, wandering, dreaming are a different kind of fuel than DOING. So I’m gonna follow my own advice and take some time off to recharge: no posting on the blog, or any other official writing, for a week. I’m going to Finland, to look for Alvar…
Read More
This summer, the field tomatoes that are the season’s perfect pleasure will be rare and expensive, due to the terrible blight that is causing enormous losses on farms across the Northeast. My advice, for the tomatoes you are lucky enough to find, is that they are best savored with little adornment – just enough to…
Read More
GOOD is at once magazine, website, blog, video series, community, and events devoted to exploring what good is and what it can be. A collaboration of individuals, business and non-profits, they invite everyone to become of a member of the GOOD community: “Please join us in defining what comes next.” (The subscription price for their magazine…
Read More
D.A. Blyler wrote the Seven Vices of Highly Creative People in reaction to the grumbling he was hearing about people working in offices where Stephen Covey’s bestseller The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People had been implemented. Personally, I’ve found Covey’s book to be strangely unreadable, and relate much more to Blyler’s recommendation for sex, cocktails, and gastronomy – specifically…
Read More
Ruth Fankushen Kunkel wrote An Alien Robot’s Cookbook for her boys who were picky eaters; she needed to find a way to engage them in eating and making wonderful food. It begins: “Due to a random mechanical error, I traveled to Earth without warning…I finally crash-landed…
Read More
Dish racks and kitchen storage systems are among the most disappointing offerings in stores; it’s hard to find one that really functions well and looks great. The design group Studio Matière has designed a kitchen storage system built of pine splints in an irregular, ladder-like grid that can hang from a tree branch, or be…
Read More
“I guess you win some and you lose some”, my friend Keith Stewart wrote in an email. “Last year was a winner. This year, I think, will not be.” Like many farmers in the Northeast, Keith’s tomatoes have been hit hard by late blight, the same spore-born disease that caused the Irish Potato famine in the…
Read More
When I opened the little tin of Pimenton de la Vera, the aroma of sun-dried peppers, smoked-over-smoldering-oak-fires hit me full in the face. The pungent, vividly-colored spice from Andalucia that is the essential flavor in chorizo, triggered all sorts of associations and “what if’s”: “What if I sprinkled some on warm smashed hard-boiled eggs, or…
Read More
Years ago, when I was putting together my very make-shift kitchen, I searched and searched for a pot rack that was the opposite of the ones that seemed to be everywhere – clunky or “country”-ish, overly ornate or verging on Medieval. Nothing I found accommodated my personal pot rack idiosyncrasies that includes not liking pots…
Read More
Right after I posted “Are you a secret lighting designer?” about down-loadable lamp shade plans and cool, flame-proof materials to improvise with, I came across this really inspired, inexpensive, endlessly useful clip-on lamp shade for sale at tweek. It’s just about perfect for hanging bulbs or wall fixtures. Still, I couldn’t help falling into an…
Read More
The brilliant Maira Kalman has done another wonderfully illustrated op-ed for her periodic blog “And the Pursuit of Happiness” at the New York Times. This time, it’s about the nature in invention, starting with Benjamin Franklin … He believed in doing good. He made charts and had daily goals… ….He saw a dirty street and created…
Read More
I recently stumbled on a useful “how-to” of a necklace designed in the 1940’s by Anni Albers, the great textile designer and weaver who was a member of the Bauhaus, and a founder of Black Mountain College. The necklace, made from metal washers, laced together with grosgrain ribbon, is an example of ordinary elements combined…
Read More
When her spirits were flagging, or she just needed a little vacation from everyday life, my mother would take me to a Greek restaurant near the theatre district in New York City. We would always order a rustic dish that is a classic in Greek cuisine: cold sliced beets with a garlic sauce known as…
Read More
I was passing by the Kate Spade store on Fifth Avenue on my way to the farmer’s market the other day, and found myself walking on beautiful colored stripes painted on the sidewalk; they seemed to stream out of the store’s stripey interior – a great, simple idea. Why not paint a sidewalk, or any…
Read More
I’ve come across a number of posts about furniture made of pallets, those flat rectangles of rough hammered-together wood platforms commonly used to move bundled goods around by a fork lift. This lounge chair by Studiomama is a particularly good one; it has clean lines and looks like it would be comfortable – perfect at…
Read More