It took over five years for Leonard Cohen to write Hallelulah, arguably his most beloved song. Although we’ve listened to Hallelulah many times, we did not get its simple message as powerfully as hearing Cohen’s words in an early interview, featured in the trailer of the just-released documentary about him.
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It is enough to have recognized some of ourselves in comedian Bill Bailey’s astute commentary on the British psyche (which applies to MANY others as well). When he segues into a wild riff on the expression “All things considered” at 2:37 in, we found our view of the world mightily expanded, AMAZING…
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When a talented perfumer I know let slip that he bought some of his base scents from Eden Botanicals, I went to the website immediately. The descriptions of essential oils were much like good wine writing, with notes about terroir and nuances of specific geographies, cultivation methods and fragrance notes. The offerings are a far cry from vin ordinaire essential oils I’d been accustomed to using for relaxation and healing: an order of magnitude more pleasurable, effective, illuminating…
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The most astonishing runway show we’ve ever seen is Shaheel Shermont Flair’s deeply improvised TikTok series made at his somewhat bedraggled home on Fiji. With the serious, stylized prance of traditional fashion shows, he models his mind-blowing fashions that offer astute, really funny commentary on way more than the runway.
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A post-it marks a quote in The Hummingbird’s Daughter, the beautiful battered novel we found in the Little Free Library near our house. We’ve been mulling its essential lesson about allowing things to happen for weeks. And thinking about artists who use chance in their work, giving up control to allow unexpected things to happen.
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In the first few chapters of The Whole Fish Cookbook: New Ways to Cook, Eat Think, chef Josh NIland changed the way I view fish I’ve cooked my whole life. He’s made a years-long study, testing every assumption, to arrive at a point of view that seems radical at first, and then makes perfect sense.
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The art consultant and dealer Peter Heimer’s postwar Berlin townhouse has all sorts of cunning details. We love the yellow daybed Heimer designed himself. The slanted pillows are brilliant, forming a comfortable backrest when reading or lounging. I’ve discovered that you can get the same effect with a simple DIY.
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Every birthday of late, wise man Kevin Kelly shares things he learned the hard way in, through living. The lists always offer big fat nuggets of wisdom and illumination, and many things to try. Our favorite addresses our frequent dilemma of not being able to decide between two distinct choices, usually when our linear brain is packed with logical arguments for each one that leave us boggled.
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Lately clothing ads coming over my transom have been featuring men’s shirts with an extra side button. When you put the usual buttonhole around THAT button, it pulls the shirt into an asymmetrical form-fitting wrapped number. Of course I immediately thought of how I’d do it myself…
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This lamp by English lampshade designer Mark Betty has this description “Lamp and Brown Paper (or whatever you want)” . The brown paper rolled into an asymmetrical cone and secured with a pin seems to have been made in a single gesture. Like all Betty’s shades, it has its own unique personality, as though it were alive…
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There has been a lot written about embracing your mistakes, but for us, Miles Davis nailed how to make it work, as recounted by a young Herbie Hancock in this tiny video; he experienced Miles’ approach in action.
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As I was contemplating the mighty big birthday I will be celebrating this week, I stumbled on this tiny video. Yeah, that’s it. Role models.
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For weeks, Czeslaw Milosz’ very personal anthology of poetry, A Book of Luminous Things has sat on our table to open anywhere for an unexpected view of our world. It’s made us realize that when we read a poem, it starts a conversation within us and with other things…
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Over the years, one of the very best purchases I have made were two bamboo Wave Room Screens, made of thin bamboo slats that unfurl to create an organic wave shape. They have proven to be endlessly useful. They are a relatively inexpensive, stylish, bamboo alternative to the beautiful, classic Eames screen.
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When independent curator and writer Marvin Heiferman’s partner died from Covid, he found himself utterly bereft. Having to navigate “the gap between public and private experiences of death and grieving”, he created an amazingly beautiful and poignant form —art form really — on instagram.It is a complex and nuanced tribute to the ephemeral experience of daily life.
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Just a reminder how much can happen when you take the day off…
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Elan Kiderman Ullendorff has a great knack for finding creative ways to find interesting stuff online that resist being force-fed whatever “the algorithm” decides you want to see. His newsletter ”Deep Sea Diving” facilitates deep and surprising discovery.
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A photo I stumbled on on Instagram made me loosen up my fevered drive to create bookcases for my many books, some of which are in boxes. Stacked — loose — can be so beautiful…
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It hadn’t occurred to us to think beyond the idea of S’mores we’ve had in our head for eons. Then we stumbled on a complete re-envisioning of the three elements that blew our mind in the most pleasurable way.
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J. Estanislao Lopez’ sublime poem “Places with Terrible Wi-Fi” makes us realize just how far the reach of wi-fi and the buzz of the world is now. And those parts of our lives it cannot touch. Ada Limón’s commentary captured the poem’s true heart.
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