After Scott McDowell attended a class in theatrical improvising with Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere, he faced a quandery: how to reconcile a basic tenet of productivity – saying “No” and setting limits – with the essential principle of improvising – saying “Yes, and…”. “Yes, and” is a protocol that allows for anything to happen,…
Read MoreIf you look closely at this image, you’ll discover that it is composed of the Buddhist Prayer for Peace, each letter cut from the Methodist Hymnal. It is the work of artist Meg Hitchcock, who letter-by-letter, cuts up sacred texts and reformulates them into others, creating a compelling and transcendent fusion.
Read MoreIn response to our many LEAP photos, and the recent one of a woman wading in (a slow leap) – a definite obsession – reader Maia Tabet emailed us this adage…with her tiny comment. It’s perfect – charmingly old-fashioned, almost children’s rhyme-ish – and speaks to the practice we work to cultivate, of having faith…
Read MoreLast week we went to the opening of an exhibition of artist Holton Rower’s paintings, made by pouring gallons of vividly colored paints onto plywood forms. They are on display at The Hole in NYC, an immense space that Rower’s monumental work fills with reverberating color and energy. The paintings are made of humble materials:…
Read More‘improvised life’ editor-at-large David Saltman has just finished writing a historical novel starring Harry Houdini. From David we’ve learned about the amazing achievements of this real life superhero that go way beyond his well-known escapes from straightjackets and handcuffs. We’ve come to know a little of ‘the inside’ of the great magician. Houdini trained his…
Read MoreOur friend Fast Forward sent us an illuminating post from Gilttaste called “What Makes Sushi Great”. It’s about newly released film, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”, about Jiro Ono, 85 years old, a revered sushi chef and one of Japan’s Living National Treasures who runs a tiny, legendary restaurant inside a Tokyo subway station: “…the movie…
Read MoreThis room designed by the artist Tilt for Au Vieux Panier Hotel in Marseille, France is called “Panic Room” We look at it and see our two selves: loving serene white, admiring crazed audacious color – our split personality. It manages to evoke a whole world of possibilities: opposite ends of the spectrum in one fell swoop. When you…
Read MoreWe love this guy dressed in a suit, tie shoes and hat, skateboarding his way…where?!!!! What a chic way to travel (if you can manage it)…as liberating as our favorite “leap” pictures:
Read MoreLast October, we wrote about our friend’s advice to start the day reading something uplifting or illuminating rather than jumping online; since then, we’ve put the idea into practice. More often than not we read poetry, often out loud, and lately have found ourselves totally smitten with the odes of Pablo Neruda, which express a zen-like awareness…
Read More(Video link here.) …makes us wonder what it would be like if we all wore the occasional L.E.D-laced outfit…to become…moving light sculptures… via Kottke Related posts: string lights as everyday indoor lighting light reflective bike decals for safety and fun practice flying (via the uganda skateboard union) skateistan: skateboarding as antidote (to war, poverty, sadness…)…
Read MoreWhen we want to wake/shake up our thinking, we check in at Dominic Wilcox‘s blog Variations on Normal. You never know what that clever guy will come up with. We especially love his month-long project, Speed Creating. Every day for 30 consecutive days, HE practiced waking up his thinking by making something creative with whatever was at…
Read MoreA post on 99% by James Victore gave us pause last week. He writes about how as we spend more and more time staring at screens (our computers, our phones, iPads, etc), our brains change too: we forget how to function without immediate access to “information.” Because we are always plugged in to our various…
Read MoreWe love the way the internet can increase people’s ability to design and fabricate things that have traditionally been the realm of professional designers and manufacturers. Our newest favorite online resource/service is digital fabric printing. Over the past three or four years, a number of online textile printers have popped up, including Spoonflower, Karma Kraft, and…
Read MoreStudio 360 recently aired a story about garage inventors; people who are innovating, pushing the boundaries of science, and creating without government funding or hi-tech labs. Garage inventors tend to be really smart and really tenacious; sometimes they come up with incredibly useful-to-the-world inventions, like William Kamkwamba who created electricity-generating windmills out of scrap parts in…
Read MoreMany of the blogs we read have direct practical applications to our lives; they give us ideas we can use in our home, office, traveling, relationships, work, self-image… One category of blog is really for pure escapism; they offer us a break from our usual routine and vision. Of late, our favorite is Cabin Porn,…
Read MoreSpotted in a long post on Desire to Inspire showing work of interiors photographer Paul Raeside: walls with roughly painted stripes. Right up our alley: graphical, imperfect, charming, do-able…though perhaps not as easy as it looks (we’d practice first on some scraps sheets of plywood or walls we plan to paint over, or even heavy…
Read MoreEver since we found this quote by the legendary choreographer Martha Graham on Elephant Journal the other day, it’s been haunting us, because we relate to SO much to it and because we DON’T relate to some of it, a curious mix. “I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to…
Read MoreAs a chronically overcommitted, over-scheduled multi-tasker, I regularly push myself to max capacity. Working long hours, offering up my time for others’ projects, sacrificing sleep for productivity, and running home only to leave again five minutes later have become common practice. I can see the flaws in this system, but it’s helpful to have…
Read MoreA perfect sign, after our own hearts, via Imaginary Foundation. Replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity is something to PRACTICE. It reminds us of Eleanor Roosevelt’s great admonition: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Related posts: gandhi: ‘our beliefs become our…destiny’ using your car to speak your heart reminder: it’s not what you…
Read MoreOn the Selby’s latest photo story, we fell in love with the vivid color tiled bathrooms at illustrator Christoph Niemann (famous for imaginative his New York Times’ blog) and art historian Lisa Zeitz’s home in Berlin. They make what would be rather ordinary bathrooms dazzling. It takes quite an eye for color to put together tiles in…
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