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Trees Growing Through Obstacles (Like Us)

Our friend Cara De Silva sent us a link to images of trees growing through concrete, with these words. …I was startled and grateful when I looked at these beautiful and inspiring photographs. But not only for the usual reasons. For months now I have been seeing such trees as a metaphor,

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Weekend Delight: Double Chocolate Rye Muffins

I was intrigued by the Double Chocolate Rye/spelt muffins touted on Green Kitchen. Chocolate and rye!!!. Rye flour in the US is associated with heavy, gummy, serious breads––certainly not pastries. Doubters warned that they could be “brown rocks,” given the weightiness of the ingredients. But it seems that chocolate and rye are much loved taste combo in Denmark. And Green Kitchen said they were delish, so I decided to try them.

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For NYC on the Day of a Building Collapse

This morning eight blocks south of here, two old apartment buildings had collapsed after a violent explosion, near a heavily-trafficked intersection of Harlem. I knew that for some people, as ordinary as me, their lives had been profoundly changed or lost in a moment this morning.

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exercise averse? outdoors (even a park) is your gym

I used to know a brilliant Reichian therapist who disdained exercise machines. “They make the body stupid”, she said. She believed that physical exercise should take the form of conscious, pleasurable movement that had a reason, not something done mindlessly while watching tv or reading. I’ve thought of this often as I’ve wondered at my…

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About Improvised Life’s Laboratory

Improvised Life’s LABORATORY is a space where we experiment with all sorts of ideas for home and daily living. It’s transformation from homely, vin ordinaire apartment to a clean-lined loft-like space has been a lesson in seeing through the surface to the bones beneath, and envisioning possibilities. It started with a renovation and carried over into problem-solving…

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reno 101: how to find an affordable architectural plan-maker

After our disastrous experience with a bogus architectural plan drawer we found on Craigslist, the dilemma remained: how to get excellent architectural plans made for the Laboratory’s renovation without paying a fortune. Our new strategy was to put the word out for a talented graduate from a great architecture program like Columbia University and closely…

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dept of 2nd acts: tony giglio’s improvised walking sticks

Anthony Giglio, a regular contributor to ‘the improvised life’ — his wine-friendly grape “ice cubes” remain a perpetual hit — recently posted on his website about his dad Tony Giglio’s unexpected, found ‘career’ in retirement. He makes walking sticks, and his story is pure ‘improvised life’: About a year ago my father found inspiration in a…

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harlem lab renovation: ‘before’ photos

I’ve been circling the story of the transformation of ‘the improvised life’s new Laboratory from vin ordinaire apartment to its new incarnation of fluid, morphable, multi-use space for living and improvising (a glimpse above), wondering how to tell it. Having shown the early sketches and plans, it seems like the best bet would be to…

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‘shelf of stuff’: what’s on yours?

A while back, we clipped a great post from Mondobloggo called ‘That Shelf”. It went: We all have one. The weird,  cool ass shit that doesn’t go anywhere else. That gift that you like,  but can’t get rid of. Your favorite thing in the world,  and the stupidest thing ever…. It all goes on “that…

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