The Burning House: What are Your Most Essential Objects?

We’ve written about Foster Huntington’s love of simplicity before, but we’ve recently discovered another project of his: The Burning House. This one, makes us think about our Life Essentials by asking the question, “What would you take with you if your house was on fire?” We love that Huntington has taken this familiar question a step further by asking…

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2 weeks in Sri Lanka in 2 minutes: many improvs + a leap!

(Video link here.) Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine made a fast, sweet video of their 2 weeks traveling through Sri Lanka by foot, moped, car and boat. Turning OFF the irritating music makes for an inspiring little journey of swell everyday improvs. We especially love the LEAP at 1:50. It’s one of many illuminating escapist videos at The Perennial Plate;…

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new american nomads: freedom with less and walmart

We recommend checking out the illuminating slideshow in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, about nomadic Americans who travel around in their R.V.’s, campers or cars, spending nights at Walmart parking lots, which apparently, welcome anyone with an R.V. or trailer. Photographer Nolan Conway has been taking pictures of Walmart’s ‘nomaic guests’ at several stores in…

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changing plans last minute…to surf in Ireland

(Video link here.) We WISH we were the kind of person who just switchrf gears on-a-dime, as surfer Nic von Rupp did to great reward. Having gotten a call about the extraordinary surf in Ireland — IRELAND!!— he canceled the flight to Hawaii he was about to get on, and flew to Ireland instead, into…

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flood improvisations in venice

Just about the time Hurricane Sandy was wreaking havoc on the United States’ east coast, heavy rains and high tides brought some of the worst flooding to Venice, Italy in years — almost 5 feet of water. Because the “acqua alta”, or high water, is a common yearly occurrance in Venice — and because Venice…

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2 minute vacation: a virtual trip to paris

It’s August and in real time the city of Paris is virtually deserted; everyone is away. But that doesn’t stop us from taking a virtual tour of Paris in our heads, and reveling in that magic city, and refreshing our overworked brains. Researchers are now saying downtime is ESSENTIAL to creativity (which we knew all…

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google street view as time machine + aide memoire

Usually we hear people talking about Google StreetView as a virtual armchair travel tool. You can “visit” all sorts of exotic places you’ve never been to without actually traveling to them, like Stonehenge and other UNESCO World Heritage sites. With the exception of artful manipulation like The Wilderness Downtown, for me these visits remain mostly…

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the sistine chapel’s fab virtual tour at/for home

Charlie Allenson alerted us to the Vatican’s brilliant website that allows you to fly around the vast Sistine Chapel from your armchair. Using your mouse, you can click left/right/up/down…zoom in or out at astonishing Renaissance frescoes, including The Last Judgement widely believed to be Michelangelo’s. We are stunned at it’s beauty. As with just about everything…

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