Our friend Charlie Allenson had a big birthday a few days ago, and we had big plans to give him a shout out that day and find ourselves, THE DAY AFTER, having been swept away by..everything. Damn. Charlie’s at the jazz festival in New Orleans so we thought we’d publish some of the very cool…
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Usually when we’ve wanted to figure out the right color to paint a room, we’ve bought samples and painted swatches right on the wall. This method works pretty well if you are only choosing ONE color. But what if you want to use several or many colors in a room or throughout the house? We…
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Annaleena’s Hem recently published a whimsical “inspiration” wall, a styled visualization of a very practical process. She taped up clipped-from-magazine images of ideas for redecorating, and called it “Collect Your Dreams”. Says Annaleena: Something I often say to…those who are renovating is to tear out pictures as you like, it can be inspirational images of…
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At Reference Library, we read about a unique service designed to change your life. New Daily Dance is “a service that choreographs personalized, contemporary rituals and happenings that bridge the gap between where you are now and your most desired future.” Their theory is that the secret to your most desirable future is hidden in…
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We just discovered BBC’s World Routes, a new archive of world music, an eclectic and unusual collection of indigenous music. You can sample the sounds of more than 40 countries, from Brazil, Corsica, China, Cuba, to Iran, Mozambique and Turkey. We’ve just spent an hour listening to Appalachian music, much of it acapella, and the Bambara…
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The GREAT OpenCulture has compiled a list of 275 movies you can watch online, for free. They include classics like The Third Man and To Kill a Mockingbird…and the hypnotic, disturbing Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance. You’ll also find extraordinary short-subject documentaries (a category of Oscar that are all but impossible to find) like A Story of Healing,…
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William Abranowicz sent us an email this morning that contained a big gift: a link to Pates’ Tapes, hours of cool mixed tapes to listen to free online. They are the masterwork of Charles Pates, the Creative Director at Garnet Hill who, since 1977, has been creating mixes from his remarkable collection of vinyl records.…
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Alert !!: ‘the improvised life is THRILLED to be part a very cool group post called NYC Bloggers Do the Holidays, the ultimate holiday guide by New York’s best bloggers, from unique gifts to the most celebratory libations, to Christmas with Andy Warhol. Be sure to check out it; it’s on the Home Page now,…
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Mashable recently posted a great round-up of iPhone Apps for the Great Outdoors. You can download guides to trees, wild mushrooms, birds, and butterflies, not to mention ‘scat and tracks’ and the constellations overhead. Given our survivalist ‘what would I do if?’ sort of mentality, we love the US Army Survival Guide ($1.99) which blends…
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We were looking at the recent redesign of Yale Undergraduate Admissions website, masterminded by our dear friend Pamela Hovland, when we stumbled upon an unexpected trove at a distant constellation of Yale’s site that is not part of the redesign: Open Yale Courses. These are free for-real Yale courses that have been recorded and archived…
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Map Envelope is a free online app that allows you to print paper envelopes lined with a Google Maps location of your choice, tagged with your message. You print the envelope, cut it out, fold and send; and whomever you send it to gets to open a lovely surprise. We thought Map Envelope would be…
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Blu Dot is offering a surprisingly compelling clock widget you can download to your computer. It is a one inch square that sits anywhere on your screen you like; with each new minute, a new number image appears. The effect is constant surprise and little jostles to your mind about change and possibilities. For free!…
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Andrew Sullivan of theatlantic.com is the huge-traffic blogger of The Daily Dish; its often fierce content ranges from politics, to heart-breaking illicit tweets from Iran’s recent election protests, to grim pictures of torture. For a couple of years now he’s broken up the intensity of his writing and opinion with an ongoing post category called…
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TED is a yearly conference (its motto is “ideas worth spreading”) as well as a website where you can watch videos of riveting talks by truly remarkable people. Some TED talks are so compelling that they continue to be blogged and referenced around the internet years after they first appeared, like Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My…
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ColorCapture Ben, a new iPhone and iPod Touch application, allows users to zoom into a particular color in a picture on their device, tap the “match” key, and see a display of paints closest to the color, along with a range of lighter and darker shades. (The app, created by Benjamin Moore, will reference its…
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Wired.com has a swell D-I-Y Wiki, that’s full of things I’ve always wanted to know. It’s a collaborative site of projects, hacks, tricks and tips on “how to make each day better than the last”. Anyone can contribute new items or edit an existing item, and the info is suprisingly good, if not terribly detailed;…
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The newly-launched website Veggie Trader is like Craigslist for homegrown produce. Sign up to post a listing describing the excess produce you have and what you’d like in return. Or just enter your zip code to see what your neighbors have available for sell or to give away.
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One thing lead to another and I stumbled on Esopus Magazine’s website. The magazine presents content from all creative disciplines in a seriously non-commercial format. It is a swell magazine, living its mission of trying to connect artists with a broader public. Each issue includes a free online MP3 player of music created by various artists…
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