video

A Terrible Little Film’s Wonderful Lesson About Aging

This interesting, badly-edited little film left us with a powerful feeling that we’ve been enjoying, so we’re glad we watched enough to get the gist. It yielded a nice big lesson, with a poem to boot!

Odes to Joy in Days of Darkness

Bach’s Ode to Joy got us thinking about how JOY works when when life throws in a giant monkey wrench and we find ourselves navigating darkness we never imagined…,

Cosmo Sheldrake’s Remarkable Musical Collaboration with Endangered Birds

Over 9 years at dawn, Cosmo Sheldrake carried recording gear, laptop, and sometimes a keybord into fields and woods to make music in collaboration endangered birds. The result is his new album Wake Up Calls; it is both charming and illuminating…

Creative Thinking is a Martial Art

SO GREAT, wherever this few seconds of inspiring outside-the-box thinking came from.

Sunset TV and Other Ways to Watch Amazing Goings-On

An image titled “sunset TV” reminded us of the many alt-TVs we’ve known people to watch. And the pleasure and illumination they afford.

Tiny Whale Videos Spark Dreamy Reverie

A therapist friend once described the idea of reverie as a tool for healing. That allowing oneself to fall into a state of dreamy meditation and daydreaming, free of anxious thinking, has a powerfully restful effect. That is the state I found myself in after I stumbled on this tiny video of a whale lazily…

How to Give Thanks Anyway (Melanie Beatty, Bob Dylan, Gary Snyder, Pablo Neruda…)

Seven months after coronavirus radically changed our world, we don’t know anybody that is not having a difficult time. We turn to the greatest balancing mechanism we’ve found to find out way back to fullness, “enough”, clarity, joy.

How to Practice Magic

There is a big message in this little film, way bigger than its title, Reframe the Familiar. The visuals seem somehow of another time and act, with the words and odd voice, like hunks of poetry.

We Celebrate Our National Voice (Patti Smith, U2)

Perhaps the most heartening victory of the fiercely contested national election is the record-breaking turnout of voters braving long waits and the coronavirus to exercise their VOICE. We can think of no better celebration than the anthem Patti Smith wrote in 1988…

Let Rhythm Rewire Your Life (Tasha Blank)

Tasha Blank‘s video manifesto shook us loose from a stuckness we didn’t know we had, mired as we were in the mighty anxiety of the zeitgeist, a seeming life-threatening election, dire news, contentious opinions… The international DJ, dancer, coach, somatic practitioner and music producer has much to offer in the form of music, events, courses…

A Body Language Vaccine for Stress and Overwhelm (S.B. Dworski)

Since the convergence of Covid-19 and the run-up to the election, I’ve been increasingly bombarded with homemade mini zeitgeist-videos expressing the pent-up emotions we’re all sharing during this rocky time. The best of these I forward to good friends; mostly, I enjoy a good chuckle, then hit delete. I’ve kept this one on my desktop,…

How to Redeem Life’s Spoilers (Andy Goldsworthy and Hala Alyan)

For over a week, the work of a poet and an artist seemed to be in conversation,
helping us understand a fearsome part of living.

Essentials for Voters from Patti Smith, Jenny Holzer, Sojourner Truth…

We’ve been seeing a lot of very cool VOTE images from artists peppering the instagrams of arts galleries and museums. Here’s a trove along with essential resources for planning your vote.

Hope and Direction in RBG’s Enduring Wisdom

Reflecting on the passing of legendary Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I found her life and words full of hope, wisdom, and direction.

S.B. Dworski Ponders “Sonder”

Frequent contributor S.B. Dworski dives into John Koenig’s deeply beautiful concept, Sonder, which has poignant resonance today.

Kintsugi Repair as Metaphor

Artist ciriacaerre made a video of repairing a smashed vase using kintsugi, the Japanese art that celebrates the scars and breaks. She, and other artist, eloquently describe its greater meaning…

Phyllida Barlow’s Fearless Embrace of Chance

One of the best things to come out of the months of Covid-19 lockdown has been extraordinary films from art galleries and museums. One of the best of is about the English sculptor Phyllia Barlow. It provides an illuminating counterpoint to the many life questions that the virus has thrown into relief.

Powerful Scientific Imaging Shows Why Masks Work

This remarkable video captures what is normally invisible to our eyes — how masks work to slow airborne infection carried on our breath — and resolves much conflicting information about them. Essential viewing for those that wear them and those that don’t.

Experience a Feeling of Flying, with Rumi UPDATE

We love the feeling of flying in Universal Everything’s beautiful little video and find ourselves watching it over and over; it’s amazingly refreshing to our lockdown minds. It reminds us of this Rumi poem.

Nature’s Ascent: An Opera Plays to an Audience of Plants, Penguins Visit Museums…

Among the many challenges the lockdown has brought, the ascent of nature has been among the unexpected gifts. Cultural institutions are embracing that view to shift and refresh their locked-down patrons.

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