We take a walk daily because it never fails to refresh our thinking, change our view of things, calm us. Especially, in these most stressful times. It is perhaps our most powerful medicine. Walking, we find our mind shifting, ideas sparking, problems beginning to yield in ways we never expect. Rilke nailed it in A Walk:…
Read MoreBeauty You Can Carry on a Bicycle (Loes Heerink, Emily Dickinson)
Self-taught photographer Loes Heerink spent days on bridges capture the diversity of bicycle vendors in Hanoi. Her photo series “Vendors from Above” reminded us of the beauty you can carry on a bicycle…
Read MoreChristmas Light Cars and Trucks
After Holton Rower emailed this photo of a car festooned with christmas lights, we wondered if we’d find more iterations of this unusual holiday decoration. Sure enough, we found all manner of vehicles decorated for the holiday,
Read MoreVan Gogh’s Glowing ‘Starry Night’ Bike Path
Inspired by Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde created a wondrous solar-powered LED bicycle path that glows luminous green in the dark. The path, which has been likened to a “river of stars, fallen down ‘Starry Night’”, is located in Brabant, the county where the painter was raised. How wonderful it would be as…
Read MoreWake up SILLY with OK Go (+Dig the Robo Scooter!)
(Video link HERE.) OK Go’s wondrous new video is a strangely perfect way to start your day: silly, happy, beautiful. We watched, grooving, with the music on for a minute or so. But we found it even more beautiful with the music OFF.
Read MoreCargo Bikes to DIY or Buy
When we saw the image, above, of a hacked cargo bike Susan Dworski spotted on a Venice California beach, we thought of our old friend Peter Hoffman, chef of Back Forty and Back Forty West (formerly the great Savoy) in NYC. When his kids were young, he’d ride his odd-looking custom-made cargo bike to Union Square…
Read MoreShipping Pallet Transport Vehicle
(Video link HERE). Shipping pallet creations are among our most popular posts and we’ve featured A LOT of them over the years. Tomáš Moravec‘s re-purposing of the simple pallet may be the most inspired of all: “A new transport vehicle brings change into the spatial perspective of a passenger in motion and generally changes the life of…
Read MoreBeach Structures and Shelters to DIY or Buy
These charming little structures got us thinking about beach shelters. Of late we’ve seen some pretty chic, pricey ones, like Sombrilla Beach Tent for $189. It’s based on a simple, classic structure, one of many you can make yourself.
Read MoreAnnals of Bike Hacks: An Electric Suitcase Scooter
On the way to the airport ten years ago, He Liangcai, a Chinese farmer-turned-amateur inventor lost his luggage. That loss gave him the idea for a transportable suitcase that could come with him to the terminal. He spent the next ten years developing his drivable suitcase using the frame of an electric scooter with a suitcase wrapped…
Read MoreHome is Where You Park It
Home is Where You Park is an inspiring book that celebrates the joys of living a minimalist’s life on the road, in camper or car, an homage to “people living really cool lives, doing things they love as opposed to the expected”…with Nature as their living room.
Read Morethe tweet powered car
(Video link here.) Under the guidance of innovative education organization MindDrive, thirty at-risk students in a Kansas City, Missouri neighborhood once called the “killing zip code” , built an electric car that successfully converted social media into fuel for a road trip from Kansas City to Washington D.C. A tweet was 5 watts; a Facebook like, 1 watt;…
Read Moremobile motorized outdoor office (c. 1961)
The great Retronaut‘s tagline is “See the past like you wouldn’t believe”, and it does indeed shift our view. We LOVE this version of ‘going to the office’: a motorized desk on wheels, toodling down the street en plein air…the mobile office circa 1961. Related posts: finding a clear work space + e.b. white on…
Read Morenew 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…
Read Moreunexpected stripes: car + parking lot (before + after)
Right after we posted Gene Davis’ Fab Striped Street’, Susan Dworski sent us this great before-and-after picture of a Rotterdam parking lot half painted with stripes. The with-and-without is quite an example of the possibilites for stipes in unlikely places. Then we found another: a brilliant striped car spotted in New York Magazine recent The Urbanist’s Warsaw:
Read Moredesign love: bauhausian bicycle
We look at this Bauhausian bicycle and feel a visceral WANT. We love the way it looks and its moderne hecho-a-mano rusticity. Apparently it follows the principle of the golden section. Beautiful. … though you’d have to be pretty agile to get on and off. More images and specifics on the Bau Bike: It It’s Hip It’s…
Read Morevisionary hack: cargo bike with shopping cart + chainlink fence
Spotted on Claton Cubitt’s tumblr and worth checking out full size: “cargo bike incorporating a shopping cart and chain link fence, with a blood-red wrought-iron cowcatcher (and cup holder), New Orleans.” The awesomness of the human imagination! This practical AND aestheric considerations here are stunning… Related posts: clever shelving configured for bicycle storage bikes for hauling…
Read Moretiny: a film about living small
(Video link here.) About 6 months ago, we got an email from Merete Mueller, a friend of a friend who was just finishing up a film about the Tiny House Movement. The film, “TINY: A Story About Living Small” follows Christopher Smith and my attempt to build a tiny house from scratch with no building…
Read MoreForaging Fallen Trees for DIY’s
Not long after I dragged the tree sculpture home, I went back into the park to see what was happening with the huge, ancient 3-foot-in-diameter oak that Hurricane Sandy brought down. The parks people had been cutting it up — terrible to see. They just sawed it apart into chunks to chip; think of the…
Read Moredanny macaskill’s new video: what he thinks as he rides
(Video link here.) The latest video from cyclist Danny MacAskill has an added feature: insight into MacAskill’s thinking and interior approach to his challenging stunts and excursions: JOYRIDE. Related posts: joy ride: practice makes wondrous perfection danny macaskill’s joy ride danny macaskill’s bike lesson (setbacks + difficulties + perseverance = mastery) gifts + inspiration for bikers…
Read Morebikes for hauling + great accessories
We love this crazy hauling bike and wish we knew the story behind it. We spotted it on Dargelos‘ blog in a post called ‘the mailman’s fahrrad’ (‘fahrrad’ means bicycle in German). Dargelos is an onliine store that sells great, intelligent biking gear, like the illuminating vest we posted awhile back. We have their Transporter knapsack, which we…
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