If you start with the idea that the holidays are about really giving a part of yourself rather than STUFF, and spreading joy, and celebrating what we have, you instantly start to eliminate the nonessential and stressful. These are the things that are more obligation than fun – too exhausting, too expensive, or just TOO…
Read Moredouble-duty gifts with heart (and a card)
A few years ago, I discovered that the holiday gift my friends treasured most was a simple card telling them that I’d given a donation in their name to a charity. They were happy NOT to get more stuff, and be given something that was helping someone else. It was a way I could give…
Read Morea food movie gift for day-after-tg lazy-dogs
‘the improvised life’ was going to be dark today, while we move a tiny bit slower AND work on a post for next Tuesday’s special Manhattan User’s Guide 2009 New York Blogger’s Holiday Guide. But while reading Kottke yesterday morning, I came across this swell little video essay by Matt Zoller Seitz from Moving Image Source.…
Read Morethanks!
coffee-can pot as mystery + reminder
Nearly a year ago at the Thanksgiving dinner of friends, Louise Randolph brought me a handmade pot she’d had for many years. The rough-hewn pot, improvised out of a coffee can, some wire and a piece of wood, had belonged to her late great aunt Eva Dahlgren. Eva grew up in a privileged home, and…
Read Morewhat bottle caps can be: el anatsui’s liquid mosaics
Some time ago in the New York Sunday Times Style Magazine, Alexi Worth wrote about El Anatsui, an African artist who uses twist-off bottle caps to make shimmering sculptures that look like liquid mosaics. The story of how El Anatsui discovered his unlikely material for art is compelling. It is a fine example of the…
Read Morehand as notepad
I started thinking about using my hand as a notepad, as I did when I was a kid, and began noticing people with notes scrawled and scribbled on their hands. The manager of the local fish market had phone numbers running up the back of his hand in blue ball point. At the Bauhaus show…
Read Morerecipes: winter vegetable purees for thanksgiving and…
Years ago my family stopped being nuclear and evolved into an extended and very eclectic family of friends. My Thanksgiving dinners have evolved too, from the traditional menu of my childhood to the wondrous offerings of many cooks who come together yearly, each bringing a different dish, to form a collective feast. In this way…
Read Morerecipes: roasted chestnuts + chestnut puree for thanksgiving and…
A rich chestnut puree, fragrant with bay leaf and fennel seed, is a wonderful alternative to mashed potatoes in the traditional Thanksgiving feast. But roasting enough chestnuts to make a puree for ten or twelve is laborious work. Instead I often use bottled vacuum-packed chestnuts (available in gourmet shops and many supermarkets), or frozen peeled…
Read Morepop-up urban lunch (and other) counters
In my Inbox this morning, the ever-illuminating Manhattan User’s Guide alerted me to a new blog called Pop-Up Lunch. It explores ways New York’s nontraditional public spaces, like sidewalks, steps, and fire hydrants can be transformed into places to eat lunch. Writes blogger AP: “This blog follows a series of Pop Up Lunches I have staged…
Read Morejonathan borofsky painting at 192 books, nyc
thomas ashcraft: artist as electroreceptor
Could the planet finally be ready for Thomas Ashcraft? He’s been called an “artist-scientist-philosopher”, “inventively creative almost beyond belief”; a “scholar-mystic“; “a romantic visionary”; “inveterate experimenter, artist and extrapolator”; none of these words do him justice. I’ve known him for many years and followed his work closely, so I was happy to hear a profile…
Read Morereader survey: what are your favorite bathroom reads?
Bathroom reading is a specialized and very personal genre of literature. I imagine everyone has his/her idea of what passes muster for bathroom reading, what its essential qualities must be. Of the books that have had a place on my makeshift bathroom shelf (a pipe) for some time – as opposed to magazines or newspapers…
Read Moredesign and x-ray vision
Sorry, this post was taken down at the request of the designer we featured.
Read Morepot luck ps: how to haul celery root puree (with recipe)
When asked to contribute to Burt Wolf”s pot-luck dinner, my boyfriend, a relatively new cook and homemaker, offered to make the Celery-Root and Apple Puree he mastered from The Improvisational Cook. “Don’t forget the double-boiler so you can heat it up at Burt’s” I said. He sounded perplexed. “How do you think I should transport the puree?”…
Read Moreconference call pot luck (with spoon lamb recipe)
I’ve been so busy with ‘the improvised life’ that I can’t seem to see my way to giving a dinner party. A solution was proposed recently by my friend Burt Wolf, who has his hands full with a television show, hosting boat tours in Europe and a small child. “Let’s do dinner, pot luck”, said…
Read Moremore rocks in the kitchen: for steaming greens and…
If you pile a bunch of washed and stemmed greens like chard or spinach or kale in a shallow skillet with a few tablespoons of water, cover them and set over high heat, they’ll steam just fine without a proper steamer; most of the water evaporates by the time they’ve become tender, so they’ll be…
Read Mored-i-y spring blooms in winter
Photographer Maria Robledo emailed me this picture of a winter crocus taken with her i-Phone, with the message: “Needs nothing but light to illuminate us.” She was given crocus bulbs bought from the local farmer’s market as a house-warming present. She had only to place one root-side down in a bowl and expose it to…
Read Moreorigami’s cosmic potential
On December 8th, PBS’s Independent Lens will air Between the Folds, a film that chronicles ten fine artists and theoretical scientists who have forged unconventional lives – often abandoning careers – practicing the unlikely medium of origami. They use paper-folding to explore new ideas about science, mathematics and creativity. Judging from the trailer, the film…
Read Moredavid hockney’s i-phone paintings
The New York Review of Books recently ran a surprising article about paintings made by the artist David Hockney on his i-phone, using an app called Brushes. It allows the user to fingerpaint, smear or draw on the screen using a full color-wheel spectrum. (Hockney likes to use his thumb rather than forefinger to manipulate the…
Read More