let’s get lost: yale’s vast fabulous archive available online

We’ve just gotten lost….in the Yale Digital Commons, the wondrous archive that they’ve recently started making available online, for anyone to browse and USE without limits. We’re talking seriously amazing images here, from Brassai’s famous images of Paris and artists in their studio to obscure, rarely-seen snapshots and children’s book drawings by Andy Warhol. So…

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d-i-y door upgrade: painted edges and hinges

Remodelista recently featured this picture in a post about chairs with unfinished legs. We’re looking at and loving THE DOOR BEHIND the teal tonal chair, with it’s surprising orange-painted edge. What an easy d-i-y way to jazz-up a door with a little paint. It made us think of the black hinges-on-a-white-door we saw at a friend’s…

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repurposed swing set = hanging garden

Pamela Hovland, who always has her eyes WIDE OPEN to what is around her, sent us this photo from a recent trip to Minnesota: an old swing set repurposed into a hanging garden. Charming and great! (And there’s still one swing to swing on, whenever/whoever feels like it…) Thanks Pamela! Related posts: think-make-think itzhak perlman:…

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this way or that way? what is the better way?

One of our great morning pleasures is Rolu, Matt Olsen’s blog about art and artists that is simultaneously both illuminating and mysterious. Its recent post segues perfectly with ours from yesterday quoting John Cage’s A Year from Monday.  Olsen posted “arrow” works by two different artists with these words: “this way or that way?  what is the better…

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bathroom read: john cage’s “a year from monday”

John Cage’s A Year from Monday is part of our Essential Bathroom Library; you can open the book anywhere and find a short concentrated bit to shake your head up. As one reviewer wrote: “Cage’s writing does not tell us what to think as much as it makes us think in a particular way…” We find…

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“get up off that thing”: improv exercise for home or work

We’ve gotten a little lazy of late, since we dislike going to the gym (yellow walls with black floors under florescent lights) and we spend so many long hours at our desks. We could get stymied by our slide into laziness by comparing ourselves to all those buff self-disciplined people that faithfully climb onto the…

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it’s the end of the world as we know it (and i feel fine) !!!

In case you haven’t heard, Harold Camping, the 89-year old billionaire owner of Christian Evangelist Family Radio, says the apocalypse is going to begin this evening at around 6pm EDT. What to do? We found rock-and-roll to be a good answer and have been tweeting songs for the apolcalypse. We recommend playing REM really LOUD.…

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sally on ‘splendid table’ + recipe: sugar snaps with evo oil and shaved parmigiano

This weekend, Sally will be on public radio’s Splendid Table talking to Lynne Rosetto Kasper about her short list of favorite blogs and why she likes them. You can stream the interview or find out times it will air in area here. You’ll also find Sally’s recipe for Sugar Snaps with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Shaved…

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7 principles of comedy/design/creating anything

Several people called us about HBO’s hour-long special “Talking Funny” in which four great comedians — Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Louis C.K. — talk shop for an hour. Our friends were all struck by how the “inside” of comedy echoes the process of making just about anything truly creative. Before we got to watch it,…

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20 second therapy for fear of failure

We recommend taking 20 or so seconds to scroll down the great homepage Stockholm’s Berghs’ School of Communication exhibit of students’ work on the theme of Fear of Failure (click “Manifest” on the left). It is positively/actively therapeutic, a worthwhile digital affirmation/manifesto on the theme. In honor of the exhibition, the Berghs’ made a series…

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