We love this picture of Buckminster Fuller tinkering in his studio at Black Mountain College. “Tinker” is one of our favorite words AND one of our favorite things to do. We found the best descriptions in The Visual Thesaurus: …do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly… …a person who enjoys testing innovative ideas……
Read Moreernst caramelle’s fab painted walls
Somewhere along the way we came across artist Ernst Caramelle‘s wonderful painted walls. They were actually installations in various art galleries: walls as artworks. We want to take them home, or the idea at least…paint some of our space in his fabulous fashion. We notice, that his color blocks can dramatically change the proportions of…
Read Moreikea find: chic black + white pillows
We’re always on the lookout for inexpensive housewares that LOOK expensive and stylish. We think these cotton Vilmi Figur pillow covers from Ikea do just that. Throw pillows can be crazy amazingly expensive, so at $10 each (inserts $2.99 to $6.99), these are a bargain (and wash and wear to boot). There’s a jazzy contrasting…
Read Moreinsta-perspective: this is where we are
Video link here. via BoingBoing Related posts: sagan’s mixtape of the human experience – for aliens travel the known universe 2-second video from thomas ashcraft (look up!) reality-scope: global lives project come along for a ride into space…
Read Morefast forward’s rain music
One of our favorite pieces by experimental composer Fast Forward is this zen wonder, created by Fast holding a drum in the rain. We asked him how it came about.
Read Morehow to destroy and dispose of a hard drive
All Posts Recently, we came a cross an old hard drive that we had swapped out of a computer long ago; who knows what revealing bits of information were on it? We searched the internet to learn how to dispose of a hard drive without leaving ourselves open to industrious hackers. We could either wipe…
Read Morefor amy winehouse
(Video link here.) We were really sad to hear of Amy Winehouse’s passing at the age of 27. We were aware of her wild descent in the corner of our consciousness, through tabloid headlines mainly. When we read the news of her death, we found ourselves watching one YouTube video after another, trying to piece…
Read Morehula hoop dreams (exercise as play)
A post in Zen Habits echoed what we’ve been thinking lately: I don’t do boring exercise. If I hate doing something, I stop doing it. I don’t have enough life left to waste doing stuff I hate. A big part of blogging is sitting on your ass, surfing thrillingly, but virtually; we don’t get enough…
Read Moremary delany and late blooming
We’ve had Mary Delany lingering in the back of our minds since reading about her in the New York Times Book Review two months ago, in a review of The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock. Delany is the artist behind over 1000 beautiful botanical collages, like the one seen above, which use nothing but paper…
Read More25+ “fried egg on anything” combos
This unattributed image posted on You Are the River recently was accompanied by the words “I’m so hungry.” Yeah we are too. It reminds us of the endless possibilities for making fried eggs into a compelling meal any time of day – breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or a late supper. Fried eggs are great on just…
Read Moreimprov flower arrangement: pond in a vase
Maria Robledo has a way with flower arranging, or perhaps we should say: off-the-cuff displays of just about any fresh branch, or flower or bunch of leaves. The other evening at her house, we were smitten with the huge green vase into which she’d poured a shallow pool of water; she simply floated a few…
Read Morerole model: fast forward on $$, improvising and music
A couple of months ago, we received an interesting comment thanking us for a quote we posted from John Cage’s A Year from Monday: “Even though I have 2 copies of this book, knew JC and spent 30 years performing his music, it was still great to see”. It was signed ‘Fast Forward’. Well of course we…
Read Moresoleri’s cool chalky walls from “artists’ handmade houses” (+ our giveaway winner!!!)
In honor of the conclusion of our Artists’ Handmade Houses giveaway contest, here’s one final photo from the book: some lovely chalky walls at Paolo Soleri’s Cosanti . Six small sleeping areas, located along the east side of Cat Cast (so named because the earth pile on which the concrete was cast was mounded with a Caterpillar…
Read Morebathroom read: esquire’s “what I’ve learned”
The only time we read Esquire magazine is in the dentist’s waiting room where we turn right to the “What I’ve Learned” column: to-the-point, full-of-insight interviews with notable artists, writers, actors, athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, musicians, scientists, thinkers. Now Esquire’s published a book of 64 of “the best of” from the column called Esquire, The Meaning…
Read Moresighting: shelves made of stacked books (books as bricks)
BoingBoing recently posted a compelling video (below or link here) of a toupeed fellow named Augustus Gladstone giving a tour of the room he lives in in an abandoned hotel, in some unnamed city. Gladstone’s apartment is an eccentric, strangely homey place decorated with what appears to be mostly found stuff and collections of bric-a-brac. There’s some…
Read Morepractice flying (via the uganda skateboard union)
We thought we’d post this beautiful Yann Gross photo we stumbled on a while ago as an inspiring image unto itself, to ‘Practice Flying’. Then we decided to look into the story behind it. We discovered that it is from a series of photographs Gross made about a hand-built skateboard park in Uganda. So smitten…
Read Morelast call to enter: ‘artists homemade houses’ giveaway
Our giveaway of Artists’ Handmade Houses, with text by Michael Gotkin and photographs by Don Freeman ends tonight at midnight EST so you have a few hours left to enter. Click here to find out how (it’s easy) and to browse the book. We’ll be announcing the winner tomorrow afternoon. Related posts: more from ‘artists handmade houses’…
Read Moremodernist noguchi-esque paper shade lights (cheap)
As we combed through Artists’ Handmade Houses, the prize in our current book giveaway, we noticed an interesting theme running through the houses of many of the 13 artists featured. They often used the simple rice paper globe ceiling lights pioneered in the 50’s by Isamu Noguchi: an electrical wire hung from the ceiling from…
Read More‘don’t say yes. be yes.’
Related posts: what is the most powerful word in the english language? bathroom read: john cage’s “a year from monday” yes a reminder, via anne herbert (open doors!) healing worry (via anne herbert) random wisdom, overheard anne herbert’s wise + teeny meditations fling and be flung (jackson pollock)
Read Moremusic for whatever mood you’re in – free
We’ve spent a lot of time grooving with Pates’ Tapes and don’t plan to give it up. We are smitten, though, with Brooklyn-based designer Adam Parks‘ The Illuminated Mixtapes, a wonderfully designed site of musical grooves to chose according to your mood or activity. He’s grouped 21 music collections into four categories, from Adagio (very slow and cooled…
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