The treasures to be seen on YouTube continue to astonish. For this lazy New Year’s weekend, we offer Émile Cohl‘s Fantasmagorie; created in 1908, one of the first animated films. To make this film, Cohl placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then traced the next drawing-with variations-on top of it until he…
Read Moreholiday wishes from ‘the improvised life’
A 1957 homemade holiday card by artist Alexandra Darrow, known for her Works Progress Administration murals of the 1930’s. …And we’re wishing you fatso joy and blessings… (We’ll be back on January 1st.) via Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Read Moresanta’s coming!!!!
via dvdp
Read Morej.s bach does Christmas: live-stream and free downloads
Ever since we discovered radio station WKCR’s annual Bach Festival years ago, we’ve can’t get through the holiday season without a big dose of the great composer. The festival features music of Johann Sebastian Bach exclusively from 3pm on Thursday 12/22 till midnight on Saturday 12/31, streamable live at the top right of their site…full of…
Read Morevisiting ‘one of the nicest places on the internet’
(Video link.) We recommend checking out “One of the Nicest Places on the Internet”, a website doling out virtual hugs. It’s mission: “turn the sad into happy and the happy into celebration.” We find it brilliant, curiously heartwarming, beautiful, strange, sweet, healing, sometimes a bit creepy, effective, and finally, if we stay too-long, overwhelming. But what’s amazing…
Read Moredept. of tiny miracles: 100-year-old letter to santa found in a chimney
The Irish Times reported an amazing story of a 100 year-old letter to Santa found tucked in a Dublin chimney. It was found by the house’s current occupant, John Byrne, who works in the building industry. “At that time, the fireplaces were made of brick with a shelf on either side,” Byrne. “The letter was…
Read Morealt christmas trees made of string lights n’ things to d-i-y
Although we love walking through the canyons of trees for sale on New York City streets, we haven’t been able to wrap our heads around buying and decorating a Christmas tree. Lately, we’ve seen a number of festive alt-Christmas trees made with inexpensive string Christmas lights: right up our last-minute alley. We can tack them…
Read Morehow to do more in less time: pulse and rest
As a chronically overcommitted, over-scheduled multi-tasker, I regularly push myself to max capacity. Working long hours, offering up my time for others’ projects, sacrificing sleep for productivity, and running home only to leave again five minutes later have become common practice. I can see the flaws in this system, but it’s helpful to have…
Read Morerevisionist jingle bells bollywood-style
(Video link here.) We need silly right about now. With thanks to Cara de Silva! Related posts: dance for friday (bowls of) water music from India
Read Morebest-ever holiday cookie recipe: ethereal brown sugar butter cookies with many variations
With the holidays soon upon us, I thought I’d post one of my very best cookie recipes. Or perhaps I should say cookie dough recipes: in addition to being able to fashion it into all sorts of cookie shapes and flavors, it also makes a great bake-ahead tart crust. Fleur de Sel Cookies, Earl Grey…
Read Morean artwork we mistook for chic, minimalist gift wrap
We saw this image of a gift and thought “What a chic, minimalist gift-wrap”, and saved it to look at more closely later. When we did, we discovered it is actually an artwork called ‘set it free’ by maryanne casasanta. It’s a photograph of a wrapped copy of ddddoomed, or, collectors & curators of the image…
Read MoreKeeping Holiday Gift-giving ‘Real’: Our 12 Fave Gifts To Give
Keeping perspective during the holiday season’s flurry of buying can be difficult. While gift-giving is a lovely tradition, so many of us get caught up in the “keeping up with the Joneses”-style of shopping: buying the newest, neatest toy/appliance/Apple product to keep pace with our consumption-centric world. The shopping-cynic in us was thus delighted by…
Read Morewe mashup attenborough’s ‘what a wonderful world’
(Video link here.) This video features the great natural history documentarian, Sir David Attenborough, reading lines from the Louis Armstrong song “What a Wonderful World” as stunning scenes from Attenborough’s documentaries fill the screen. While we watched, we were both delighted and a bit stymied. The video was both beautiful and perspective-broadening, while bordering on being precious and slightly…
Read More‘sugar plum fairy’ on a glass harp (water music)
(Video link here.) We were charmed by this wondrous rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Sugar Plum Fairy on a glass harp – wine glasses filled with water. We were also amazed when went to GlassDuo’s website and learned: “Many of those who see a set of wine glasses for the first time consider it most avant-garde to use…
Read More‘gif wrap’ + six strategies for cool, cheap gift wrap (d-i-y)
We wish our gift wrapping could do the boogie-woogie like this Gif Wrap by Fueled by Coffee. But barring that bit of magical brilliance, here’s our favorite strategies for impromptu gift wrapping.
Read More‘christmas is about remembering’
Our friend Lisa Morphew recently sent us a photo of Rabah Belamri, an extraordinary Algerian poet we met many years ago in the south of France. Accompanying the photo were these words: “It feels like this Christmas is about remembering the people that somehow changed my life.” Rabah was blind; he lost his sight when he…
Read Moregifts for the wine curious: metro wine maps
When I saw ‘the improvised life’s recent post about christopher niemann’s fab color-tiled bathrooms, I immediately thought of the Metro Wine Map of France, created by architectural historian and wine buff Dr. David Gissen, which was introduced this past summer by De Long, a favorite resource of mine for beautiful wine region maps and clever…
Read Moreour favorite homemade food gifts to d-i-y
We switched over to homemade food gifts for the holidays many, many years ago, and each year we find ourselves in the kitchen with the same tried-and-true recipes. But the repetition doesn’t come from a laziness or a lack of inspiration—over the years we’ve found that our friends and family look forward to these gifts,…
Read More‘replace fear of the unknown with curiosity’
A perfect sign, after our own hearts, via Imaginary Foundation. Replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity is something to PRACTICE. It reminds us of Eleanor Roosevelt’s great admonition: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Related posts: gandhi: ‘our beliefs become our…destiny’ using your car to speak your heart reminder: it’s not what you…
Read Moresmoky, bacon-infused spirits for holiday cocktails
(Video link here –sorry about the commercial). We long been a fan of working subtle smoky-pig flavors into our cooking by using a good wood-smoked bacon – even using it to perfume chocolate cakelets. And we’ve always LOVED Maialino‘s margarita made with guanciale-and-sage-infused reposado tequila. Recently, we came across a recipe we’d bookmarked from New…
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