In the New York Times Magazine, Bret Anthony Johnston described the video a friend made for him on his 41st birthday, of him falling off his skateboard nearly 160 times during his four-year quest to successfully execute a trick. Falling is a wonderful description of the grueling process of mastery that we’ve so often written about using a…
Read MoreInjury’s Message + Band-aids’ Vast Possibilities
Over many years of cooking professionally, amidst sharp knives and fire, I learned that an accidental cut or burn was in fact a signal: a message from myself to myself that I was distracted. I needed to listen deeply to what was going on, or at the very least, slow down and take care. I…
Read MoreQuick Home Fixes from a Cooled Out Chateau
When we are scrambling to pull their spaces together in preparation for big crowd of family and friends, we take a cue from the unexpectedly chill interiors of this 12th Century château in France…
Read MoreEmily Dickinson on Possibility via The Lucky Art of Bibliomancy
Recently in a secondhand bookstore, a jazzy little book jumped into my hand. I was drawn to it by its beautiful cover design which read “Dickinson”, meaning Emily. Finding the book, and the first poem I turned to, proved to be a lovely bit of bibliomancy.
Read MoreTaking Time Off to….Breathe (Yoko Ono)
Yoko Ono‘s swell one-word bit of advice is what we are taking the time off to do. We’ll be back in a week. While we’re gone, we invite you to forage our vast archive.
Read MoreLeWitt’s Wall Drawing #797: Conceptual + Practical = Wonderful
(Video link here.) While we’re taking a week off to rest and regroup, we thought we’d leave you with this time-lapse of a Sol LeWitt wall drawing being created, per the late artist’s instruction, at Blanton Museum of Art. It embodies the combo platter that is Improvised Life: an artist’s idea that is possible to apply at…
Read MoreLazy Weekend TV: Every Gadget Q Gave James Bond
(Video link here). For the lazy days of the long Thanksgiving weekend, here’s an entertaining riff of every gadget provided to James Bond by Q of Q Branch in every James Bond film, in chronological order. After our own improvised life hearts…
Read MoreThanksgiving Blessings, from Dylan to Neruda
At some point during the Thanksgiving meal (or any meal), taking a moment to acknowledge all we have with whoever we are with is a fine way to give thanks and climb right into the moment. Here are our favorite blessings — which all can be said/read aloud, as a grace or a toast — though…
Read MoreStressed? Throw an Easygoing Thanksgiving Picnic
Hosting during the holidays can mean a lot of pressure. My husband and I didn’t want to spoil the joy of actually being with the people we love by fussing over inconsequential details. Instead, we have opted for what we lovingly call, Thanksgiving Picnic.
Read MoreIf Your Thanksgiving Family is Challenging: Adele
(Video link here.) Adele’s Hello IS an amazing antidote to the traditional Thanksgiving family disfunction that occurs when too many disparate people come together. Watch and laugh. And then you listen to Hello all weekend…
Read MoreOur Updated, “Best of” Holiday Recipes + Strategies
In the run-up to Thanksgiving, we often get calls from friends anxious for easy, foolproof strategies for the big meal. Here’s our updated tried-and-true, “best of” recipe traditions that lend themselves to tailoring and improvising.
Read MoreMakeshift Tables and Chairs to Seat a Crowd
If you’re planning on hosting a crowd, now’s the time to figure out what tables you’ll serve everyone on, and where the guests will sit… Here’s our best mostly makeshift ideas.
Read MoreYamamoto’s Ephemeral Salt Sculptures “Futile Yet Necessary to His Healing”
(Video link here.) There is something very moving about watching artist Motoi Yamamoto painstakingly make his intricate, lacelike installations out of salt…perhaps because they are at once so intricate and so ephemeral. We discovered that the ordinary material we all have on hand is, in Japanese culture, a traditional symbol for mourning and purification. And that Motoi Yamamoto…
Read MoreButtermilk Mashed Potatoes 12 Ways
This is my favorite basic mashed potato recipe: wonderful as is, or as a base for the many embellishments and improvisations listed below, including the astonishing Sage Oil and Crispy Garlic. You can modulate their richness and texture according to whim or the ingredients you have on hand, making them perfect for the Thanksgiving Feast.
Read More2 Minute Meditation: Breathing with the Earth
(Video link here.) We are stunned by this incredibly beautiful animation from NASA of the 12-month cycle of the Earth’s plant life, on land and in the ocean. As the year progresses, we see plant life following the increased sunlight northward or southward causing the Earth’s greening to move as though it were breathing…
Read MoreGeometric Painted Wall: Keep the Pattern, Change the Color
We are smitten with Parisian antique dealer and interior designer Florence Lopez’ website and its many interiors showing her extraordinary use of darkish, saturated color, especially deep blues and greens (all with a little black in them). Of note, this geometrically patterned wall in greens and cream in her showroom and the other iteration of the same pattern
Read MoreLinda Rodin on Finding Style in Aging + Face Balms Mixed in a Coffee Cup
Linda Rodin, a late-sixty-something former model and fashion stylist is known for her signature style that revolves around a simple three element-formula: her long silvery gray hair, oversize glasses and red lipstick — always. She created her popular Olio Lusso Face Oil, which sells for $170 per ounce, by mixing the oils she used frequently “in a coffee cup…like salad dressing,…
Read MoreMorning Practice: Reading a Poem…..Again
For some time, our morning practice, before email or anthing digital, has been to read a poem aloud (sometimes with a friend). Recently, we decided to try reading the same poem every morning for a week. We discovered that each day, we’d hear it differently and find something new in those same few lines, as…
Read MoreHanging Paper Blooms Can Change a Room
One image in a photo essay about a Scandinavian house renovation caught our eye: a kid’s room with tissue paper pom poms hanging from the ceiling, like some sort of celestial blooms. They’d be lovely in just about any room. So we hunted them down to discover that they are a common wedding decoration, readily available on…
Read MoreMadonna on Why We Go On In Spite of/Because of…Paris
(Video link here.) At her concert in Stockholm yesterday, a visibly-shaken Madonna addressed the very difficult question “…why am I up here dancing and having fun when people are crying at the lost of their loved ones?” Painfully, sadly, she gave the very wise, life-affirming answer before launching into Like a Prayer at 7 mins-in…
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