After the Japanese Earthquake in March, the nonprofit Bezos Family Foundation invited children to mail origami cranes to the Seattle headquarters of its Students Rebuild program. Each would trigger a $2 donation, up to $200,000. The group received more than 2 million and doubled the donation.
Last July, a truck full of the origami cranes was delivered to the Brooklyn studio of Brazilian artist Vic Muniz. The trove contained cranes from 38 countries, made out of all manner of foldable materials: hall passes, math homework, love letters, saran wrap, candy wrappers, restaurant menus, aluminum foil, vocabulary lessons, Kleenex. The smallest was the size of a thumbnail.
Muniz created a giant 36 x 40 foot mosaic out of them for a fund-raising poster. Said Muniz:
It’s alchemic. The idea worked because everyone wanted to help.
…bits of folded paper became symbols, that raised money, that help people in need, and became an artwork that raised money that….
We totally love this collection by of elements and connectors for making whatever you want, designed by Louise Cohen. It is like a perfect fusion of built-it-yourself Lego/Tinkertoy/K’nex/ErectorSet-esque material for adults.
The CREATE YOUR OWN Collection is a building system consisting of 18 galvanized elements and 5 kind of connectors. According to individual desires unique living accessories can be composed.
Constructions for all kind of purposes can stand, lay or ride, hang from wall or ceiling. read more…
In a recent interview on Nowness’ FB page, superstar chef Mario Batali was asked what olive oils he “swears by”. The answer:
“Da Vero from Healdsburg, Primo Olio from Sicilia, Castello di Ama and Capezzana from Toscana.”
We’ve tasted three of the oils he mentioned and they ARE stunning, as well as pricey and not easy to come by, although worth every penny. A good olive oil can MAKE a dish, literally. Along with salt, it can be the only seasoning you need to turn say, a bowl of steamed wax beans from the farmer’s market, or a tomato or a slice of mozzarella, or a piece of grilled or slow-roasted fish into a perfect, ‘complete’ dish.
The problem for many folks we know is that these oils are just too expensive. What to do then? How to find a well-flavored economical olive oil for everyday use? read more…
We’ve written many times before about the fantastic Canal House Cookbook series, but this summer Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton took their work to a new level by hosting the first annual Smallholding Festival in Ottsville, Pennsylvania. The festival featured a number of skill-shares and do-it-yourself exhibitions including cheese-making, beekeeping, canning, bread-baking, and spit-roasting. Also on-hand was Margo True, the author of The One-Block Feast: An Adventure in Food from Yard to Table, which is worth checking out if you’re an aspiring urban farmer/gardener/d-i-y-er/beekeeper
Even though we’re telling you about this event after it’s happened, you can actually bring a few of the exhibitions directly to your own home. The Smallholding Festival website features four free pdfs with step-by-step instructions for read more…
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 of Life: Wisdom, Humor, and Damn Good Advice from 64 Extraordinary Lives. We hate the title but think that a compendium of “What I’ve Learned” columns would be the perfect bathroom read: short and illuminating. You can also find an archive of them on Esquire’s site. Here’s some favorite bits we found there:
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up. —Mohammed Ali
Get yourself in trouble. If you get yourself in trouble, you don’t have the answers. And if you don’t have the answers, your solution will more likely be personal because no one else’s solutions will seem appropriate. You’ll have to come up with your own. —Chuck Close
Food is much better off the hand than the fork.–Mario Batali read more…
We are totally charmed by Isabella Rosselini’s video series Green Porno about the sex lives of various inhabitants of the natural world. We check in to Sundance’s website or YouTube periodically for a ‘porno break’, which, in Rossalini’s iteration, is both charming, illuminating, funny and curiously sexy.
(Turn the sound off to really SEE what’s inside this book.—The Management (Video link here.)
I was a child who drew inside the lines. I kept journals as a kid and, if I accidentally skipped a page, I would rip out the blank page rather than have an entry appear out of order. Only recently as a young-ish adult have I grown comfortable with the risk of something like—gasp!—going off-recipe. Clearly, they didn’t have books like Beautiful Oops! when I was little, or else I didn’t have a copy.
This kids’ book by Barney Saltzberg, follows a simple, but for some, very challenging philosophy: “When you think you have made a mistake, think of it as an opportunity to make something.” read more…
We are thrilled to announce ‘the improvised life’ latest giveaway: Abrams’ lush coffee table book Artists’ Handmade Houses, with text by Michael Gotkin and photographs by Don Freeman. It is a sublime collection of thirteen homes created by artists and master craftsmen, both infamous and little known. We first learned about it when we saw images of sculptor Raoul Hague‘s eccentric, inspired cabin in Woodstock, New York on Mondoblogo. The title of the post was “Who the Hell is Raoul Hague?“, which we didn’t know either. But we were smitten by Hague’s rustic, beautiful, wildly improvised home and workspace, especially his bedroom with its pivoting lectern rigged to make it easy to read in bed. read more…
Our friend Maureen Rolla sent us an email with two poems by her friend Don Wentworth, editor of the Lilliput Review, a print magazine dedicated to the short poem. They are from his recently released book Past All Traps. It was as though Maureen had dropped gifts into our laps. The first, above, about seeing – really seeing.
The second poem, equally good, is about mistakes: read more…
All week long, we’ve been getting Mother’s Day gift ideas in our email box…mostly deals on cornball flower arrangements. Then we got one from Doctors Without Borders, the great international aid organization, about sending one of their e-cards for Mother’s Day, and using that $20/$50/$100 worth of short-lived-flowers money as a donation that will really DO something, in your mom’s name. We’re going with that. (It’s also another way to support Japan Earthquake relief.)
“The act of humanitarianism comes down to one thing: individual human beings reaching out to others who find themselves in the most difficult circumstances…
one bandage, one suture, one vaccination at a time.”
-Dr. James Orbinski, Former President, Doctors Without Borders International Council
One of the reasons that we so look forward to the latest issue of Canal House Cooking, the ongoing cookbook series by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, is that the recipes resonate so deeply with the way we live. In other words, they completely cut the $#*!@, providing us with ideas and recipes that are of the season and senses, do-able in our insanely busy lives, AND which work from the inside out: each recipe seems to ask “what do our spirits REALLY need? What do we need to be fed?”.
Take for instance our favorite chapter of the newly-released Volume 6: Crax & Butter for Dinner. Crackers and butter is our secret perfect meal; although it seems unmeal-like, it is somehow utterly nourishing and satisfying. Volume 6 presents endless plays on the theme of crackers + ______, from homemade Pimento Cheese to Anchovy and Lemon Butter, not to mention a lovely recipe for Tender Cheese Crackers: butter and cayenne-dusted Parmigiano held together with a bit of flour to make little savory bites that melt in your mouth (it would make a swell pie crust for an apple or pear tart…)
But Volume 6′s recipe offerings range to many compelling, simple dishes that we could imagine making for a heartening lone supper, like read more…
Her name is Katie and here’s the kitchen improvisation she sent in:
This recipe is a riff on The Splendid Table’s Lynn Rossetto Kasper’s Sweet Sicilian Sauce recipe, found at this link.
I make this late in the fall when the tomatoes need to be picked so they don’t freeze, but are a bit green yet. I mix the green-ripening ones with red ones and the result is a more “soupy” sauce than Lynn describes because of all the fresh juices. So I take an immersion blender and blend it to a smooth, creamy consistency.
This is to-die-for sauce for pasta and people beg me for the recipe. The vinegar and sugar offsets the greenness in the tomatoes and the blend of tomatoes gives it a richer flavor than canned ones. It works!
Katie’s sauce is just one example of the many truly inspiring stories and improvisations we received (you’ll find them as Comments at the end of the post)…well worth reading for their many good ideas.
The Improvisational Cook free giveaway ends Thursday at midnight so you’ve got a couple of days left if you haven’t entered. Click here for the super-easy entry requirements and to find out about Sally’s award-winning cookbook. Scroll down to the Comments to read some truly inspired improvisations. We’ll announce the winner on Friday afternoon.
is a reliable primer.
, which is worth checking out if you’re an aspiring urban farmer/gardener/d-i-y-er/beekeeper
, which bundles a DVD with a book would be a great, unexpected, house gift this summer. 
when I was little, or else I didn’t have a copy.
, with text by Michael Gotkin and photographs by Don Freeman. It is a sublime collection of thirteen homes created by artists and master craftsmen, both infamous and little known. We first learned about it when we saw images of sculptor 
. It was as though Maureen had dropped gifts into our laps. The first, above, about seeing – really seeing.
which measures 21″ x 16″. Imagine IT with flip-down legs… 
down the line. Next one slotted: Kate Payne’s
