photo: nacho alegre
Omar Sosa and Ana Dominguez of Apartamento
…possibly faked, though it would be fun to get a bunch of breads and try. Nevertheless, they’re a charming reminder that read more…
health
stress relief: balance breads (+ stones + blocks)
the improvised lives of trees + 5 simple ways to save em
Ever since we moved in view of massive old trees in a New York City park, and witnessed first-hand the devastation wrought on some of them by Hurricane Sandy, we’ve been obsessed with trees. Sandy woke us up, big time. We’d always enjoyed trees, but seeing the 150 years of rings in a downed oak — the very same oak that neighborhood people had played chess and baseball, and had picnics under all spring, summer and fall— made us realize the many pleasures trees provide, how long they take to grow, and how much we need them (they provide nearly a third of the world’s oxygen…people heal better when they can see trees…among other things).
So not only have we been collecting ideas for things to do with logs and parts of downed trees, we’ve been tracking the mysteries of living ones. Below check out the world’s oldest tree, Steven Poe‘s beautiful motion control time-lapse film of giant redwood trees in northern California (Video link here.),and Elephant Journal’s 5 Simple Steps to Save Some Trees (that just take a few minutes and help A LOT). read more…
more bill murray: ‘being relaxed’ (+ how to get there)
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In the the Bill Murray interview we excerpted recently we held back an essential chunk, perfect for right NOW:
I realized the more fun I had, the more relaxed I was working, the better I worked.
Q. That seems to be a philosophy you apply not only to your work but to your entire life.
A. Well, I’ve made some mistakes in that area too. The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything: the better you are with your loved ones, the better you are with your enemies, the better you are at your job, the better you are with yourself.
We were wondering how old wiseman Bill manages to stay so relaxed when we found a post on ZenHabits about exactly how to relax and let go of tightness no matter where you are. Leo Barbauta boils relaxation down to a few simple steps: read more…
skipping as exercise (we dare you to try it)
(Video link here.) The other day I was in the park across the way doing my ad-hoc workout while listening to the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s My Heart, My Life
Skipping, h-m-m-m…haven’t done that since I was a kid. Maybe skipping is a good exercise for me, since it seems to be much lower impact than running.
Of course, a few days later, I came across this video of a guy who is just crazy about skipping read more…
aromatherapy sniff box: diy or buy
les floralies
Recently, we were enticed to buy a travel-size-two-fer of Les Floralies Sniff Boxes: one to encourage sleep, the other “focus”. Sniff boxes are little vials of “aroma beads” infused with various mixes of essential oils designed to assist well-being. We enjoyed Les Floralies‘ scents and charming packaging — and found that opening a sniff box did provided a lovely, instant break. But we have to admit that as soon as we opened the intriguing little vials, we started thinking about how we could improvise some ourselves, with our own, custom-mixed blend of scents. What would be the medium that would hold the scent of the essential oils for a good amount of time, without being messy when opened? White rice, balls of infused wax, salt...? Suddenly, we realized we had ALREADY improvised a solution — years ago.
going on retreat (back next week)
amber waterman/sun journal
The practice of making a retreat – taking oneself OUT of everyday life to withdraw and reflect – has been around for eons. It is part of many spiritual traditions, and to our thinking, should be a requirement for everyone (and paid for by insurance – ha) , so filled as our lives are with doing and action. It’s something that people – including us – used to do a lot more, because life is intense no matter how you slice it and there’s much to reflect on. Sometimes retreating is the only way to see, and detach.
A retreat is a bit different than a vacation, because retreats generally are about taking refuge from the world, notdoing, and about attending to the spirit. Just being. Listening. Taking stock. read more…
how to slow down, via leo widrich and bill murray
(Video link here.) After we posted the anxiety-producing riff on Banksys “No stopping”, we found this great post called Slowing Down by Leo Widrich. It’s worth reading Widrich’s process of slowing down. Here’s an excerpt the essential, powerful technique he learned from Paulo Coelho in his book The Pilgrimage
It is very simple. You pick a route to walk and you walk at half the speed that you normally do. You do this for 20 minutes. read more…
plydesign: an essential guide to diy plywood projects
As we’ve mentioned, ‘the improvised life’s laboratory is something of an homage to plywood. We’ve used it for many things, from window sills to cabinets to floors. We love the stuff, and are constantly hatching plots in our head for furniture, housewares, endless inventions. So we are smitten with carpenter and author Philip Schmidt new book PlyDesign
Each project includes photographs, designs and lists of tools you’ll need. One of our favorites: Barnaby Gunning‘s 8 x 2 tables: read more…
a doctor’s improv rx: jive aces ‘bring me sunshine’
Recently I took an ancient friend to visit her doctor. He’s famously late keeping appointments because he famously spends A LOT of time with each patient, whatever he feels is necessary to really hear and address their concerns, which, as we all know, is pretty unusual these days. His patients are happy to wait.
At the end of the visit, he unexpectedly wrote me a prescription. “Check this out”, he said.
“Can I blog it?”
“Sure”, he said, “spread it around.” read more…
2 minute vacation: a virtual trip to paris
It’s August and in real time the city of Paris is virtually deserted; everyone is away. But that doesn’t stop us from taking a virtual tour of Paris in our heads, and reveling in that magic city, and refreshing our overworked brains. Researchers are now saying downtime is ESSENTIAL to creativity (which we knew all along.) So take two minutes to get off the schedule and GO!
via Open Culture
Related posts: vacation (or weekend) mental prep
slowing down and counting blessings
weekend road trip: ‘address is approximate’
improvising at the beach
visual vacation: the encyclopedia of life
four from our readers…from typeface to pallet art
isabel rower via maria robledo
We’ve gotten quite a few email submissions from our readers lately, along with a stead uptick in traffic. Yaye. Or should we say YUM, the beautiful fragment of type Maria Robledo’s daughter Isabel created. At bottom, a shipping pallet that’s been transformed into an artwork by Mexican artist and reader Mary Carmen. You can see the process at her Flickr.
But what really knocks us out are letters from readers – some who have had to deal with serious life transitions’ – saying how much ‘the improvised life’ resonates with them…and how they are using its message to expand their own life and work. Instead of crumpling, they’re rising to the challenges, thinking in new ways. Like this one from Tina Juvonen in Seattle: read more…
the healing powers of ipads…laptops…computers…
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Our friend Jody Lotito Levine sent us an email filled with images, some of them really wondrous. With them came this message:
…from my former boss and dear friend recovering from pancreatic cancer: he says his ipad has been so healing and connective -
We mention it on the heels of our post about disconnecting from electronic devices – and taking downtime from them – to give our selves a rest. As much as we feel the need for that, we also are heartened daily by what we tap into on the internet, through the extraordinary explorations, exchanges and connections that occur through ‘the improvised life’. For us the gist is, read more…
vacation (or weekend) mental prep
mark ulriksen for the new yorker
This recent New Yorker cover by Mark Ulriksen called “Capturing the Memories” is, curiously, the perfect illustration the New York Times article Call Waiting: It’s Me, Your Vacation: Eight Rules for Getting the Most Out of Your Time Off that appeared a week before. Matt Richtel outlines ”Vacation Mental Prep” for people who have a hard time letting go of the devices – phones, ipads, computers – that keep them constantly connected and unable to being PRESENT during their vacation. It’s a subject that seems to be on eveyone’s mind these days. read more…
‘artisan baker’ by una morera: ‘peace is half bread’
UPDATE: Since we first published this post, Una Morera’s video has become inaccessable online, most likely because it was made an official selection for the New York Food Festival. Yay for Morera. So sadly for us, you’ll have to wait until it’s made public again. Fortunately, we sussed the video and its essential quotes, below.
When we first got wind of the Una Morera’s short documentary about Maurizio Negrini, a 3rd generation Italian baker, we callously thought “h-mm-m, bread…probably too specific …better suited for a food blog.”
We found that this beauty of a video goes way beyond its subject into much deeper realms…or perhaps it is that it reminds us what handmade bread is really about. “Artisan baker” is about bread as nourishment and as metaphor, bread as cosmic substance, thoughtfully expressed by Negrini: read more…
book giveaway: sally schneider’s ‘a new way to cook’
Last week we posted a recipe for Strawberries in Beaujolais Sauce from Sally’s A New Way to Cook
When A New Way to Cook was first published in 2001, it completely turned the idea of “healthy eating,” on its head. Instead of telling you what you can and can’t eat, and what foods are “good” and “bad,” the book explores how to use “taboo” ingredients like butter, oil, and animal fats in often radical new ways to make healthy and satisfying dishes. It’s also the book where Sally started to play with improvising in the kitchen, years before The Improvisational Cook
