outside
sally schneider
After Scott McDowell attended a class in theatrical improvising with Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere, he faced a quandery: how to reconcile a basic tenet of productivity – saying “No” and setting limits – with the essential principle of improvising – saying “Yes, and…”.
“Yes, and” is a protocol that allows for anything to happen, and it goes like this: No matter what your fellow actors present to you, instead of negating it, belittling it, or disagreeing with it, your job is to say, “Yes, and…” Accept the scenario as it’s presented to you (regardless of where you wanted it to go), and then to add to it.
Having found this excercise compelling, McDowell decided to see what happened if he practiced “Yes, and…” in the “real” world of work, family and obligations for 24 hours. He summed them up recently in a post on 99%. Although he found saying “Yes, and…” doesn’t work all the time, it is a powerful tool. Our favorite revelation: read more…
06.06.12 |
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in how-to, identity, paths + processes, people, principles, quotes, resources |
Starting about 6 pm Eastern time, and lasting for about 6 1/2 hours, you can view a live webcast, above (link here) via NASA (refreshed every 30 minutes) of The Transit of Venus, a rare eclipse in which the planet Venus passes between Earth and the Sun. The next Transit won’t happen for another 100 years. You can read all about why it is so rare and safe ways to watch it at the Exploratorium’s website. To find out when the Transit will be viewable in your Time Zone, click here. UPDATE: at times the live feed may become overloaded and unresponsive. To view wondrous ongoing video, click here.
Since the weather is changing wildly in New York City, it looks like we may be watching this spectacular event on our screens. Good enough! The 2004 Transit images from Nasa, above, are beautiful. read more…
06.05.12 |
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in nature, outside, sightings |
meg hitchcock
If you look closely at this image, you’ll discover that it is composed of the Buddhist Prayer for Peace, each letter cut from the Methodist Hymnal. It is the work of artist Meg Hitchcock, who letter-by-letter, cuts up sacred texts and reformulates them into others, creating a compelling and transcendent fusion. read more…
06.04.12 |
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in art, identity, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, paths + processes, people, video |
In our hunt for material that resonates with ‘the improvised life’, we have decidedly subversive leanings. We love people who SEE the accepted order differently and put their mark on it, like this great, simple way designer Sebastrian Errazuriz transformed ordinary traffic lines into $$ signs, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
If people feel impotent and cornered by how greed is transforming everything; I invite them to get a brush, a can of paint and go out and change their street lines into Dollar signs. People need to find new ways to remind others of the general discontent.
But then again, living improvisationally IS naturally rather guerilla-esque. It demands cultivating a more open lens with which to see the possibilities in the moment (like a $ sign in a street line) and a willingness to look for unexpected answers. read more…
05.29.12 |
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in art, community, copy this!, outside, paths + processes, people, principles, sightings |
This photo of members of the Seattle Tubing Society in full float made us WANT to be invited to a tubing party. If we were near a river or lake, we’d give one ourselves…What could be more delightful than lazily bobbing along with friends on a warm summer day? It seems that tubing parties were quite a thing in the forties and fifties…
…dig this flotilla of happy souls… read more…
05.24.12 |
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in celebrations, entertaining, family + friends, nature, outside |
visualphotos.com
Yesterday afternoon, I looked at the massive to-do list that would keep me working into the evening and…actually for days – an impossible amount of tasks from writing posts to the endless details of moving to tending an elderly mom’s affairs.
I wondered if there was another way to be handling things that allowed for more spaciousness, and made a mental note to test out more deeply some of the methods we’ve posted about here (busyness being a state that seems to affect just about everybody these days). Then I continued to barrel through a very scheduled day. Until late evening when suddenly CRASH, life slammed into the control tower!
read more…
05.22.12 |
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in family + friends, identity, paths + processes, people, principles, road warrior, strategies, why not? |
(Video link here.) They say that moving homes is one of the most stressful of life events. We are finding that to be true, due to the sheer volume of details that makes up a life: it’s as though we’re in an avalanche, crushed by how much there is to do. Though we keep things pretty spare, we are wondering how things got so complex.
What if we didn’t have all this stuff and accounts and fierce need for HOME? It got us thinking about the video we saw recently about Daniel Suelo who one day decided to give up all money. He moved to the wilderness of southeastern Utah, where he makes a cave his home, foraging for food, living by his wits, creativity and the generosity of friends. Says Daniel: read more…
05.08.12 |
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in identity, outside, paths + processes, people, principles, road warrior, video |
holton rower
Last week we went to the opening of an exhibition of artist Holton Rower’s paintings, made by pouring gallons of vividly colored paints onto plywood forms. They are on display at The Hole in NYC, an immense space that Rower’s monumental work fills with reverberating color and energy.
The paintings are made of humble materials: plywood and acrylic paint transformed by Rower’s imagination and daring. Some are so big that they could only be photographed by laying them in the alley behind Rower’s studio and photographing from 3 stories up. Tonight, we went to see him pour a painting and witness liquid color becoming form (as you can, on YouTube). read more…
05.04.12 |
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in art, paths + processes, people, principles, quotes, sightings, video |
photo: maria robledo
Photographer Maria Robledo emailed us a couple of images of her impromptu flower arrangements, with these words:
I love making these freehand arrangments.
I dont start with that intention, i start with looking at the leaf or flower as a photo then i bunch ‘em together w/o thinking.
it’s a surprise to me too because they just come out to look so pleasing.
We admire how fluid her process is: she doesn’t start with an idea in mind. A leaf or a flower grabs her and then she’s off ”bunching them together” to discover how they will arrange themselves…
…like the blossoms that ended up – unexpectedly, charmingly – inside the jar/vase… read more…
05.03.12 |
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in elements, garden, paths + processes, people, principles, projects + play, strategies |
photo: stacy k floral
Innovative uses for shipping pallets continue: here a play on shipping pallet gardens, painted bright colors and hung on a wall. In a post we wrote about how-to transform a shipping pallet into a vertical, layered garden, some readers brought up the question of food-safe paints for pallets that will house herbs, greens, nasturtiums and other edible plants. Kate Payne of Hip Girl’s Home (whose book we’re featuring in a giveaway) took the initiative and emailed the Old Fashioned Milk Paint folks, who make a completely non-toxic, zero VOC paint and sealant. Wrote Kate: “…air quality matters here, but so does sustained exposure to moisture and possible leaching, this is a great question!”
Here’s what she found out: read more…
05.02.12 |
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in copy this!, d-i-y, garden, materials, outside |
photo: Wallace G. Levison
It’s well known that one of our favorite visual themes is people leaping – an obvious metaphor for “taking a leap” into new territory, work, projects, endeavors that we might have thought fearful…life.
We came across an interesting trove recently on Retronaut, of New Yorkers in the 1890′s. Although there are some spectacular leaps… read more…
05.01.12 |
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in art, leaping + flying, outside, paths + processes, people, principles |
