(Video link here.) Long-time ‘improvised life’ reader Sahana sent this hour-long documentary about Parcour (also known as free-running) with this note:
“leaping and turning obstacles into stepping stones - …almost like dancing . a philosophy of movement .”
There’s LOTS of beautiful parcour as well as illuminating glimpses into the inside of the practice that is very much the creative process:
It’s all about progression. Every big move starts small.
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He had the vision to see what he wanted to do. He understood each component part and kept at it until he landed it perfectly. This model that Paul uses can be used by anyone to accomplish nearly anything.( at about 17:30)
(Video link here.) To give his quadriplegic friend, Pascale Honore, the experience of surfing, Ty Swan, rigged a simple Kmart backpack (with leg holes cut out) to be a harness with which he could carry Pascale. Then he strapped her onto his back with duct tape. The video, pure gumption, valor and generosity, had us in tears.
Said Swan:
We were just sitting around one night having a few beers when I thought, `yeah, I reckon I could surf with Pascale on my back’.
Everyone said we were crazy. Even the loosest people I know said we were crazy. read more…
How important do you think a sabbatical is for replenishing creativity?
Stefan: On a scale from 1 – 10, 12.
We take Sagmeister’s idea to heart and put it into practice in small ways: a week-or-two’s sabbatical here-or-there.
Our self tells us when it’s time. When ideas and energy feel mired, and the daily disciplines of writing and foraging ideas become curiously daunting, we know it’s time to take time out of our usual routine (which we mostly LOVE). We’ve learned the hard way that creativity depends on rest as much as it depends on action.
Then we STOP. Take stock. See what happens….
….We’ll be back on June 10th, possibly sooner.
Meanwhile, we encourage you to poke around ‘improvised life’s huge archive, by search term or random visits. And we’ll continue to post content of Facebook (you don’t need to have an account) and Twitter.
(Video link here.) Balance is a mesmerizing video of Rigolo Swiss Nouveau Cirque artist Maedir Eugster, creator and master of the “palm rib balance”, in which he builds a living mobile out of palm ribs and a single feather. It had to have been carefully plotted (the palm ribs appear to be notched) and rehearsed over and over (with many spills and failures). Still, it has the feeling of improvisation because Eugster has to be so IN THE MOMENT, feeling every air current and movement, adjusting himself constantly to maintain…perfect balance.
If you like, skip the stilted, overlong 2:22 minute set-up of this video about the food International Space Station astronauts eat…Jump right to 2:23 and Momofuku chef David Chang improvising with pouches of freeze dried shrimp, asaparagus and cheese grits (among other things) in an attempt to jazz up the fare for astronaut Chris Hadfield. It is the ultimate in the always-entertaining chef’s challenge: “make a dish out of what’s in the fridge” (in this case, pouches).
And then stay tuned while Hadfield shows the one constraint Chang didn’t factor in: lack of gravity…and watch him gobble weightless asparagus.
(Video link here.) Paulo Goldstein sees himself as a craftsman in his approach to repair. It seems to us, he has the viewpoint of an artist, and certainly his repairs reflect a rare sensibility. We found this short video incredibly illuminating, for the many levels of living he addresses. Here’s the gist, but there’s way more in this 5 minutes:
REPAIR IS BEAUTIFUL began with the idea of solving frustration. A broken object delivers frustration because it doesn’t achieve its functionality, but the same principle applies to a broken system that caused the financial crisis, which has affected our lives since 2008. In a time of uncertainty, taking things into our own hands and having the feeling of control back can be very therapeutic. Repair is Beautiful aims to give back this feeling of control – by scaling down a major society problem to a human size and projecting frustration upon broken objects that can be repaired through design and craftsmanship. The final outcome is a collection of intriguingly repaired objects imbued with new meaning and functionality. The once rejected objects reflect the environment that created them and call us to question our society as a whole.
Check out Goldstein’s director’s chair repair inspired by a suspension bridge:
(Video link here.) We’ve written in the past about the virtues of hula-hooping as exercise. But we’ve never seen SUCH an inspiring example as Grace Jones, age 65-ish, performing Slave to the Rhythm at Roseland. Amazing body, energy, joy…
If you crank the music up and have a hula hoop on hand (or just feel like a dance break), it’s the perfect rhythm to be a slave to for a while… read more…
(Video link here.) Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present is a stuning documentary portrait of artist Marina Abramovic. She explores themes we are always mulling: pushing one’s limits, the nature of will power AND being truly present in one’s life. Here we get to see them in action as Abramovic weaves them through her art and life.
The title of the film comes from her 2010 MOMA retrospecctive: whenever a visitor entered the museum, she was present. Six days a week, 7½ hours a day for 90 days, Abramovic sat without eating, drinking or moving from her position as a series of museum visitors lined up to sit opposite her, one by one, for often incredibly moving, wordless interactions. Six days a week, 7 1/2 hours a day being present…
It is extremely difficult to be like a mountain, to create stillness in the middle of hell. read more…
(Video link here.) Apparently, some readers were turned off by Louis C.K.’s vulgar, and to our minds perspective-inducing reflections on “what comes with a basic life”. Susan Dworski sent us this brilliant few minutes of Steve Martin as the Great Flydini as “an antidote”. Like all great magic, it appears to just happen— an improvision in the moment— although it is, in reality, the result of brilliant calculation and mastery.
We are constantly knocked out by the wonderful endeavors our readers are involved in, committed to, CREATED out of nothing, improvised. Here are a few from the past week:
David was interviewed by NPR. When asked what he found, out came this fab nugget:
I talked to a monk in a monastery … and I asked him, ‘You see tens of thousands of people coming through here; is there one thing that unites us all that we all have in common, whether we’re atheists or believers?’ And he said, ‘Yes, actually there is. Anyone who does this pilgrimage — or any pilgrimage — is driven by an irresistible urge to do it, and they don’t know where it comes from. And sometimes they figure it out while they’re walking, or afterward, or never.’ And, you know, the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. I set out with a zillion questions in my head, and I didn’t come back with a lot of answers; I came back with more questions. But I really do think that the question is the answer. read more…
(Video link here.) In the annals of self-helpism, doubt is considered something to overcome, to find ways around, to MASTER. We’ve discovered time and again that that is easier said than done. Doubt seems to come with territory of being creative, and most of the people we know just find ways to soldier through…or be felled by it periodically, only to pick themselves up and keep going.
Just as we were navigating another wave of it ourselves, wondering ARE WE CRAZY?!!, we came across artist Paul Zelevanzky’s curious antidote: a 40-second video offering a very different view of doubt:
Doubt is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.
We can’t say exactly how Zelevansky’s somewhat zen-like video works, but it definitely helped to SHIFT our view. It reminded us read more…
Somehow Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report managed a combination of deep respect and humor in his commentary on the Boston bombing:
And when those bombs went off, there were runners who, after finishing a marathon, kept running for another two miles to the hospital to donate blood.
So here’s what I know. These maniacs may have tried to make life bad for the people of Boston, but all they can ever do is show just how good those people are.
is a stuning documentary portrait of artist Marina Abramovic. She explores themes we are always mulling: pushing one’s limits, the nature of will power AND being truly present in one’s life. Here we get to see them in action as Abramovic weaves them through her art and life.
.
