The Improvised Life

momofuku’s david chang improvises with space food

Sally — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:00:04 +0000

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 out 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.

via Kottke

a shift of view yields a ready-made tree trunk chair

Sally — Thu, 23 May 2013 08:24:40 +0000

Sally Schneider

While walking in the park across the way, I passed a tree stump left behind after Hurricane Sandy. Overwhelmed with fallen trees, the Parks Department had done their best to remove the huge tree bodies with chain saws that struggled against massive trunks; the cuts were often roughly-made or incomplete like this one: a tusk was left protruding from the akimbo trunk. I’d walked by it dozens of times and never seen the possibility that had been right in front of me all the time. I had only to turn our head at an angle to see, ready-made, a chair.

Sally Schneider

It got me wishing I had, and knew how to use, a powerful chain saw and winch to set the massive chair upright, to be sat in by passersby.

But even more than that it made me realize how much writing ‘improvised life’ has made me see differently. Improvising IS a practice. The more I practice, even by simply keeping the idea in the back of my mind, the more I find myself “shifting” my view and seeing possibilities that lay hidden in the moment.

bistro table hunt: name brand or knock-off?

Sally — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:06:40 +0000

Recently, we went looking for a 24-inch round metal bistro table for our Harlem terrace and hit a dilemma: whether to buy the pricey classic Fermob table (top photo), made in France, (THE table used in many public spaces), whose durable finish we’ve tested in the guise of a rectangular table we’ve stored outdoors for 2 years OR

…a good-looking knockof (bottom photo), made in China and $100 cheaper. It’s 2 pounds lighter, a concern due to the high winds up here, and we have no idea how the finish would hold-up, or how it looks in person as opposed to a photograph. If it looked cheesey or flimsy, sending it back would be expensive. On the other hand, Terrain, the store that sells it guarantees it for a year. Reviews we read for other Fermob knock-offs complain of easily-scratchable powder coating and flimsy construction. Terrain claims their matte, powder-coated finish is really durable.

Part of our improvised life is making the most of our money, and we LOVE finding less expensive routes to well-designed stuff. It’s a personal challenge we find immensely gratifying WHEN we succeed. But we’ve learned the hard way that going cheap can often be expensive, if the item doesn’t hold up OR if we won’t love it over time, and end up buying another, or if it takes too much of our time to deal with. It is our experience that “cheap” demands scrutiny and a good eye, for style, materials used, how it is constructed.

We mulled the arguments for and against each: Fermob’s famous construction and history…

…versus the scintillating possibility that we might discover a find.

Carl Richards of the New York Times Buck Blog tackles the topic in a couple of posts, and defines the essential question:

If I break down my purchase as cost per use, does it benefit me over the long term to spend a little more for something to last longer?

We made our decision and will report shortly on how it led to some amazing discoveries.

In the meantime, we want to hear your thinking on the name brand/knock-off challenge. Let us know!

paolo goldstein on how repair can be a way into creativity

Sally — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:48:46 +0000

(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:

Paolo Goldstein

….Repair is a very subtle way into creativity…

via Unconsumption

‘eat up’: how to create a rooftop garden

Sally — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:00:26 +0000

photo: marla aufmuth

Wish you could create a rooftop vegetable garden like Chef J.W. Foster of the Fairmont Hotel, in San Francisco? Get yourself a copy of Lauren Mandel’s EAT UP: The Inside Scoop on Rooftop Agriculture.

It is THE book on rooftop gardening, inspiring for the many possibilities it covers and the details and examples it gives, from containers and raised beds, to hydroponics and holistic building design. We love the chapters on Inspirational Rooftop Gardens and WISH that the publisher hand’t opted for black-and-white photos instead of color, which would have really brought the book alive (there’s only a small color insert).

Eat Up even covers Milk, Eggs + Wool and our what we imagine for our apartment-building-across-from-a-park: beekeeping…

photo: marla aufmuth

Photographs by Marla Aufmuth for Gardenista.

the charm of freestyle painted walls

Sally — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:09:27 +0000

Tim Street Porter

There is something really charming about the patches of “freesyle” painting on the entranceway walls of this Los Angeles home. It “breaks” the expected symmetry in a lovely way.

(And we have a thing for breaking with the expected…)

From Freestyle: New Architecture and Interior Design from Los Angeles, 1986 via An Ambitious Project Collapsing

grace jones hula hoops to the rhythm (one cool workout)

Sally — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:40:58 +0000

(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…

Work all day, as men who know,
Wheels must turn to keep, to keep the flow,

Build on up, don’t break the chain,
Sparks will fly, when the whistle blows,

Never stop the action,
Keep it up, keep it up,

Work to the rhythm,
Live to the rhythm,
Love to the rhythm,
Slave to the rhythm,

Axe to wood, in ancient time,
Man machine, power line,

Fires burn, heart beats strong,
Sing out loud, the chain gang song,

Never stop the action,
Keep it up, keep it up,

Breath to the rhythm,
Dance to the rhythm,
Work to the rhythm,
Live to the rhythm,
Love to the rhythm,
Slave to the rhythm.

via the great Fast Forward‘s FB.

artful improvised receipt storage (via maria robledo)

Sally — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:18:21 +0000

Maria Robledo

We found this wonderful image on Maria Robledo’s Instagram. Ohhh, what a great method of storing receipts (emptying pockets or bag then-and-there.) Thrown into a space between books —some amazing ones at that— they take on a curious beauty.

We have a box in an easily-accessible file cabinet that we throw them into to collate later. Whose got time to scan and organize ‘em?

What’s your method?

Thanks Maria!

sighting: porch built around a tree (urban tree house?)

Sally — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:46:36 +0000

Sally Schneider

Wandering around Harlem recently, we spotted this structure in the back of someone’s brownstone. It appears to be a clever combination porch and treehouse, literally built AROUND the tree growing in the yard.

Whoever made it clearly didn’t want to mess with the old tree growing very close to the house. So they found away to…embrace it.

Sally Schneider

throw some wildflower seeds for surprising urban gardens

Sally — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:53:07 +0000

Susan Dworski

We have a nasty patch of rubble in the back alley guarded by unsightly bent pipes that protect a gas meter. Every fall I throw a packet of wildflower seeds down, scratch them in, and wait to see what the rains will bring. It’s different every year. Nasturtiums and poppies duke it out neck and neck for starters (below). Quickly followed by the big guys: penstamom, coreopsis, feverfew, lupine and cosmos (above).

photo: susan dworski

I like to carry a packet or two of wildflower seeds in my pocket and play Johnny Appleseed in neglected patches of urban dirt while out walking. Big rewards for pennies, and fun to track when spring cuts loose.

Artist and calligrapher, Sue Nan Douglass, created this playful, delicate piece, “Wildflowers II” using Steig lightfast color markers and eraser stamps she carved. The stacked, packed repetition of the names of flowers with repeating stamps on 8″ x 10″ paper testifies to the unexpectedly big power of small.

photo: susan dworski

Walt Whitman described the power of small in “Leaves of Grass,” a monumental and quintessentially American book that he spent his entire life writing and revising, from its first publication on 1855 until his “death bed edition” published in 1892, two months before his passing..

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work
of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and
the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d’oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of
heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any
statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

—Susan Dworski

Editors Note: We asked Susan if we could STILL throw a handful of wildflower seeds and have them come up. Her answer: “Wildflowers always find a way.”

how to to store extra chairs + stools, on walls + shelves

Sally — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:52:24 +0000

http://arollingcrone.blogspot.com

Stumbling on this wonderful image of sculptural black-painted chairs on a wall of the La Gran Francia Hotel in Granada, Nicaragua got us thinking about ways to store un-folding chairs. This assemblage is a more playful, freeform take on the Shaker-esque practice of hanging uniform chairs on hooks (below).

Then, moving too fast as we scanned Remodelista, we mistook Williamsburg’s (and now San Francisco’s) store The Future Perfect as someone’s HOME, and thought, how cool is that: line up interesting chairs, and even a bench or two on a shelf, like a display of sculptures.

Sarah Lonsdale/Remodelista

It’s along the same lines of storing a bicycle on a shelf. And dig the wonderful detail: shelves that are longer than the wall they are hung on.

We also love this little stool stored on the wall:

Sarah Lonsdale/Remodelista

…a play on this:

clever shelving configured for bicycle storage

hangable, folding stools and chairs

maria robledo’s stunning instagrams will change your view

Sally — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:40:59 +0000

Maria Robledo

We’ve just discovered photographer Maria’s Robledo’s crazy-beautiful Instagram, a trove of images that will make you SEE the everyday differently and put you right in the moment. Only Maria could have come up with this simple, curiously moving arrangements of pussy willow blossoms (which people usually just throw away once they’ve been knocked off their stem). The image shouts SPRING. It seems the perfect accompaniment to this 4-line gem of a poem by Su Tung-p’o written over a thousand years ago:

Pear blossoms pale white, willows deep green –
when willow fluff scatters, falling blossoms will fill the town.
Snowy boughs by the eastern palisade set me pondering –
in a lifetime how many springs do we see?

Pear Blossoms by the Eastern Palisade is from one of our favorite books, Selected Poems of Su Tung-P’o. It and Maria’s images are both about seeing the NOW.

Maria Robledo

Check out more of Maria’s Instagrams here.

pop-up guest rooms + room dividers redux

Sally — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:42:39 +0000

Of the many imaginary inventions in my head, a pop-up guest room has had many iterations. Living in a moderate-sized New York City apartment with only one bedroom, I’d love a separate, somewhat private space to offer guests who come to sleep in my big open livingroom/kitchen/workspace. My latest inspiration comes Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research center in Treviso, Ialy.’Next Cabane’ was a design exploration spurred by a foldable wooden structure found in a dark corner of an antique market in the south of Scotland. Fabrica’s designers viewed envisioned it as movable rooms that can be carried from place to place.

‘small, temporary spaces where we can set our boundaries, seek shelter or simply live a different life rediscovering the quality and simplicity of things.
personal, intimate havens in harmony with their surroundings; they reflect on subjects like work, pop-up culture, loneliness, games.
alternative settings were one can live in a better way with more awareness, where design is at the service of research into materials, forms and structures.’

All it would take to make the frame is a some drilled slats of hardwood, jointed with hex bolts and wing nuts* nut whose “wings” provide a grip for the thumb and finger. You tighten the wing nut to secure the form; untighten it to fold it up for storage.

This 15 second animation of a folding scissor fence gives the idea (video link here):

…

lowes.com

Then, like a kid, start draping fabric over the form, fortlike…

*How curiously fitting that ‘wing nut’ can also mean ‘one who advocates extreme measures or changes’.

via designboom

staircase of succulents + succulent sculpture

Sally — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:23:28 +0000

insideinside.tumblr.com

Dig this wondrous display of succulents on an unused staircase (well, er, we assume it’s not used, otherwise it would quite an unusual challenge to navigate)!

It shouts JOY and a kind of uninhibited artfulness.

Succulents are in the wind…or are we just SEEING them now?

Maria Robledo brought us one as a house gift. We lifted it out of its plastic pot and plunked it into a jar. It looks like a sculpture…

Sally Schneider

via ? (we can’t remember) via InsideInside

essential read: the new yorker’s innovator’s issue

Sally — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:37:15 +0000

Christoph Niemann for The New Yorker

Speak of the devil! Christoph Niemann created this brilliant cover for the new New Yorker’s Innovator’s Issue. At the New Yorker blog, Niemann has again illustrated his process , which AGAIN involves nixxing an idea, only to have it come back at him in a completely unexpected way. We GET and love that the brilliant guy struggles a bit to create his wonderful stories and illustrations.

We are looking forward to diving into this issue, especially IMAGINED INVENTIONS by some notable folks —our own imagined inventions would fill a library— and Susan Orlean on the future of treadmill desks.

Here’s Niemann’s website.