We check into Improvised Life part-time support staff and contributor Sinnae Choi’s website periodically to see what the multi-talented artist is up to. We were amazed at the LOL beauty of the human hair merkins she collaborated on… And learned that a merkin is by definition a pubic wig. Who knew? and… Why not?!! Writes Choi…
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(Video link HERE.) In this assault by two robots wielding heat guns, a piano’s wood is gradually burned on and on to the point of collapse. The film is said to “consider ‘Deconstructed Piano’ considers the gradual destruction of instrumental music through digital sound generators. To us it is a film about change, erosi0n, aging,…
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When we saw the image, above, of a hacked cargo bike Susan Dworski spotted on a Venice California beach, we thought of our old friend Peter Hoffman, chef of Back Forty and Back Forty West (formerly the great Savoy) in NYC. When his kids were young, he’d ride his odd-looking custom-made cargo bike to Union Square…
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Recalling Virginia del Giudice‘s recent post on using needlework to cover holes in vintage garments, Susan Dworski alerted us to an inspiring iteration on the theme of embroidery fixes:
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A message came in from a reader today that knocked us out. It was forwarded from our friend and frequent contributor Susan Dworski:
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From our friend Marella Consolini: I recently read an interview with James Baldwin in a 1984 Paris Review. To me, fascinating under any circumstance, but of course thought of you because of his mention of a deep and personal leap. Details: Was there an instant you knew you were going to write, to be a…
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After Remodelista touted the virtues of the vin ordinaire hardware store porcelain light socket, we were reminded of the one that ended up on our wall during the Laboratory’s renovation. Overwhelmed by the all the details we needed to get together to make the space livable, we improvised, adorning it with lighting designer David Weeks’ clever,…
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Holton Rower sent us this image, and Neruda’s Ode to the Happy Day jumped into our lap right after it. Although we’ve had some difficult things to deal with lately — everyone we know has had difficult things to deal with — we love imagining “nothing has happened to anyone“, and then being happy “just because I breathe”, if…
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We LOVE these essential Improvised Life-esque questions inspired by the worldwide People’s Climate March.
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After a mysterious vibration in the floor started shaking our bed, and us, awake at night, we started improvising solutions. We’ve lost count of our attempts at damping the vibration. So we’re issuing a challenge to IL’s readers: help us devise a solution to keep the bed from vibrating.The winner will receive a lifetime subscription to Improvised Life. Here’s what we’ve tried already…
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Worried about climate change and want to know what you can do about it? The largest march in history that will take place in NYC this Sunday. Check out the People’s Climate March website for info, or this article from the New York Times. We will be there. Can’t make it? Watch — or listen to — Disruption this…
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Last weekend we bought a big fat book of Pablo Neruda’s odes for a dear friend’s birthday gift. Loving to improvise the presentation of our gifts, we went to our collection of found ribbons and wrappings wondering what would strike us. A very long, thin green ribbon gave us the answer: it would become a 3-foot+ bookmark that…
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At Brand New Paint Job, artist Jon Rafman overlays the visual style of iconic artists onto rooms and objects, from a Fernand Leger Bomb to a Cy Twombly Lamborghini. We were especially struck by Rafman’s interiors which seem completely viable, while instantly shifting our view. We would love go sleep in the Paul Klee Master Bedroom, above, or go…
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At Improvised life, we’re always interested in ways to become more creative and productive. So when we came across Mason Currey’s latest book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work we were excited. Currey describes personal quirks and daily rituals developed by many of the world’s great artists, musicians and film makers. From the bizarre right through to the…
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Since we launched our Friends with Benefits subscription service, we’ve thankfully had few glitches. Occasionally, however, a subscriber writes to say that they get the KnockKnock curtain telling them they’ve used up their five free reads for the month and can’t access more unless they subscribe. But they ARE subscribed. What to do?
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(Video link here.) If you ever find yourself having to cook dinner from a mini-mart, keep in mind these 11 clever improvisations on the theme of instant ramen, an iconically cheap, vin ordinaire instant ingredient. Sometimes THAT kind of ingredients ia more challenging to improvise with than purist hi-brow ones. Our favorite: gnocchi said to have…
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Why buy rugs to roll out on your floors, when you can paint them? Why collect art when you can decorate walls, floors and ceiling, with found materials? I’m smitten by these two wildly different, improvisational ways that artists have used paint to mimic and displace art in such disparate places as a house on the…
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The other day a friend sent us this image of a homeless person lying amidst a drawn virtual room. We have no doubt it was staged by an artist (whoever he/she is) but it still has a feeling of randomness, that life could ironically set things up that way. There are the symbols of a cozy…
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Decorative painter Deirdre Newman is one of the many creative souls we’ve connected with through Improvised Life. We’re hoping to meet her in person one of these days and see what collaboration might happen (dig her faux-stained parquet floor we featured). In the meantime, we check into her portfolio once in a while for ideas. We…
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We find that as we practice LOOKING on our walks around the city, we really do cultivate SEEING. It happens automatically when we slow down a bit. Look UP! we often write, encouraging a shift of perspective. The other day, we unexpectedly looked DOWN, to find, etched in one of those massive steel plates maintenance crews…
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