(Video link here.) We can think of no better way to start a new week than with this interview with Patti Smith at the Louisiana Literature festival August 24, 2012 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. She talks about self-expression, having an audience or not, suffering, happiness, perfection, expression, politics, technology. But she really builds…
Read MoreThe Ultimate Roast Duck
Many years ago, I learned a brilliant, virtually effortless method for roasting duck from Mindy Heiferling, an inspired cook. Five hours of roasting in a low oven renders out the fat and makes the flesh tender enough to eat with a spoon, the skin crackling and crisp. Recently, I revisited the recipe and found myself…
Read MoreTricks + Tools for Instant Clothing Nips + Tucks
The stylish French saleswoman at a NYC Megshop wore a men’s jacket with the back nipped in with a few stitches and the sleeves rolled up. It looked great! It got me thinking about even easier, less permanent ways to give instant form-fitting shape to a shirt, jacket or dress.
Read MoreUse Envy (+ Other Dark Emotions) To Your Advantage
(Video link here.) This compelling 2-minute video for is based on The School of Life‘s Alain de Botton’s writings about the uses of envy, and the information that often-difficult emotion holds. It offers a kind, rather gentle approach to an emotion we often hold against ourselves as being bad.
Read MoreAn Unexpected Chair Cushion
We rove through a lot of design sites in the course of each week and find ourselves finding only a single idea among a whole feature of sleek pictures. Like this one unexpectedly charming one: a chair cushion with ties that wrap around the legs. The question is, how to do create the effect with existing…
Read MoreNeed a Road Trip? Here it is…
We can’t remember we what led us to this wonderful image that makes us instantly… chill. We found it at A Life Alive, 26-year-old Forrest Mankins’ 8-months + road trip “from Oklahoma to the Arctic Circle living in my 1984 Toyota Land Cruiser.” Following his Instagram makes for a kind of vicarious road trip that is mighty refreshing…
Read MoreGraffiti’s Long Lineage Welcomes You In
At our Instagram SignLaboratory, we post a lot of graffiti: messages scribbled by valiant, expressive, anonymous souls as they move around the city. It is a fine practice: seizing a moment to scratch a subversive message. They are, more often than not, uplifting. We hadn’t thought of the lineage of graffiti until a friend showed us…
Read MoreReasons for a Happy Day
We have quite a few friends of various ages who have been having a rough time lately. Whether 23 years old or 73, it seems that no one is exempt from the stresses of a society that values individuals for their “profession”, and an economy in which it can be very difficult to find work — and expression —…
Read MoreCelery Root Noodles Inspired by a 4-Star Chef
Amid the black Perigord truffles, foie gras and caviar that laced a celebration dinner at New York restaurant Gabriel Kreuther, an utterly simple idea lay hidden. As I carefully deconstructed the “Cardamom Roasted Alaskan King Crab, uni coulis, celeriac, sea cress”, I discovered thin, tender noodles barely swathed in an uni-perfumed cream. When I honed in…
Read MoreCharming, Inviting, Comforting Draped Textiles
We must have spent an hour slowing looking at our friend Christopher Baker‘s beautiful online portfolios. We found ourselves culling images with a single theme: natural textiles used in original absolutely doable ways, no uptight styling here. Just a fine trove of ideas.
Read MoreFrom Youth to Old Age in 4 Minutes, Imperceptibly
(Video link here. Every once in a while, we come across a video that acts like meditation…or perhaps you might say, watching it IS a meditation, where we are brought into a moment of illusive awareness. Thich Nath Hanh’s The Great Bell Chant is one; a healer we know assigns it to her patients as…
Read MoreCharm and Practicality of Odd and Broken Mirrors
Roaming through photographer Christopher Baker‘s online portfolios, we came across this lovely quirky bathroom. We love the long rough surface for double sinks, and the little set of matching vessels to hold toothbrushes, turning them into little sculptures. But what we love most are the mirrors: a couple of vintage rectangular ones and two shards propped…
Read MorePruning the Old to Allow the New
When we wrote friend and contributor Susan Dworski of many decisions we had were making to change how we worked — limiting some aspects and dreams to focus on others — she likened it to pruning a tree: the essential process of culling and removing branches of a shrub or tree in order to encourage growth. Her words and…
Read MoreStill Lives Hiding in Plain Sight
After the first few persimmons of the winter, I realized I had discovered a new material for unexpected still-lives: not only the deep orange fruit itself, lined up to ripen on my counter, but the flower-like stems became a wonder I found myself throwing into a bowl: ad hoc collection that looked like an exotic…
Read MoreThe Hidden Life of Trees
The New York Times recently reported the research of Peter Wohlleben, a German forest ranger, whose book The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate Discoveries From a Secret World, has become a best seller in Europe. In it, Wohlleben, who has spent his life studying trees, describes trees as social beings with…
Read MoreSecret Weapon: Ancho Chile, Cocoa + Cinnamon Molé Rub
Taking a cue from the divinely complex Mexican molé sauce, I devised a dry rub using its most essential ingredients: sweet and spicy chile, cumin and oregano. As an experiment inspired by the lump of unsweetened chocolate often added to molés, I added cocoa powder; it provides a chocolatey undercurrent that mellows the chili and pepper…
Read MoreAnnals of Artificial Intelligence: Siri Talks Back
The other day I bought a new Apple iPhone 6S. Its remarkable camera and interface were an instant joy, making content gathering for Improvised Life easier and more fun. But as long as I’d been using iPhones, I’d never spoken to Siri, Apple’s attempt at Artificial Intelligence. Before I’d fully set up the phone and had lain down for a nap,…
Read MoreHow to Make a 5-foot Alcove Tub FEEL Like a Vintage One
Since I first wrote about the renovation of my 5-x-7-foot Harlem bathroom, a number of readers have written to ask just which five-foot alcove bathtub I bought that had the effect of the divinely comfortable vintage tub in my former space…and WHAT exactly was the trick I used to ensure that it would be a…
Read MoreFalling (and Failing) as Essential Practice and Play
The best performers and athletes in the world know something the rest of us don’t: Failure is not the enemy. Failure is fabulous. Failure —non-fulfillment, defeat, collapse — is not only inevitable, but necessary to get what you want. To try to avoid failure is to eschew progress; it’s trying to stand still in a…
Read MoreBig Picture Reminder from Heliotown
Our friend Thomas Ashcraft is an artist, naturalist, Electroreceptor, scientific instrument builder and radio astronomer who spends his time looking UP, recording the activity of meteors, fireballs, space dust and Transient Luminous Events — lovely and mysterious emanations of light — that have gained him some renown (bottom image) Here’s a wondrous accidental avian moment Tom’s…
Read More