Recently, several friends described themselves as unproductive in the saddest and most judgmental tones. How did it happen that we have learned to value only obvious tangibles and define our worth by them, to savage ourselves with opinions? I view THAT as a hyper-charged product of the Plague Years we are in. And I’m here to offer an respite.
Read MoreMindset for a Heatwave (Martha & the Vandelas, Hermeto Pascoa, Francis Alys, Li Po, Ellen Silverman)
As many parts of the country, and the world, are in the grip of a fearsome heatwave, We’ve found ourselves hiding out, working at partial power, desperately needing restorative naps and ways to feel cool. We know that refreshing virtual pleasures CAN help us cope; they fuel breezes in our heads. So we rounded up our favorites.
Read MoreHow to See Miracles (Helen McDonald, Miles Davis)
I was stunned recently when the morning light slanted across the leaves in the low shrubs across from me to reveal glittering spider webs woven throughout: an intricate network of homes carefully, miraculously forged. It reminded me of a perfect passage from H is for Hawk, and what it takes to see.
Read MoreWe Played with John Cage’s 12 Words and Blasted Open Our Heads
Artist, composer John Cage was also a remarkably powerful writer. Over years of reading him we’ve found ourself transformed by even a sentence or two. This one landed in a similar way……We found that shifting the flow of words ever-so-slightly had a surprising effect.
Read MoreNOT Checkerboard Floor
We love black-and-white checkerboard floors for how they seem to uplift just about any style room, like the ones below. Now we are smitten with THIS NOT-checkerboard for its subtle rebellion…
Read MoreHow Rice Paper Shades Give Their Blessing to a Room
In the messy digital file I keep of ideas for possible Improvised Life posts, I found trove marked simply “paper shades”. Their big message: A rice paper shade or two adds A LOT to even the most “undecorated” room. They have a unique, rather magical presence that pulls the room together. Here’s how.
Read MorePersonal Rigs for Pleasure, Illumination, Escape
The other day in Central Park, I saw I guy lying in a hammock under the sweeping branch of an ancient tree. Nearby was heavy-duty dolly that he’d used to haul a hammock stand to the beautiful spot.
It got me thinking about personal rigs people devise for getting OUT unfettered by any ideas of embarrassment or propriety.
We Sabotaged the Bathroom Mirror to Shift Our Early Morning View
Instead of a mirror over the sink, this bathroom has a framed charcoal portrait. We wondered what it would be like to see an artwork and not dive right into our own image, as we all do first thing in the morning? So we tried it and found it to be a surprisingly potent guerrilla action…
Read MoreDerek Jarman’s Gardens: ” a Testament, Blazing, Blatant, to Possibility”.
After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, filmmaker Derek Jarman bought an austere tar-painted fisherman’s cottage in sight of a nuclear power station in the bleak shingle landscape on the southeast coast of England. It would prove to be an act of creative vision as unique as those Jarman realized in his films.
Read MoreThe Secret Essential Riches of Doing Nothing (Jenny Odell, Bibi Baskin, Ch’eng Hao)
When uber-journalist Bibi Baskin was asked what she planned to be doing when she retired she replied, “Nothing.” It is a pursuit she has longed for. Still it is not always easy to do given the fierce demands of a society that values productivity above most else.
Read MoreArtful Lessons in Styrofoam from Lino Schenal and Max Lamb
In the 1970’s mysterious Italian designer Lino Schenal clad his house in sculpted styrofoam, from walls to simple, stylish furniture. Fifty years later we looked to Max Lamb to reveal the secrets of the ubiquitous material for making artful, practical creations.
Read MoreFirefly Season Arrives After a Hard Year, with Haiku
Seeing a single firefly in a field in New York City sparked several haiku, and coincided with astonishing research on the magical insect.
Read MoreMeditative Retreats Among the Bees via Erika Thompson and Pablo Neruda
Texas Beeworks‘ Erika Thompson’s videos have become a sensation, documenting her adventures calmly moving whole colonies of bees out of hives that that have formed in the midst of people’s lives: under a pool umbrella, in a patio chair, an old tire, a water meter, compost bin, the walls of a house. They are mesmerizing to watch as much for the view into the workings of wild hives as for Thompson’s relaxed, fearless self-assurance.
Read More“Onward to What?” Katherine Grody’s Fortifying Rant on Aging
Grody has a way of talking turkey about aging that we first wrote about in “@MandyPatinkin’s Heartening Reality Sandwiche”: honest, sometimes ambivalent, funny, heartening. This little tonifying video continues the conversation.
Read MoreA Blind Painter’s Lessons in Seeing (Sargy Mann)
When landscape artist Sargy Mann went totally blind in 2005, he assumed there were no options left. But since a blank canvas was stretched in his studio,and paints had been mixed, he thought, “I wonder would happen if I gave this a go?”
Read MoreHow to Keep Cooler and Use Less AC
This simple lesson we learned from an expert in ventilation helped us cool down the fierce summers in our hot top floor apartment, and lessened our air conditioner use and costs. Some days we even glimpse the feeling that illustrator Monica Ramos evokes in so many of her artworks…
Read MoreHot Weather Joy: Communal Water Music (Hermeto Pasoal, Vanuatu Women, Stephen Nachmanovitch, )
Listening to the water music of women from the northern Vanuatu and Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal takes us into the realm of joy, and gives us ideas for our own hot weather revelry. Steven Nachmanovitch, tells us how to access our own inner music…
Read MoreYour Wisdom App + Clint Eastwood on How Not to Get Old
Frequent contributor Susan Dworski threw this compelling video over my transom, accompanied by her thoughts about the apps she’s been seeing lately selling all manner of salvation. She asks a big question and points to a surprising path…
Read MoreSummer Outdoor Rug Thing
Every time I see this photograph of a garden festooned with vintage rugs, I want to beam myself there Star Trek-style and lounge, reading, drinking tea, napping, with friends or alone. It reminds me of Morocco where the hot, dry weather encourages making outdoor environments with rugs. We can create them too. at least for a party’s worth of hours.
Read MoreWill Real Self-Help Please Stand UP?
After reading a New Yorker article on America’s biggest selling books, many of which are “self-help” I realized I’d read many of them and none helped me help myself (although plenty of other things in my life have). Soon after, I stumbled on the penultimate self-help advice.
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