I expected the recent N.Y. Times Magazine’s Women’s Fashion issue to have little of interest for me. I’ve become too practical to care about fabulous bags that are too heavy to carry all day, and clothes that defy my curvy, aging body. But I flipped through it anyway while I waited for water to boil…
Read Morehow to be a guerrilla gardener
There’s been a lot on the internet lately about guerrilla gardeners, people from all walks dedicated to stealthily transforming blighted, barren or plain ugly urban spots into planted oasis’s. These are often ordinary, middle-class souls fed up with the lack of nature and beauty in their urban landscape, and willing to break the law, shell…
Read Moreessential Ikea: stacking stool
Among Ikea‘s constantly updating home furnishings offerings, are a handful of constants that represent perfect, enduring, truly practical design at a really good price, and that don’t scream Ikea. My favorite is the Frosta stool***, a $12.99 birch veneer version of Alvar Aalto’s classic mid-century stool. I have four in my office and they are…
Read Morekate spade behind the curtain: “things we love”
Hidden within Kate Spade’s shopping site, there once was a surprising little gold mine called Things We Love. It was an ever-evolving stream of icons you can select to zero in on something cool you might not have found or thought about otherwise, from books to music to artists to websites…
Read Morefree music to work by
One thing lead to another and I stumbled on Esopus Magazine’s website. The magazine presents content from all creative disciplines in a seriously non-commercial format. It is a swell magazine, living its mission of trying to connect artists with a broader public. Each issue includes a free online MP3 player of music created by various artists…
Read Morebedroom office strategy: room (cocoon) bed
For years, my office was a corner of my 20-x-17-foot bedroom. I managed to write a 700 page book there, and numerous articles, as well as pay bills. The problem was that I really never left my work; it was always in view, always calling me to do more. For an urban freelance person, having…
Read Moreluck and resourcefulness in the new year!
January 26th was the start of Chinese New Year, a celebration that is taken way more seriously in China than most of us know, and which lasts for 14 days. A way to get a sense of it (and all sorts of other things in the world’s news) is to stop in at the Boston…
Read Morea kids’ drawing program for adults
Bob Staake, creator of the charming children’s book Donut Chef and dozens of New Yorker cartoons, draws with a mouse using an ancient version of Photoshop. This video speaks volumes about the virtues, and humanity, of computer-generated art, and how fluid the process can be, once you loosen your head up (which this video will do).…
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