keith stewart’s ‘it’s a long road to a tomato’ (farming = improvising))

I keep a stack of books by my bed for “daily” wind-down reading. They are meant to do various things: cool me out, give me hope and/or inspiration, help me think about pressing matters, entertain. One of them is Keith Stewart’s It’s a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the…

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notebooks for graphing the past and future

As much as we’re fans of smart phones, we can’t live without blank notebooks for writing down some interesting thing we saw or need to remember, or notes for helping us organize our day. We’re always on the lookout for cheap, well-designed notebooks that are a pleasure to use AND shift our thinking slightly. We…

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‘the world is full of interesting things’ on the massively creative internet and google

“The World Is Full of Interesting Things“, an online slideshow created by Google’s Creative Labs, gives you a compelling glimpse of the imaginative ways technology and the internet are being used (much of it in collaboration with Google technology).  There are revelations in the realms of Audio, Movies, Vizual, Art, Physical, Light, Tech, Sport, Books,…

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task lights suspended from the ceiling

We came across this picture on Emma’s blog and thought Brilliant! Floor lights suspended from the ceiling! It’s a play on one of our favorite themes: Using things in unexpected ways, turning them upside-down… These flexible task lights have a wonderfully sculptural look and allow you to adjust the lighting to your…task: perfect over a…

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kevin kelly’s tools for technological literacy

Internet visionary Kevin Kelly homeschooled his 8th grade son for a year and wrote about it recently for The New York Times Magazine. He tried to teach his son the kind of tools that would help him navigate the pace of technology which is accelerating so fast “his eventual adult career does not exist yet.…

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chic concrete block sink

Could this beautiful sink stand, spotted in tiny photo story about interior designer Abigail Ahern‘s neo-baroque chandelier, REALLY be made of concrete block, one of our favorite building materials? Imagine…For less than the cost of a fiber-board-and-veneer Ikea sink stand, you can fashion one out of block, planning the placement of the blocks like a…

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john cage applying ‘what would happen’ if to music

There’s a beautiful piece by Alex Ross in this week’s New Yorker this week about avant garde artist John Cage, who had a profound influence on our understanding of what music can be. Here’s a chunk that knocked us out: “One a simpler level, Cage had an itch to try new things. What would happen…

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brilliant d-i-y pallet desks, table, stairs

When we pass cast-off wooded shipping pallets on the street, we find ourselves imagining ideas we’ve collected in our “pallets” file, and trying them out in our minds. We are especially inspired by the visionary open offices Dutch firm Most Architecture designed as a temporary space for the company Brandbase. The client asked that the…

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stefan sagemeister on ‘serious failure’ and training the mind

Last March, we wrote about legendary graphic designer Stefan Sagemeister, who shutters his design studio every seven years to take a sabbatical, and explore new ideas. He recently spoke at Levi’s traveling print and design workshop; this video is a recap. The audio is not great but some terrific chunks come through. Here are some we love:…

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