Blackberries are considered both a scourge and a blessing. They grow anywhere and everywhere, bristling with thorns, invading civilized gardens, threatening to obliterate freeway on-ramps. But in August, if you see a car pulled off the side of the road, you can bet everyone’s piled out to gather wild blackberries to eat out-of-hand and transform in the kitchen.
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Inspired Eureka moment in the realm of the everyday, yielding a celestial chord that could have come from a mighty church organ. Joy!
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The massive The Art of Things: Product Design since 1945 surveys all kind of objects that we use in our lives, as well as their placement in the bigger picture, in time and place. Our quick run through a pdf we found yielded a number of useful ideas:
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This surprising little video is about Glasgow roadliner Thomas Lilley, a man who paints signs and marks on roads freehand in molten thermoplastic. It is a reflection on uncelebrated jobs that most of us remain oblivious to, that possess —and often yield — their own quiet poetry, and an essential message…
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At our Little Free Library we came across a kid’s book called The Way to Start A Day, something we think about a lot. It’s about the many ways different peoples celebrate and honor a new day to set the right tone in their lives. It offers fine advice no matter what age you are.
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(Video link here.) One short minute of perfection: Herbie Hancock recounts the BIG life lesson he got by example from Miles Davis, when Hancock played what he thought was a seriously WRONG note during a gorgeous riff.
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Over years of working daily at a computer, we’ve come to see how similar it is to our human brain (or vice versa). Just as computers that have had too many different applications working at one time can get slow and boggy, and benefit from being shut down for a while, so do we humans. We’ve…
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Today at the market we saw a sign that said Cherry season ending soon, and we thought Yeah, better make hay and bought a couple of pounds to eat iced, our favorite way. A bowl of cold ripe cherries on ice are a one-ingredient, sublime dessert that also couldn’t be more elegant and satisfying But there are others equally as lovely…
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This compelling chair made of a sawed-in-half bathtub is the creation of artist Stuart Ringholt who, in the throws of hashish psychosis, wondered if art can be practical. In making art, he found his answer.
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One of our most popular posts has been Hangable, Folding Stools and Chairs, featuring 70’s industrial designer Roger Tallon’s brilliant stools that fold flat to hang on a wall. Our research has revealed no designs or knock-offs of the brilliant design for sale. So we figured out an approach to DIY…
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When downsizing or decluttering, we often feel the loss of the precious memories physical objects can be a reminder of. It is one of the more savage side effects of ‘decluttering’. Here’s a solution I found years ago when I had to give up some of my own precious possessions.
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While walking with a friend, I stopped to open a crumpled piece of paper lying on the ground. When he looked at me puzzled I said: You never know what interesting messages you’ll find if you look. I come across amazing things all the time hidden in plain sight… The next day he sent a photo of…
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(Video link here.) Really funny and totally sweet, this teeny film by 3rd year film student Jalabert Camille will make you feel just fine about just about any misstep, mess-up or irritant you encounter today. It takes Samuel Beckett’s famous lines about failure to an extraordinary place…
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When I am feeling low, I sometimes go to Sandro’s in NYC to eat Spaghetti al Limone. It is a quietly comforting experience: spaghetti perfectly cooked al dente slicked with a suave, subtly lemon, perfectly-balanced sauce. I’ve seen and tried many versions of this classic pasta —many predominantly Parmigiano laced with lemon—but have settled on this approximation of…
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Many perfect memories of Nice live in my heart. Now my heart, and prayers, go to that most beautiful, now wounded, city. photo by Tobi 87
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The Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close is a must-read for the MANY illuminating and original questions and viewpoints it presents about making art in 2016, aging, the need for personal change. Of particular interest to us was the advice Close gave his friend Paul Simon, who recently announced that he’s going to retire.
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The Martin Creed show at the Park Avenue Armory gave us much to think about plus one great decorating idea. We’d normally find the ornate 1880’s dark wood-paneled grand corridor rather oppressive —unlike the astonishing 55,000 square foot Drill Hall. We found the space curiously modernized by Creed’s inspired black diagonal stripes
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Websites that don’t take ads or promote branded content are a rare breed. We’re one. We have an unusual philosophy of “stuff” and how we survive. It’s definitely an experiment in a certain kind of possibility thinking.
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Our friend Jody Lotito Levine pulled out a book she was reading. In it was a bookmark made from a dollar bill. It is one of the better bookmarks we’ve seen, as good as slices of ribbon or a delicate length of toilet paper (below), each having their own unique effect. Using a dollar as a…
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We found this clever latex glove balloon bobbing around the park across the way, an escapee, we imagined, of some kid’s birthday celebration. We hadn’t realized just how great a toy the ubiquitous gloves could be (especially when we’re waiting around alone in an examining room), so we looked for other iterations. We found one…
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