We always love hearing about where artists find their inspiration, and though this video of Leonard Cohen runs a little long, he has much to say about the process of cultivating an authentic “voice”. At about 5:26, he tells the story of how he went from fumbling around on the guitar to really “finding his song.” (You can also simply read the transcript here; start about 6 paragraphs down when he talks about Garcia Lorca.) Cohen recalls visiting his mother in Montreal and happening upon a young Spanish flamenco guitar player. He convinced the guitarist to give him lessons, and the young man showed up at Cohen’s home for three consecutive days. For three days they worked on the same six-chord progression, and Cohen, though he still couldn’t play as beautifully as the guitarist, finally had the building blocks of a song.
The story ends with tragedy, when the guitar player did not show up on the fourth day and Cohen learned that the young man had committed suicide. The guitarist’s few lessons would prove to have great impact on Cohen: the six chords he was taught that summer went on to be the foundation of all of his songs. (And there are many songs.)
For us, it is a key lesson in improvising: read more…
A most beautiful wall: cool modernist, geometric bricks and hunks of painted wood (Japanese, of course)…makes us crazy to find bricks like this…
We didn’t find a thing via google until we stumbled on Mondoblogo‘s post of some wonderful brick constructions posted in Apartamento Magazine. read more…
We’ve written before about how much we love Made By Joel’s, Joel Henrique’s website that features his charming handmade children’s toys. This October 11th will mark the release of Joel’s first book, Made to Play!: Handmade Toys and Crafts for Growing Imaginations.The book compiles a number of great toy-making and craft projects for children and their parents. Categorized by fun themes (The Zoo! Cars and trucks! Music and art! Dress-up!), most of the projects use ordinary crafting materials, like paper, fabric, tape and glue to make versatile and simple toys that kids can be proud they had a hand in making. Many of Joel’s creations are appealing to grownups as well. read more…
We are smitten with this short, illuminating online slideshow in which Marco Leona, chief scientist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, talks about the role of magic in the creation of art. It is so delightful and illuminating, we’ve watched it several times: a rich 4 minutes.
“Magic traditionally was about transformation: taking something baser, less refined, less valuable and making it something resplendent.”
He shows a wide array of artworks to illustrate this transformation, ranging from Ghanaian El Anatsui’s stunning tapestries made of twist-off bottle caps, to Hokusai’s famous blue wave to Anish Kapoor’s high-tech wonder. We particularly love slides 14 through 17 where Leona speaks about the process an anonymous 12th century Persian artist went through to make a gorgeous frieze tile: read more…
Time Magazine has come out with their 50 best websites of 2011. We find that their lists are often chock full of useful stuff—last year’s list introduced us to Wakerupper, which schedules wake-up calls (.5 each after a few free ones) which we rely on to stop pressing the snooze alarm and get us out of bed).
Here are our top five from this year’s 50: read more…
(Video link here.) Here’s a glimpse of the interactive iPAD app that Björk recently created to be part of her recent album, as she tries to give create ever more dimensions in her music. Its introduction, narrated by David Attenborough, is a strange combination of beautiful, inspiring and ever-so-slightly hokey, in a good way. We like what she’s trying to do and the sentiment behind it…especially the idea of our selves as gateways:
Forget the size of the human body. Remember that you are a gateway between universal and the microscopic, the unseen forces that stir the depths of your innermost being and nature who embraces you and all that there is.
We are totally charmed by Isabella Rosselini’s video series Green Porno about the sex lives of various inhabitants of the natural world. We check in to Sundance’s website or YouTube periodically for a ‘porno break’, which, in Rossalini’s iteration, is both charming, illuminating, funny and curiously sexy.
We love the community we see growing around ‘the improvised life’. Every day we get comments and emails that give us snippets of our readers’ lives; you inspire us daily with your creativity and support.
We wonder if you would take a few minutes to fill out this survey to give us a better idea of who you are and what interests you. We know that none of our readers are defined by these details, however the survey will help guide us as we think about what you will enjoy, and tailor our ideas for exciting new services and ways to interact.
The survey is completely anonymous and confidential, and shouldn’t take more than two minutes (we timed it!) to complete. Thanks deeplyfor taking the time to participate. Your feedback means a lot to us. You are a huge part of what makes this site special.
We’re giving away a free copy of Sally Schneider’s award-winning cookbook The Improvisational Cook (inscribed by the author if you like), widely viewed as THE book about improvising in the kitchen.
“Schneider gives cooks the know-how to embellish, adapt, change, alter, modify and experiment in their cooking with plenty of encouragement and helpful information. Here are the tools and insights everyone needs to find his or own voice in the kitchen…”
To enter, all you have to do to enter is write a Comment (in the form at the end of this post) telling us of a kitchen improvisation you’ve attempted. Tell us about a dish you’ve made, a unique flavor combo you discovered or even a piece of equipment you’ve rigged. If you’ve been flat-out afraid to improvise, you can enter as well, just tell us the gist. Success or “failure” doesn’t matter, though we’d love to know a few juicy details, what motivated it, what it consisted of, and how it turned out...The winner will be chosen by random.org. read more…
There’s been a lot of press lately about journalist Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. We’re sure that’s because forgetfulness is the curse of our age. Foer thinks it’s NOT because our brains are overloaded, but because we’re not really paying attention. The book outlines methods you can use to help yourself remember things. We found a great summary in The Guardian:
The trick, Foer says, is to adopt a process known as “elaborative encoding”, which involves converting information, such as a shopping list, into a series of “engrossing visual images”. If you want to remember a list of household objects – gherkins, cottage cheese, sugar and other items – then visualise them in an unforgettable manner, he says. Start by creating an image of a large jar of gherkins standing in the garden. Next to it, imagine a giant tub of cottage cheese – the size of an outdoor pool – and then picture Lady Gaga swimming in it. And so on. Each image should be as bizarre and memorable as possible.
In other words, you change boring bits of data into something colourful – and memorable – using your own energetic imagination to make them more meaningful. read more…
This extraordinary video clip is from Ant’s Secret Power, a documentary about the world of ants as seen through the eyes of Bert Hölldobler, ant authority and E.O. Wilson collaborator. Concrete is poured into an giant underground ant megalopolis, which acts as a mold. After the concrete hardened, scientists carefully excavated it to reveal the structure of the ant’s elaborate “city-state”:
“Everything looks like it has been designed by an architect, a single mind, but of course that isn’t true. This colossal and complex city was created by the collective will of the colony, the super organism”.
The paperback edition of Sally’s award-winning The Improvisational Cook is OUT IN THE WORLD as of this morning. The book was the precursor to ‘the improvised life’; apply the blog’s heart and practicality to cooking and you’ll get the gist. It’s a guide ‘in’ to cooking improvisationally, more freely and with what’s on hand. Chapters include How Improvising Works, The Creative Mind-Set, Accidents and the Unexpected, and Learning What Goes with What, along with a ton of mutable recipes and ideas for making them your own.
Our favorite reviews sum it up:
“Schneider weans home cooks off their training wheels and provides a springboard from which they can leap out of the box, craft their own distinctive dishes and let their new instinctive and creative juices flow.”
— Mario Batali, legendary chef and Food Network star
“Innovative . . . a delicious revelation.” — O, The Oprah Magazine
“What a triumph. One of the most gifted cooks I know thinks onto the page in a way that cossets the novice while inspiring the old hand to reach to new territory. You will build a reputation on this book and build the kind of confidence few know in the kitchen. Sally Schneider is the master of ease, imagination and style.”
— Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table, American Public Media
We found this nugget in an email from our friend Tim Slavin, who’s written some great guest posts (listed below):
…I spent a few hours rooting through the 400 plus stories you’ve published since the start of last year. Lots of neat stuff in the Improvised Life “attic”!
Our ATTIC!!! …indeed, a virtual one, full of strange and compelling stuff. What better way to spend some lazy weekend hours than clicking randomly on our Archive or the Big Index to discover forgotten treasures?
We have a THING for new materials, and have, until today, mostly just imagined what they could do. We couldn’t lay our hands on samples since we’re not a big commercial entity; suppliers didn’t want to bother to sell small quantities or answer our novice’s questions. So we’d read descriptions in Transmaterials, the compendium of new technology for use as walls or floors or textiles, that is our idea of pornography. We’d fantasize, our brains heating up with ideas and possibilities.
Then we discovered Inventables, Zac Kaplan’s brilliant online database of cutting-edge materials where you can actually order samples to fool around with, something that was previously impossible for lay-inventors (no pun intended ) to do.
Here’s a first look at the new cover of The Improvisational Cook, Sally’s award-winning cookbook; it will be released in paperback on February 8th. It’s shows you the way ‘in’ to cooking improvisationally, more freely and with what’s on hand. Find out more about the book and look inside here, sample an improvised riff on Roasted Pears on Harper Collins’ blog here, or pre-order on Amazon.
.The book compiles a number of great toy-making and craft projects for children and their parents. Categorized by fun themes (The Zoo! Cars and trucks! Music and art! Dress-up!), most of the projects use ordinary crafting materials, like paper, fabric, tape and glue to make versatile and simple toys that kids can be proud they had a hand in making. Many of Joel’s creations are appealing to grownups as well. 
, which bundles a DVD with a book would be a great, unexpected, house gift this summer. 
(inscribed by the author if you like), widely viewed as THE book about improvising in the kitchen.
or go to 
. We’re sure that’s because forgetfulness is the curse of our age. Foer thinks it’s NOT because our brains are overloaded, but because we’re not really paying attention. The book outlines methods you can use to help yourself remember things. We found a great summary in 
.
