inspiration books + zines

a book + music (free play + the koln concert)


One of our favorite books about improvising is Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch. It’s one of those enduring books that you can open randomly and find something useful or compelling…like this, which we found just now:

“…Sometimes we damn the limits, but without them art is not possible. They provide us with something to work with and against. In practicing our craft we surrender, to a great extent, to letting the materials dictate the design…”

Among the many jacket quotes praising the book is one by Keith Jarrett, the jazz pianist known for his astonishing improvisational work the Koln Concert. In four sentences, he totally nails what improvising is:

“You are called to an important meeting, the subject of which you are not told. It is of utmost importance that you ‘Be Yourself’. The meeting starts immediately and your clothes are in the laundry and you have no time to wash up or shave. Is this a ‘serious’ situation? Then so is improvisation…”

And that is what The Koln Concert was. In the video, Jarrett describes the impossible circumstances that made for a stunning creation.

That’s what Free Play is about.

We view them as an essential part of our toolBox.

(You can listen to samples of The Koln Concert, and/or buy it as an MP3, here.)

08.06.10 | comments (1) | in art, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, people, principles, tools |

fling and be flung

Hans Namuth

Hans Namuth

Lately, we’ve noticed  several odd and very expressive permutations of the word “fling”. Fling/flang/flung aren’t about flinging some THING across the room, but rather describe a PERSON being catapulted, by life…allowing ourselves to being flung, learning lessons, making discoveries, really living. First we read Anne Herbert’s wonderful post in Peace, Love and Noticing the Details:

“Jackson Pollock’s paintings were painted in a time and place where it often seemed that the job of being human was to walk along a straight line that already existed and that other people had walked on.

There was more than one straight line one might choose to walk on, but not many more than one.

Maybe you are trying to find your straight line when actually you are about curving, wiggling streams of many different colors and about drops that are nothing like a perfect circle and exude beauty.

Jackson Pollock didn’t micromanage paint. “Lighten up” can mean let more of the colors in that white light can break into, if asked. Finding your lines, your squiggles, your life might include inventing a new skill and getting good at it, as Jackson Pollock was good at flinging paint.

Fling and be flung and find the life in your life.”

…It reminded us of the incredible use of “flang” we read years ago read more…

04.19.10 | comments (2) | in inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, rules for living, signs, strategies |

the power of time off


Last December, Pam Hunter, the mastermind behind Studio 707, THE Public Relations firm in Napa Valley, closed its doors to take a sabbatical. On her website’s last post, she told the story of meeting two artists over the years whose practice of taking long sabbaticals from their work had impressed her deeply. Spain’s Fernan Adria, considered one of the world’s greatest chefs, shutters his restaurant El Bulli for five months each year, and told Pam how the experimental months of his sabbatical revitalizes his creative alchemy in the restaurant. Brilliant Austian-born designer Stefan Sagmeister, closes his design studio for at least a year every seven years, so that he and his staff can explore projects the don’t have the time to do when they are working. Pam had almost worked with him on a project but he was about to go on sabbatical, to which he is committed.

“Possessed as I was by the approach of both Adria and Sagmeister, I couldn’t bring myself to take the leap off the treadmill. That is, until late one afternoon in June 2009 when I received the telephone call that reframed everything instantly.  ’You have cancer,’ said the voice on the other end of the line.  By February I hope to be in remission and ready to begin my first sabbatical.”

Pam included a link to a Sagemeister’s riveting TED talk about why he insists on the year-long break for himself and his staff, and how it works…what it is really like, the kind of discipline needed. Pam’s post got us thinking read more…

03.18.10 | comments (3) | in inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, people, projects + play, tools |

m.f.k. fisher’s “mystic materialism of a hungry woman”

mfk-fisherkitchen

Right after news of Gourmet Magazine’s demise hit the food world like a missile, Lydia Wills sent us an article written by Stefany Ann Golberg, an artist, musician, and founding member of the art collective Flux Factory. She writes really smart, thoughtful, acute articles for The Smart Set and is worth following. Buried within her article about Gourmet and the American way of eating, is a perfectly-contained piece about M.F.K. Fisher, perhaps America’s greatest food writer. In writing about food, Fisher wrote about love, hunger, and real life with an stunningly original voice. In two paragraphs Golberg GOT what Fisher was doing, and why she resonates so strongly today. (And why she’s been a major influence on ‘the improvised life’.) read more…

03.09.10 | comments (6) | in family + friends, food, gifts, inspiration, inspiration books + zines, people, recipes, strategies |

what to do when someone’s in trouble

Sally Schneider

Sally Schneider

The other day, I ran into my neighbor Matthew Sporzynski in the elevator. When he asked how I was doing, I let slip that I was on my way to way to have a scary test to check out my heart. “I’m sure it’ll be fine” I said, betraying my nervousness.

After several hours of Fringe-like tests involving isotopes in a freezing room, I wobbled home to find a white cardboard take-out container outside my apartment door. Inside was a cobalt-blue lens box that said SCHNEIDER (my name). Four key rings were nestled in it, each with a tag printed in French: APPARTEMENT, ATELIER, LETTRES, and RESIDENCE SECONDAIRE. There was a red leather cat collar with a bell –  an unexpected bracelet – and an orange business card said “Couturier de Cardboard”, which meant the gift was from Matthew, who is an amazing paper artist with a rare sensibility.

Matthew’s gift had the effect of taking me out of my worried, tired head in an instant (while inspiring a sweet, momentary fantasy of an atelier and a residence secondaire.) It said, in the most un-Hallmark way possible:  ”Someone is thinking about you and hopes you feel better.” And sure enough, I did feel better.

It reminded me of the times when I wasn’t sure how to respond to the dire need of another: a friend dealing with cancer or a loved-one dying. And I remembered a little book I saw recently called Do Good: 201 Ways to Lend a Hand read more…

02.01.10 | comments (8) | in family + friends, gifts, inspiration, inspiration books + zines, share, strategies |

secret world changers?

"New Worlds" Javier Marscal for The New Yorker

"New Worlds" Javier Mariscal for The New Yorker

The theme of current New Yorker is “World Changers” and the magazine is fat with mind-expanding reports. The gist of the issue, and of vast creative streams and ideas that seem to be appearing everywhere these days, are expressed in its amazing cover by Javier Mariscal.

Sometimes when I’m sitting on the subway looking at my fellow passengers, I wonder what they are thinking: What is in their heads? Mariscal’s cover is one possible, deeply heartening, view: unique visions going on quietly all around us.

Related Post: Tool for Improvising: Defer Judgement

12.22.09 | comments | in inspiration, inspiration books + zines, paths + processes, people, sightings |

ny times year in ideas 2009

Paula Scher

Paula Scher/NY Times

The always illuminating New York Times Magazine Annual Year in Ideas issue is out, and we are guaranteed hours of interesting reading. Here’s a short-list culled from a wealth of subjects. The titles indicate only a fraction of the nuanced information in the article.

My favorite is “Good Enough is the New Great”, an idea I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. “Good enough”can be an antidote for perfectionism that keeps you from finishing something, or from doing what REALLY matters to you, or getting hung up in insisting on “Great” when it’s not really essential. For over-achievers, “good enough” can be a useful philosophy for prioritizing.

(Once you click the link, scroll down to find the article):

Good Enough is the New Great

Bicycle Highways

The Counterfeit Self

Massively Collaborative Mathematics

Gourmet Dirt

The illustration above is a selection of the year’s proprietary inventions: a testament to unfettered imagination…

12.13.09 | comments | in inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, sightings, why not? |

more on inspiration and other visual journals + scrapbooks

After reading ‘ted muehling and the inspiration journal’, designer Pamela Hovland wrote about the many kinds of visual journals she’s kept over the years: “one for my garden, one for my house, one for my summer cabin in Minnesota (all of which are ongoing projects). I keep a visual journal for art and design inspiration, another for wardrobe inspiration (as sometimes I’ll attempt to make a skirt I’ve seen or ask a tailor to do the same). I even have a journal devoted to all things black and white.”

Pamela mentioned Jessica Helfand’s wonderful book Scrapbooks: An American History. That sent me on a path that expanded my view of what journals and scrapbooks can be. One of Helfand’s own scrapbooks commemorates the ritual cleaning of her graphic design studio; it includes bits of dead insect, chicken meat, angel hair pasta, a Prednisone prescription, and Clementine peel into glassine envelope. read more…

10.11.09 | comments (3) | in gifts, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, media, projects + play, tools |

GOOD’s video contest: enter your world-changing idea

GOOD is at once magazine, website, blog, video series, community, and events devoted to exploring what good is and what it can be. A collaboration of individuals, business and non-profits, they invite everyone to become of a member of the GOOD community: “Please join us in defining what comes next.” (The subscription price for their magazine is whatever you choose to pay, which Good will donate to the non-profit of your choice. That is putting your money where your mouth is!))

Their latest project (in league with Babelgum) is asking artists, inventors, and thinkers one simple question: If there werent any pesky practical limitations, what world-changing device would you invent? read more…

08.13.09 | comments | in community, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, media |

concrete block love

concrete-block-table-breuer4
For years, I made short-shrift of concrete block, associating it with the clunky cinderblock-and-pine shelves beloved by frugal college students, or bleak, prison-like garages and homemade tool sheds. I’d  pass cheap, strong concrete blocks at construction sites and lumber yards, and wonder what I could do with them. Although I’m crazy about concrete, I seemed to have no imagination for concrete block.

Lately, new visions of concrete block have come my way, and opened my eyes to possibilities. read more…

05.20.09 | comments (1) | in elements, furniture, hard, inside, inspiration books + zines, materials, reimagine |

donut chef

donut-chef-boingboing

I’m always on the lookout for great children’s books to give as gifts to my friend’s kids; books are inexpensive, and can be enjoyed over and over again, not to mention inspiring who-knows-what? in those young brains and imaginations. BoingBoing‘s recommendation of Donut Chef,  written and illustrated the brilliant Bob Staake, is dead-on. It’s the story a chef whose donut shop becomes a big success, only to be threatened by a rival around the corner, who sparks a competition to create increasingly fabulous donuts. There’s a great fun riff on improvising and the messes and revelations that invariably occur. read more…

01.24.09 | comments | in art, inspiration books + zines, kids, projects + play |

marcel breuer: sun and shadow, the philosophy of an architect

sun-and-shadow-breuer

A wordless, pictures-only post on Reference Library tipped me off to Marcel Breuer: Sun and Shadow, The Philosophy of an Architect, that Breuer wrote in the fifties. I found it on Ebay for a good price, through a “buy it now” dealer of out-of-print mid-century and design books. It’s a treasure, in part because of Alexi Brodovitch’s unique design: You holds the book sideways, turning the pages like a calendar, so each section is a double-page spread of drawings, photographs, plans, elevations.

But what is most amazing is to read the thought processes and logic behind Breuer’s designs. read more…

01.21.09 | comments (2) | in elements, inside, inspiration, inspiration books + zines, materials, reimagine, resources |