After my experience at The Met, I spent the next few months viewing and considering as much beauty as I could. I went to more museums. I spent weeks researching obscure Baroque furniture makers, legendary luthiers, prominent architects, naturalist illustrators, Italian car designers, and philosophers of aesthetics. What I came out the other side be... See more
Existing in the past is easier than engaging in the present.
But what happens when the past is not the past? As T. Becket Adams highlighted, Alicia Keys hit a sour note in her live Super Bowl appearance (it happens! It’s okay!) but it was edited out of the official YouTube page! He writes -
For all the recent discussion re: the post-truth world, we
Perhaps the key to finding the illegible margin is captured in Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Amos Tversky’s quip: “the secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.”
Because you’re looking for something which is hard to see, you have to have some sort of “tinkering budget” ... See more
I’ve always thought that what we colloquially call “tech” (hardware, software) really ought to be seen alongside other forms of technology: social, cultural and spiritual. So, while some places in the world might have great infrastructure and highly efficient software systems, they may lack the sophistication of social and cultural technology that ... See more
When I listen to this, I can't help but hear James Brown's "It's a Man's World" in those sweet melodic parts. Mehldau's a virtuoso, and I know he can explore the hell out of a piece, but I love when he brings out the sweet. The buildup from the search he begins at 6:00 comes to a beautiful culmination at 6:50 and in comes that wonderful melody agai... See more
Brad Mehldau - My favorite things @ jazz a Vienne 2010
When I was a child, I had all of these dreams and ideas that I wanted to create, but I thought there was nobody that actually did these kinds of things. in this world we are so skeptical about if something can be or not be done that we don't even take the chance of failure and don' try to reach your dreams. Videos like this are creating a much bett... See more
For those willing to wade into messy, illegible reality and consider what exists outside their simplified maps, there is a reward awaiting you: the illegible margin.
As soon as you start down the slippery slope of doing things based on convention, you are diluting your independence and uniqueness, which is to say your reason for existing. Even the smallest things can start to bend you toward conformity.