This video was shot in a forest in Japan, using a very, very long, handmade xylophone which taps out Bach’s ’Jesu, Joyof Man’s Desiring’ in a forest glade, with its underlying message, of ‘Touch Wood’, advertising a Japanese smart phone!…
and the ‘making of’…
“Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi says creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. A leading researcher in positive psychology, he has devoted his life to studying what makes people truly happy: “When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.” He is the architect of the notion of “flow” – the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.
Csikszentmihalyi teaches psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University, focusing on human strengths such as optimism, motivation and responsibility. He’s the director the the Quality of Life Research Center there. He has written numerous books and papers about the search for joy and fulfillment.”
“You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger.”
— on experiencing ‘flow’
…thanks SwissMiss…
I like everything about this book: ‘Japanese Farm Food‘ written by Nancy Singleton Hachisu, is chock full of relaxed recipes from her farm in Japan. Nancy lives on an organic egg farm with her husband, and runs an English immersion pre-school there, with a garden for the children to learn and cook from. Beautifully produced and art directed, with scrumptious photographs by Kenji Miura, ‘Japanese Farm Food‘ has such a wonderful, honest feel to it. With a foreword by one of my favourite cooks, Patricia Wells. Peek inside it here…
…check out a post about the farm at The Selby and an article on Nancy at the NewYorkTimes, here and here, too……
For all you folks who love looking at images on-line, but are frustrated with the lack of credit given to the creators of said images, here’s a wonderful little link to add to your toolbar. It’s a ‘bookmarklet’ which interfaces with Google Image Search, and it can be found here. If you find an image with no information attached, just click on this ‘src-img’ link on your toolbar, and up will come any links to that image, thanks to Google Search. Brilliant! Heather Moore, a.k.a. Skinny LaMinx, very kindly shared her discovery of this wee wonder over at her blog here, with illustrations of how it works. Thanks Skinny!
Just to let you know, I now have an RSS feed (see the right-hand side bar), if you’re at all inclined to have me say ‘hello’ to you via your inbox…
…above, an illo I did for a Boulevard Magazine last June….
Jan Yager has designed the ultimate in tiaras, entitled ‘Invasive Species’. They look like something a Sumerian queen would have worn…
Shaun Usher, the author of the marvelous blog Letters of Note (a gathering of so many fine letters by the great and the good), has just produced a book, nearing publication very soon. Find out more about it here……
Shaun Usher: ‘Letters of Note’ from The Lost Lectures on Vimeo.
…Usher also has two other blogs, ListsOfNote, a collection of lists (more interesting than my flat fish description) as well as Letterheady, filled with a delightful collection of letterhead design. Below, Frank Lloyd Wright‘s personal stationery and his business letterhead…
…and Marcel Marceau‘s letterhead…
