A recent day trip to the Main Headlands revealed an unexpected musical interlude when the wind whistled through the open pipes of a structure built near one of the old forts just north of the Golden Gate bridge. I Googled it when I got home, but couldn't find anything. I did however, find evidence of a Wave Organ built on a jetty east of the bridge – I'll have to check that out. I also found the Singing Ringing Tree in northern England and this video of the haunting sounds it makes.
I get a lot of email communications, and most of them are fairly easy to delete, but one I almost always pay attention to is Very Short List, because it's full of really cool things and it's delivered in a concise and nicely laid out format.
The lastest issue of vsl featured this beautiful book by Frank Chimero. I'm probably the ideal target audience for an hook like this and I followed the link to find an elegant little website dedicated to the book, with a wonderful design sensibility, fancifully illustrated chapter headings, and a great story at its core.
Chimero raised the money to write the book through a campaign on Kickstarter. The disarmingly simple video he created to sell his idea to potential funders (who gave him a total of $112,159 towards the project) talks about the book being not only for designers, but for everyone who makes things. He says that's all of us, and that "The Future is Something You Make".
There's a video of him presenting at the 2011 Build Conference in Belfast, which is not short but what I watched of it was compelling and if the topic thrills you like it does me, it's probably well worth watching.
Of course I ordered the book (which is offered in both print and digital format), so I'll let you know if it's as great as his promotions for it are. I know I'm excited to find out!
This quote by Neal Stephenson comes to me sometimes when the evening news is too full of murder and greed, or my heart stumbles too close to the edge of despair:
"Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways."
As if in response to the need Stephenson identified, Christóbal Vila's 3.75 minutes of healing beauty balm, reminding us that indeed beauty is all around us if only we have eyes to see it:
This is a delightful video about a magical poet, Silvi Alcivar. Silvi conjures spontaneous poetry from a red Royal typewriter and her immaculate mind, for hire at $15/poem (order online from the poetry store).
You will never find a better deal.
She does events too. I've experienced her work at two of them, and she absolutely transforms the space.
a desire for words from silvi alcivar on Vimeo.
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