What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.
Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.
I’m continuing to work hard, not without periods of discouragement, but my strength comes back again.
When I work I forget all the rest.
© Patagonia Films / Jordan Manley (via Vimeo)
Follow a group of skiers, snowboarders, scientists and healers to the birch forests of Japan, the red cedars of British Columbia and the bristlecones of Nevada, as they explore an ancient story written in rings.
I’m in love with the magnificent short documentary Treeline by Patagonia Films. Strongly recommend you to check out the other “films with Impact” the collective has produced “on behalf of our home planet” so far.
Der Himmel leuchtet in Schwarz und in Blau / Er schmückt sich mit Sternen / So als wolle er niemals wieder Grau / Und hässlich werden / Schrei mich an, wenn du magst / Lach mich aus, wenn du willst
Aber ich liebe es / Wie die Erde sich dreht / Und der Mond dann auf einmal / Hell und einsam über uns steht / Ich bin Freund von Klischees / Und von funkelnden Sternen / Und ich mag dich sehr, sehr gern
© Sean Sevestre (via Vimeo)
Journey is a short animated film that I unintentionally started making in July 2020 as I moved back to Scotland in the midst of pandemic happenings.
[…]
Taking me on my own meta-journey of combining 3d and animation with my paintings in new ways in an effort to unlock new potential to bring my work to life. The culmination of this organic play being Journey.
— Scottish artist Sean Sevestre about his artistic short animated film Journey
© NOW (via YouTube)
Tell them you have a new project. It will never be finished.
— from the poem The Art of Disappearing by Naomi Shihab
But one of the next most powerful things he created for himself is the view that Everything is a Practice.
Man, what a ridiculously valuable way to frame our lives!
Every difficulty that comes up is simply something to practice with.
Every frustration with another person is a practice ground, and the other person becomes your teacher. Bow to them with gratitude!
This idea goes hand in hand with the concept of the so-called “Don’t Know Mind” from Korean Zen, as well as the previously mentioned Japanese philosophical ideas and concepts I admire so much.
On that note:
Currently, I’m learning about simple Zen habits by reading the wonderful book The Practice of Not Thinking by former monk Ryunosuke Koike, a little book well worth reading (and thinking about).
Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.
Curious people become smart by accident.
Their curiosity simply pushes them into various rabbit holes.
Guided by a childish desire to understand why something is the way it is, they end up exploring webs full of strange to them, initially, things.
The relentless desire to explore the world we live in. To understand why people behave the way they do. To investigate what caused something to work makes them read articles, books, even old newspapers and look for solutions outside their field of work.
This essay on Why Curiosity Is Better Than Being Smart? sent me down the rabbit hole that is the website of Ivaylo Durmonski. A huge collection of long-form essays and book summaries “for avid readers and thinkers alike”. Bookmarked.
durmonski.com/life-advice/curiosity-is-better-than-being-smart/
Tsundoku (積ん読) is a beautiful Japanese word describing the habit of acquiring books but letting them pile up without reading them. I used to feel guilty about this tendency, and would strive to only buy new books once I had finished the ones I owned. However, the concept of the antilibrary has completely changed my mindset when it comes to unread books. Unread books can be as powerful as the ones we have read, if we choose to consider them in the right light.
Having a bunch of unread books piling up on my bedside table and jamming up my shelves, I can absolutely empathize with Anne-Laure Le Cunff on this one. After reading her essay on the power of unread books, I won’t feel as guilty about getting more and more books despite those waiting already to be read anymore —I’m just building an antilibrary myself.
Now I just need a similar explanation to justify getting new records, even though I still haven’t listened to all of the ones I own already.
Es gibt einen Stil, in dem man gute Musik hören sollte. Und eine Haltung.
© PaprTape / Label Engine (via YouTube)
© PaprTape / Label Engine (via YouTube)
© PaprTape / Label Engine (via YouTube)
© PaprTape (via YouTube)
While watching the short Antonio Carusone did for the release of the –beautiful looking– new book Selection: Architecture by Carl Barenbrug and Ivan Moreale, the used ambient music caught my attention. Apparently, it’s from Tony Yang aka PaprTape, who has a lot of atmospheric videos on his YouTube-channel.
His ambient EP “A Midafternoon Dream” is available on Soundcloud and Spotify, and some of the tracks are being sold digitally via Bandcamp, in case you want to support the work of the musician more directly.
