Found around the web

Not written by me

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent …

Giant Robot’s Fifth Biennale Celebrates Asian American Pop Culture

A figure sits down next to a small plant and a book, as an array of imagery explodes from the top of its head.

“Imagination” by Felicia Chiao. All images © the artists, shared with permission

Returning to the Japanese American National Museum for the fifth time, the Giant Robot Biennale showcases a diverse selection of artworks from Asian and Asian American creatives. The show’s lineup includes an array of artists including Giorgiko, Taylor Lee, Luke Chueh, and others previously featured on Colossal such as Rain Szeto and Felicia Chiao.

Originally created in the ’90s by Eric Nakamura as a magazine, Giant Robot …

OFURO BATHTUB



Ofuro is an elegant Japanese soaking tub made from cedar wood (whose essential oils have an harmonizing and calming effect on body and soul), and impresses with its functional design, high build quality, and high aesthetic standards. The softly wood gets carefully shaped, precisely assembled, and compacted exclusively with natural materials. Finally the bathtub is sanded softly by a carpenter for an extended period and is clamped in three stainless-shell bands. Thanks to its amazingly low weight of …

LEGO VESPA 125



Lego has recreated the legendary Vespa 125, the world?s most iconic scooter. Inspired by the 1960s classic Vespa, this unique model set has 1,106 pieces, and once complete is a wonderfully authentic model that oozes charm and style, offering a little slice of la dolce vita. The Italian icon is presented in pastel blue, and comes with several stylish accessories that include a basket, helmet, spare wheel, removable engine cover, brick-built engine, working steering, plus a kickstand because it is …

GOODLAND WOOD FIRED HOT TUB



Goodland are experts in creating outdoor living objects for a slower, more considered life. Their Wood Fired Hot Tub invites you to pause and connect with nature, and reminds us that when life moves half as fast, we notice twice as much. Crafted in Canada entirely from recyclable materials, the striking hot tub is made from marine-grade aluminum, western red cedar, oak, and brass detailing. The heating process is also part of the experience, you will have to cut the wood or gather twigs and branches …

The Black Music History Library

Black Music History Library

The Black Music History Library is a list of resources (books, articles, podcasts, films, etc.) about the Black origins of popular and traditional music. From the about page:

There are many notable archives doing similar work, yet it isn’t uncommon for some to have a limited view of Black music — one which fuels US-centrism and a preference for vernacular music traditions. This collection considers the term “Black music” more widely, as it aims to address any instances in which Black participation led to …

MUZHI CUPBOARD



Designed by Yen-Hao Chu for Chinese furniture brand Ziihome, the gorgeous Muzhi Cupboard combines clean lines and solid wood for a piece that is perfect to store all your table and kitchenware. The cupboard is made of three main parts, the upper part is semi-open and can be used to store tableware inside and potted plants outside. The middle area is an open spacious section that can be used as a sideboard, a small bar counter, or a place to keep small and medium-sized appliances like a kettle, coffee maker …

A Social Distance

Using crowd-sourced clips sent in from all over the world, filmmakers Ivan Cash and Jacob Jonas made a poignant short film called A Social Distance about how things are going as people shelter in place at home.

In the self-submitted videos, people dance, play music, take us on a tour of their refrigerator, and introduce us to their pets. Edited together, these intimate moments create a synchronicity of humanity — a feeling of togetherness that’s difficult to conjure when you’re sequestered at home.

The …

Some People

Some people feel helpless & anxious.

Some people are bored.

Some people are self-quarantined alone and are lonely.

Some people are realizing that After will be very different from Before.

Some people are really enjoying this extra time with their kids and will miss it when it’s over.

Some people just got off their 12th double shift in a row at the hospital and can’t hug their family.

Some people visited their favorite restaurant for the last time and didn’t realize it.

Some people have died from …

The Neighbor’s Window

From filmmaker Marshall Curry, The Neighbor’s Window is a poignant short film about the odd relationships you can sometimes form with your neighbors in big cities, even if you never meet in real life.

For real! Do they have jobs? Or clothes? All they do is host dance parties and sleep ‘til noon and screw.

This film recently won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. (via open culture)

Update: I forgot to mention that this film was based on a true story told by Diane Weipert on the Love + …

Bad Map Projection: South America

Bad Map Projection: South America


The projection does a good job preserving both distance and azimuth, at the cost of really exaggerating how many South Americas there are.

Mateusz Urbanowicz’s Tokyo storefronts

Mateusz Urbanowicz's Tokyo Storefronts

Gorgeous work by a Polish illustrator working in Japan. Originally found him through this page about his Tokyo storefronts book, which features a number of super detailed watercolor illustrations. You can see even more on the series page and the Tokyo by night ones are also worth a long look. He also links to this very detailed review of the storefronts book, with a page by page description (sounds boring but the work is so beautiful, it goes by fast).

Urbanowicz also has a Youtube channel with lots of …

Walking Bogotá’s Avenida Chile: Banks, booklets and brunches

The upper part of the Avenida Chile (Calle 72 between 7 and 15) marks the frontier of the “North,” or upscale sector of Bogotá. Some would place it farther north, but my argument rests, in part, on the two mighty office blocks, facing each other on the Carrera Séptima that stand as sentinels on an avenue dominated by corporate/financial headquarters. On the east, we find the Banco de Occidente building, an upended paper airplane forced on the architects by the contradictory need to cram as many offices …

How to Create Reality


So a funny thing happened on Twitter this week, which almost changed the world a little bit.

Someone sent me a beautiful 3-D mockup of a fictional, car-free city of 50,000 people, set in the scenic nook of land* between Boulder, Colorado and Longmont, where I live. It came complete with street plans, detailed descriptions and dozens of cool photos, both real and computer-generated, showing how it would feel to live there. They called it Cyclocroft, in honor of the generally pro-bike stance of Mustachian …

120 Subway Stations Speed by in Less Than 2 Minutes

Two well-heeled ladies chat about musicals near Lincoln Center. An elderly man bows an erhu in a deserted corner of the Lorimer Street stop. At Jay Street, two kids put pink plastic buckets on their heads and chant, “We’re going to the beach! We’re going to the beach!”

The short film Stations: A Quick Scan Through NYC races through 120 of the MTA’s stops, marrying scripted interactions with chance encounters, such as passengers yelping as they’re pelted by rain outside of the Astoria Boulevard station.

“I …

Long-form YouTube: videos of entire long-distance train journeys

YouTube has been an existence-proof of forms of video that were lurking in potentia, unable to come into existence due to limitations of the distribution channel. The two-to-three-minute video has now been firmly established as a genre (with the six-second video hot on its heels), but there's plenty of room at the long end of the scale. Case in point: subculture of YouTubers who post full-length train journeys, hours and hours' worth -- and if that's not long-form enough, how about 134-hour sea crossings? …