It isn't an uncommon experience, friends asking me how to read a poem. I often quote this book, How to Read a Poem And Fall In Love With Poetry by Edward Hirsch in my answer.
Spine of the South – The Andes in Timelapse
From the project:
In 2015 Overland Collective photographer Eric Hanson traveled the Andean spine of South America, from Ecuador to Patagonia. For seven months, he traveled almost entirely solo, via a mixture of public transportation, trekking, and a Great Wall Wingle (if you don't know what that is, it's the finest vehicle known to man). Along the way, he took a few hundred thousand photos.
Edo Japan With Computers — Imaginative Animated GIFs
Atsushi Segawa had been making animated GIFs out of ukiyo-e for a while when he was commissioned by Japanese computer maker NEC to mix computers and computer use into Edo-era Japan.
Hong Kong At Night — Photos by Peter Stewart
Photographer Peter Stewart, brings us these stunning night cityscapes of Hong Kong.
Papercraft Wigs and Gowns from Asya Kozina
With a penchant for papercraft, artist Asya Kozina created these funny and gorgeous paper wigs and gowns.
Logos And Paintings Undercutting Each Other — Graphic Designs from Eisen Bernard Bernardo
Eisen Bernard Bernardo, Philippines-based graphic designer, brings together modern logos with well-known paintings, making each a little suspect, and the whole pretty awesome.
Design Wish - Plain Moleskine Cahier Extra Large Notebook
There are so many great sketching notebooks in the world, and in my design practice I have tried a lot of them. These Plain Moleskine Cahier Extra Large Notebooks are my current favorite. They don't feel oversized, but they do feel expansive. And, unlike some of the other Moleskine line, these feel like they are working notebooks, neither precious nor showy.
Photo of the Day - The Flat Iron Building in Jonas Blizzard by Michele Pallazzo
Photographer Michele Pallazzo captured this stunning painting-like photo from the #blizzard2016 of the iconic Flatiron Building on 14th Street in Manhattan.
Photo of the Day - Animated GIF Flyby of Saturn's Rings
The rings of Saturn are only about 30 feet (10 meters) thick in most parts of the main rings, other parts however are often up to several kilometers thick. The rings are made of dusty ice, in the form of boulder-sized and smaller chunks that gently collide with each other as they orbit around Saturn. Saturn’s gravitational field constantly disrupts these ice chunks, keeping them spread out and preventing them from combining to form a moon.
Book of the Day - The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
This is delectably told and imaginative, a thought experiment worked its way all the way out. When humans are sent the plans for an interstellar propulsion system, and the governments dither on in their dithering ways, it is the deeply intellectual Jesuits who act. This science fiction, speculative fiction, reframes a great deal of our past in terms of our potential future actions.
Painting Your Walls with Light - Lamps by Calabarte
Polish artist Przemek, also known as Calabarte, transforms African gourds into these lamps that paint your walls with patterns of light.
Hunting Blinds Deep in the German Forest: Photographs by Robert Goetzfried
Here is a new series from our favorite, Robert Götzfried, a series of amazing architectural finds deep in the German forest: hunting blinds.
His entire site is full of amazing photo sets: www.robert-goetzfried.com
Nomads of Mongolia — A film by Brandon Li
Another great film by friend of 5 things, Brandon Li.
Bygone Days of Airplane Glamour
Shots from the 1950s and 60s compiled by AirlineRatings.com, it is a flying experience totally foreign to me. If I could get this sort of experience at the prices I pay today, I'd be all for it.
Quotes for the turning of the year – 2016
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
— Zora Neale Hurston
“We need, in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
“All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience.”
— Henry Miller
“Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one.”
— Voltaire
“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
— Simone Weil
“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
“And the idea of ourselves is our escape from the fact of what we really are.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
“The universe is wider than our views of it.”
— Henry David Thoreau
Student says, “I am very discouraged. What should I do?” Master says, “Encourage others.”
— Zen Proverb
“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”
— Alan W. Watts
“There is really nothing more to say except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.”
— Toni Morrison
“Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea, and not know when or with what cargo they will return to port.”
— Iris Murdoch
“Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.”
— Virginia Woolf
“Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.”
— Antonio Machado
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
— W.B. Yeats
“The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind.”
— Frank Lloyd Wright
“Mistakes are the portals of discovery.”
— James Joyce
“Through pain I've learned to comfort suffering men.”
— Virgil
“Let yourself be gutted. Let it open you. Start here.”
— Cheryl Strayed
“Until we know the assumptions in which we are drenched, we cannot know ourselves.”
— Adrienne Rich
Flemish-style Super Heroes, Storybook & Star Wars Characters
French photographer Sacha Goldberg (the photographer who brought us Mamika) has created this series of characters from the world's superheroes, storybooks and Star Wars and styled them like something from 17th-century Flemish paintings.
Autonomous Machines - Clever Generative Art by Echo Yang
Everyday objects become the artists in this generative art project from Eindhoven artist Echo Yang titled Autonomous Machines.
Gear Guide - Brunch Master Class
Brunch is one of things that the more seriously you take it, the more you get out of it. For your like-minded brunchmeisters, I offer my gear guide for the brunch you've been yearning for.
The List
Stellar Projections on the Inside of Cambridge's 16th Century Cathedral
The high vaults of Cambridge’s 16th-century chapel were painted with the digitally projected work of French artistMiguel Chevalier in real-time, during a recent fundraiser.
Design Ideas - Alphabets
The things we do with letters.