Rick Stevens - One Artist's Painting Process

La Detente

La Detente from Not To Scale on Vimeo.

Pierre & Bertrand dedicated their spare time over 4 years to create this epic 3D film. The film tells the story of a French soldier in World War I, who becomes paralyzed with fear while in the trenches. He escapes in his head to an imaginary world where toys fight wars instead of humans. It won many awards and was shown at Cannes film festival 2011.

Saving Harry

Wildlife Aid's 'Saving Harry' from Kris Hofmann on Vimeo.

Magical paw prints guide Harry the hedgehog out of suburbia and back into the wild.
.

Since the 1950s the number of hedgehogs in Britain has fallen from 30 million to 1 million.
We could be faced with possible urban extinction of the much cherished little animal by 2025.

If you liked the film and want to help our beloved hedgehogs, please consider making a donation
wildlifeaid.org.uk

The featured track 'I'm Seeing Stars' is available on iTunes, with all proceeds going to Wildlife Aid's Saving Harry campaign
itunes.apple.com/gb/album/im-seeing-stars/id865517884?i=865517892&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Directed by Kris Hofmann
with illustrations by Sandra Dieckmann

Model Maker/ Joe James
Puppeteer/ Amber Donovan

The Art of Richard Thompson

The Art of Richard Thompson from GVI on Vimeo.

Richard Thompson has been called a “cartoonists’ cartoonist.” Find out why in this warm and moving portrait.

The Art of Plating

Chef's Cut: The Art of Kaiseki with Niki Nakayama from The Art of Plating on Vimeo.

Here's Niki Nakayama, chef-owner of LA kaiseki restaurant n/naka, plating a selection of poetic dishes from her 13-course tasting menu and intimately explaining what kaiseki means to her. 

Visit theartofplating.com to learn more.
instagram.com/theartofplating
twitter.com/theartofplating
facebook.com/theartofplating

Light Motif

Light Motif from Frédéric Bonpapa on Vimeo.

Prix Ars Electronica 2014, Honorary Mention.
Official Selection at Siggraph Asia 2014, Anima Mundi, Encounters, Giffoni Experience, OIAF / LAIKA's salon des refusés, Animatou, Message to Man, Multivision, Tous Courts / Motion +, Giraf, Future Shorts, ArtFutura 2014...

Light Motif is conceived as a synaesthetic experience based on a visual transposition of Music for 18 Musicians – Section II, by the American composer Steve Reich. The ambition of the film is to cinematically capture the extraordinary life force that animates this essential work of contemporary music by offering a truly hypnotic experience where music can be “seen”.
The inspiration for the project stems from the relationship between music and the visual arts, illustrated by artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren or John Whitney. These works try to establish precise connections between sounds, shapes, colors and movements, to visually translate the concepts of rhythm, melody, harmony, pitch, timbre and intensity. Light Motif proposes applying the construction principles of Steve Reich’s compositions to visual language.
Rigorously architected, his compositions are based on the repetition of short melodic patterns subjected to the gradual processes of dephasing, lengthening pattern, rhythmic saturation and tonal changes. The result of these subtle variations in the repetitions is a sound texture in constant transformation. The listener passes progressively from a polyphonic perception to a global perception, from the perception of a discontinuous sound phenomenon to a continuous one. In Light Motif it is this perceptual phenomenon that is transcribed into images.
Procedural generation techniques are used to transpose the motifs and compositional processes into a semi-abstract visual form made of colored lights and geometric shapes.
Light Motif explores the possibilities of synergy between music and image through a subjective experience that can speak directly to the subconscious of the viewer.

Producer / Director / Editor / CG Supervisor: Frédéric Bonpapa
Music: Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians, Section II. Performed by Steve Reich and Musicians. Used by permission of Boosey & Hawkes UK Ltd.
Character Modeler: Eric Prebende
Character TD: Frédéric Bonpapa
Character Animators: Barthélémy Boirot, Frédéric Bonpapa, Mathilde Fabry, Romain Pamart
FX Animators: Olivier Barré, Frédéric Bonpapa, Jon Uriarte.
Shading / Lighting TD: Frédéric Bonpapa
Compositors: Frédéric Bonpapa, Jon Uriarte

© 2014 Frédéric Bonpapa

A Tax on Bunny Rabbits

A Tax on Bunny Rabbits from Nathaniel Akin on Vimeo.

"A Tax on Bunny Rabbits" premiered at the 2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival. This short film is all text animation, ascii style! No bunnies were harmed in the making of this film. See more of my work at oxen.tv and riotsquad.tv

Festivals & stuff:
2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival (premiere)
2011 Cutout Fest Queretaro Mexico
2012 Reel 2 Real Festival Youth Jury Most Innovative Film Award!
2012 Nashville International Film Festival
2012 Scratch Film Festival
2012 London International Animation Festival
2012 Film Leben Festival Berlin
2012 Festival Off-courts Trouville
2012 Anibar International Animation Fest Kosovo
2012 Seoul International Extreme Short Image & Film Festival
2012 Going Underground Subway Festival Seoul & Berlin

Art Belongs to Everyone

Let The Arts Roam from I Am Los Angeles on Vimeo.

Wherever they go, they try to make something that makes sense for the neighborhood, and the community. And they always make something positive, something the artists hope people can enjoy -- regardless of whether life has greeted them with great fortune. Armed with a vision and their cans of spray paint, El Mac and Retna will transform a forgotten wall into a piece of art.

El Mac and Retna are street artists, born in LA. They use building walls as blank canvases for their imagery, and the duo has collaborated to create murals all over the world. El Mac and Renta have very different styles, and have been collaborating the last few years. They combine their artistic forces in a specific way: El Mac creates huge lifelike portraits and Retna, calligraphic brushwork and decoration. The result is striking imagery that is unique and recognizable as theirs. It's not uncommon for street art fans and documentarians to gather to watch the progression of an El Mac and Retna work in progress.

El Mac and Retna art feels appropriate for the street because the artists themselves embrace the city streets, the different neighborhoods, and the blend of cultures and backgrounds of the people that fill them. Street art, including the work of El Mac and Retna, also reflects a new attitude about accessibility to art in our environments. "Why not see all the walls painted," says Retna. "Let the Arts Roam!"

Created by Joris Debeij & Terence Loos. Music by The Pilots
jorisdebeij.com - terenceloos.com - thepilots.nl

more portraits @ iamlosangeles.com

Wolf's Law - The Joy Formidable

Wolfs Law - The Joy Formidable from pd3 on Vimeo.

"Inspire and Make Them Laugh...."

Charlie Chicken, Canine Artist - [Short Documentary] from Ed David on Vimeo.

Charlie Chicken is a world-renowned canine artist. Originally from Puerto Rico, he works out of Brooklyn, NY, where his art has been featured in MOMA, the Louvre, and the Getty. This is his story.

TRT: 3 min. [Official selection] Puppy Pound International Film Festival.

Shot on the new Sony FS7 with leica-r 50 and 24mm 3-cam lenses.
Camera provided by my friend Bart McNeil at Omega Broadcast. I love these guys. Bart is very handsome and has a love for enchiladas!omegabroadcast.com

Director/Editor/Colorist/Screenwriter/Voiceover: ED DAVID kittyguerrilla.com
Camera Operators: ADAM WELZ, ED DAVID, JOHN LARSON adamwelz.net
Concept by: LILY HENDERSON + ED DAVID lilyfranceshenderson.com
Special thanks to: LILY HENDERSON + FRIENDS. Bart McNeil at Omega Broadcast. And of course AARF for letting us to adopt Charlie!!arfhamptons.org/ PLEASE ADOPT A RESCUE! There are so many of them that need homes!
Executive Producer: LARS VON TRIER

kittyguerrilla.com

The film was fun to make - it was an idea Lily and I had floating in our heads for a while. So many short doc portraits of artists that take themselves very seriously. Not this one. No way. Wait, maybe a little.

F L U X from candas sisman on Vimeo.

F L U X

from candas sisman PLUS 4 years ago NOT YET RATED

A Short Animation Inspired by the Works of İlhan Koman -  Candaş Şişman’s video dedicated to famous sculptor İlhan Koman produced for the exhibition İlhan Koman: Hulda Festival, a Journey into Art and Science held  September, 2010.

İlhan Koman’s unique design approach in his form studies also inspires contemporary art works. The video installation Flux by young artist Candaş Şişman can be defined as a digital animation which is inspired from the structural features of some of İlhan Koman’s works like Pi, 3D Moebius, Whirlpool and To Infinity... A red circle, which is colored in reference to the red radiators of Ogre, is traced in a morphological transformation which re-interprets the formal approach of Koman’s works. The continuous movement sometimes connotes the formal characteristics of Pi, 3D Moebius, Whirlpool and To Infinity..., as well as the original formal interpretations of the design principles of the works . In Flux, Koman’s design process in the making of the Pi series has been treated as the emerging of a sphere from a two-dimensional circle by the principle of increasing the surface; and that simple direction is re-interpreted in digital medium. Thanks to this, in the digital animation an entirely different form serial that does not resemble Pi yet remaining its design principle can be followed through the flow of a circle to the sphere. As a conscious attitude of the artist, this work is not designed in a direct visual analogy with Koman’s works. During the animation, none of the moments of the transforming form look like Pi or 3D Moebius, however the subjective reading of Koman’s approach can be observed.

With the integration of the sounds of various materials – which Koman used in his sculptures – Flux turns into an impressive spatial experience. Flux, also exemplifies that Koman’s work can be re-interpreted by the analysis and manipulation of form in the digital medium.

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo.

Symmetry

from Everynone PLUS 3 years ago NOT YET RATED

Made by Everynone

in collaboration with WNYC | Radiolab

everynone.com
radiolab.org

Pen Farthing - 2014 CNN Hero Candidate

Pen Farthing: Reuniting soldiers with dogs they left behind

By Meghan Dunn, CNN

updated 10:36 PM EST, Mon November 3, 2014

Top 10 Hero: Pen Farthing

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Pen Farthing, a former Royal Marine sergeant, founded Nowzad Dogs
• The nonprofit reunites stray dogs and cats with soldiers who took them in during combat
• Farthing started the organization after adopting Nowzad, a stray dog, in Afghanistan
• Voting for 'CNN Hero of the Year' continues through Thursday, Nov. 16

Editor's note: Pen Farthing has been named a 2014 Top 10 CNN Hero. Voting for CNN Hero of the Year continues through Sunday, Nov. 16). All of this year's Top 10 CNN Heroes will be honored during CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" -- Sunday, December 7 (8pm ET) on the global networks on CNN.

(CNN) -- Staff Sgt. Edwin Caba served in Afghanistan for nearly three years. Like his fellow soldiers, he longed for a sense of normalcy during his tours.

"We'd spend hours not sleeping, and rushing to eat meals, and staying on guard," said Caba, 26.

When a litter of puppies was born on the base where Caba served, the animals provided just the relief he needed.

Pen Farthing's group has reunited nearly 700 soldiers with stray animal buddies in Afghanistan.

"You walk in, and the dogs are wagging their tails, jumping on your legs and so excited to see you," Caba said. "You forget that you're halfway across the world, in a desert, with hostile things going on."

The soldiers began feeding, bathing and caring for the puppies, and Caba bonded with one in particular.

"She was sleeping on her back, with her mouth wide open, her tongue out a little bit and it was such a dopey thing to do -- and it's just like me," said Caba, who named the dog Cadence. "So I kind of knew that was it for me."

But a few months later, the soldiers' tour was coming to an end. Determined not to leave the dogs behind, they searched for a way to get them to America.

That's when Caba was connected with Nowzad Dogs. Since 2007, the organization has reunited hundreds of soldiers with the stray dogs and cats they rescued while serving on the front lines.

"On every single street corner in Kabul you will find stray dogs," said Pen Farthing, a former Royal Marine sergeant who founded the nonprofit. "To be able to get that animal home to them, it closes the loop. ... They don't want to just abandon that animal."

Soldier's best friend

Farthing knows firsthand the bond that can form between a soldier and a dog. In 2006, while on patrol in Afghanistan, he and his troop encountered a dog fight.

"We broke up that dog fight not realizing that one of those dogs was actually going to adopt me," said Farthing, 45.

The dog followed Farthing back to base. They became friends, and Farthing named him Nowzad, after the town where he saved him.

"He was just war-torn and battered, just like the town we were actually fighting over," he said.

For several months, Farthing and Nowzad filled an important void in each other's lives.

VOTE for the CNN Hero of the Year

Farthing relaxes with Nowzad in Afghanistan's Helmand province in 2006.

"As the troop sergeant, I was there to motivate the guys and get them fired up again to go out and do the job. ... But no one was doing that for me," Farthing said. "My time with this dog was a way of de-stressing, collecting my thoughts and popping my head back in the game."

After his tour ended, Farthing went through a difficult process to get Nowzad home to Britain. He realized he not only wanted to help other soldiers do the same, he wanted to do more to help Afghanistan.

"One day you are fighting the Taliban, and the next day you are home and grocery shopping," Farthing said. "When I got home, I thought, 'What am I doing here?' I didn't want to leave Afghanistan forever."

Today, Nowzad Dogs also works to promote animal welfare in the country.

CNN Heroes: Nowzad Dogs

The group's shelter and clinic in Kabul are staffed by 14 Afghan nationals, four of whom are trained veterinarians. The group spays/neuters street dogs and cats and vaccinates them against rabies to reduce the stray animal population. In turn, those efforts help protect residents by having fewer rabid animals roaming the streets.

Farthing said his organization has the only official animal shelter in Afghanistan. The group also places rescued animals in caring homes there.

Journey to a new home

Farthing's group has reunited animals with nearly 700 service members from eight countries.

Soldiers' dogs and cats are first brought to the shelter in Kabul, where kennel manager and former British soldier Louise Hastie begins the quarantine process. All animals are spayed/neutered, vaccinated and micro-chipped. They spend two to three months at the shelter before being transported to the soldier's home country.

My connection with Afghanistan stayed alive because of Nowzad. 
Pen Farthing, founder of Nowzad Dogs

Last year, Caba and fellow soldiers were reunited in New York with the puppies for which they had cared.

"When I pulled Cadence out of the crate at (the airport), I was just so excited. I was even more excited that she remembered me," Caba said. "It kind of brought me back to coming back after a mission and having her there. It brought me right back to that feeling."

Nowzad lived with Farthing in Britain for the last six years until the dog's recent death. For Farthing, he was a constant reminder of their journey.

"My connection with Afghanistan stayed alive because of Nowzad," Farthing said. "So for me, every time I look at him, it just makes me smile. I could never have dreamed that we'd be doing something like this in Afghanistan."

Want to get involved? Check out the Nowzad Dogs' website at www.nowzad.org and see how to help. CNN

CNN Hero of the Year - One Candidate

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Patricia Kelly: Cowgirl uses horses to motivate at-risk kids

By Marissa Calhoun, CNN

updated 10:39 PM EST, Mon November 3, 2014

Top 10 Hero: Patricia Kelly

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Patricia Kelly's nonprofit teaches children horseback riding and animal science
• Ebony Horsewomen gives at-risk youths an alternative to the streets
• Kelly: "We use horses as a hook to create pride, esteem and healing"
• Voting for 'CNN Hero of the Year' continues through Thursday, Nov. 16

Editor's note: Patricia Kelly has been named a 2014 Top 10 CNN Hero. Voting for CNN Hero of the Year continues through Sunday, Nov. 16). All of this year's Top 10 CNN Heroes will be honored during CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" -- Sunday, December 7 (8pm ET) on the global networks on CNN.

Hartford, Connecticut (CNN) -- Fred Wright may have grown up on Garden Street, but his early childhood was far from rosy.

"It's tough growing up here," said Wright of his low-income neighborhood in Hartford, Connecticut. "There's a lot of negative influences. ... It's easy to take the wrong path."

Patricia Kelly is an equestrian and former Marine.

Raised by a single mother, Wright struggled with behavioral issues and was forced to transfer schools several times. He ultimately reached a point where he felt like he had nothing to live for.

"I was walking around with a lot on my shoulders," he said. "I couldn't handle it. I didn't care about life anymore."

But all that started to change when Wright met Patricia Kelly.

"I was 7 years old when I met Mrs. Kelly. ... I wasn't used to strictness. I wasn't used to hearing the word 'no,'" said Wright, now 17.

Kelly, a former Marine and an equestrian, took Wright under her wing and helped him find hope in an unlikely place: on a horse.

"Fred was like a round peg everybody kept trying to squeeze into a square hole," Kelly said. "He was hurting. He needed a place he could express himself. The (riding) arena became that place for him."

For the last 30 years, Kelly has helped children in Hartford stay on the right track through her nonprofit, Ebony Horsewomen. The program offers horseback riding lessons and teaches animal science to more than 300 young people a year.

"We use horses as a hook to create pride, esteem and healing," said Kelly, 66. "They learn that they have ability. They just have to unlock it."

Closing 'the gap'

Connecticut ranks fourth among the wealthiest states in America, according to the Census Bureau. But it also has one of the nation's largest income gaps between rich and poor.

Kelly, who has lived in Hartford most of her life, witnessed the effects of that inequality on the youth.

"It is a divided city; the children in the poorer neighborhoods have less resources," Kelly said.

VOTE for the CNN Hero of the Year

CNN Heroes: Cowboy Chores

By exposing those children to horsemanship, Kelly aims to give them an alternative to the streets and an opportunity to turn their lives around.

"When you teach a child to ride a horse, they learn they are the center of their environment," said Kelly, whose program reaches children from age 5 to 19. "Once they make that connection, they can change what happens in school, at home and in the community."

The group's equestrian and agricultural center is nestled inside a 693-acre park. Complete with a horse stable, riding arena and an ice cream parlor, it's a far cry from the dilapidated homes and boarded up school buildings that lie just beyond its gates.

Kelly's equestrian fleet includes 14 horses and a Shetland pony. Also on the farm are chickens, rabbits, fish, birds and turtles, all of which have been bred by the children who have made this urban oasis their home away from home.

When you teach a child to ride a horse, they learn they are the center of their environment. Once they make that connection, they can change what happens in school, at home and in the community.
Patricia Kelly

A brotherhood on horseback

Among the programs offered by Kelly's group is its unique Junior Mounted Patrol, in which participants serve as park rangers.

"We're the eyes and ears of the park," said Wright, who is the lieutenant of the all-boys group.

Led by older male mentors, the special unit is comprised of boys as young as 8, who meet each Sunday for a day full of activities. They tend to the barn and horses, take riding lessons and participate in wellness workshops. The older boys in the group ride out on patrol through the park.

"The guys have seen quite a number of things," Kelly said. "They have seen drug deals. They've seen fighting. They've seen sexual acts. They've seen dumping. ... If they see these kinds of things, they report it back in and we turn it over to the police."

In the case of young men like Wright, the nonprofit has been a critical part of their development.

"I can't tell you where I would be without this program. It changed my life. It's helped me set goals for myself," said Wright, who has dreams of becoming an equine blacksmith and dentist. He hopes to attend Cornell University after he graduates high school next year.

For Kelly, stories like Wright's serve as a testament to nature's healing powers.

"Children should have light in their eyes. The light signifies hope," Kelly said. "When they come here, we can begin to turn the light back on."

Want to get involved? Check out the Ebony Horsewomen website atwww.ebonyhorsewomen.us and see how to help.

A Book Review - "The Art of Stillness" by Pico Ayer

Copied from: http://eepurl.com/8vB4 Hey Maria! If you missed last week's edition – why "psychological androgyny" is key to creativity, Bruce Springsteen's favorite books, the elusive art of inner wholeness, Neruda's life as an illustrated love letter to language, and more – you can catch up right here. And if you're enjoying this, please consider supporting with a modest donation – every little bit helps, and comes enormously appreciated. Pico Iyer on What Leonard Cohen Teaches Us about Presence and the Art of Stillness "Faith is the ability to honor stillness at some moments," Alan Lightman wrote in his sublime meditation on science and spirituality, "and at others to ride the passion and exuberance." In his conversation with E.O. Wilson, the poet Robert Hass described beauty as a "paradox of stillness and motion." But in our Productivity Age of perpetual motion, it's increasingly hard – yet increasingly imperative – to honor stillness, tobuild pockets of it into our lives, so that our faith in beauty doesn't become half-hearted, lopsided, crippled. The delicate bridling of that paradox is what novelist and essayist Pico Iyer explores inThe Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (public library |IndieBound) – a beautifully argued case for the unexpected pleasures of "sitting still as a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it," revealed through one man's sincere record of learning to "take care of his loved ones, do his job, and hold on to some direction in a madly accelerating world." Iyer begins by recounting a snaking drive up the San Gabriel Mountains outside Los Angeles to visit his boyhood hero – legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. In 1994, shortly after the most revealing interview he ever gave, Cohen had moved to the Mt. Baldy Zen Center to embark on five years of seclusion, serving as personal assistant to the great Japanese Zen teacher Kyozan Joshu Sasaki, then in his late eighties. Midway through his time at the Zen Center, Cohen was ordained as a Rinzai Zen Buddhist monk and given the Dharma name Jikan – Pali for "silence." Iyer writes: I’d come up here in order to write about my host’s near-silent, anonymous life on the mountain, but for the moment I lost all sense of where I was. I could hardly believe that this rabbinical-seeming gentleman in wire-rimmed glasses and wool cap was in truth the singer and poet who’d been renowned for thirty years as an international heartthrob, a constant traveler, and an Armani-clad man of the world. Cohen, who once described the hubbub of his ordinary state of mind as "very much like the waiting room at the DMV," had sought in the sequestered Zen community a more extreme, more committed version of a respite most us long for in the midst of modern life – at least at times, at least on some level, and often wholeheartedly, achingly. Iyer reflects on Cohen's particular impulse and what it reveals about our shared yearning: Leonard Cohen had come to this Old World redoubt to make a life – an art – out of stillness. And he was working on simplifying himself as fiercely as he might on the verses of one of his songs, which he spends more than ten years polishing to perfection. The week I was visiting, he was essentially spending seven days and nights in a bare meditation hall, sitting stock-still. His name in the monastery, Jikan, referred to the silence between two thoughts. [...] One evening – four in the morning, the end of December – Cohen took time out from his meditations to walk down to my cabin and try to explain what he was doing here. Sitting still, he said with unexpected passion, was “the real deep entertainment” he had found in his sixty-one years on the planet. “Real profound and voluptuous and delicious entertainment. The real feast that is available within this activity.” Was he kidding? Cohen is famous for his mischief and ironies. He wasn’t, I realized as he went on. “What else would I be doing?” he asked. “Would I be starting a new marriage with a young woman and raising another family? Finding new drugs, buying more expensive wine? I don’t know. This seems to me the most luxurious and sumptuous response to the emptiness of my own existence.” Typically lofty and pitiless words; living on such close terms with silence clearly hadn’t diminished his gift for golden sentences. But the words carried weight when coming from one who seemed to have tasted all the pleasures that the world has to offer. Iyer beholds his encounter with Cohen with the same incredulous amazement that most of us modern cynics experience, at first reluctantly, when confronted with something or someone incomprehensibly earnest, for nothing dissolves snark like unflinching sincerity. For Cohen, Iyer observes, the Zen practice was not a matter of "piety or purity" but of practical salvation and refuge from "the confusion and terror that had long been his bedfellows." Iyer writes: Sitting still with his aged Japanese friend, sipping Courvoisier, and listening to the crickets deep into the night, was the closest he’d come to finding lasting happiness, the kind that doesn’t change even when life throws up one of its regular challenges and disruptions. “Nothing touches it,” Cohen said, as the light came into the cabin, of sitting still... Going nowhere, as Cohen described it, was the grand adventure that makes sense of everywhere else. But the paradox thickens the closer we get to its source. The kind of stillness Cohen bows to is a capacity most reliably acquired through meditation. And yet even though meditation is our greatest gateway to everyday transcendence, most adults in the West don't practice it. The second most common reason nonpractitioners have against meditating is that they don't have the time to do it – not enough time to learn to live with presence. (The most common reason to resist, of course, is people's protestation that they simply can't do it or aren't cut out for it, which is merely the time argument by a guise of greater denial – it simply means that they haven't put in the time to get good at it; there is a reason it's termed a meditation practice – mastering it obeys the same basic principles of attaining excellence as any skill.) A century after Bertrand Russell admonished that the conquest of leisure and health would be of no use if no one remembers how to use them, Iyer paints an empirical caricature of the paradoxical time argument against stillness. Citing a sociological study of time diaries that found Americans were working fewer hours than they were 30 years earlier but felt as if they were working more, he writes: We’ve lost our Sundays, our weekends, our nights off – our holy days, as some would have it; our bosses, junk mailers, our parents can find us wherever we are, at any time of day or night. More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call, required to heal ourselves but unable to find the prescription for all the clutter on our desk. As most of us would begrudgingly admit, not without some necessary tussle with denial and rationalization, the challenge of staying present in the era of productivity is in no small part a product of our age itself. Iyer captures this elegantly: Not many years ago, it was access to information and movement that seemed our greatest luxury; nowadays it’s often freedom from information, the chance to sit still, that feels like the ultimate prize. Stillness is not just an indulgence for those with enough resources – it’s a necessity for anyone who wishes to gather less visible resources. Going nowhere, as Cohen had shown me, is not about austerity so much as about coming closer to one’s senses. Much like we find ourselves by getting lost, Iyer suggests, we inhabit the world more fully by mindfully vacating its mayhem: Going nowhere ... isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply. In a sentiment that calls to mind Annie Dillard's memorable notion of "unmerited grace [that] is handed to you, but only if you look for it," Iyer considers the rewards that beckon us from that space of stillness: It’s only by taking myself away from clutter and distraction that I can begin to hear something out of earshot and recall that listening is much more invigorating than giving voice to all the thoughts and prejudices that anyway keep me company twenty-four hours a day. And it’s only by going nowhere – by sitting still or letting my mind relax – that I find that the thoughts that come to me unbidden are far fresher and more imaginative than the ones I consciously seek out. With a wink of wisdom that would've made William James proud, Iyer adds: It takes courage, of course, to step out of the fray, as it takes courage to do anything that’s necessary, whether tending to a loved one on her deathbed or turning away from that sugarcoated doughnut. The Art of Stillness, which comes from TED Books, is a wonderful read in its entirety. Complement it with Alan Watts on happiness and how to live with presence, Rebecca Solnit's magnificent field guide to getting lost, Annie Dillard on presence vs. productivity, and some thoughts on wisdom in the age of information.