In Pursuit of the Interesting

"You are the best. You are the worst. You are average. Your love is a part of you. You try to give it away because you cannot bear its radiance, but you cannot separate it from yourself. To understand your fellow humans, you must understand why you give them your love. You must realize that hate is but a crime-ridden subdivision of love. You must reclaim what you never lost. You must take leave of your sanity, and yet be fully responsible for your actions."

— Gnarls Barkley, in a letter to the legendary rock critic Lester Bangs

My friend Matt Glassmeyer is in this band (he’s the one with a feather duster on his head). He has done some very rad projects—like building his roof out of vinyl records. He is and will remain one of the most fascinating people I’ve ever had the pleasure of writing about.

And here are two of his recent hobby projects. Gotta love this guy.

Thanks man. Keep on rockin.

This is what a full block will look like. The quilt will (hopefully) be about 6x6 feet. Depending on how bad I mess up…

Riane learns to quilt. So far I have 125 of these blocks—and only 15 to go. Seeing as this is my first attempt at sewing, I’m feeling pretty accomplished.

125 IP Points for me.

"A bigger blessing, girl, is being young. The power of not knowing where you belong. I try so hard to keep it, not to lose that secret. Waiting for someone like you to come along. -Kings of Convenience"

Sonia Manchanda on the Right to Dream.

In Bangalore, India, an organization called DREAM:IN sent young people—”dream catchers”—out into the world to ask people about their dreams. They harvested the answers, some of which were marketable, and some of which weren’t. Everyone came back changed.

DREAM:IN then brought people together who can realize dreams, like entrepreneurs, bureaucrats and creative thinkers and mobilized them to turn creative thought into creative action. Because dreams have the power to help people realize their full potential and create value in society.

And that is a reassuring thought.

Via Chris Ferdinandi at Go Make Things.

Interesting people go on long walks.

IP Goal: Be a pellegrino.

Interesting people quit their NY cubicle jobs, buy a VW van, and travel the country. I’m bleeding admiration for Foster Huntington.

IP Goal: Travel around, working on a book for other IPs. (Foster is working on one for these guys. Rad.)

Life goal: Do something daring. Embrace risk.

Interesting people travel via cloud. This transport system is propelled by wind, not agenda, so “passengers about the Passing Cloud would have no need for planning, as they would have little to no influence on the cloud’s direction and speed.” You won’t know where you land, how long you’ll be in the air. And you get to walk on top of it the entire way.

I love this project because it asks us to think about travel as the journey, not the way to get to the destination. Which is a cliche I’d like to experience firsthand. I hope it happens.

IPs design homes like this one. But IPs rarely live in them. I’m scared to breathe on the screen for fear of messing it up.

IP Goal: Don’t live in one of these.

Life Goal: Visit one of these.