“Sleepyhead” live at the Warfield, SF. The band will be making a triumphant return to the venue in late August. Ticket info coming soon.
“Take a Walk” ~another personal favorite:
Be Realistic
The Biological Advantages of Being Awestruck
“Humphrey refers to consciousness as a magic show that you stage for yourself inside your head, which lights up the world and makes you feel special and transcendent… this magical theater provides a reason to live, a love of occupying the present moment, and a desire to sustain it into the future, that over time has proved stronger than anything else, and accounts for humanity’s swift and triumphant success.”
This video by futurist Jason Silva was inspired by three big ideas:
1) The ideas of psychologist Nicholas Humphrey who wrote about “The Biological Advantages of Being Awestruck”. Our ability to awe was biologically selected for by evolution because it imbues our lives with a sense of cosmic significance that has resulted in a species that works harder not just to survive but to flourish and thrive.
Humphrey says: “being enchanted by the magic of experience, rather than being just an aid to survival, provides an essential incentive to survive.”
“We relish just being here. We feel “the yen to confirm and renew, in small ways or large, our own occupancy of the present moment, to go deeper, to extend it, to revel in being there, and when we have the skill, to celebrate it in words…” ~mmm beautiful.
More: online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703858404576214771893335998.html
2) A recent Stanford study that found that a state of awe is clinically good for you, expanding perception of time, increasing compassion and empathy and promoting well-being:
3) Ross Andersen’s meditation on the ontological awakening of our psyches provided by the Hubble Space Telescope:
“At first glancing the Deep FIELD “one might mistake it for gemstones scattered across black velvet, but a closer look reveals that each smudge of light, 2,600 in all, is a galaxy dense with billions of star-fired worlds, pinwheeling in deep time. … To that point, astronomy had imaged objects only four billion light years away, and poorly at that. Here a telescope reached 11 and a half billion light years into space and delivered an image legible to the layman: an unprecedented expansion of human vision.”
More: lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=331
Feel what Silva is putting down? Check out his YouTube channel for more glorious rants on science + art + wonder: http://www.youtube.com/user/jasonsilvamindmeld
A Manifesto….
Don’t tell us that it’s impossible and that there is no budget for glitter…
Video collaboration between Melcher Media, Prologue and Erik Natzke of Adobe rallies the creative community around the ability to have real, meaningful impact on the world.
On Persuasion…
Brain Games host, Jason Silva, believes that targeted marketing can be a consumer-empowering concept. Do you agree?
Oscillate
Check out this mesmerizing digital animation of sine waves by Daniel Sierra. A full description of the piece along with some still frames can be found at: dbsierra.com.
This Is Water
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. That is being taught how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the “rat race” — the constant, gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.”
…by the brilliant David Foster Wallace.
Favorite quote from the video:
“But if you learn how to pay attention, it will be within your power to experience a hell-type situation as sacred, on fire with the same forces that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.”
…try to think about this when you’re suffering through a banal situation you would rather avoid. Really does have the power to change your perspective.
Favorite quote from the speech which didn’t make it into this video short:
“If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.” ~DFW
Do Great Things: Understanding and Compassion
“We now have the chance to design our own evolution.” ~Justin Rosenstein
How can our interconnectedness and universal love be applied for pragmatic understanding and repurposing of business, technology and global human systems?
To learn more about Asana, check out: http://asana.com/welcome.
Amazing in Motion
This ad spot is the first in a series of “Amazing in Motion” projects created by Lexus Global. This lovely short tells the story of a 12-ft tall figure brought to life by puppeteers as it moves through the city in search of something it lost.
To take part in the campaign, join in at #amazinginmotion or subscribe to Lexus at: http://bit.ly/Lm4j4n
Found via @Zac_R.
Desiderata
“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Be kind. Strive to be happy.”
~Max Ehrmann
