Make Your Mar(k)quee
We often ignore billboards and advertising. But a local church’s marquee message can move us or make us shake our fist in anger—or cause us to laugh uncontrollably, as this one did.
Art Within Arm's Reach
"Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes." --Kahlil Gibran
Street Art Scavenger Hunt
I have a theory: The reason so many artists love New York is because you can be taking a casual walk in Manhattan, turn a corner, and BOOM, you find sudden inspiration—in a building's architecture, a person's clothing, even a piece of street art.
Go Big or Go Home
If you had one last chance to do something good with what you have, what would it be? Would you empty your checking account, rent a helicopter, and throw the money out the side? Finally record that song you wrote 10 years ago and post it on YouTube? Serve
Pause that moment...
I wish life had a remote control. Fast-forward the crap; pause the really good stuff. That way, I could make the great moments in my life last forever—or at least 5 minutes longer. Like that night 8 years ago, when we sat on the park bench for two hours,
Scrap-paper prayer
“Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.” --Gandhi
Pray. In Seven Words.
Write a conversation (read: prayer) with God. Use only seven words.
Awkward Self-Portrait
Set up and take your own awkward self-portrait. Capture your life right now in all its awkward, uncomfortable glory.
Send a sign to God
Asking for a sign from God: Lame. Sending a sign TO God: Totally awesome. If you could send a sign to God letting him, her, it, know what’s on your mind, what would you say? Tweet it with the hashtag #signtogod and post it below so that God (and everyone
Playlist for People-Watching
“Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.” —Plato
Express Excess
“Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.” —Voltaire
Spanglish. Brunch. Spork.
port·man·teau (n) - A word whose form and meaning are derived from a blending of two or more distinct words (i.e. smog = smoke + fog) There’s something beautiful about the blend. So let’s play the portmanteau game. Pick a subject and give us a portmantea
Digital Invisible Ink
I have writer's block. I need to write an intro for this post, and I don’t know where to start. I’ve written and deleted variations of the opener about nine times. Now I’m just typing out of necessity. If you’re like me and constantly kicked in the shins
Add a disclaimer
Religious texts leave a lot to the mind of the beholder. Even the select few who take their tomes word for word in a literal interpretation are still, well...interpreting. And along the way there are plenty of warnings to the wary wanderer. That’s the bea
Finders, Keepers, Chroniclers
Step 1. Find an object. Anything. Anywhere. Step 2. Write a portrait of the person who last held it. Post it here, along with a photo of your find.
Da Vinci in the Dirt
There’s something irresistible about dirty car windshields. Like wet cement, the urge to leave our mark overrides all sensibilities concerning vandalism-lite. We’ve just got to stick our fingers in it.
Single Sheet of Art
Artist Mui-Ling Teh, at the ripe age of 23, hasn’t yet made 2,000 micro-origami cranes from just one piece of paper, but she estimates she’s about halfway there.
Decastich Your Drawer
Pull out your old junk drawer and use your stash to inspire a decastich—a 10-line poem with no restrictions on meter or rhyme.
Keep Within the Lines
“There’s so many things to do, so many things to write! How to even begin to get it all down and without modified restraints and all hung-up on like literary inhibitions and grammatical fears…” —Dean Moriarty, On the Road
Tell Me You're Sorry
"True remorse is never just a regret over consequence; it is a regret over motive." —Mignon McLaughlin
Move over, fridge magnets...
Some clever folks have taken magnetic poetry to the next next level at Twitter Magnets. You have 140 characters, no time limit, and the remarkably soothing sounds of magnets swooshing into place over music reminiscent of what you'd hear at a day spa.
Hero or Zero?
If everyone’s got a bad side, why do those dubbed saviors and champions and redeemers always get a free pass? Sure, their deeds may be great, their acts selfless, their work courageous, but ALL greatness comes at a price, no? Perhaps the people we revere
