Today, a couple of open-earedness items.

I was listening to latest episode of WFMU’s Downtown Soulville when DJ Mr. Fine Wine described the CD he is offering as a premium for supporters of his show in the station’s current fund drive. The show features (often rare) soul and R&B on 45s, and so does the CD  — songs like “Doo Plus Two” by Dicky Doo and the Don’ts. Out of 25 songs on the disc, Fine Wine noted, Shazam (the popular song-identification app) recognized only six or seven. The rest, he mused, were “unshazamable.”

I liked this term, so I looked into it. Turns out that it’s been in use since at least the late 2010s, referring to music that Shazam doesn’t recognize and thus has a sort of “off the grid” connotation — and appeal.

This is partly a tribute to how astonishingly good Shazam is. I use it all the time, and I’m always surprised on those occasions when it’s stumped.

But that aside, maybe it’s also a handy term for something bigger.

Everybody complains (understandably!) about the algorithms that shape our entertainment choices and direct our attention. But seeking the unshazmable isn’t just a way of escaping the algorithm. The unshazamable isn’t even in the database that the algorithm is designed to mine!

Tapping into something enjoyable that didn’t come from a database doesn’t have to take the form of consuming a particular cultural object like a rare song; it could be an experience, a moment of presence. Looking at the moon can be unshazamable.

So this week, be alert to, and try to appreciate, unshazamable things — in the broadest sense of the term!

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THE HEARD

Sharing one randomly overheard song that I’ve enjoyed lately: Little unexpected bursts of delightful music are definitely things I savor.

Speaking of WFMU (yes, I am a regular supporter), I was listening to Wreck Your Own Adventure on the station’s Give the Drummer Radio stream when “Sleep a Million Years,” by Kathy Heideman, caught my ear. I had never heard of the singer, and I couldn’t place whether the song’s country/Americana sound was something contemporary or more vintage. I looked into it and found a couple of articles that gave the back story, which turned out to be a great case study in open-earedness.

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For several years now, author and friend of TAoN Anne Gisleson has graciously invited me to her creative writing class at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, a public arts high school here. These visits are always a blast.

Among other things, the students pick one of the exercises in the book to inspire a creative noticing project — a zine, videos, interviews, whatever they wish — and it’s invariably impressive and fun and impressively fun. This year’s class made a “Field Guide To Area Kitchens.”

Even before I saw what they’d done, I loved this idea — mostly we think of a “field guide” as a tool to help identify birds or plants or somesuch, but why not apply it to the domestic sphere? Isn’t the territory of the home worth systematically exploring and noticing and categorizing, too?

The key to an engaging and illuminating field guide is coming up with good categories that balance comprehensiveness with idiosyncrasy. So in this case, we get a floor plan, a photograph, and appliance ratings, as well as individual notes that leave room for personality and individuality. It’s a model of the form!

It’s also — and I don’t think the students will mind this judgment — pleasingly silly. At first glance, at least, it seems almost absurd to give this much thought to your own kitchen. In this way it’s a classic “pointless” project. (That’s a good thing.)

But dig a little deeper and the field guide is quietly revealing, offering little glimpses of day-to-day life — giving a considered look at spaces we take for granted, and discovering what that inspires.

The 24-page zine they created also includes some amusing and insightful bonus findings — discovering that every stove seems to have a most-popular burner, for instance — and the “group bio” exercise from the book.

Bravo!

What’s your favorite field guide? If you had to make one, what subject would you choose? What if you were to collaborate on a field guide, with a class, family, or a group of friends?

Leave a comment

My deepest thanks to Anne and her students — from past years, too! It’s always a thrill to know the book helps inspire such lovely creativity.

• Noticing is about other people, too. The Icebreaker series aims to help with that. There’s a central collection spot for all the icebreakers to date, here.

Today’s Icebreaker comes from The Guardian:

“What’s the nicest thing a stranger has done for you?”

This question is the basis of Guardian series on “the kindness of strangers.”

Please send your favorite icebreaker (whether you made it up or found it elsewhere) to consumed@robwalker.net.

SUPPORT TAoN

If you enjoy TAoN, please become a paid supporter. You’ll get access to the full archives as well as supporter-only bonus posts and discussion threads. Your support makes this newsletter possible. Thank you!

IN OTHER NEWS

• Fantastic post by Mark Frauenfelder on how one little shift in attention/perception can lead to all sorts of noticing discoveries.

• Museum-worthy display cases. Can we get an exhibition of display objects? That would be amazing!

• “Liminalism (if we can christen this as a movement, and we should).” My two cents is that this (generally good) essay ends up treating “liminal” as mostly a particular and very identifiable visual/architectural aesthetic. I think “liminal space” can be a much more interesting idea, for better and worse. Still, worth reading. I think this A24 Backrooms movie is going to be a big branding moment for “liminalism.” (Thx Stacy!)

• Field Guide to Dollar Tree Trees. “A collection of images of trees at Dollar Tree store locations across the United States.” (Via Kottke.)

• Crisp packet design.

• People standing on one leg.

• Staff at the Lincoln Center keeps a list of botched movie titles from ticket-buyers (Upside Down, Anyways for Everything Everywhere All at Once, etc.). The Times shares a bunch of examples, and includes wrong-title “posters” created by Tala Safié. Brilliant!

• Walking Tour for Anywhere. Interesting audio piece by Matt Bunk.

• Endorse:

  

OKAY THAT’S IT!

• As always, I value your feedback (suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, constructive insults directed at me, not at anyone else, etc.), as well as your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers: consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments.

• —> Or just click the heart symbol. That always makes my day.

Share The Art of Noticing

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• RobWalker.net | NB: I use (some) Amazon Affiliate links

All this by Rob Walker PO Box 171, 748 Mehle St., Arabi LA 70032.

—> Send me mail! I’ll give a three-month free trial to the Supporter version of TAoN to any current free subscriber who snail-mails me a request (include your email address).

To unsubscribe see the bottom of the email, or go here.

Once again it’s time for Savor of the Month!

For newcomers:

At the start of every month I announce one specific thing or theme to look out for, pay attention to, appreciate. The idea is to convert something everyday and taken for granted into something we might, yes, savor.

And every month I create a chat thread where you can share what you are noticing, or enjoy what others have noticed. You can post pictures, drawings, written observations, whatever works for you. Or just browse!

Themes so far:

Calm (results here) * Treasure (results here) * Winter (results here) * Mysteries (results here) * Outliers (results here) * Ornamentation (results here) * Everyday Artists (results here) * Reflections (results here) * Contrast (results here) * The Temporary (results here; related audio essay here) * Wind (results here) * Circles (results here) * Small Flowers (results here) * Shadows (results here)

For March, the subject is PUBLIC TEXT. By that I mean signs, street art, advertisements — words in the public sphere. As always this is a little ambiguous, I concede, but that should just prod you to pay attention in new ways. Notice what strikes you as a PUBLIC TEXT.

I’ll say a little more below, but in short: hunt for “PUBLIC TEXTs,” as you define them, while you go about your days.

The thread is open.

The quick back story:

Read more

For several days now I’ve been mulling this Wall Street Journal article about a curious category of travel video. There’s no host or narration, just longish (30 minutes, an hour, even longer) first-person-point-of-view walks (perhaps including bits of informational subtitles), designed to make you feel you’re the one exploring a food market in China or experiencing a rainy stroll in England.

I love the spirit of offering up far-flung explorations in such a leisurely, unpackaged way — even as I’m hesitant about adding to my screen time.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I have an idea for stealing from this practice in a lighter-lift way. And I’ll get to that in a sec. But first, if you want to check out some of these videos yourself:

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Back in November I wrote (twice) about the inspiring picture books of Tana Hoban — definitely a Hero of Noticing. Today I have a little more background (and inspiration) to share.

An exhibition called “CLICK! Photographers Make Picture Books,” is now up at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, through June 71. Its curator, Leonard S. Marcus, has published an article sketching a history of photo-illustrated picture books for children. It notes Hoban’s work, and her guiding project of encouraging children to engage with their surroundings.

It also offers a couple of key precedents and influences — an early picture book featuring images from the celebrated photographer Edward Steichen, and a tech-forward educational project from the late 1960s that let kids themselves to make the images.

To start with the latter: a young New York educator named Robie Heilbrun “was dismayed at the children’s lack of curiosity about the vibrant city in which they lived,” Marcus writes, so she “arranged to give them easy-to-operate Super 8 cameras and invited them to film whatever most interested them during group walks through their neighborhoods.” (This was in the form of field trips with Harris and other adults; they weren’t just wandering around unsupervised!)

The result is a very idiosyncratic short documentary, “A Child’s Eye View.”

A 1968 New York Times article described the project:

Read more

Today: walking. As if it weren’t a virtuous enough and constantly recommended activity already, The New York Times now suggests (gift link) it can be a first step toward civic reform.

Specifically, The Times and Citizen University propose a form of walk that amounts to “an exercise for mapping civic power in a geographic space.”

Look around your neighborhood, Citizen University suggests: “Have you ever wondered… how did things come to be this way? Who made the choices that shaped this place? And what’s changing right now, often without us noticing?”

The Times writes:

At its core, the Power Walk is a new lens through which to see a neighborhood, guided by a series of prompts to reflect on what could change and where capacity exists to change it. It’s a way of understanding the possibilities that people see in the world around them, and discussing what collective power they have to realize those possibilities.

The Times article tells the story of citizens reshaping a lower Manhattan neighborhood, including the conversion of unused land into a public park. It all started with locals looking around and asking questions about what could change, and how.

To help encourage such outcomes elsewhere, Citizen University has made a Power Walk field guide, and I really like some of the questions

These questions prompt you to attend to and consider your neighborhood in new ways, even if you don’t have specific ideas for changes. And who knows — after a walk or two, maybe you’ll have a few!

(That Times article, by the way, ends with a call-out to anyone interested in trying a Power Walk wherever you are. Go here and scroll to the form at the bottom if that might be you!)

Leave a comment

• Noticing is about other people, too. The Icebreaker series aims to help with that. There’s a central collection spot for all the icebreakers to date, here.

Today’s Icebreaker comes from Melvin Adekanye:

“What three words would your friends use to describe you?”

Melvin is a bona-fide icebreaker expert! He’s the founder of JamSocial, a platform for starting conversations and connections at events. More about their Jam Bingo game here.

To me this question inspires two spinoffs — what three words do you wish they would use, and (hardest to answer in conversation, I suppose) what three might you fear?

Thank you so much, Melvin!

Please send your favorite icebreaker (whether you made it up or found it elsewhere) to consumed@robwalker.net.

SUPPORT TAoN

If you enjoy TAoN, please become a paid supporter. You’ll get access to the full archives as well as supporter-only bonus posts and discussion threads. Your support makes this newsletter possible.

—> ALSO: Check out the recent TAoN creative-attention Zoom workshop on turning moments into haiku, led by writer/photographer/traveler Lisa Germany.

Thank you!

IN OTHER NEWS

• Spurious Correlations (example above). I love this project so much. (Via Kottke)

• Badass Olympic skeleton-racer helmets.

• “Rather than keeping a diary, I started keeping notebooks. Where a diary constructs narrative, character and voice, a notebook is inherently fragmented, allowing for unexpected glimmers of serendipitous juxtaposition and lyric voltage.” Essay By Daniel Poppick

• An online museum of Typographic Objects. (Via Heller, who has an interview.)

• Book cover designer Oliver Munday on someone else designing his book’s cover.

• “The earliest known example of possible operative dental work dates to approximately 14,000 years ago in northern Italy.” Fun fact from this piece about why earlier humans had straight teeth without braces.

• Street art interacting with reality.

• “This page intentionally left blank.” Why that is.

• KBB on 20 years of drawing stuff she bought, and “the strange comfort of repetition.”

OKAY THAT’S IT!

• As always, I value your feedback (suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, constructive insults directed at me, not at anyone else, etc.), as well as your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers: consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments.

• —> Or just click the heart symbol. That always makes my day.

Share The Art of Noticing

And thanks for reading …
rw

• RobWalker.net | NB: I use (some) Amazon Affiliate links

All this by Rob Walker PO Box 171, 748 Mehle St., Arabi LA 70032.

—> Send me mail! I’ll give a three-month free trial to the Supporter version of TAoN to any current free subscriber who snail-mails me a request (include your email address).

To unsubscribe see the bottom of the email, or go here.

Here for supporters who couldn’t make it is a video of the workshop.

I’ll quickly mention a couple of things I found useful to jot down, as someone w…

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Audio Archive

Leave a comment

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* Great responses are coming in for February’s Savor of the Month prompt: Calm. Join in here!

DO YOU HAVE A LIGHT SECRET?

Recently I read a great, strange, entertaining short story, “Light Secrets,”1 by Joseph O’Neill. I read fiction for fun, not in order to find TAoN-friendly ideas. But the notion of the “light secret” jumped out as a delightful, and I think useful, concept. So I’m sharing it with you here.

Here’s how it comes up in the story (for our purposes, context and character details can be set aside):

P. says, “Everybody’s got something to hide. Everybody.” He wears his usual gloomy face. With no lessening of the gloom, he says, “But you know what else is true? Everybody’s done something good that’s hidden—the opposite of a dark secret.”

“A light secret,” I suggest.

“Precisely,” P. says.

“Like an anonymous donation?”

P. shrugs. “It could be a lot more interesting than that.”

Read more

I’ll explain Savor of the Month to uninitiated below.

But first: calm.

I’ve been thinking about calm a lot because, you know, current events. So I was intrigued by this article in Psyche on “finding pockets of serenity.” The author, Zsanett Ritli, focuses on calming antidotes to the overload and chaos of urban life — and specifically on art and architecture designed to function as such antidotes. The familiar strategy of escaping to nature is legit, Ritli acknowledges, but is not always practical. And in any case, why shouldn’t such pockets exist everywhere?

Ritli explores works by several artists and designers, beginning with a visit to a gallery installation by light-and-space artist Doug Wheeler.

“[The] installation begins with two large ‘portals’ that visitors step through into a large room without corners, objects or shadows. .... I watched the light shifting in slow gradients: dusky lavender turned into pearled white and then into a soft, horizon-like blue. ... Gradually, I noticed my breathing changing, and I felt a sense of stillness arrive as if it had been waiting for me behind a door. It seemed the room itself had quietly lowered the volume of my nervous system.”

Describing works of “engineered stillness” by James Turrell and other artists and designers, Ritli maintains that in some of their projects, “the act of looking can become a kind of rest.” This echoes the calming effects of the natural:

“The environmental psychologists Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan use the term ‘soft fascination’ to describe the gentle, low-effort attention that sometimes emerges when people spend time in natural environments. Staring at the movement of waves on the sea, or of leaves rustling in the wind, for example, can help us recover from fatigue by allowing us to stay focused with little cognitive effort.”

That said, these artists aren’t exactly trying to re-create nature. But their efforts to craft works that inspire “soft fascination” prove that stillness can be made — or found — in surprising places. Ritli acknowledges the pockets of calm we discover, often by chance: “a sunlit corner in a high-rise office, an empty subway platform just before the morning rush, a quiet courtyard where the hum of traffic fades into distant birdsong.”

I’m really interested in those discoveries. For me, there’s a spot in Crescent Park here in New Orleans where I always stop when a bike ride takes me along that route: a former wharf that was definitely engineered for commerce rather than calmness, but is now most striking for its peaceful view of the Mississippi. “We can learn how to locate calm in a place not designed for calm,” Ritli writes.

Agreed. And in fact I’ll bet you’ve done it. If not, what better time than now? Honor the places of calm you’ve discovered — and look for new ones, wherever you are.

Leave a comment

SAVOR OF THE MONTH (14): CALM

This brings us to Savor of the Month. For the uninitiated:

In a Supporter post at the start of every month I announce one specific thing or theme to look out for, pay attention to, appreciate. The idea is to convert something everyday and taken for granted into something we might, yes, savor.

And every month I create a corresponding chat thread where you can share what you are noticing around that theme, or enjoy what others have noticed. You can post pictures, drawings, written observations, whatever works for you. Or just browse!

Themes so far:

Treasure (results here) * Winter (results here) * Mysteries (results here) * Outliers (results here) * Ornamentation (results here) * Everyday Artists (results here) * Reflections (results here) * Contrast (results here) * The Temporary (results here; related audio essay here) * Wind (results here) * Circles (results here) * Small Flowers (results here) * Shadows (results here)

For February, the subject is CALM. As is often the case, that’s a little ambiguous, giving you room to interpret the prompt. But as you move through the month, attend to moments of calm, pockets of serenity, tranquility engineered or simply discovered — from places you return to often, to moments that simply arise. As always pictures are great but drawings, prose, poetry, or anything else is welcome.

The thread is open, right here.

SUPPORT TAoN

If you enjoy TAoN — and you want to hear about and contribute to future Savor topics — please become a paid supporter. You’ll get access to the full archives as well as supporter-only bonus posts and discussion threads. Your support makes this newsletter possible.

—> ALSO: Registration is open for a Zoom workshop on turning moments into haiku, led by writer/photographer/traveler Lisa Germany. More here.

Thank you!

IN OTHER NEWS

• You’re welcome filip jaśkiewicz and colleagues. ;)

• Take an alternate route, and more ideas for finding inspiration offline. (Thanks Livia!)

• Albrecht Dürer’s Pillow Studies (1493): “Completed in his early twenties, the work seems to slip between the waking world and the stuff of dreams.” Public Domain Review, via.

• Very good essay on Pluribus and AI.

• List of lists of lists on Wikipedia. Via BB.

• Cat art. Nuff said.

• One last note on the Small Idea post. “I’m a fan of seeing the world in the company of little ones,” Rebecca H. writes, sending along the pic below. “This is actually a little guy I noticed while out on a walk in Brooklyn in the Covid Days. I’m not sure if he always resided there or was just visiting the 410 sign but he brought me such joy.” Us too, Rebecca. Thank you!

OKAY THAT’S IT!

• As always, I value your feedback (suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, constructive insults directed at me, not at anyone else, etc.), as well as your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers: consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments.

• —> Or just click the heart symbol. That always makes my day.

Share The Art of Noticing

And thanks for reading …
rw

• RobWalker.net | NB: I use (some) Amazon Affiliate links

All this by Rob Walker PO Box 171, 748 Mehle St., Arabi LA 70032.

Send me mail! I’ll give a three-month free trial to the Supporter version of TAoN to any current free subscriber who snail-mails me a request (include your email address).

To unsubscribe see the bottom of the email, or go here.

I’m excited to announce a new TAoN experiment, as teased a couple weeks ago: a free online workshop on a creative attention/noticing practice. Specifically, TAoN supporter, writer, photographer, traveler, and all-around attentive creator Lisa Germany will lead a workshop, via Zoom, on the subject of attention and haiku.

I’ll be hosting and participating, but Lisa, who has run similar workshops, will lead the way. (Read more about her and her work here. (UPDATE January 30: Also check out her just-launched newsletter, This Haiku Life.)

As a TAoN supporter, you’re invited! (Again, it’s free to you.) Some details:

Creative Attention Workshop: Haiku

—> Friday February 13, Noon to 1 pm Eastern USA Time

The session will be led by Lisa Germany. Her noticing practice focuses on shaping small, nature-based moments into haiku.

This will be a one-hour online workshop. We will look at haiku as a form of attention, not just a poetic structure. Participants will be invited to try writing a few haiku of their own.

This will be a very practical, outcomes-oriented workshop. Lisa will mostly focus on actually turning moments into haiku.

Participants are encouraged (but not required) to bring a recent photo you can work from as inspiration.

No prior experience with poetry or writing is necessary. Curiosity and a willingness to notice are enough.

I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope you’ll join us.

Register here!

Again that’s Friday, February 13 at noon Eastern USA time.

—> Note you will need Zoom (the free version will do the trick) and registration is required. Space is limited.

I’m excited to see how this goes, should be fun!

Leave a comment

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEEND!

• As always, I value your feedback (suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, constructive insults, etc.), as well as your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers: consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments.

And thanks for reading …
rw

RobWalker.net | NB: I use (some) Amazon Affiliate links

All this by Rob Walker PO Box 171, 748 Mehle St., Arabi LA 70032

—> If you enjoy this newsletter, please help spread the word! Or just click the heart button, that’s always very appreciated!

• If someone forwarded you this subscriber-only edition, and you enjoyed it, consider signing on yourself.

Today, a peek inside the TAoN mailbag. Lots of cool stuff as always.

• First, one bit of official mail: The new book Attensity! is an attention “manifesto.” I probably don’t need to tell TAoN readers that you have to fight to keep your attention from being hijacked these days, but there are lots of people who still haven’t gotten that message. Attensity! will help, not least because the book’s creators are actually quite adept at attracting attention. (That’s a compliment.) And their message is bracing. Here’s an article about the book in The Observer. More on the book and The Friends of Attention here. (And here’s an earlier TAoN post about a related project from Attensity!’s creators.)

Now on to recent mail from TAoN readers!

• I love this series of illustrations from Maria Rosa Mystica, exploring what she calls The Art of Slowing Down. I’m particularly into that frog. More about the project and Maria’s work here, and below. Thanks Maria!

Read more

Hi all,

Today something a little different, maybe at first even a little confusing — but in a good way!

I received a very interesting note recently from filip jaśkiewicz, who describes himself as an artist, director, and “object theater maker,” from Poland. He was, he tells me, “inspired and encouraged” by The Art of Noticing to start a project he calls The Small Things Travel Agency. This, filip explains, echoes his own method for noticing and exploring the world. Here’s more from him:

In 2025 I officially started the smallest travel agency in the world. It’s an agency run by me in cooperation with tiny figurines: The Pig, Yeti, Always Amazed Beardman, Antelope, Man with His Hand Raised and many others.

The idea for a travel agency run by objects was born when I discovered that walking with them gives me a new perspective of the world. I later figured out that spending time with small objects boosts my creativity, gives me relaxation and re-discovers the space within myself and all around me.

I have special exercises I do during our walks, but sometimes I just go with the flow and let The Time do its own thing. Just paying full attention to your tiny travel guide can be game changer.

Naturally I was interested, and filip answered a few questions for me. Obviously this is not so much a travel business as an imaginative and entertaining way of approaching the world. In short, he explained: “If you take part in our travels, you have to let this tiny figurine be your guide and trust it.” He does this himself: “After every walk I try to write down every note, every thought, every little discovery we made together.”

There’s more at filip’s Instagram.

For those of us not in Poland and unable to take a walk under the specific direction of the Small Things Travel Agency and its guides, I think it’s safe to say we can borrow from the spirit of the project and experiment with how traveling with a tiny companion might affect our attention. Surely you have some interesting little tour guides of your own you can choose from? Then just follow the guidance of the Agency’s manifesto:

Filip also graciously passed along a couple of additional small-traveler prompt ideas:

Whenever you feel stuck or bored, you can try one of Small Things Travel Agency’s challenges!

1. Take your guide to any grocery shop/shopping mall/public space and try to transform it into playground. Just you and your guide. Have fun!

2. Think of your guide as a God. Then go for a walk together!

I love all of this! Thanks for reaching out, filip!!

Leave a comment

SUPPORT TAoN

If you enjoy TAoN, please become a paid supporter. You’ll get access to the full archives as well as supporter-only bonus posts and discussion threads. Your support makes this newsletter possible. Thank you!

Subscribe now

IN OTHER NEWS

• What We Will Use as Weapons: A List of School Supplies, a “protest quilt” by Ginny Robinson. (Via Kottke.)

• Peeling Paint Appreciation Society, a Facebook group. (Thx Paul!)

• “Try a screen-free meal. Eat without scrolling, listening to podcasts or watching videos; let it be just the food and your thoughts.” Via.

• This essay in favor of buying a stroller for a dog is basically a perfect piece of writing.

• The impressive Erin McKean has a newsletter devoted to cataloging Things Learned While Looking Up Other Things. Endorse!

• Keep a distraction diary, and nine more writing prompts.

• “What does it mean to spend five bucks? Well, that’s five bucks. But six bucks? Well, that’s still five bucks. Four bucks is also kind of five bucks. Three bucks is two bucks. And two bucks is basically free.” Etc. I love this riff so much.

• Simultaneously impressive and depressing design dive breaking down the visuals/uniforms of the many federal forces on American streets these days.

• “At Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, tiny invertebrates are preserved alongside ornate, handwritten labels.” Strangely beautiful.

• Video of a guy saying a word a day for a year.

• “She thought it was a cute outfit. They thought it was an invitation.” Powerful piece by artist Aubrey Hirsch.

• Really digging this series of semiotics experts writing about their tattoos.

• Make Everything Okay button. Somebody call tech support? (Via BB.)

OKAY THAT’S IT!

• As always, I value your feedback (suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, constructive insults directed at me, not at anyone else, etc.), as well as your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers: consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments.

• —> Or just click the heart symbol. That always makes my day.

Share The Art of Noticing

And thanks for reading …
rw

• RobWalker.net | NB: I use (some) Amazon Affiliate links

All this by Rob Walker PO Box 171, 748 Mehle St., Arabi LA 70032. Send me mail! I’ll give a three-month free trial to the Supporter version of TAoN to any free subscriber who snail-mails me a request (include your email address).

To unsubscribe see the bottom of the email, or go here.

WELL RECEIVED

A couple of years ago I wrote about gifts, asking what’s the best gift you’ve ever given (and immodestly sharing my own answer). This was partly a reaction to the whole “gift guide” phenomenon that rolls around every holiday season. No shade to gift guides, but the best gifts usually involve more attention and care than a list of products can offer.

Which brings me to the quilt that E (my wife) recently made and gave me for my birthday. I am over the moon about it.

In short, it’s a beautiful quilt whose design playfully incorporates a figure that I’ve been taking pictures of for years. As I once explained:

I got interested in the different poses of the figures used on “wet floor” signs — or “Cuidado Man,” as I’ve long called him. Sometimes he looks like he’s moshing, or surfing. I have a lot of these. I think maybe I originally thought I’d research and analyze the various designs and write something some day? I doubt I’ll get around to that. But I still look out for new variations. Trust me, Cuidado Man is everywhere.

My Cuidado Man interest is a classic example of a “pointless project,” and E of course gets to (has to?) hear about all my pointless projects.

Anyway, she needed a kind of background and format that would facilitate lots of Cuidado People. She found what proved to be the ideal option in the Allsorts Quilt Pattern from Jody Groenendyk, a biochemist who is also an accomplished quilter and designer with an impressive array of contemporary patterns and quilts available on her website.

This “allsorts” pattern was in turn inspired by liquorice confectionery assortments that mix circular and striped-block candies in bright, contrasting colors. E customized the pattern and had her own take on the colors, but of course the most striking element is the army of Cuidado Folk being warned to take care, or suffering the consequences of incautious behavior: zapped by electricity, falling down stairs, getting clobbered by gates, tumbling off ladders. She searched extensively online to find figures in poses well beyond wet floors, and these are hand-embroidered onto the quilt blocks. In the end she titled the work, Cuidado Man in All Sorts of Peril.1

Add in all the time to actually make the quilt and I could just not feel more cared for, and about. E always gives great gifts, but she outdid herself on this one. Thank You Mi Amor!!

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Quick notes below; check out previous audio essays in the archive!

Audio Archive

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Once again it’s time for Savor of the Month!

For newcomers:

At the start of every month I announce one specific thing or theme to look out for, pay attention to, appreciate. The idea is to convert something everyday and taken for granted into something we might, yes, savor.

And every month I create a chat thread where you can share what you are noticing, or enjoy what others have noticed. You can post pictures, drawings, written observations, whatever works for you. Or just browse!

Themes so far:

Winter (results here) * Mysteries (results here) * Outliers (results here) * Ornamentation (results here) * Everyday Artists (results here) * Reflections (results here) * Contrast (results here) * The Temporary (results here; related audio essay here) * Wind (results here) * Circles (results here) * Small Flowers (results here) * Shadows (results here)

Today’s is the lucky 13th installment of Savor of the Month. THANKS to all who have contributed to past threads! The twist this time is that I asked Supporters for theme ideas — and there were so many great ones! (Check out the very inspirational thread here. Oh, and if you aren’t already a Supporter yourself, become one here.)

For January, the subject I have settled on is TREASURE, suggested by reader Jennifer K. (Thanks, Jennifer!) “Treasure” is subjective, I concede, but that should just prod you to pay attention in new ways. Notice what strikes you as treasure — from objects to nature to the valued and perhaps underrated surprises of the every day.

I’ll say a little more below, but in short: hunt for “treasure,” as you define it, while you go about your days.

The thread is open.

The quick back story:

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If you enjoy TAoN, please become a supporter. You’ll get access to the full archives as well as supporter-only bonus posts and discussion threads. 20% off through December — which ends in a matter of h…

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* Great responses from all over the world are still coming in for December’s Savor of the month prompt: Winter. Join in here!

With all due respect to Bad Bunny, sometimes it’s not about taking more photos; it’s about actually giving some attention to the ones we’ve already taken.

I’ve mentioned my annual ritual of making a neighborhood calendar (most recently featuring dumpsters), and one of the pleasures of that process is sorting through the images I’ve made (and that my wife E has made) that may or may not make the cut.

Similarly, I find it useful to browse through all the pictures I’ve made in the prior year. Many of us take a lot of pictures, I suspect, that we never revisit at all — which sort of defeats the purpose of the enterprise. Sometimes it’s just fun to recall what captured my attention. Sometimes surprises or themes emerge. This year, I thought share some of my highlights. These are not necessarily the “best” pictures, but the ones I found myself lingering over.

And sometimes, of course, the images prompt memories of particular passages or trips or adventures or events. Below: the conclusion of St. Anne walking parade on Mardi Gras day.

Above: Sometimes what catches my attention is just a pattern or color or mark. Below: From a New York visit, a friendly stranger and companion encountered on the sidewalk off Park Avenue, possibly the best photo I’ve ever taken!

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