Ever wonder what it’s like to live in an artists loft? Or a warehouse space? Have questions about how to find, build, or create an unconventional living and work space? Maybe you’re just seeking inspiration for your own set up.

 

Well, this is for you.

 

This series is for the folks that appreciate the unusual homes, lofts, live, and work spaces. Most of the spaces features here are live/ work environments for artists, musicians, producers, and all the other types of folks who make up the bohemian (and almost bohemian) community.

 

My goal with this series is three part:

1. to inspire folks to create their own unconventional living space

2. to help answer questions on how to find and build up an unusual living/ work space

3. to offer a place for artists to share what they do while sharing the places they do it in

 

Future posts will include features of unusual living spaces ranging from a loft, warehouse, industrial cottage, French castle, nightclub, grain silo, VFW hall, and more.

 

Lasly, if you know anyone who has a unique or just damn interesting living situation and would like to be featured, please get in touch! If anonymity is needed or preferred, that’s no problem. There are a lot of folks out there looking for inspiration on unconventional living locations. Let’s collaborate. Show off your place and show us what you do.

 

 

or Why You Should Start a Forest Fire

August 16th, 2012

 

He was 26 years old when he burned the forest down. Over three hundred acres of virgin woods, gone.

 

Sure one could blame the unusually dry season or the windy day. Those factors certainly didn’t help. He was already unsuccessful as a writer, teacher, tutor, and even a general handyman, so blaming him wasn’t hard either. Had he been a famous author or a sports star, perhaps things would have been different. But he was just a 26 year old, sort of drifting through life, who on one Tuesday afternoon after catching some fish, lit a match for a small cooking fire.

 

And he ended up setting the whole forest ablaze.

 

Starting a forest fire is a fairly large scale accident. And it certainly had a profound impact on him. The community shunned him and he felt completely overwhelmed by the incident and the general state of his life. Less than a year later he would end up moving into a cabin near the very woods he had accidentally burned to the ground. His time in the wilderness was focused on living simply, self-reliance, meditation, and writing. A few years later, in 1854, the now 36 year old Henry David Thoreau would publish a book based on his time spent in his wilderness cabin. His book A Life in the Woods, or better known as simply Walden, was based on his time spent living in the wilderness in solace.

 

All thanks to his big accident.

 


Embrace your mistakes. And make bigger accidents.

 

 

August 2nd, 2012
(Paris, France)

 

Navigating through crowds is a hassle. Train stations, busy sidewalks, airports, street markets, and every day life in a city can be a pain in the ass. People walking every which way, crossing your path, you crossing theirs, no one happy with their progress and everyone bumping and mucking about with annoyance.

 

But not for me.

 

There’s a trick I learned a few years back when living in Chicago: the importance of looking past people.

 

The next time you are in a crowded space, look past the people going against you. Set your sights on a point beyond them and you will find yourself seamlessly navigating the crowd. When you make eye contact with someone going against your grain, you both move to the same direction and that awkward dance takes place. Left, right, left, ‘you go’, ‘no, you go’.

 

Avoid it. Learn to look past people.

 

This advice works figuratively too.