BIG THINGS is SO excited to be partnering with the California Academy of Sciences for a radical Earth Day celebration! Join us at the Academy next Thursday, April 26th for Dirty, Earthy NightLife, an evening dedicated to the EARTH and getting in touch with nature. Award-winning nature photographer, Ian Shive, will present his stunning portfolio of...
Read More »

On July 1st of this summer, California is slated to close 70 state parks due to severe budget cuts- that’s 25% of America’s largest state park system! I am one of the many Californians disappointed in the decision to close the parks and am determined to stop it! Growing up in the Midwest, I was...
Read More »

it’s intangible, indefinable, inspiring and represents the “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” – it’s wabi-sabi! with roots in zen buddhism and japanese tea ceremony, the aesthetic philosophy of wabi-sabi is difficult to describe, but you would probably know it if you saw it. driftwood, misty mornings, drooping flowers and rusting metal are all included in this...
Read More »

with two cars full of snacks, sleeping bags, and an extremely generic map of oregon, we headed eastward towards the deschutes national forest with no real plan, just camping and swimming on our minds. lots of driving and bags of chips later, we ended up in a post-forest-fire patch of dryness near the metolius...
Read More »

while planning our road trip up to oregon, i came across these 3D images of national parks via a special section of the us geological survey! turns out the site is “under review,” but somehow these images slipped through the cracks. would be awesome to “tour” all the parks in 3D, i hope they re-activate...
Read More »

richard long‘s work revolutionized the sculpture world in the 60s and 70s with one single radical idea- taking long walks in nature. rearranging stones, walking repeatedly over his paths, and trampling down grass, long exchanges with his surroundings in a poetically minimal way. utilizing lines and circles, he subtly integrates symbols of his presence...
Read More »

koko is a gorilla who can “speak” using sign language! teresa and i watched koko: a talking gorilla, a documentary by barbet schroeder about 4-year old koko the gorilla and her communicative relationship with her trainer, penny patterson. koko was born in the san francisco zoo in the 70s and then taken to stanford...
Read More »

there’s nothing i love more than the first signs of springtime! blooming blossoms descend upon our city! day and night! pink and white!
Read More »

leafcutter ants RULE!!! they can carry up to 20 times their own body weight! wow! and they don’t actually eat the leaves, but compost them in their homes and eat the fungus that grows from it. they’re the original farmers. more ant facts here.
Read More »

last night i made chili + cornbread + apple pie for some friends and followed it up with a viewing of JAWS! i’m on a kick of checking classic movies out of the library that i’ve never seen, so this was the first installment. got me thinking about the beauty of sharks and their...
Read More »