Can't Sleep? Try art
What keeps you awake nights?
Not a fan of coffee or cola, chocolate had always been my prime insomnia suspect. That was before my doctor (a sadist who shall not be named) asked me to drop chocolate for six weeks, four of which have now expired.
Miraculously, I have not.
Despite my splendid abstinence, I'm writing this at 2 A.M. both wired and stimulant free. Or am I?
The lawless epicenter*
Consider the gradual co-opting of religious capital by the world's power brokers:
'The religious doctrine of peace meets the power politics of state, the rules are bent for the 'just war,' and once the first few doses are administered the state becomes an addict that will tell any lie to get its narcotic. War is simply the means. The real narcotic is power. As Hungarian writer Gyögy Konrád said of the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1980s, "Men can invent few libidinous fantasies more enjoyable than those of world domination." The African-American poet Langston Hughes called the leading nations "the nymphomaniacs of power."'
Mark Kurlansky, Nonviolence
If artists and other thinkers are called to speak truth to power (and I think we are), just maybe it's the artists who have the most effective voice.
Bill Moyers' recent conversation with David Simon, creator of The Wire, a TV series about inner city Baltimore, includes this:
BILL MOYERS: Can fiction tell us something about inequality that journalism can't?
Pirates in the scupper
Is piracy a lost art, recently revived by industrious Somalis and Wall-Streeteers?
Pirates are bold, adventurous, swash buckling advocates of social change. So far, so good. Except for the nature of change they seek, amounting to millions in cash delivered to their treasure vaults. They're in it for the booty (not the beauty).
I complimented a swimmer on his elegant stroke yesterday, to which he replied, 'Elegance doesn't win races.'
'Why do swimmers compete with speed instead of style?' I asked him.
'You can't measure style,' he said.
Lately I've been out on the deep blue sea of Drupal, the content management software that makes a site like this possible. Setting up a podcast within the site is not a streamlined process, but the elegance of having it here keeps me going. When I get this entrenched in something I have no business learning (I studied theology and nursing, not computer science) I have to ask, 'what's the payoff?' Clearly, it's not about dollars, euros or Somali shillings.
Then, of course, I need look no further than the latest inspiring bit of art to remember this: technical skill is the life blood of any artist. Without it, the necessary work of art dangles in thin air, without a clue.
- Susan Weber's blog
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Coming soon to an ipod near you...
OK. So I'm excited. Podcasts will soon be found on this site and you may be my next featured guest. Its name is a secret (unless you click on the player at the top of this post). Through podcasting, I'd like to explore creative process in conventional and not so expected art forms. To get to the nub of artistic productivity.
There must be compelling reasons so many people do art.
'Soon' is a relative term, of course. Right now I'm learning with Podcasting for Dummies, GarageBand tutorials, Drupal screencasts and manuals. The peach is ripe. Things like 'Wow!' 'Cool!' 'Huh?... oh!' spurt out of me at regular intervals. And we have yet to record the theme song -- yes!
- Susan Weber's blog
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Battlestar Galactica download
In a certain episode of the popular Battlestar Galactica TV series, Laura Roslin, president of the colonies, receives a cancer-curing blood transfusion from a human-cylon baby.
Cylons, for the uninitiated, are robot slaves originally created by humans. The Cylons not only rebelled and escaped from the colonies, they retooled themselves as human look alikes and have now, 40 years later, returned to avenge their grievances. They nuke the humans. Some 50,000 colonists escape into space, with Laura Roslin more or less in charge.
The expansive story arc, digital effects and social commentary of BSG's universe give the willing imagination enormous sci fi pleasure. In a recent podcast, BSG writers discuss one possible future for the Laura Roslin character post cylo-human blood transfusion: Let's say the cylon blood type, besides curing cancer, begins to change Laura into a (much hated, especially by L.R.) Cylon. Cell by cell, she morphs into her worst enemy.
Nerd values & Craigslist's Craig Newmark
I've been spending a lot of time with trainers and tech forum members on the web lately, because they have a lot to teach about the tools for making the movies and podcasts I'm aching to dig into. Except for just a few ornery souls, the computer savvy form an exceedingly helpful community, often giving away valuable expertise for free.
This approach defies the supply & demand model of Capitalism, where a product in limited supply, desired by many, can and often does command a hefty price. Here's a little insight from a self proclaimed nerd, Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist. He talks about nerd values in a 2008 Think interview:
Q: You’ve said you’ve built a business based on “nerd values.” What are nerd values? And what would our country be like right now if we had leaders who embraced them?
- Susan Weber's blog
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Birthday 09
April 7th has always pleased me. For one thing, I was born on it, 'a lovely spring day,' according to reliable sources. Thanks Mom (and Dad). Here in northeast Ohio, where the seventh of April is often blustery cold, today is no exception. But it stirs my inner nymph without fail, sensory evidence notwithstanding.
Last night was the perfect birthday party, nine of us came in out of the white stuff to the sushi bar, tanked up on weak green tea, chowed down with chopstix and porcelain spoons. Our chef produced intricately decorated entrées on wide plates; we served each other soy sauce on wee rectangular ones, mopping up the overflow with white napkins, all hands on deck. Our movie after the meal had us settled in and laughing in a relaxed, storytelling mood the Hanks father-son serve up as haute cuisine in The Great Buck Howard - a film none of us knew much about but didn't mind imbibing since, hey, the company was stellar.
If you've read this far, you may be wondering where I'm going with all this on a site about art and creativity. The one small fact I failed to mention is that I was one of three in the bunch who knew it was somebody's birthday eve. For me, this was perfect. The hoopla of birthday bashes, when I'm in the hot seat...
