Upcoming Changes: Local and National

Wherein we discuss elections, transitions and second chances.


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Thought of the Day: "Wasted Time"

"Draw, Antonio, draw. And do not waste time."

--From a letter Michaelangelo wrote to himself found in his study after his death (via Annie Dillard's The Writing Life).

Books that Change Your Life: "The Creative Habit" by Twyla Tharp

Despite my professional leanings, I don't usually come across books that "change my life." I read between 40-50 titles a year and choose carefully enough that I don't feel like I'm wasting time with any one of them. But getting my foundation shaken, lens cracked, perception tilted as if coming out of a handstand? Every 5 years or so at best. Music and more often just by having averages skewed in their favor. In a given year, I'll see twice that many movies and listen to 10 times that many new songs.

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by legendary modern dance choreographer Twyla Tharp changed my life. I read it over a month ago and still feels like the best cookie I've ever eaten. Or the best sex I've ever had. Reason enough to get out of best in the morning just to wander the world trying recapture that feeling again.

The Creative Habit argues, with calm, precise conviction, that creativity is not a blessing bestowed on select geniuses nor an unexpected guest which must be entertained immediately. Creativity, says Ms. Tharp, is work, ordinary, clock-punching, get-to-the-table-and-do-it, work. A habit, like brushing your teeth. Your job as a creative person is to set up the ideal conditions for your creative practice to become routine and then show up and do it. Get there and you'll no more struggle over when it's time to be creative than over when it's time to eat when you're hungry or scratch when you itch.

It's not the hottest way to talk about creativity, an idea as weighed down by romantic nonsense as artistic inspiration. What of the careening madness of geniuses like Beethoven and Byron, of Orson Welles, Robert Johnson and Diane Arbus? Wasn't their lack of rigor and structure what allowed their art to flourish? Routines and schedules are for accountants not artists! And coming from an artist like Tharp, responsible for many of the most visually stunning dance pastiches of the last 40 years, this advice seems almost prudish. Next you're going to tell me John Coltrane birthed A Love Supreme thanks to daily servings of brussel sprouts and plenty of fresh air.

That's exactly what Ms. Tharp is going to tell you. That and "grow up" and "get over yourself." Life makes practical demands on all of us and they ain't about to step aside so you have time to create your masterpiece. You have to make time, demand it, seize it from the hobgoblins of procrastination and distraction. And the best way to do this is to make being creative regular, something intrinsic rather than exceptional to who you are.

How to? 12 chapters on that lead you roughly through the chronology of creation: We all begin with "a white room", nothing but ourselves, our experiences and everything that has led us to that point. There's a nice equanimity in that. A genius begins with the same nothing as a rookie. From there, Tharp pushes us past the excuses we all use to not make our creativity regular. And real.

Us: "What if I'm blocked? I have no good ideas"

Tharp: "Poke, circle, scratch.  An half-formed idea worked at is better than waiting for a grand idea that never comes. (Chapter 6).

Us: 'What if my once-good idea isn't working? What if I'm stuck or losing faith?"

Tharp: "Happens to everyone. Admit you're in a rut. Be honest and see why you're there. Then change something, anything. But always remember you. You wouldn't have gotten even this far on a crappy idea if you weren't a creative person. Change your setting, your focus, your theme, anything. But giving up is not a choice." (Chapter 11).

Us: "What if I get interrupted? Life interferes and doesn't always leave me time and space for my creativity."

Tharp: "The best-kept rituals are easy. Don't insist on working in the dark if you like the light or in silence if you like noise. There is no right way. There is only the way that works for you and your habit." (Chapter 2).

This was exactly the advice I needed. I'm 35, at (politely) a transition in my writing career, confident enough that I should be writing but unsure of what projects to focus on and how to focus on them and get what I want. The Creative Habit doesn't teach you how to be wildly successful like its author but it also doesn't hold your hand and tell you 'We all have something to give." You make that decision. Once you have, once you decide creativity is crucial to your identity, (and Tharp's model makes room for creativity in the arts, business, medicine, how do make it work for yourself?

I read this book one chapter a day either in the bathtub or at my favorite coffee shop. After those 15 minutes, I practically leaped up ready to make things happen for myself. To give my energy and soul to something that both meant something to me and I felt like the world needed.

To create.

The Outsiders showed me that kids my own age can survive in an adultless world and set me on my late-adolescent road to independence. And the Band Played On, given to me by a college friend after I told her I hadn't read for fun since middle school, reignited my  love for reading and steered me towards San Francisco years later. And Geoffrey Nunberg's Talking Right drove home the notion that my liberal brethren does themselves no favors by endlessly screaming about injustices while refusing to focus on practical thereby switching my political values from moral purity to results.

The Creative Habit empowers us to be both creative and functioning people. To be artists and adults. It is a gift, my new bible. And I hope it becomes as special, as necessary to you as it has to me.

(Special thanks to Clarence and his podcast Do You Know Clarence for letting me know).

Bawling....

Okay, I'm not big on edicts, pronouncements, blanket condemnations and executive orders from the pulpit. But my dear friend Mr. Lawver is never again allowed to post about Jim Henson's funeral. I've just spent the past hour watching clips and bawling my eyes out.

Would we all someday get a tribute like this one when we go. Would we all someday live a life to be celebrated in this way.

How I Like to Work:

Wherein we discuss work habits, classical music, washer dryers and the awful responsibility of time.


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Classical Music as Punishment?

The Associated Press reports that a judge has sentenced a hip-hop fan, cited for paying said music too loudly, to a 150$ fine or 20 hours of listening to Bach and Beethoven.

Andrew Vactor, 24, lasted only about 15 minutes, a probation officer said.

It wasn't the music, Vactor said, he just needed to be at practice with the rest of the Urbana University basketball team.

"I didn't have the time to deal with that," he said. "I just decided to pay the fine."

So it probably wasn't the music itself but being forced to sit and do anything against your will for 20 hours--even eat chocolate, pet kittens or deflower virgins--probably gets old fast.

It did compel me to ask however...

What would be my own sonic torture?

No one musical genre offends me enough that i couldn't hack 20 hours of it (blues isn't my favorite, say. But after a day's worth, I'd probably don a somber expression and a twelve-bar scale my damn self). My issue is sound quality not sound type.  Even my favorites played at a screeching volume or through static would drive me batty after maybe 15 minutes.

What is the soundtrack to your musical nightmare? Lay it on me down below.

Thought of the Day: "A Roof"

"The beginning of wisdom is to get you a roof." -- West African Proverb. (via Annie Dillard's The Writing Life. Again).

Word of the Day: "Catenary"

Catenary (adjective): "Of or pertaining to a chain or linked series."

Seen: On page 28 of  The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, which I'm read some of last night.

How it Should Be:

Wherein we how we spend our time and what it means.


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One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Sex and the City"

Sex and the City (2008): "The girliest movie of all time, which I loved still."