Hey guys! As some of you may (or may not) know, I got engaged this past May (2011) and will be getting married this May (2012).
And…I’ve started a new blog about being a bride and wedding planning and all that stuff from my cynical, yet sentimental, curse-filled perspective:
http://ohshitimabride.tumblr.com/
Submit your story about your tiger mom for a chance to get published and win a cash prize!!! http://www.mytigermomandme.com/
“THE CONTEST
Hyperink is now accepting submissions for their My Tiger Mom & Me contest. We’re looking for stories about real Tiger Moms.
We’ll include the 10 best entries in our upcoming anthology. All accepted authors will receive a byline and a free copy of the book.
(Don’t know what a Tiger Mom is? Click here for some background information.)
CASH PRIZES:First Place: $500
Second Place: $300
Third Place: $200
The 3 winning authors will also receive consideration for a book deal with Hyperink, a cutting edge digital publisher.
DEADLINE: July 29, 2011
We’ll list the winners on our site and notify them via email on August 19, 2011.
GUIDELINES:
- This contest is open to all writers, published or unpublished.
- Submissions should not exceed 5,000 words
- You may submit multiple stories for consideration.
- We accept submissions in doc, docx, pdf, and rtf formats.
- Due to the sensitive nature of this subject material, you are welcome to use a pen name.
The Hyperink publishing team will read and judge every entry. All decisions on winning entries are final.
Email your submission to contest@hyperinkpress.com or submit through the form below. Include your full name, pen name (if applicable) and tell us a little bit about yourself.”
One of my very dear friends and amazing voice teacher, Beatrice Anderson, is traveling to Jamaic to teach music to children and trace her own family roots:
“On July 25th, 2011, I have the awesome pleasure of returning to Jamaica after 13 years to trace the steps of my lineage, to share with children music of our ancestors as a volunteer in two summer programs and to craft the framework for a Fulbright fellowship that would allow me a return in the spring of 2012–exploring connections between traditional folk song, indigenous language and spirituality in Jamaica.
This is a So’journ into the ‘classics’ as articulated by my ancestors. This is my So’journ with the spirits of those who lent their voice, dance and life’s purpose to charting a path of freedom. This is my So’journ along that path, into the depths of a lineage that may be lost unless we trace, unearth and document it. This is So’journ Jamaica.
I am humbly requesting monetary or in-kind donations toward the acquisition of: materials to make instruments with the children, audio and visual recording device to document interviews with members of the community, lodging, food, and transportation. Below is a list of specific items for purchase or donation. You can also contribute as little as $10 towards the overall costs of my 7 weeks in Jamaica. Learn more about my journey at myvoiceinside.com and please pass on the word.
I believe in this work, in this journey and inspired simply by the possibility!”
Beatrice also recently completed a similar successful trip to help people in Haiti. I am very inspired by and proud to support this project, and I hope you are too.
To donate to this amazing project, please click here: https://www.wepay.com/xp39lo/donate/395430
I found this amazing video of John Cleese talking about creativity via Coffee & Showbiz, a blog run by comedian Becky Donohue:
It’s super insightful and gives concrete info about how to get yourself in a creative space.
Enjoy!
Awhile ago I secretly recorded these songs with my friend soce, the elemental wizard.
Now they’re here for you to enjoy!
Click to stream or right click and “Save as” to download!
Thanks for listening!
After posting a lot of older stuff, I wanted to turn you guys onto something I just read that came out this past week: The New Yorker article on Guillermo del Toro.
Guillermo in Bleak House
This brilliantly kooky, crazy guy has managed to turn his obsession and passion into things we have never been seen on film before. Pan’s Labyrinth was simultaneously one of the most stunningly gorgeous and horrifying films of all time, and it was all owed to del Toro’s completely over-the-top wild imagination and his ability to execute onscreen. Many have tried, many have failed.
This movie scared the shit outta me.
Here’s what I learned from this article:
1. Tenacity - This is a main theme for anyone truly pursuing creative work. del Toro has been made fun of for announcing more projects than he’s completed – most of them never getting a greenlight from studios, etc., but obviously he keeps going. This makes me think about how many of my ideas stop at simply a concept, a phrase, a rough draft or just don’t make “the cut” to be a permanent part of my repertoire. The big difference is that del Toro is a big time director with all eyes on him, and the stakes are hugehugehuge. He might look bad to some people when he doesn’t get to follow through on projects (i.e. The Hobbit), but at this stage in the game a) he’s not the one calling all the shots and b) these failures and false starts are part of both business and the creative process.
2. Collecting Images – del Toro lives in a crazyass mansion he calls “Bleak House” that is filled with hundreds – maybe thousands – of horror movie artifacts. From models of monsters from his own movies to vampire “non-fiction”, he is swimming in his own horror goulash. All of this stuff serves to “feed” him everyday, and many of the ideas in his movies are derived from things he has collected throughout his life. For example: a stick bug toy he bought as a child on a trip to New York inspired a sequence in Pan’s Labyrinth where the heroine has her first contact with the fantasy world. There is so much stuff that floats in and out of life, but it can truly be woven into your creative work and personal/professional growth if you let it. del Toro has turned his knack for this into an important part of his process.
3. Dare to Think Differently – Most people call gorgeous movie imagery “eye candy”. del Toro calls it “eye protein”. Just a simple paradigm shift makes all the difference in the world.
I can’t believe it’s over a year since this came out. I remember seeing this link being posted a billion times on fellow comedian friends’ facebooks, and totally cried when I finally sat down and listened to it. The next day I went on an abysmal audition (the audition was to play the stage version of the character Ni Hao Kai-Lan – nuff said). Afterward I went to Borders and sat there for like two hours reading Tracey Morgan’s memoir and feeling a LOT less sorry for my self after reading about how he had been homeless and sleeping on the subways during high school.
The book was alright, but honestly the interview is better. This is a really rare look into Tracy Morgan’s life – a guy who is better known for shenanigans with strippers and saying that Sarah Palin is “good masturbation material” than he is for being poignant and deep.
I laughed, I cried. One of the best interviews ever:
If you are a comedian and haven’t listened to the WTF Podcast yet, you need to seriously fucking start.
This podcast changed my life. OK, maybe not in an uber-di-duber-ly profound way, but knowing these podcasts exist and having them on my ipod always gives me something to look forward to. If I’m down, or if I’m feeling lonely/weird/questionable about myself, these always cheer me up and bring some sort of insight into comedy in general and how I feel about my place in it.
First of all, Marc Maron is amazing.
Also, he's hot.
He just is. He’s incredibly raw – the very best kind of raw that makes you feel his damn struggle in each moment in life. You cheer for him and you cringe for him, but he makes you feel like you are fucking there. He’s said before in his podcast that one of his personal struggles is being “not present” – but there’s seriously NO WAY I can listen to any one of his interviews and ever believe that. At least during the hour or so that he talks to each comedian in depth, he is 5 million percent there for his guest and his audience. It’s effing breathtaking. I’ve literally cracked up on the train listening to this guy. His insights are sharp as a goddamn laser and you get the impression he’s gotten whoever his interviewee is to open up as much as they possibly could. Things can get deep, but it’s also always fun to listen to.
Just go to the website or subscribe to his podcast on itunes. Pick your favorite comedian and start from there. You will be addicted and enlightened.
My Top 5:
5. Carlos Mencia – In this two-parter, Marc Maron tries to get to the bottom of arguably the most reviled comedian in the past few decades. From joke stealing to general douchebag-ery, Marc straight up confronts him – not in a Joe Rogan-way, but in the most journalistic-ally responsible way one comedian could ever talk to another. After the first interview seems contrived, Marc does a followup with people who have worked with Mencia and Mencia himself to find out what really made this man who he is today. It’s dark, it’s scary and it’s mind boggling.
4. Bobby Lee – This one’s dark too. I had NO freakin’ idea that Bobby Lee had been molested or been so heavy into drugs that he literally shat himself while filming a Connie Chung sketch on MADTV while having a Vicodin withdrawal. Yeah, I know…. I also loved his story about Deepak Chopra and tried the meditation exercise he describes in it. So far, so good.
3. Marga Gomez – It’s really cool to hear from a trailblazer who did solo shows waaay before everyone else was doing them. Again, the frankness is mind blowing. Superinteresting to hear from a comedian who could be considered a “minority” in every way: female, Latina and queer. Marc’s opening rant about his jeans is also pretty epic.
2. Louis CK – This is the two-parter that got me HOOKED on WTF. Not only is Louis CK probably the most revered guy working right now, you hear some pretty cool stuff about when he and Marc were part of the 90s “alt” boom. It also gets superpersonal as Marc confronts his own resentment/jealousy towards Louie.
1. Judd Apatow – Another two-parter that helped me feel infinitely less alone about being a kid who watched 8 hours of comedy on television a day. It’s amazing to hear a crazy successful filmmaker talk about everything from his writing process to how he feels he has to constantly read self help books in order to keep himself sane.
Again, please fucking check it out. You most likely will not be sorry. For non-comedians, this is still amazing shit to hear if you are at all interested in hearing from creative people spilling out their guts and demons. And it’s really just so consistently good.
And last of all, Marc Maron is fucking amazing.
I am a hardcore TEDaholic, and two of my favorite talks are a couple of very popular female writers talking about creativity:
Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity
I found both of these talks to be pretty interesting, and Elizabeth Gilbert and Amy Tan are both idiosyncratic speakers – Gilbert a relentlessly touchy feely therapist and Tan a quirkily wooden school principal. However, once you can get past this, there are some cool pretty cool ideas here. And whether or not you’re a fan of either of these two ladies, it’s still interesting to hear from people who have managed to maintain a high level of creativity after having achieved incredible commercial success.
The only thing I don’t buy into at all is Gilbert’s idea that we should think of our creativity as “daemons” that are separate from ourselves. It’s a recipe for schizophrenia, unless you’re a character in The Golden Compass.
So I’ve had this blog for almost two years now, where I post on a whim – and on everything from American Idol recaps to introspective artist-y things. This year I wanted to post on something I think about on a regular basis so that I could blog a little less haphazardly/more consistently.
I realized that one thing I have a voracious appetite for are bits of inspiration from creatives I respect. These are usually found in the form of interviews, essays or single quotes. I usually post them on facebook or Twitter, and then they inevitably float away.
This year I’m putting them here. I’ll post old faves and new faves as I find them, and offer a little about how the bit affected me. I hope that my fellow artists and writers will enjoy these too. It’s a strange and mostly difficult path we’re on, but it can be so rewarding – and hearing others’ stories is encouraging and helps us feel less alone.
The first one I’m going to start with is this great interview with Ira Glass about his approach to storytelling.
Why I Love This: This is a great general lesson on finding your voice. It took Ira yeeaaaars to get to where he is as a master storyteller, but we all have to start somewhere, and he talks about pieces of the creative process that beginners may not know – or old pros may forget. I take a look at these vids every once in awhile as a kind of mental echinacea.
My Favorite Part: In Part 3, Ira explains that we all get into creative work because we have great taste. But in the first few years, there is big a gap between our taste and our ability. Our taste is so “killer” that we know what we’re making isn’t living up to our ambitions. Most people quit at this point. Ira explains that everyone goes through this phase and implores people to keep working in order to close the gap.
Part 1 of 4 of Ira Glass Interview:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Hope you enjoy the vids! Next one coming up soon 
