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Category: creativity

  • stuck

    Austin Kleon recently posted a great interview with Paul Simon, where he tells Dick Cavett how he wrote “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” There are many things at play here (art as theft, input influencing output, accessing the unconscious), but the thing that speaks to me most is the idea of…

  • portals to other places

    For some reason, the concept of the portal has been on my mind lately. It could be the hypotrochoid set I bought at a thrift store recently, but it was also likely brought on by this interview with Jennifer Egan, in which she says, “reading is always about finding a…

  • gorging on forbidden fruit

    In this age of colossal cinematic crossovers (thing such as The Avengers or Godzilla vs. Kong), perhaps the one that beats all the others is Austin Kleon’s appearance on Andy J. Pizza’s Creative Pep Talk. In a conversation that ranges from setting creative rules for yourself to following your disgust,…

  • Obama on cultural appropriation

    I just finished listening to Renegades: Born in the USA, a series of conversations between Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, with topics ranging from race and gender to the myth of the road to fatherhood. As far as podcasts go, it counts among my favorites. There are a million and…

  • the art of inversion

    I had a conversation with some friends last night about inversion–the idea of taking something and flipping it on its head. Example: one of my college professors once gave a lecture on divorcing the signifier from the signified. He said the the class, “Green means…” and everyone replied “Go.” “Red…

  • the joy of not doing

    A few years back, I decided to put myself on the hook and record music to send out with my Christmas cards. The first record came right after moving to California. I was alone in a strange city and only had my guitar to keep me company. The result was…

  • don’t save a thing

    Being a human is about embracing contradiction. A while back, I wrote about saving everything. No matter who bad the work is going, it’s worth putting in a folder instead of dumping your garbage can. However, often when I’m writing, I’ll have an idea and think, “That’s good, I want…

  • songs for myself

    I always wanted to be in a band, but I was convinced it was impossible. I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was eighteen and wasn’t proficient enough to play with other people until I was twenty. By then, the one thing driving me get better was playing with…

  • the promise of the road

    In a recent episode of The Moment with Brian Koppelman, a listener writes in to ask, “At the end of “Thunder Road,” does Mary get in the car?” I love Brian’s answer: The promise that the character’s making is that there’s salvation in the road, there’s salvation in the American…

  • inflection points

    I’ve had a variety of creative pursuits: writing, drawing, music, photography. I’ve dabbled in a lot. But very few creative endeavors were much more than hobbies. It seems there’s always a roadblock when pursuing something creative, that hump that require practice to overcome. It’s the obstacle that separates the amateurs…