joshua chamberlain

Category: creativity

  • riffin’

    I finally got around to finishing The Rolling Thunder Revue on Netflix this week. It was a long overdue watch, but I’m convinced it’s the kind of film you have to be tuned into a very particular frequency to really engage with. One of my favorite moments is a brief…

  • why Dave Grohl doesn’t like to rehearse

    I loved this interview with Dave Grohl, where he provides insight into the Foo Fighters’ rehearsal process: We do have a saying in the Foo Fighters, that if it gets any better, it’s gonna get worse. So I don’t like to rehearse, because I like to get out on stage…

  • fact, fiction, and truth

    In a recent interview with Marc Maron, director Barry Jenkins offered a few insights into the collision between fact, fiction, and truth: There was an article that come out about this textbook [which was] telling kids, high school students, that the American slave trade was a system of conscripted labor……

  • learning vs. education

    I started reading Verlyn Klinkenborg’s Several Short Sentences about Writing and twenty pages in, it’s already the most useful book on writing I’ve ever read. One of the hard truths from the book: The central fact of your education is this: you’ve been taught to believe that what you discover…

  • quick to hire, slow to fire

    I’ve been spread too thin lately. I’ve been stressed. I’ve been depressed. I’m been fighting to keep my head above water. As a result, some of the work in one of my numerous jobs suffered a bit. When my boss confronted me, I asked if she was going to fire…

  • a poem or a prayer

    I’ve always loved how poetry comes from somewhere deep, almost as though it’s the language of the soul. Austin Kleon, in addition to being famous as the Steal Like an Artist guy, is known for his blackout poems. He takes newspaper clips and blacks out most of the words to…

  • hang your art

    If you don’t hang up your own artwork, how can you ask anyone else to do so?

  • go to the real place

    Another reason I haven’t been posting lately is I’m not happy with what comes out when I sit down to write. My attention is fragmented, I’m trying to keep my head above water personally and financially, and when I sit down to engage with the work, I often feel like…

  • starved for oxygen

    I’ve felt wrung out recently. I think we all have. It’s hard to awaken all the creative parts of yourself, to feel the energy and aliveness that comes from making things, when numbing seems necessary to get through the day. Everything feels like a shit show right now. Maybe it’s…

  • a tiny reminder

    Despair is easy. Hope is much harder, but also more rewarding. I find the best way to hope is to look down at where I’m standing, then look up at the sky. I try to savor the now of it all, although I’m not always great at this. (I suppose…