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Category Archives: Creativity
Letters at 3AM
COCKROACHES SCURRY. A tiger lies still in tall grass for hours awaiting prey. I write. The cockroach, the tiger, and me – we do how we are made. Michael Ventura Michael Ventura wrote the “Letters at 3AM” column from 1993 … Continue reading
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If Necessity is the Mother …
Accident is the red-headed stepchild of invention. Several “inventions” happened when someone made a “mistake”, but checked the result before tossing it. Acknowledging the accident is sometimes problematic (see first example below). There are several stories about how ganache, the … Continue reading
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Playing for Change | Song Around the World
Playing for Change is a channel on YouTube. There is a core band based in the USA that is on some songs. Most, especially those with the Song Around The World subtitle, are assembled from recordings made around the world. … Continue reading
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Midnight Special
Midnight Special is a folk blues written from the standpoint of someone in prison. There are many versions. My favorite is Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version (on YouTube, search for “Midnight Special CCR” if the link doesn’t work). As far as … Continue reading
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“Do You Love Me
… now that I can dance.” There is some incredible creativity going on in the world. Boston Dynamics, a robot maker, posted a video of its robots dancing to “Do You Love Me”, a song from my youth at the … Continue reading
Posted in Cancer, COVID-19, Creativity
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Advice on Getting Published
I’ve had fifty poems published over the years. Over the last year I’ve averaged one or more poems published out of every four submissions. This is typical for mid-level poets willing to share their acceptance rate. However, one writer said … Continue reading
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Improvisation
I’ve been playing guitar off and on since the 70s. I’ve learned enough to play electric blues and blues/rock at the amateur intermediate level, but I’ve had no success improvising beyond mixing various rhythm guitar riffs. Recently I’ve realized I … Continue reading
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Author Mission Statement
How (And Why) to Create an Author Mission Statement is a guest column on the Writer Unboxed blog. It’s a five step process to getting clear about the goal of your writing: What you write (e.g., poems, essays, novels)? Who … Continue reading
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King of West Campus
Austin is full of ideas, music, creatives, and food trucks. There are various ethnicities (e.g. tacos, Venezuelan, Jamaican), hybrids (Korean-Mexican), and none of the above. JP’s Pancake Company is one of the latter. Or maybe one of the hybrids, his … Continue reading
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John McPhee on Writing and the Relationship Between Artistic Originality and Self-Doubt
Impostor Syndrome is an occupational hazard of any creative endeavor. John McPhee’s discussion of the problem and its solution (taken from his book Draft No. 4) on Brain Pickings both nailed the problem and its solution. Read it and bookmark … Continue reading
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