Dread to Delight • One Fruit & Veggie At A Time
At this time of year, everyone is running around trying to find the right gift. Here’s mine to you. Maria Kalman and the Internet. All I know is: no one shall want to return it. Pass the link on. My thanks to “Brain Pickings”, another wondrous link btw (and recently discussed in NYTimes) for posting the link to this video. I was first introduced to Maria Kalman several years ago through a monthly illustrated column in the New York Times called “The Principles of Uncertainty”.
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No recipe works as well as this one. Some get obsessed with fitness stats. That works until you have a injury. Some get obsessed with a national weight loss program. That works until it gets boring. I got obsessed with photographing vegetables. This shall work until it doesn’t and then I’ll have to obsess about something else. One thing it won’t ever be? Fitness stats. I lost .9 this week because I ate kale and walked like a maniac. My knees did not like it.
[**This post was originally posted on July 20, 2009 in honor of the first Moon Landing.]
People, some smart people, are messing with my moon landing.
Someone like Tom Wolfe, for example, the author of the novel “The Right Stuff” of the Mercury astronauts, wonders in yesterday’s New York Times, whether it was one big leap into nowhere (nowhere was the word–this from the author of a books and journalism titled, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby and The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Vocabulary is not one of his weaknesses, OK?)
He basically argues that since that moment in July, 1969, NASA has not had a philosopher able to articulate why we should do more.
He quotes Wernher von Braun, German rocket scientist, but suggests (plausibly) that a former Nazi scientist could not become a US Philosopher King, even if he crossed the pond in 1945.
But, what Tom Wolfe remembers of a speech von Braun gave close to the end of his life when he knew he was dying from cancer is my food for thought on this fortieth anniversary of the moon landing and walk. (From NYTIMES)
Here on Earth we live on a planet that is in orbit around the Sun. The Sun itself is a star that is on fire and will someday burn up, leaving our solar system uninhabitable. Therefore we must build a bridge to the stars, because as far as we know, we are the only sentient creatures in the entire universe. When do we start building that bridge to the stars? We begin as soon as we are able, and this is that time. We must not fail in this obligation we have to keep alive the only meaningful life we know of.”
Gulp.
I think my “food for thought” requires an adult beverage.
On this historical day permit me to make one small leap to the scotch cabinet.
©Pat Coakley 2009
PHOTOGRAPHY CANNOT BE USED WTIHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
Diet Tip #1: Have fun with your vegetables. Photograph Them Before Your Eat Them.
And, remember, creativity doesn’t insure a masterpiece just fun.
I attended Trinity College’s Commencement ceremonies in Washington, DC last weekend. Nancy Pelosi was the speaker. Before Nancy Peloisi spoke there were others who spoke, not any of them briefly. Two of them I thought were surely introducing Nancy Pelosi as their words were so flowery and biographical. But, no. They were just preparing to introduce another person who was going to introduce her.
Then, she spoke. “I was told to talk about my journey”, she said. Uh-Oh. She said she was handing out to each graduate an autographed copy of her 2008 book, “Know Your Power. A Message to America’s Daughters.”
That’s when my IPHONE became the power tool. The power to turn the restless into creatives. I was sitting in-between two young boys, age 9 and 7, who were all spiffed up for their mother’s graduation, but with an hour into the ceremony and we weren’t even close to the end, we were destined to get creative.
Quietly, we took photos of one another. They used drawing and sketching apps and phone apps that I had on my phone to draw on my photo and on their photos. They decided to give mine a “faded” filter which..um..I protested I’d already achieved quite naturally, but they insisted. It allowed the time to pass so by the time we looked up, Nancy was gone and we hadn’t been a disruption to those around us. Best of all, their mother’s name was called to come up and receive her well deserved Master of Fine Arts diploma.
Power to the app people. I love ‘em.
I’d like to recommend that all sentient beings with young children to corral, to remember to bring their IPHONES and apps to graduation ceremonies just in case the speakers arrive but inspiration is not in their briefcase.
I’d had the photo morning from hell. Camera sensor had some schmutz on it that appeared to show Sasquatch emerging from my local pond. The sky had no clouds and in my line of work, clouds make a sunrise. I had a case of fumble fingers that nearly deep six’d my 85mm lens. I decided to get in the car and get home before I was another news story of elderly woman mistaking the accelerator for the brake and driving up the side of a building.
But, I decided to stop at the railroad crossing and wait for the 6:05 commuter train to Boston.
I took the video but just moments before it turned the corner, I took one of the better photos of my sunrise series. Schmutz and all.
I love creativity. One minute you are in hell and in the next the 6:05 takes you out.
What would you have done?
I arrived for my weekly Thursday AM meeting with a client and was served my usual cappuccino. Then, all hell breaks loose with a jackhammer from an adjacent office space being renovated for a new business opening. Business talk is out of the question. Not only because you can’t hear anything but your client’s blood pressure appears to escalating with the each drilling sound. It has been going on for four days. What do you do for your client?
You take out your IPHONE and video your cappuccino cup complete with audio just in case he needs evidence for his lawsuit.
Bridges, like this one to Newport, Rhode Island, span deep waters. They are also magnets for those with troubled dreams. This blog is about jumping into deep waters through creativity and definitely not from steel railings.
It is every bit as transforming as death except for one ironic thing: you are more alive than when you started.
But, there is a cost.
You have to say “yes” to your own creativity and you have to encourage someone else to tap their own creativity.
Bridges to creativity are not made of steel but of one word, “Yes”.
Yes, I’ll pick up that brush. Yes, I’ll pick up that yarn I saw in the store. Yes, I’ll take that course. Yes, you should try that thing you’ve always wanted to do.
Bill Murray recently was asked to present an award to Sofia Coppola. If I, with this blog on creativity, can encourage you to go into your own deep waters when life hits your hard, as it always will, with just half the humor and truth, we’ll all be the better for it.
Here is the text of his remarks, reprinted from the NYTIMES, Carpetbagger. He was drinking a can of “Red Hot” during the speech.
“They told me I have two minutes. I’m going to pop this Red Hot, so I can finish in two minutes. [He pops the Red Hot.]
Why to give this award, why? Because you have to throw a party. Because you have to compete with the Golden Globes. We all ask that question, if you were able to get out tonight, celebrate, without your relatives, you’ve earned it, you deserve it. Meredith [Viera, the host] is doing a really a good job moving the crowd along, isn’t she? [Applause as he mouths the Red Hot] Why would you give it to Sofia Coppola, why? Because you want to encourage her, I think. I think that’s the real reason. Look at her. [yelling] Look at her! She comes from a family, mother and father, both very successful creating entertainments and amusements and thought-provoking work. She wrote a spec on script for the ‘Virgin Suicides.’ The ambition of these young people, can you believe it? The ambition. She got the job as the director. She directed ‘Lost in Translation’ in another country and another language and got a prize for it. God, this is a hot, hot Red Hot. I’m not going to fool you people because I got another half in my pocket. [He pops it in.] I got one-and-a-half in my mouth right now.
Then she decided to work in France and do ‘Marie Antoinette.’ A woman who was beheaded, not a sympathetic creature, you know what I mean. A lot of directors who would pass on that. Who do you root for, you know? She did that beautiful, beautiful movie and now she’s done this ‘Somewhere,’ which takes place – somewhere. I know, it’s the west coast, southern California basin. So why do you give this person an award? You give them an award because they need to be encouraged. You can look around this room and you could look around the world of film and you can see people that had great success early in your career. Some earned it, some were lucky, some got it, but in a certain point they live life, they get into life. Like Sofia’s gotten into life. She’s married, now she’s got a French lover [Thomas Mars, the singer of the band Phoenix]. She has two children, beautiful children by this French lover — and honestly I’m sick of these directors with the homely kids, I can’t stand it anymore! – she’s got beautiful children and she lives with a man who is the only Frenchman that could ever play rock and roll, ever. [Expletive] Johnny Hallyday! [Beat] Pardon [beat] my [beat] French.
So why do you encourage these people, because now she’s had this success, she’s had this work, she has this life, she has this family, she has this thing going and now is when people like you have chosen well to say, let’s give this person another boost, let’s give this public person another boost, to say, keep going, because now life will come to you, hard, like it’s come to everyone that’s lived long enough, it comes hard, it gets in the way of your career, it stops your career, it stunts your life. It definitely will make your career go left. You show me an actor doing a [expletive for terrible] movie, I’ll show you a guy with a bad divorce. [Looking directly at someone in the audience] You know who I’m talking about!
I want the best for her because she’s a lady, she acts like a lady. The women in her movies are ladies, they have strength and they have power and they’re strong. Even the pole dancers in this movie had enough of themselves to call the lead actor a moron, as all you women should call your men this evening – pole or not. Give her a boost to say, go on, you’ve made it this far, push her out into the deep water, push her out into bigger and deeper films, more and more films. She has a beautiful eye, she has great taste in the people she chooses to work with, she’s a kind and thoughtful director and editor and producer. She’s all the things that we hoped we could be when we work like this. She’s been lucky so far and she’s been strong so far. Let’s keep her going. I appreciate your asking her to receive this award for filmmaking achievement. Miss, Ms. Ms. Ms. Sofia Coppola.
Ms. Coppola, after giving Mr. Murray a hug on stage, said, “I just got a whiff of Red Hot.”
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I don’t know about you but I’m going to the store to get a six pack of “Red Hot” right now.
©Pat Coakley
Where have I been? Let’s put it this way, if AMC needed to cast for their award winning TV show “Mad Men” (advertising agency from the 60′s) they’d just have to cast one person, your “moi-ness”, SFAR.
I have become an ad agency. Who knew? Me, who lives one exit from the world’s most popular mall and has been there exactly once in two years. Me, who never wears jewelry, now has a Deluxe Jewelry Photographer’s Kit complete with “dazzler” bulb. I’m not kidding. I love photographing jewelry. Just don’t ask me to wear it. I’m a bit eccentric, of course. And, I don’t think I could do this for someone I didn’t love (my cousin, Mary) which may restrict the pool for future clients. Let me see how would this “meeting” go….”I’m sorry, I can’t work with you because frankly I’m not feelin’ the love.”
So, you see, I’ve got to work on a better business strategy.
I’ve became all the characters: creative director, art director, accounts manager, product photographer, copywriter, graphic designer, and buxom secretary.
Well, that last part needs props.
Here is a little video of the “stuff” that I’ve been doing. Or, if you prefer to see the exact ads, you can go to a gallery on my website called, “Palm Beach Ads”. Its the first one when you go to www.patcoakley.com. Most were published in print but some on web.
I am awaiting a UPS package of some more jewelry tomorrow and my dazzler bulb is all a twitter.
Cousin Mary sells fashion, too, and gifts of serious and whimsical varieties.
On my agenda is to write once weekly on Waving or Drowning, on the subject of creativity, which as many of you know, I consider a life saver in every sense of that word. Of course, I haven’t done one yet, but I’ll let you know when I turn the dazzler bulb off and stop procrastinating. (PS. I just wrote the first installment. Thank you, Bill Murray.)
I am putting SFAR out to blog pasture, and it also coincides with my no longer having cable TV or a land line. Yep, my hermit credentials are increasing by the hour. What’s next, a cabin in Montana?
The only difference between me and the Unibomber these days is I have my hair done once a month.
Yep, the time has come. But, I’m still going to visit all of you and your sites cuz Mad Woman may be mad but she is not crazy. She knows that the only folks who probably thought this type of venture possible would have been you.
Creativity needs encouragement and I bow at the waist for all you have given me.
As my father (W1KKP were his call letters) would say in his sign-off to his ham radio worldwide buddies he’ d speak to every day…he’d say this into his large steel mesh microphone after each session of talking back and forth across the world.
“Over and Out. W-One-King-King-Peter.”
©Pat Coakley 2011
I am not a baker, butcher or a candlestick maker but I’m about to become a drinker. Christmas cookies keep burning. Baking is more a science and not for one who has the attention of a mayfly. I’ll display the results in another post, provided I can stay in the kitchen for six minutes straight. [...]
