Austin Kleon on John's Master Class with Tom Perrotta

original image/larger


Nice full circle. I first became aware of Austin Kleon through his cartoon notes of Tom Perrotta during his previous Austin visit during the 2007 Texas Book Festival. Nice for this reconnect all the way around.

2008 Pre-Thanksgiving Mull

Just back from a late night trip to the 24 hour grocery. Not that I needed to. Not really. I just like going to the supermarket on a high traffic, pre-holiday moment. Somehow it gets me into the mood. I like the random human interaction. I like the smiles between strangers, and the little courtesies. It grounds me, amuses and delights. Lost in the anonymity, I just feel very very human. Didn't Oprah say that's what she most misses in her life? Shopping by herself in the supermarket?

I started the day early (early enough to still get a parking space) at the Central Market, the upscale sister to the more mainstream 24 hour HEB. It's a different picture tonight. The shelves are rummaged, bare, and disheveled, though employees are hard at work guiding and unpacking stacked carts full of fresh goods for the post-Thanksgiving rush. In the aisles wander young couples and Hispanics of all ages. I like the contrast. I feel at home in both environments. Satisfying bookends. Indulging in my own economic stimulus package, and human recharge.

On Cassie's daily visit to the office (yesterday when we kidded her boyfriend of 5 years, once apparently an active bachelor, now seemingly incapable of spending more than 45 minutes away from her, he smiled, "45 minutes is a LONG time." But I digress....) Cassie and I find ourselves talking about giving thanks. I realize I've blogged about what I'm talking about previously and go back to send her the easy link. Funny enough, the sentiments are exactly what I wrote about on this day last year. The pre-Thanksgiving mull.

But I also find myself lingering on a couple of different recent conversations with some younger women friends. Ages 28, 24, 21. In each case, they're wondering about their life, and how good or down they feel, and what seems to be missing. The common refrain is, "I need some new friends...some better friends for who I am now." And it makes me wonder...in this day of incessant social networks, is it still so hard to find people that feed and inspire you? Has it always been this hard? Is that the journey? As you mine for important connections, is that how you discover who you are? Have the social networks made it easier or harder? Interesting questions as I peer from my generation to the younger.

Newsweek quips: My Shrink Says...Blog!

Found this buried on my desk:

THERAPY

My Shrink Says ... Blog!

By Jessica Bennett | NEWSWEEK

From the magazine issue dated Jun 30, 2008

Why do people write confessional blogs? It's a creative outlet. It's a forum to vent. It's an exercise in exhibitionism. To mental-health experts, though, it's more than that: a blog is medicine. Psychiatrists are starting to tout the therapeutic power of blogging, and many have begun incorporating it into patient treatment. A forthcoming study in the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior even suggests that bloggers might be happier than nonbloggers.

Mental-health experts say blogs are a step up from plain old diaries, chiefly because of the built-in audience. As kids, we learn that if we air our problems, we get help. We associate communication with consolation, particularly when the going gets tough. Blogging fulfills that primal need for sympathy. "Writing is an effort of the brain to communicate for comfort," says Harvard neurologist Alice Flaherty. "Diaries are a form of that communication, but removed. Blogging gets you closer to that sympathetic audience, and that's what makes it therapeutic." According to psychologist John Suler, the anonymity of blogging provides another therapeutic boost: it's high intimacy with low vulnerability. But blogger beware. "Revealing too much," says Suler, "can cause shame or guilt." So blog to your heart's content, but leave some things to the imagination.

© 2008

More on Austin Kleon and mindmapping

This is the kind of thing that attracted me to Austin Kleon in the first place! His mind mapping!!! He's so great at it - and it's a remarkable kind of process/document. I first just saw a drawing from an event via email. Then I sat next to him when David Simon was at John's UT Master Class -- and I marveled even more. I couldn't believe how he could get to the essence in real time sketching those words and pictures. Cool stuff! I'm itching to try ...but I don't have the skill or artistry he does. I haven't read this post close enough to assess whether he thinks it's in the reach of everyone. Or not. It could be an amazing discipline. I really like the idea of it as a sharpening tool. Another add to my to-do list.

Hilarious Ze Frank 2007 SXSW Web Awards

OK, so I'm a little slow.... I just stumbled onto this video and awards patter by Ze Frank for the SXSW 2007 web awards. Which is hilarious. Even though it's been around for awhile. Made me laugh - and each time I replayed it, I laughed more.



This YouTube version of the initial video cuts in a little late -for the full version, in better res, go here.

Jette's wonderful picture of John and Matt Stone

From Jette Kernion's Slackerwood blog

More Austin

I guess it's just about Austin Kleon all the time now :)



Excited about his good fortune this morning! Way to go Austin K - you're an inspiration!!

NEWSPAPER BLACKOUT POEMS

NEWSPAPER BLACKOUT POEMS FEATURED ON NPR’S MORNING EDITION

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Today the poems were featured on NPR’s Morning Edition:

Read Between the Lines to Find Texas Poet’s Verse
Morning Edition, May 9, 2008

Instead of starting with a blank page, poet Austin Kleon grabs the New York Times and a permanent marker — and eliminates the words he doesn’t need. He recently transformed an article about a piano concert into a poem that begins: “Forget about trying to speak … the image is the travelogue.” The newspaper ends up more black than white, and shows another way to read between the lines.

My wife and I are huge NPR junkies, so this was quite a Friday treat. Welcome to new visitors, and thanks again to everyone who’s spread the word about them! You guys are awesome.

PS. Did this one on the bus this morning.

Docubloggers interviewing me about blogging

Walking into the Weirdly Wired Party during sxsw our pal JJ asks, "neither of you blog, do you?" Next thing I know I'd volunteered for a little interview by Domenique for KLRU's Docubloggers. Always amusing to see what one looks like talking. Besides hating the double chin, otherwise I'm ok with it.



About This Video
(by Domenique)

I was delighted to learn that producer/director Janet Pierson has become an avid blogger. She started Friends Are My Art Form that explores everything from film to her personal take on life experiences. She talks more about her blogging experiences in this interview that took place at the SXSW Get Weirdly Wired party that was held at KLRU's Austin City Limits studio.

LOL a moment ago, and again yesterday

Is it crazy self indulgent for me to be so amused by my son's blog that I need to re-post it here? You decide.

Suspended Suspense

Getting accepted into college was not nearly as exciting as I imagined it to be. There is no suspense, no drum roll as you open the letter, it is very disappointing. You get a big packet when you get in, and a little letter when you do not, which just seems like such an anticlimactic and flawed system. On top of that Lehigh wrapped congratulations around the outside which just made me care even less. If you were thinking about applying to college, do not, because it is nowhere near as exciting as the movies make it seem.

I do have another example of something that cracked me up so much yesterday that I broke out LOL in the car. I was listening to Terry Gross on KUT interview Meg Wolitzer on the eve of the publication of "The Ten-Year-Nap." (love the title). Wolitzer was recounting a crazy moment when after taking her 3 year old for swim lessons - as she was stark naked changing back into her clothes, he ran out of the locker room. At that time, at that gym, the towels were the size of , as she put it, kleenex. She had to quickly decide, cover the top or bottom. Which? She chose the top, and ran out into a lobby full of older people waiting around. Funny now. Mortifying then. But what made the story was that afterwards, she asked a group of her pals what they would have done. Which part would they have covered. Some said top, some said bottom. Finally someone answered, "my face."

Of course, the best possible answer.

Austin Kleon's take on John and David Simon at UT

This is pretty crazy self referential but I couldn't resist. As I've posted before, I've become a huge fan of Austin Kleon's blogs since his hilarious cartoon of Tom Perrotta during the Texas Book Fest visit. I find his drawings, musings, recommendations, and references totally interesting. He creates new writing and images while appreciating the old. I like how he writes about the creative process and living a creative life. He is living a creative life! Catching up on his Tumblelog last night, I saw image after image that totally intrigued me. And I've been fascinated by his mind maps and visual notes. I like how tangibly he renders his impressions. I'm even interested in his music taste, and his enthusiasm for his relatively new marriage and hometown.

So he twittered on Facebook about wanting to see David Simon (The Wire) speak at UT. I reached out and invited him as part of John's guest list. It was great fun to finally meet in person. And then it was a total kick to sit next to him while he scribbled these notes. Pretty wild system. (I have to add too - that "Pulitzer Sniff" line by Simon was killer. It was almost an offhand comment from the stage yet it created a palpable buzz in the audience. Totally great line.)

From:

DICKENSIAN CHILDREN AND PULITZER SNIFFS: WRITER DAVID SIMON @ UT

Last night we went over to the Austin City Limits studio to see a Q&A with David Simon, former newspaper reporter and creator of the TV show The Wire. John Pierson was the moderator, and he did a really great job— he asked Simon intelligent questions and then sat and listened while Simon gave intelligent answers.

Discussed topics: the decline of the newspaper industry, journalism and Homer Bigart (“his method: ‘Hi, I’m an idiot and I can’t talk…please help me’”), dumbass editors looking for lame stories about “Dickensian” children (”Pulitzer Sniffing”), Iraq, No Child Left Behind, stealing from Greek Tragedy, the drug war, jury nullification, creative writing students (“my god, you guys are an industry”), books he hasn’t read (Brothers Karamazov), the creative use of profanity, The America That Got Left Behind, and of course, Baltimore (“my favorite character”), and The Wire.

As usual, I doodled and took a lot of notes:

Really cool night, and awesome to finally see the Austin City Limits studio. Thanks to Janet for inviting us!

Links:

• Daily Texan article about the talk
• Believer interview

Mr. Whimsical

Forgive a doting mom but my little guy (now over 6 feet and almost 18) really makes me laugh. I mentioned his blog when it first started. It's continued to delight and surprise me. Very proud of the used computer/free internet initiative as well.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Mr. Whimsical Keeps Rolling

So on Monday I came to school feeling a little sick. My English teacher sent me home because of how sick she thought I looked, and upon returning home I discovered that my fever was 103. So I am sorry that my posts have been nonexistent, but I had to get better. At 104 your brain starts to melt and I knew for the sake of you dear readers that I must be at full brain capacity to please the ever demanding people that cherish this blog. Well, dear readers, I got my temperature down and I am back to you feeling good. My brain is not melted and therefore Mr. Whimsical keeps rolling.

It's TCM not TMC

oops. Got that wrong several times here. I've since corrected it but for those who read the original post. I kept meaning to refer to TCM (Turner Classic Movies), not TMC (The Movie Channel.) John's a huge fan of TCM so it's often on in our house. I forget to check the listings as he does, but often get sucked in. Great programming, great packaging.

My favorite blogger these days, artist Austin Kleon

My favorite blogger these days is Austin Kleon who I first referenced here, when Tom Perrotta sent me his hilarious cartoon sketch from the TX Book Festival. Now I check his different blogs and twitters daily and just totally dig his virtual self. Love the sketches, love the recommendations, and even enjoy his reports of newlywed delight.

And here's a new post that made me like him even more:

LETTER TO A YOUNG COLLAGE ARTIST

"The year was 1997. I was 13 years old. Green Day was the coolest band in the world. Two years previous, they’d just put out their album, Insomniac, with an insane-looking cover. I checked out the liner notes, and found out it was done by a collage artist named Winston Smith:

I had a great art teacher, Robyn Helsel, who assigned us a project where we had to pick a contemporary artist and write to them. Most of the class picked their artists out of a catalog. I picked Winston. I used my dad’s e-mail account and sent probably half a dozen e-mails to a gallery curator I found online, asking for Winston’s home address. The curator finally replied: “Stop bugging me, kid. Here’s his address.” I sent Winston a two-page letter using a ransom note font in Microsoft Word, telling him about me and my band, asking him about his technique, his influences…I even had the audacity to include a sketch of an idea I had for a piece he might want to attempt. (I have the letter somewhere…but unfortunately, not the sketch!) A few months went by. As I remember it, nobody in the class heard back from their artist.

Then one day a huge, stuffed manila envelope came in the mail...." (read the whole post here)

It's a new day, in a new year

A quiet New Year's without blogging. Time spent otherwise. With friends, some lovely family visiting, some unfortunate family drama, but also happily cooking, screening, celebrating, reading, then blissfully immersed in The Wire season 4. I found myself not writing because I realized very few were reading, and I wanted that post about helping to linger. I pretty much never make resolutions but do have a feeling about change in 2008. I do have a sense to shift some priorities. There's a health imperative pushing but it's also just seems the proper changes in their proper time. I'm 50 now. Married 25 years (in May.) My youngest is graduating from high school. There are economic realities to face. Things. Stuff. Another shift in what's already been a life full of realignments. Which is fine. It's how it should be. Though I'm not a practicing Buddhist, it's what they all say. Life is about change.

It can just be hard to take that different step forward. I look back, and even in this short term, see some changes of direction and priorities. But they've happened without thinking. So now I have to consciously set the stage for another change. And I have to figure out how to consciously set in motion the unconscious propulsion. That's the trick.

Making an effort to read again, consciously pushing away from this keyboard, I browse in and out of books gathered along the way. I find myself delighted by this 2nd Chakra mantra recommended by Caroline Myss:

I am filled with the vital energies of life and I take action with confidence and power.

So I repeat it. Goofy perhaps. Images of Stuart Smalley from the old SNL but what the hell. It can't hurt. And I've already experienced the difference it makes to feel and say thanks rather than something more negative. So why not? One foot forward.

Welcome to Wyatt's world, in school that is

For those who've asked, Wyatt's allowed me to link to his blog, which is a requirement for his high school computer class.

And actually has a project calling for public comments and participation. So go ahead! (Including you Josh Ramsey...he remembers you and your watch :)

Logo Approval
Computer Recycling Project

More Wyatt

I'm having the greatest time traveling with my son. I love traveling with him. Not necessarily doing anything specific, just traveling. It took months for him to come around to the idea of visiting colleges in real time. It took awhile to get him to agree to take off a few days from high school. But here we are, on the road. Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh, Penn and B.U. in a couple of days. Planes, trains and automobiles. So far so good. So far really enjoying this different moment.

With all this one-on-one time, different from the constant sports banter he and his Dad enjoy, he told me about his computer class blog. I looked, I cracked up. I loved it. He won't allow me to print the name (trust me, as he says, "it's genius,") or link to it, but he said I could share the first post:

It begins...

My name is Wyatt. Now that i have a blog i feel like i have a personal relationship with every other person in the world. I hope you share this deep connection with me. Now that the formalities are out of the way I would like to introduce you to the class that started it all. While i was once incapable of doing anything productive on a computer, computer applications with Mr. Bjerke has taught me otherwise. I have learned how to make myself known, and you dear reader, should let yourself be known back to me. The computer is no longer the gateway to games and porn, it is now the gateway to knowledge and the betterment of life. So dear reader, i am signing off for today but i looked forward to the relationship that we will share and build for the rest of our lives.

Wyatt

One blogger amongst the millions

For pretty much the first time today I started randomly reading blogs. I mean really randomly. Just clicking the Next button on the Blogger site. Inspired I suppose by the international clicks on this one. How do people find there way here? So I hit that "Next" button. And started to laugh; a Chinese blog, a Brazilian, track listings from a wild selection of classic and electric albums, but then I came upon one and stopped. And stayed. And read. And am still disturbed by it hours later. No, I'm not going to link to it, because I don't want to attract the blogger's attention. Posted by a guy I'm pretty sure. A true depressive and perhaps stalker. Two years of regular postings, each one more miserable than the next, yet shockingly consistent in their message. "I'm tired. I'm in pain. I'm masking the pain going through the motions. I'm alone. I suck. I'm a loser. I'm unloveable. I'm invisible. Why doesn't she love me?"

It was excruciating yet I couldn't stop. On the one hand, it reminded me of the self indulgent whinings and pinings I started writing in H.S. I still have the tendency. It's just the unrelenting nature that's terrifying. No ups to the chronic downs. No identifying info either, this blogger could be anyone, anywhere. Writing weekly to mark their existence, despairing of the solitude, yet sure of an audience. Felt like a cautionary tale.

Idly continuing, living online

So many ways to keep thinking about the privacy vs. public in modern day. When I first started this blog, an old friend, wrote, "you were the original blogger!" Well hardly. When I lived with him I kept journals in black sketchbooks. Private journals. Ok, well maybe I read them aloud now and again, maybe to him (not that he was interested) or my h.s. pal Suzy. They certainly weren't available for strangers idly searching on the odd word.

So here it is 30 years later, and millions of us are typing our secrets online. Well maybe secrets, or maybe facades, or maybe just the day to day. When I started this, I wrote about bleeding through my jeans. So how come now I'm not writing about the cessation of the bleed? And how weird that feels? About buying Germaine Greer's, The Change over 15 years ago, keeping it on my bedtable and never reading it? About the surgery consult I had on Tuesday, for a procedure first suggested by my father, when I was 16? Why is that suddenly off bounds? Or why would it be in? Because we hunger for community? And the facades and what's behind the facades? I'm not sure where I want to draw the line.

I know I get sucked into almost everything by peer pressure. I'm the opposite of the loner explorer, iconoclast. Instead I get pulled in - what are they doing? what's that feel like? maybe I should be doing that? So I'm writing this blog because I'm curious. I really don't know if it's a good idea, a nice warm up, or a total waste of time. I don't know what it'll bring, but I'm sucked in, in the flow. So are we all. Pulled faster and faster, in more directions. No time for understanding the consequences, just slipping into the experience. What's it matter?

Time and Twitter

Time is the endless subject. Oh and I guess, Value. How to spend one's time. How to spend one's time the best way. How not to waste time. I'm a huge time waster. I get things done but slowly and erratically. I move forward but hardly in a straight line. I think about time. I worry about time. When Rebecca had my insight personality profile done alongside her non-profit, "...could use help with time management" figured prominently.

Only so many hours in a day. And way too many ways to spend them. I don't jump out of bed like you read of captains of industry, or yoga masters, or writers. I stall, I go back to sleep, I worry about what to wear, and what next I'll do. I wake slowly. The day continues, filled with activities that other's might call hobbies, or as my longtime astrologer laughed, "a life you should have been born into money to lead." Around 10pm I get a second wind. I start to focus. Overall, things get done, perhaps not the most important, but still things get chipped away, experiences had.

But really today, what I'm thinking about is Twitter. Twitter, for those of you who don't know, is like crumbs in the forest. It's a line you post from your phone or computer - saying something like, "just had coffee with joe" or "standing in line at the bank." I first stumbled across it during the Sundance fest coverage. Lately, I've noticed Matt Dentler is using it more and more. Austinite, sxsw film fest producer, and inveterate blogger, Matt's clearly of an entirely different generation - chronically multi-tasking, and living his life out in public. His blogging, a daily must read, has everything to do with breaking down my initial resistance. But now Twitter? I read his daily messages, and wonder what is this??? They show up in a list with all my regular blog reads, and I can't help but wonder, who are they for? Who needs to know where he had dinner? Who's he writing them for? Why I'm reading them? And of course it's not just him! Apparently Twitter's gaining millions of twitters daily. It's addictive of course, but is it more than that?

Here's an interesting perspective by Kathy Sierra, creator of Creating Passionate Users blog. Excellent read.

Twitter scares me. For all its popularity, I see at least three issues: 1) it's a near-perfect example of the psychological principle of intermittent variable reward, the key addictive element of slot machines. 2) The strong "feeling of connectedness" Twitterers get can trick the brain into thinking its having a meaningful social interaction, while another (ancient) part of the brain "knows" something crucial to human survival is missing. 3) Twitter is yet another--potentially more dramatic--contribution to the problems of always-on multi-tasking... you can't be Twittering (or emailing or chatting, of course) and simultaneously be in deep thought and/or a flow state. (cont)

Knitting and the internet

Who knew that there are about a billion knitters out there, and they all seem to blog! It's incredible. For years I was aware of my old babysitter's blog. And amused. She pretty much never responds to email yet has been blogging constantly for several years. She started right after she got her masters in biology and decided knitting was more interesting. I visit her obsessive and delightful blog from time to time, noticing the growing community that she both writes about and links to. But it seemed pretty specific.

I started knitting as a kid. I delved into many crafts and mastered none. Then when I hooked up with John, I needed something to do during his endless baseball watching. This would have been @ 1981. I was a disaster at life size garments, but could make wonderful neck hoodie things and adorable baby clothes. Which I did until I had my own babies. Then I stopped. I no longer had free time or available hand use. Around that time I also got totally addicted to computers, which is also hand intensive.

Over the years I 've dabbled a bit. Made a fabulous green mohair scarf that's too itchy. Made my mom another hoodie which she loves. Spent a week knitting a scarf for my sister while visiting her in Amsterdam. Earlier this year, watching John and Richard Linklater talk publicly during sxsw, I spied someone knitting in front of me, and became entranced. Luckily she was someone I knew so I emailed right when I got home and got the details. During the basketball playoffs, (Damn that Suns/Spurs series was amazing! And the Mavs/Golden State before that!) I got the itch. So I started again. Having a question or two, I idly started googling and man, what a surprise!! Blog after blog after blog of knitting progress and discussion. Helpful tips. Photos of balls of yarns. Tips and links. Phenomenal really, the creative impulse and impulse to share. Pretty great.