Category: creativity

Great Poem From The Bus

Translink has a few feet of ad space on some buses dedicated to getting Canadian poets “published” or at least noticed.  One day last summer I read this poem and thought it absolutely wonderful.  Now I think I’m going to add the poet’s book to my list of interesting books to buy.

Excerpt from “Had I Stayed On The Farm” by David Zieroth

I married the skinny girl

and our kids ran free as chickens

one of them, the second boy

moving along the ditches for days

trapping muskrats and living on chokeberries and bulrushes

sleeping by a little fire of sticks

wrapped in his jacket, and we hardly noticed

he was gone until he returned

as someone else, burnt and smoky

his sisters silenced by the strides he took

to reach the pump, his hands

a mesh of little nicks and cuts where

the cries of the animals had entered him

Quickies

OK, before they escape my mind, a few things I wanted to post but couldn’t during october because of the downtime.

  1. Not a single response to my federal election email asking for comments from all candidates.  Not a single peep.
  2. My creativity goals have been challenging – I not only can’t play guitar yet, but I’ve actually forgotten the one chord I did know.  I have, however, drawn a lot more this year.  Here’s a quick sketch I drew in the spring for a super hero: “The Kegler Elf”.  For those of you who don’t get the name, go read wikipedia.  The unicycle is his hero vehicle, as his special power is that he can claps things in his inner thighs really tightly – super tightly.  So he can do cool things like … hang upside down from helicopters and … ride unicycles like a crazed chicken elf.

Marley’s New Hobby: Photography!

Marley’s best friend (BFF) Kendall gave her the neatest gift when Cohen arrived – her very own digital camera.  She has taken to it enormously, and is constantly taking pictures of pretty much anything that interests her.  What interests her?  Well, I’ve put together a little page of all the pictures she’s taken to date, so have a look.

Note that she had a little help with a few of them, but a few of her own solo compositions really stand out as really interesting … such as

Poppa catching a snooze at the hospital

Her very first self portrait

Some of them give us a glimpse into what it is like to be her height

Steep stairs

Under the table

A new talent has been revealed here – I’m really looking forward to seeing what her next 400 pictures look like!

Oh Look, Daddy smiling with teeth!

P.S. She’s been given absolute access to everything, and now that she’s taking pictures of these things we’re going to have to keep an eye on the appropriateness of some of her subject matter.  In the meantime, if you happen to see an inappropriate picture please notify me.  You can give me the picture ID by hovering your mouse over the thumbnail, it will be something like “IMG_0059.JPG”, for example.  Thanks for your diligence citizens!

Dr. Horrible – New Media Experience?

Today I stumbled across a mini-movie that was right up my alley – “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog“.  It is a 3 part movie made by the fellow behind Firefly/Serenity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story and others – Joss Whedon.

It’s a super-hero story from the villain’s perspective.  It contains his usual sense of humour and some great performances by fairly well-known actors.  Oh, and it is a musical, kinda.  Oh, and it is being made free on a website until, well, I don’t know when.  The site says it is until tomorrow, July 20th, midnight.

In any event, it is quite entertaining.

It is also an interesting foray into a new way of delivering media online.  The little FAQ seems to indicate that he wants to “create more with less.”  I’m behind this all the way!

Enjoy!

Happy To See I Wasn’t The Only One

Did you ever get to know Bob Ross?  Did he ever help you experience the Joy of Painting?  Sometimes I miss that man, his warmth and patience, his willingness to explore mistakes as creative input.

I’m happy to see such works as this one that let me know that I wasn’t the only one he touched so deeply.

Sure it is a parody – but they say it is the sincerest form of flattery.

Creative Goal 3 – Learn A New Musical Instrument

Goal: I know, it sounds cliche. But as a music lover I really am shocked I’m not contributing more to music, rather than just consuming it. I’ve tried to teach myself bass and 6 string guitar before, but have never followed through to any great length. So in the spirit of pushing myself, I’m going to set myself a goal of being able to site read basic songs on the 6 string guitar by the end of the summer. If I’m feeling really frisky I will aim at having my first guitar song written up by the end of the year.

Previous efforts generally died because I simply had a book to follow, which lacks, frankly. Now with this “Internet” thingy I can get free lessons essentially. Here’s my collection of links so far:

Tuning resources:

Lessons:

Status: Ongoing. So far I’ve tuned my guitar and learned the D chord. Oh, and of course “Smoke On The Water”.

Creative Goal 2 – Daily Doodle

Goal 2: Doodling, even just silly drawings of crayon on the tub walls with Marley during her bath, is a great way to let a little creativity flow on a regular basis.  it helps underscore one of the major incentives of this cause, which was to model creativity for Marley.  So I’m working on doodling something every day.  Some days so far it is little things, while hopefully on others it will be drawings leading to paintings or pencil pictures.

Status: Ongoing (so far so good)