Mucca Pazza ~ wow! (part 3 of the Renegade Fair) July 27, 2008
A few weeks ago I went to the Renegade Fair at Fort Mason Center. I wrote about it in previous posts:
Renegade Fair Part 1
Renegade Fair Part 2
What I haven’t written about yet was the highlight of the Fair: Mucca Pazza. This is how they describe themselves on their MySpace page: “Astounding circus Punk Marching Band”…yes, yes, yes and more. I am sure that anyone lucky enough to see this band walks away thinking: what the hell was that! I sure did. I was so excited and could not stop taking photos of them. If you ever have a chance to see them, be prepared to see something unique, energizing, creative, funny…and just plain great!
To see the other photos I took of the event, go here
Collecting Stories: Jonathan Harris on TED.com July 25, 2008
Recently I subscribed to TED.com and have been watching the talks as they come in. There are some really amazing ones…this one that I watched just a few minutes ago made me feel like there are ways I can still incorporate all the things I watch, listen to and think about into something creative. This is Jonathan Harris’ way of gathering stories, photographs, feelings and creating really interesting projects…
Also to access the site he mentions called “We feel fine”, go here
Sunday at the Renegade Fair ~ Part 2 July 17, 2008
Sunday at the Renegade Fair Part 1 can be found here.
Mucca Pazza at the Renegade Fair ~ Part 3
Here are a few more of the booths that I particularly liked as I wandered the aisles of amazing creativity:
This young woman, Jenifer from Sprout Studio, was thrilled to have her picture taken. I walked into her booth because I saw this skateboard with umbrellas painted on it hanging on a black wall. It was simple yet popped out like a red butterfly on a pile of ash. I also liked the way she displayed all of her other pieces…
http://www.sproutstudio.net/
http://www.sproutstudio.net/
http://www.sproutstudio.net/
Ach Ach Liebling (means: “Oh Oh Darling” in German) is the brainchild of Joanne Petrone, a local San Franciscan artist. I am a sucker for anything organic and just the fact that she had her necklaces displayed on a big ‘ol piece of driftwood did it for me. Then I actually found her pieces to be really interesting and varied:
http://www.achachliebling.com
www.achachliebling.com
And then there was the name: 11:11 Enterprises…well, not really. I was first attracted to the amount of color splashed out on this table. At closer look I saw that it was all very well organized…oh, they are wallets, and card holders, and passport/check covers…whoa! that’s a lot of stuff. So I took a photo…and then I saw the name of her business. I am born on 11.11 so I asked her why she calls her business 11:11 and she told me that she loves the time. I wish I had asked her a bit more because I am sure she had more to say. Check out her website here (and she has a few interesting blogs):
www.eleveneleven.net
www.eleveneleven.net
I bought a little orange vinyl purse/pouch from Miss Alison just because I really needed one. Her handmade pouches of all sizes and shapes are really colorful and playful:
www.missalison.com
www.missalison.com
I didn’t spend too much time at this booth, but I again loved the colors and the amazing amount of products on display with a common theme: sketches of a cute little girl. Jen Lukas has got them painted on little wooden squares, on canvas bags (the bags were REALLY cute!), even mouse pads. That’s what you call a niche:
www.jenlukas.com
Amy McClure from Olaria Studios (Olaria means pottery in Portuguese) makes jewelry out of clay. Her colors and designs are what pulled me to her booth:
http://www.olariastudio.com
These next photos are from booths that I didn’t spend too much time at but did find interesting:
Sara Paloma Pottery: www.sarapaloma.com
www.sarapaloma.com
Hilary Williams Fine Art: www.hilaryatthecircus.com
www.hilaryatthecircus.com
www.hilaryatthecircus.com
Mediums To Masses: www.mediumstomasses.com
www.mediumstomasses.com
And last but not least, the ETSY booth. If you are interested in handcrafted art (to make yourself or purchase) go to this amazing site called etsy: www.etsy.com
You can easily create your own page and display/sell/share what you make with millions of other creatives. I myself have dabbled in jewelry, but I have not touched any of my tools in over a year. I am what Barbara Sher would call a “scanner”…I am into so many things, they come and go into my life…and then they come again! So when I do touch my tools again I will share that with my readers.
www.etsy.com
Eric Maisel Creativity Central July 16, 2008
At the beginning of this year, I decided to commit myself to joining Eric Maisel’s new endeavor: a blog about creativity. He sent out a note to all his newsletter subscribers and asked people to join in this new idea of posting something on a regular basis on his blog. These correspondents come from all over the world and post mostly in English, but also in other languages (I already posted mine in English and German). Well, the time finally came and the blog was launched this week. He sent out an email last week asking people to send in their first posting. As I can see from the blog, the feedback is tremendous. He has been posting about 10 to 15 per day since Sunday.
Why have I decided to do this? It is my way of putting myself out there, of taking a few little steps towards connecting with other like-minded people. Of taking risks. And I am happy I did. My life is becoming more and more what I wish for. A more creative, connected, deep, challenging, varied life. I have been connecting with a few new people who like to write, think, create, question…
Here is the link to my posting and all the others you might want to read as well. There are some pretty amazing writings on that blog!
Discovering Eugene O’Neill July 15, 2008
Should I confess that I have never read ANY of Eugene O’Neill’s plays? That I didn’t even know he was a playwright? That I had heard his name but didn’t know ANYTHING about him until last night at about 1am when I couldn’t sleep and changed channels to PBS’ American Experience? Well, I guess I just confessed.
Holy shit! How did I miss this experience? I love and constantly long for moments like this. Again and again I must realize that I will never catch up with the endless amount of creativity that is out there…these amazing people who have lived before us, live in our lifetime that have the spark of insight…and that if I am lucky enough to gather them into the library of my own life and experience they are what makes me a better, creative, open person. They are what gives meaning to my life. Yes, I knew nothing about Eugene O’Neill. But now I do. And now I want to read and see his plays. This series on PBS, American Experience, has managed to spark my interest into understanding what makes this man immortal and wanting to learn from him.
Never ever will I feel like I know enough. I know there is still an endless array of texts, biographies, plays, movies, songs that are waiting to be discovered by me. Waiting for me adopt them into my consciousness.
For today, I give my own little tribute to Eugene O’Neill and I want to share this part from the end of the documentary. Here is the transcript copied from the website:
Narrator: In the climactic fourth act of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, in one of the most beautiful and quietly moving passages O’Neill ever wrote, Edmund struggles to put into words the ephemeral sense of connection with something larger that had sometimes come over him while at sea.
Performance, Robert Sean Leonard (Edmund): I was on The Squarehead, square rigger, bound for Buenos Aires. Full moon in the Trades. The old hooker driving fourteen knots. I lay on the bowsprit, facing astern, the water foaming into spume under me, the masts with every sail white in the moonlight, towering high above me. I became drunk with the beauty and singing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself, actually lost my life. I was set free! I dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim-starred sky! I belonged, without past or future, within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life, or the life of Man, to life itself! To God, if you want to put it that way. And several other times in my life, when I was swimming far out, or lying alone on a beach, I have had the same experience, became the sun, the hot sand, green seaweed anchored to a rock, swaying in the tide. Like a saint’s vision of beatitude. Like the veil of things as they seem drawn back by an unseen hand. For a second you see, and seeing the secret, you are the secret. For a second there is meaning! Then the hand lets the veil fall and you are alone, lost in the fog again, and you stumble on towards nowhere for no good reason. It was a great mistake, my being born a man, I would have been much more successful as a sea gull or a fish. As it is, I will always be a stranger who never feels at home, who does not really want and is not really wanted, who can never belong, who must always be a little in love with death.
Robert Brustein: Well, there’s that beautiful moment in Long Day’s Journey when Edmund begins to reflect on the time when he was at sea, and he found God, or what he thought was God in the quiet and the silence and the coming together of all the elements. And his father sits and wonders at this and says, “There’s a touch of the poet in you.” And he says, “No, I’m not a poet. I don’t even have the makings.”
Performance, Robert Sean Leonard (Edmund): No…I couldn’t touch what I tried to tell you just now. I just stammered. That’s the best I’ll ever do. Well, it will be faithful realism at least. Stammering is the native eloquence of us fog people.
Robert Brustein: It is so painfully honest in the way that O’Neill begins to admit his own defects as a writer, recognizes that he’s not eloquent, that he doesn’t have the gift of the poet, he only has “the makings,” as he says. In recognizing that, O’Neill becomes a real poet at last, and not a stutterer, not a stammerer as he says he is in that play. He begins to soar and it’s impossible to see that play without being profoundly moved by it and also moved by the eloquence of it.
Sunday at the Renegade Fair ~ Part 1 July 14, 2008
Yesterday was one of these very spontaneous days. At first I spent the morning writing at Cafe Trieste. Then I started goal-lessly driving up and down Union Street when I suddenly remembered that there was some fair happening at Fort Mason Center: The Renegade Fair. I almost didn’t go (just because I was getting hungry, tired and lazy) but then something pushed me. Pretty much a voice nagging: what else are ya gonna do today?
So I went there. And I walked in and was very pleasantly surprised. My first impression was: wow! look at all these young, hip, good looking, cool, creative people! It’s not like I live under a rock in the middle of nowhere (proud to say I’ve lived in SF for 17 years) but I guess I haven’t seen that many interesting people in one place in a long time.
At first I walked up and down the rows of booths once. Got an overview. Knew I probably wouldn’t buy anything because, well, just because. Then I took my second round and decided to take photos of all the booths that I liked. There were a LOT of really cool things but I couldn’t take photos of everything. So I took photos of those booths that really caught my attention for different reasons. I left this place feeling really happy and proud of these young people who took that step and took a risk. Yes, it is a risk to not only dedicate yourself to create something that comes from your heart, but also to take the extra step and turn it into your business. You have to organize yourself: create the work, present it, market it, give it a price tag, go around the country to participate in such events…all that in the hope that some person will come to your booth and say: wow! love your stuff! and then purchase something. Yes, these people LOVE what they do…but they have to make a living…and that is the risk they take. Congratulations to all of you!
www.renegadecraft.com
Here they are (click on the picture for a larger view):
www.BookJournals.com
Jacob Deatherage ~ Ex Libris Anonymous ~ sells really interesting journals made from recycled books. When I asked him if I could take a few photos of him and his work, he told me to take one as a gift for putting him on my blog. I’m so not the kind of person that take advantage of such things and I almost declined his offer…but then I thought he would not have offered had he not meant it. I chose a book called “The Conquest of Mind” by Sri Swami Siwananda. It was only when I got home and opened the book that I noticed what these books were all about. They were not only the cover, but also the inside had the first pages of the Introduction, blank pages (journal, remember?), Chapter 29 in the middle of the book, more blank pages, and then what I believe must be the last chapter of the book at the end. Even with some underlinings. Of course I’m glad I chose this book because of its content. But what a clever idea, Jacob! A great gift for yourself or someone else. Check out his website: www.BookJournals.com
www.bookjournals.com
Thank you Jacob!
These two girls, Kelsey Arndt and Heather Daam were adorable. I loved their creations made of all different kinds of wood ~ Necklaces, earrings, buttons, etc…very creative and unique! Check out their website at www.tweethings.ca
www.tweethings.ca
When I got to the booth of this couple, I was immediately attracted to cute simplicity of their designs. I have a weakness for wood, so when I saw these adorable little rings with green trees on them, and then when I saw the price, I just had to get one. I also got a keychain. Very happy with both. Please check out their website at www.timberhandmade.com
Timberhandmade.com
There was something simply magnetic about this booth. Turns out that this artisan, Donovan Hicks not only makes jewelry but is also a massage therapist and yoga instructor. Oh yes! I definitely got that vibe from him. When I asked him if I could take a photo of him and his booth he smiled and said: I’m shy. Check out his work at his etsy shop at www.monkeymeditates.etsy.com
www.monkeymeditates.etsy.com
Alicia Hanson and Brad Johnson create jewelry using car parts. Really unique. They had a pretty large display of their work and as you can see from their photo, they use one of those huge red toolboxes to display their work. I also love the way their necklaces were hanging on copper sheets. When I asked Brad if I could take a photo of his work, he made sure to have his partner (and wife, i think) come over to be in the photo. Really unique stuff! Check out their website at www.hioctanejewelry.com
www.hioctanejewelry.com
www.hioctanejewelry.com
I don’t want to put all of the photos I took on one post. So I will post again in the next days. There were more booths that caught my attention. Check back again in the next days…
numb to the desire to live a genuine life July 1, 2008
This morning I woke up early, as usual. I made my coffee, went to the bathroom, drank my glass of water, turned on my computer, checked my email, responded to some, saved some for later…at this point I usually make a decision. Should I stay at the computer and work on a project? Do some morning writing? Lie down on the couch and turn on the TV? Lie down on the couch and read a book? Most of the time I decide to read a book. Except I just finished a book which I loved: Kafka at the shores by Haruki Murakami ~ I read it in German! 
…and so now I have a few other books I am reading at the same time, but none of them that are really capturing my attention.
So I stand there, in the middle of my living room, as I so often do when i am not sure what I should do (remember, it is VERY early in the morning…my morning walk, for instance, doesn’t happen for another hour or two). I’m turning in circles, both physically and mentally. And then I decide to open one of my cabinets that has more unfinished, unread books. I “randomly” grab one: Being Zen by Ezra Bayda. Ok, I think. let’s see where I left off last time.
Oh…I was only at page 9! Didn’t get too far with that one…
I lie down and begin the chapter at page 9. It is called: Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.
I read. I keep reading. Something inside me begins to stir. My eyes read faster than they are used to. Whoa! Yes! Exactly! Yes!
And then I stop reading for a moment. I think to myself: hey! this is speaking exactly to what I have been struggling with in the past months. Hell! My entire life! Words I have been using to describe my recent state of being/thoughts/desires: numb, genuine life, authenticity, fears, control, comfortable and safe…
Hey Ezra! How did you know that I had to pick up your book and read this particular chapter?
So I keep reading and immediately as I finish this chapter, I think of a few people I know who would appreciate reading these words as well. So I get up and I begin to scan each page. I am excited. I feel like a question I have been asking very recently has been answered. Or at the very least, what I suspected is being given to me in words on a page.
When you feel stuck, when you feel fear, when you feel numb, when you are so afraid to take steps in your life towards what you know with certainty is a more genuine life: what do you do? how do you do it? How do you get out of your MIND, out of your “too much thinking” mode and just DO IT? How do you step away from numbness, from fears, from too much self-control…how do you walk away from the attraction of what is safe and comfortable into the risks of a truly genuine life…into a more authentic life?
At my last therapy session (yes, I am back in therapy), I was asked to just close my eyes and see what I feel. See what images come to mind. Feel. Not think. Feel. Not think. I am a very ‘feeling” person, but I don’t really allow myself to just feel. I protect my feelings with my analytical mind. I control what I don’t know or understand with my ability to distance myself from it by thinking too much.
And so…Ezra gives me a clue. He talks about self-observation. I think: HEY! that is what I do all the time! But then, he immediately explains to me the difference between objective self-observation which is neither analytical nor judgmental. It observes as from a distance. It is not introspection, it is just awareness.
I think I understand. I need to learn to take one more step back and not try to hold on too tightly to understanding WHY I do what I do. Watch it, notice it, observe it, yes, understand it…and then, let it go. By holding on to it, I am placing labels on my personality. But the reality is that our personality, our being is not stagnant. It is not a lion that one can tame. It is in constant transition, change, growth. I understand my problem: I hold on so tightly to self-analysis out of fear of losing control. I do not dare to take the next step. The step that says: yes, that is me. ok. Accept it and move on.
I need to learn to take the step. Move on.
Ezra tells me that meditation can help me:
Until we learn to observe ourselves objectively, we will remain prisoners of our substitute life. Yet as we live the practice life, looking with increasing honesty at all the ways that we’ve held ourselves back in fear, we can also begin to experience the freedom of stepping outside our protected room and into the genuine life that awaits us.
Here are the pages I have scanned:
To comment or not to comment… July 25, 2008
Tags: blog, comment, feedback
I’ve been thinking about this for the past week or so and was planning to post my thoughts on this topic sometime soon. This “sometime soon” is now here…because a fellow blogger that I read was somehow on a similar wavelength and posted his own thoughts today in a post he calls “Just Write”
It’s all about commenting.
I believe in commenting and those of you who read my blog know that I like to comment. Why? Because I know that people read blogs. Lots of people read them. But even though the internet has become the most popular tool of instant communication and information gathering, the other extreme is that it allows us to be completely incognito. No one needs to know that I read their blogs. No one needs to know what I do and where I go online (although that is becoming more and more impossible if you subscribe to sites such as twitter, facebook, myspace, flickr and the million others). But I like people whose thoughts I agree or disagree with, whose expression of creativity, struggles and joy touch me…i like these people to know that I read what they wrote. That I agree or disagree…that I have similar ideas….that SOMEONE out there really IS interested in what they have to say.
And so I take the time and I comment. I wish more people commented as well. But I understand why people don’t. There are lots of reasons. It’s the need to remain unknown, it’s the fear of responsibility, it’s laziness, it’s the thought: they don’t care what I think anyway, it’s the disconnect, it’s the hesitation to put yourself out there…it’s that and much much more.
And that won’t stop me from documenting what I think, feel, create, observe.
Because I know people are reading. Of course I wish people commented more on my blog. It’s almost the same feeling as speaking in front of a crowd and looking at blank stares. When you are in front of people though, you look for the faces who nod and seem to show interest in what you have to say. And when some even ask questions and make comments, you feel elated: they relate! they have something to say! Maybe they even like me! Feedback is priceless.
But here, as I stare at the words that appear on my screen I can’t look into the crowd and search for you, my nodder. All I can imagine are those blank stares. And there are no questions. No comments. And because it’s, well, the internet, it’s sort of ok. It has to be. And I have to remind myself that this blog is my way of sharing with the world what I think, feel, observe, love and hate. And I have to just close my eyes and imagine that yes, the world is paying attention. Silently, invisible…but I know they are there.
And that’s enough for me.
And yet…I do encourage people to comment on people’s blogs if they like (or even disagree with) what they read. It is a way to take this medium to another level. Make it what it is. Instant communication between people. And these people are alive and breathing. So show that you are breathing and that you have a thought and that you acknowledge what someone has taken the time to write down. Take the time. Try it.