Leilani Clark

Yuya Uchida And Flowers

While making a birthday mix for TQ, I rediscovered this gem by the Japanese group that eventually became Flower Travellin’ Band. Yuya Uchida And Flowers was the original name of the group and the album, chock-full of Jimi Hendrix, Big Brother Holding Company and Cream, is a pleasurable listen. My favorite song is a spot-on, heavily-accented version of Hey Joe. TQ actually thought it was karoake recorded for posterity, and I was excited to inform her that it was an actual honest-to-goodness recording band. The later Flower Travellin’ Band stuff, especially on the album “Satori” is great vintage Japanese psychelic rock in the Black Sabbath vein.

My year-end equational recap is posted at the rad political/cultural commentary webzine “Is Greater Than.net.”

Mushrooms> Anything Made By Humans

Wednesdays are supposed to be the day I write about politics, but instead of posting my thoughts on the article about “Music Torture” by the United States Marines over at AlterNet I want to instead talk about the rad Christmas Party I attended today at the Earle Baum Center . I met Al from Ukiah who stopped playing music for 30 years and then started again and now does home recordings of old gospel tunes and Woody Guthrie songs. Al is visually-impaired but that doesn’t stop him from playing banjo like he has picks for fingers. A crowd of about twenty people watched him jam a bit after the 75+guests partook of a delicious potluck. Some awesome soul even brought this great quinoa dish that I absolutely loved.  

Before Al, the tapdancers performed to strange Peruvian folk music. It was a nice contrast–the sound of the clicking tap shoes with the ghostly, high-pitched vocals. Outside, catching up with people I’ve met along the way, I could see snow capping Mount Saint Helena out in the Mayacmas Mountains beyond Santa Rosa.

I ran into my friend Betty, who has lived twenty different lives including one in which FRANK ZAPPA called her house once to speak with her daughter. Yeah, Frank Zappa. I ran into another friend who found out that she was getting laid off last Monday so we decided that the only option at this point is to squat that Copia building out in Napa that cost a million to build and is now being closed down, and we’re going to live on all the amazing vegetables they’ve set up in the gardens around. There is always hope…and not the spectacle kind that’s been sold to us through the last election cycle.

So today, instead of worrying about politics and the state of the world like I usually do, I just want to celebrate Al and his banjo, and the Center and the snow in the mountains above Santa Rosa.

“First forget inspiration. Habit is much more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you are inspired or not…Forget talent. If you have it fine. Use it. If you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration,  continued learning is more dependable than talent…Finally, don’t worry about imagination. You have all the imagination you need…Persist.”

                                                                                              -Octavia Butler

My most enduring and daunting struggle as I try to forge a sustainable, creative life lies in the realm of discipline and habit. I have the Butler quote from above posted above my desk and I most mornings I take the time to reread it and think about what it means. Habit and discipline come hard to me. I’m naturally a lazy person. I told a fellow teacher once that if I could truly give into my urges, I would spend the day lying on the couch watching tv and eating donuts like Homer Simpson. But the more logical, driven side of me knows that its difficult to write a novel when your hands are covered in donut grease. So I continue to work on creative discipline, to read books that help me to move towards a better work ethic, to inspire me to get up earlier and to sit down at my desk whether I feel inspired or not.

I’m one chapter deep into a Sonoma County Library copy of Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use it For Life and I’ve already found a few ideas that seemed useful. Tharp is a believer in the idea of ritual. She says that it can be helpful to have rituals, whether spiritual in nature or not, that open up the day before the beginning of the creative process.She talks about her own (admirably spartan) routine of waking at 5:30 a.m each day to head for the gym where she does a two hour stretching and weight workout. Tharp is a dancer, so this makes sense, but she encourages all those engaged in creative acts to develop some sort of “ritual” that might lead to a stronger sense of focus when the time at the desk or in the studio begins.

I like this idea. I am going to  try it.

Something else that Tharp addresses is distraction. She has a list of exercises that encourage people to “take a week off from clutter and distractions.” She suggest making a list of your distractions and then making a pact to do without them for a week. I particularly liked this sentiment:

“It’s a simple equation: Subtracting your dependence on some of the things you take for granted increases your independence. It’s liberating, forcing you to rely on your own ability rather than your customary clutches.”

My list and my pact might involve avoiding Facebook, blogs(yes, ironic I know that I’m writing in my blog and talking about blogs as distractions!) , movies and all magazines for a week. By sloughing these off like a piece of bad skin for a week, I’d probably free up at least a couple of hours a day that could be spent on more focused creative projects.

Habit and discipline are two words that I shied away from in my twenties, seeing them as signs of dreaded adulthood, but I’ve realized that it is only in the midst of these two veiled companions that I might actually reach some of my castles in the sky.

Fridays are now going to be the day I dedicate to fawning over other people who have provided me with some needed inspiration. Today, I want to talk about Monica Canilao, an Oakland-based artist who was featured in one of the more recent issues of Juxtapoz. With art that incorporates feathers, photographs of animals embroidery, found objects and a stealthy spiritual element, looking at Canilao’s art is kind of like reaching the top of a craggy mountain plateau and discovering the strange, magical creatures that have formed habitats there. The first photograph in the article shows the artist sitting on the deck of a boat that she built herself, which completely rules!

 I am particularly struck by Canilao’s fervent attitude towards her art and the process of creativity. When asked about what drives her, where her internal restlessness comes from, she says:

“It’s an evolving passionate compulsion. Learning how to do new things is like drugs for me. I just get so thirsty for what might be out there. I want to be putting my energy into everything fully, good times and bad. I don’t want to be doing anything half-heartedly when situations can change so quickly.”

“Sometimes I lose sight of why I can’t stop making and making. It will all of a sudden seem like I’m wasting away in my studio while the rest of the world is going on without me. Then I snap out of it and remember that the feeling of being unproductive is emptiness to me. I have work dates at my studio almost daily because it brings me alot of joy to be working around others, and skill sharing whenever possible.”

“It’s a tender balance. Kind of like waking up for the first time on a boat you just built, skewered on a pylon at a 45-degree angle, surrounded by water, stingrays, and sunken bathtubs, with nothing to eat but seaweed and whiskey. You know, that feeling. I look to every little moment and let them build up in my chest and mind utnil I’ve found a way to let it out onto a page or wall or piece of something I’ve been holding onto.”

To check out Monica Canilao’s art, go to

www.monicacanilao.com

The top ten lists are out and here is my own to add to the bunch. Not necessarily published in 2008, the following books are just the ones that most stuck with me after reading.

1. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson-Forgiveness, faith, love and death are all themes that wind through this gorgeous novel by Iowa’s finest. Gilead is narrated by an aging Congregationalist minister in the form of a letter to his young son. Nothing much goes on in terms of action. A wayward son returns home to wreak subtle emotional havoc on his dying father and his long-suffering sister. A minister struggles to reconcile his old age with the energy exuded by his primary-aged little boy. Robinson’s way is with words and the way they can capture the inner yearnings of the human soul.

2. Doris Zine-Cindy Crabb is heading towards #30 of her lovely zine. Written in an unpretentious style, Doris captures the desperate work that goes into becoming a better person. This zine gives me the warm fuzzies everytime I pick up a copy. AK Press sells them through their online catalog.

3. Elsa: I Come With My Songs by Elsa Gidlow-I read a battered copy of this book, published by a feminist press out of San Francisco in the 1970’s. Elsa Gidlow wrote this autobiography when she was in her eighties or nineties. It tells the story of her life from birth, including her adventures as a young, lesbian poet living in Montreal, then moving to San Francisco, taking ships to Europe and eventually settling in a artist’s commune called Druid Heights somewhere in the early wilds of Marin. I found so many inspiring moments on these pages. Mainly because Gidlow was a working-class unmarried woman in the middle part of the 20th century who pursued her desires to be a writer and to live a creative life. The book is a fantastic mix of the feminist-spiritual with practical political life experience.

4. After Rain by William Trevor-I read this back at the beginning of 2008 and still vividly remember the opening of the title story. A young woman sits in a restaurant in Italy, watching the loving couples and happy families around her, drinking too much wine and attempting to escape from a broken love affair by going to the most painful geographic location possible. Trevor writes in a beautiful, glimmering way about the lives of lonely Europeans. His stories are deceptively simple but leave me with the feeling that I’ve just studied the most beautiful photograph.

5. Believers by Charles Baxter-Baxter has this way of writing completely realistic stories that still carry an element of mystery. I think he fully encapsulates Flannery O’ Conner’s decree that a good short story contains both mystery and manners. While I don’t doubt for a minute that his characters are real, each story contains a magical, synchronistic element that captures the underlying forces of the dark corners of the universe.

6. Farewell Navigator by Leni Zumas-I wrote about this book once already on this blog so I won’t go into too much more detail. I did love this book and look forward to more from this Brooklyn-based writer.

Have you seen Punishment Park? I had never heard of it when Torie visited for the weekend and brought a library copy of the DVD with her. So here I am on the couch, trying to do some grading while still hanging out with my friends, and I can’t keep my eyes off the movie. I’m pretty good about blocking things out, but parts of this faux-documentary style film from the early 1970’s chilled my spine and made me pay attention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punishment_Park

The film tells the story of a tribunal of citizens from somewhere in the desert that passes judgement on young anti-war and pacifist activists. This was in the era of Vietnam and Nixon. Passions run high as the supposed “moral” citizens confront the “indigents” about their supposed crimes against society. Much of the film seems improvised and it appears incredibly real (to the extent that Jacs thought it was real until the cops start actually shooting and killing people in the desert). After passing judgement on the activists, the tribunal gives them a choice–thirty years in prison or Punishment Park. Most of them choose Punishment Park–which means they will have one day to travel 20+ miles through the desert in an attempt to reach an American flag planted in the rocks. The catch is that they are trying to beat a falange of cops to the flag–cops with a vendetta against long-haired anti-establishment types.

What got me about the movie is the way that it captures the conflict (that continues to this day) between those who want to change the world and those who think that the world is just fine as it is. It reminded me of Sarah Palin’s comment about the “real” america, etc etc. What happens when polarization goes to the extreme? When we know longer see the person in front of us as a human being with the ability to feel pain and the right not too suffer.

Even with the burgeoning hope many are feeling in light of the new president, I believe we must continue to confront these ideas. Who has the right to comfort? Who has the right to express their opinion? Who has the right to live in this country legally? Who has the right to basic needs and comforts? Who has the right to live above the line of survival?

I’d post some clips of Punishment Park on the sight, but I don’t know how to do that yet. Clips coming soon.

Event organizers around the world are getting ready to send a message about the perils of overconsumption. This year Buy Nothing Day is more important than ever.

Adbusters’ BND 2008 Press Release:

BUY NOTHING DAY ORGANIZERS
CONFRONT THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN HEAD ON

Now in its 17th year, Buy Nothing Day is celebrated every November by environmentalists, social activists and concerned citizens in over 65 countries around the world. Over the years, Buy Nothing Day (followed by Buy Nothing Christmas) has exploded into a global movement, inspiring the world’s citizens to live more simply and buy a whole lot less.

Designed to coincide with Black Friday (which this year falls on Friday, November 28) in the United States, and the unofficial start of the international holiday shopping season (Saturday, November 29), the festival takes many shapes, from relaxed family outings, to free, non-commercial street parties, to politically charged public protests, credit-card cut-ups and pranks and shenanigans of all kinds. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.

Featured by such media giants as CNN, USA Today, MSNBC, Wired, the BBC, The Age and the CBC, Buy Nothing Day has gained momentum in recent years as the climate crisis has driven people to seek out greener alternatives to unrestrained consumption.

This year, Buy Nothing Day organizers are confronting the economic meltdown head-on – asking citizens, policy makers and pundits to examine our economic crisis.

“If you dig a little past the surface you’ll see that this financial meltdown is not about liquidity, toxic derivatives or unregulated markets, it’s really about culture,” says the co-founder of Adbusters Media Foundation, Kalle Lasn. “It’s our culture of excess and meaningless consumption — the glorified spending and borrowing of the past decade that’s at the root of the crisis we now find ourselves in.”

Economic meltdown, together with the ecological crisis of climate change could be the beginning of a major global cultural shift — the dawn of a new age: the age of Post-Materialism.

“A simpler, pared-down lifestyle – one in which we’re not drowning in debt – may well be the answer to this crisis we’re in,” says Lasn. “Living within our means will also make us happier and healthier than we’ve been in years.”

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Do what you can to spread the the BND message this year. Blog it, up-vote it on Digg, or slap a poster on a wall. This could be the breakthrough year when the heavy consumers of the world finally get it.

Warm regards,

The Adbusters Team

This is my first time doing a list post, so please forgive me this indulgence. 

 I’m in the habit of seeing my lack of cash flow (students loans, low-paying adjunct work, student loans, bills, coffee habit, dog food) as something like a tight corset, like the one worn by Scarlett O’ Hara when she has to hold onto the bedpost going “Dear Me, oh, dear me,” as her slave maid pulls tighter and tighter until Scarlett can barely breath. But, today, I decided to see my voluntary “poverty” (so far from the truth as I live comfortable and warm most days)  as a liberating reality in the face of a bunk world economy.

See, I’ve spent most of my adult life with a propensity for spending, SPending, SPENDING! Keep in mind, this spending has most often occured between loud assertions of my complete disdain for capitalism and the superficialities and consumerism that walk hand in hand with this dog-eat-dog economic super-structure. Now, as I begin to see the errors of my ways, I realize that this brokedown palace of an money situation is the perfect opportunity to actually walk the anti-consumerist walk (except when it comes to food…I love food)

With that, here are five ways that to save cash during a bunk economy and hopefully into forever:

1. Eats lots of quinoa with vegetables.

      -Quinoa is magic. A tiny bit goes a long way. Just throw a bit in a pan, add double the amount of water as grain, bring to a bowl, then set on low for about 15-20 minutes. Soon, a perfect white food is ready to leap onto the plate. Protein, nutrients and deliciousness, all in one.

2. The Library!

     -Last week, I practically apologized to the library worker for the sheer amount of days I appear in front of her to check out books. I have stacks around the house and stacks more on hold request. Inter-library loan is the best thing since….quinoa?

3. Ride a bike around the neighborhood and check out the red and yellow leaves on the trees.

     -Free exercise, free entertainment (as long as you have a bike) and free mental health therapy.

4. Stop shopping for new clothes

     -It’s such a basic concept, but it’s taken me all these years to really put thought into action on this issue. New clothes may smell good, but they lack personality and that certain used-charm lingering on thrift store finds. I’m also rediscovering clothes in my closet that I’d forgotten I had. Man, I guess I was spoiled.

5.Cut yr Hair

    -Neil Young almost cut his hair in the seventies, but I’m actually cutting it myself for the first time in years. Think about it. The possibilities are endless and there is no worry about leaving the salon looking like a soccer mom in heat! (True story: Happened at an unnamed hair-cutting place that is located next to the Flying Goat in Railroad Square)