There are precedents however; painted Russian Orthodox Icons sometimes featured what is called Byzantine-perspective in the buildings and backgrounds – as a way of describing God looking out at the world, through the painting. It’s a beautiful concept; a God’s perspective.
Posted: June 2nd, 2010 | Author:dave | Filed under:inspiration | Comments Off
Tom Waits reads Charles Bukowski’s “The Laughing Heart”:
The Laughing Heart
your life is your life don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission. be on the watch. there are ways out. there is a light somewhere. it may not be much light but it beats the darkness. be on the watch. the gods will offer you chances. know them. take them. you can’t beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes. and the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be. your life is your life. know it while you have it. you are marvelous the gods wait to delight in you.
Children, I am an author who used to type a book manuscript on a manual typewriter. Yes, I did. And mailed it to a New York publisher in a big manila envelope with actual postage stamps on it. And kept a carbon copy for myself. I waited for a month or so and then got an acceptance letter in the mail. It was typed on paper. They offered to pay me a large sum of money. I read it over and over and ran up and down the rows of corn whooping. It was beautiful, the Old Era. I’m sorry you missed it.
Maybe that’s how it worked for you, Garrison. If so, count your blessings, because you’re lucky beyond all belief. Most writers don’t make enough solely from their writing to survive, much less thrive. That era of martyrdom isn’t disappearing (though I wish it would–the stereotype damages a writer’s ability to make a decent living), and self-publishing won’t kill it because it’s not rejection that creates the stereotype of the starving artist–it’s the economics.
The thing that seems to pass Garrison, and Brian … didn’t exactly miss, but didn’t hammer home was this:
It’s never been easier for an artist to get her voice out there. As a result, there’s an explosion of creativity happening RIGHT NOW, and it’s ultimately great for writers and readers.
It is hard for a new artist to find an audience. This is not new. But, just like every other industry that’s had its gates opened by modern technology — desktop publishers, font designers, television programmers, film editors, and electricians, just to name a few — the addition of new talent into the field is a win for every one of us. More people get interested in the field, more people start doing work, more good work gets done.
Further, the more work that’s out there, the more opportunities seem to appear. People begin to value the art, and want somebody good to do it. Just take a look at font design, for instance … or how much better visual storytelling got after cable, or MTV, or computerized video editing. New techniques and languages and histories are formed, audiences get smart to them, and the art continues to improve.
Posted: May 24th, 2010 | Author:dave | Filed under:design, inspiration | Comments Off
“For thirty-six weeks, a sketchbook was sent in random order between four artists: two in Brooklyn, two in Belfast. Every Wednesday, one participant would receive book. The following Monday it was sent out, giving each artist five days to complete a spread in response to the one that preceded it.”
You can view the book here. There is commentary for each page, recorded while the artists were together and drinking, and it might be the best part of the exhibit. (You might have to click the ‘listen’ button a few times to get it to go.)
Accompanying this page (week 14): “My direct response was: fate can go to hell. You can always work through fate. You can work through good luck, you can work through bad luck, you can work through it all.”
Week 16 has a great story about 29,000 rubber ducks floating in the Bering Straits.
Tristan Jehan, a Ph.D. in the hyperinstruments group at MIT’s Media Lab, put together a bit of computer magic that takes existing recorded tracks and makes them swing! It works by taking a beat and stretching the first half and shrinking the rest. The examples are fantastic. Check out this version of Guns and Rose’s ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’:
Garrison Keillor recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times on the 