Showing posts with label chikung. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chikung. Show all posts

Thursday, July 16, 2009

July 15

Exercise
Yoga/chikung/weights/walk

Practice
Morning/afternoon/evening sessions
Slow-slow-slow practice
A lot of interval practice today.
Learned the Monk tune: We See

Food

Spent some time reading at Mister Doughnut today. Had to try a new mango/peach/orange frozen drink and green tea doughnut. Have to keep tryin' new things!!!


After Mister Doughnut, went across the street to SATY department store/cinema complex. Stopped in the entrance and donned a pair of 3D glasses with some kids to catch a preview of a new Disney movie.

Movie
KNOWING - Nicolas Cage

Reading




Picked these things out randomly this afternoon to take to the cafe and read. Kind of surprising later when I got into the reading. Julia Cameron was referring to Ueland and her book in Vein of Gold. And then I started reading a great interview/article in Scientific American on the Creative Mind and found that Cameroon was one of the writers being interviewed.

If You Want To Write - Ueland
In chapter 4, Ueland speaks about the necessity for idle time in the creative process. Constant "busy work" can block the flow of new ideas. She says to not feel guilty about having periods of inactivity.

Vein of Gold - Cameron
Your Mode of Transportation: Walking
Cameron speaks of the importance of walking as a creative tool. She cites examples throughout history of creative/spiritual people making daliy walks a part of their creative process. This also goes hand in hand with Ueland's comments about being willing to have periods of idleness (which could include taking long walks each day).

Scientific American Mind
"The Creative Mind"
A valuable article with tons of info given in a very straight forward manner. In a nutshell:
Capturing Surrounding Challenging Broadening

"But if it is the dreamy idleness that children have, an idleness when you walk alone for a long time, or take a long, dreamy time at dressing, or lie in bed at night and thoughts come and go, or dig in a garden, or drive a car for many hours alone, or play the piano, or sew, or paint alone; or an idleness-and this is what I want you to do-where you sit with pencil and paper or before a typewriter quietly putting down what you happen to be thinking, that is creative idleness. With all my heart I tell you and reassure you: at such times you are being slowly filled and re-charged with warm imagination, with wonderful, living thoughts."

If You want to Write - Brenda Ueland
pg 33


"Walking is the most powerful creative tool that i know. Although it has fallen into disuse in our hurried times, it may be the most powerful spiritual practice known to man.

A creative life is a process, and that process is digestion. We speak of "food for thought" but seldom realize that as artists we need thought for food."

The Vein of Gold - Julia Cameron
pg 25

Monday, June 29, 2009

June 28

Sometimes I really love rainy days. Today was one of those days. Woke-up late today, got a good warm-up on the horn, ,did chi kung/yoga, had my blueberry/banana juice and talked with family. For me that's a great way to start the day. This old building I live in has one of those great tin roofs. I think they were especially made for rain. If it's one of those slow steady rains, there is kind of a rhythm to the sound of the rain landing on the roof. I spent several hours alternating between playing the trumpet, clearing/reading email that came in last week and checking out some new websites I've been introduced to. Here's a sampling of what I got into today.

Newsletters/Websites/Videos
Mind Map Inspiration
Murderous Musings in Creativity
Creative Liberty
Open Culture
Mycoted
Creative Education Foundation
Creativity Exercise Blogs
Kristina Dryza Official Website (friend of mine in Tokyo-SUPER creative!)
Futurethink
Futurethink Newsletters
NASA Newsletter
iconoculture
Creative Pro Newsletter
Creative Pro - "Mag Covers that Broke the Rules"
James Mahones' "Practice Portal" Blog (happy to call him friend)
Lateral Action
Creativity - Wiki
Creativity - Graham Wallas

Speakers at Google


Links for Creativity Sites on Creative Liberty
YouTube "Smart" Videos

92st Y
Neil Gaiman and Chip Kidd
20th Anniversary of Sandman


FreeJazz
Got this book from Senzoku on Friday. Looks like it could give me more insight into the "free jazz" scene.



Yoga Journal
Count your blessings..have gratitude.


WebProNews
"Dow Jones Exec Describes Google as Digital Vampire"
Interesting reading the story and then the comments and trying to take the side of each one. A good creativity exercise I think.

Finally, around 9pm I decided to go into Ikebukuro for a jam session. Walked a few blocks from the house with my horn listening to Alex Jones' podcast and suddenly asked myself, "Why am I walking to the station, taking a 15 minute train ride, another 15 minute walk to the club and then have to pay $25 (¥2500) to get in and only play a couple of tunes?" So I turned around and took my horn back to the house. Just couldn't pay $25 to sit-in. That's why there really isn't any kind of good jam session scene in Japan where the musicians can come together as a community and hang and talk and play. The club owners want to "feed" off of us and continue to drain a group of people that are already struggling financially.

Went to Mister Donut and spent a couple of hours reading more about Victor Vasarely and doing exercises from DeBono's book, "Creativity Workout." Tonight I continued with some of the "random word" exercises. Did exercises related to "pairing", "grouping" and "connecting."

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

June 22

Exercise
Yoga and Chikung this morning and again tonight.



Trumpet
Long slow warmups
Reviewed several Brandt etudes
Played tunes tonight (runnin' keys)

Books
Pumping Ions - Tom Wujec
Did some visualization and random word exercises

Creativity Workout - Edward DeBono
Random word exercises related to some future photography projects I want to do.

Music
Listening to:
Samuel Barber - Piano Concerto Op. 38
Stravinsky - Firebird

Podcast
Alan Watt - Cutting Through the Matrix
June 19 Podcastra

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

June 14

While in the hospital in Baltimore, recovering from a major throat cancer operation, I found myself with a room full of doctors and psychiatrists. I asked them what the big group meeting was all about. Thought maybe they were going to give me my "expiration date." They told me I was going to live but, without the trumpet. At the time, they thought it would be impossible for me to play because of the effects of the operations. I had a few moments to sit there (with all of them staring at me) and think about not making music on the trumpet in the future. After a a couple of minutes I had a very clear realization:

"It's not about the trumpet,
it's about creating."


I found out at that moment that what I really wanted was to create. Realized that I could do that on any instrument, painting, writing, photography, etc. That was a HUGE moment.

Books (New Store)
Went to a new bookstore today in Shirokane. Great used bookstore! Picked-up some books for ¥200 each at Book-Off!





A great book chikung (qigong).

Started checking out Second Life a couple of years ago. Do you know about the 3D virtual world of Second Life? It's a lot of fun! I think a very creative thing.
Second Life
Second Life on Wiki

Cafe
Had a meeting at Ben's Cafe

Event
Went to an event at Pink Cow This a very relaxed, cool space. Good food/drink where you can sit and relax, read, look at art exhibitions, network and see interesting performances (music, writers, artists, designers, etc) almost every night.

Music
Went to Bflat in Akasaka to hear Tim Lyddon. Tim is a new pianist living and working in Tokyo. He recently moved here from New York. You can hear some of his music on Myspace.

Later in the evening, I went to a really fun r&b/funk jam session at Miles Cafe in Ikebukuro. Got a chance to do some playing with some old friends.


Long day but, had a chance to experience a lot of new things today.