"a way to track my activity related to creativity and things that i've found helpful to generate new ideas. waste of time? possibly. talked with students about doing a lot of these things to get them out of the music building and experience life. so, maybe this is a way to track myself and to provide an example to some of my students."
Showing posts with label lateral thinking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lateral thinking. Show all posts
Lateral Action newsletter came today. I've really been enjoying this newsletter. Always great information on the creative process.
In this issue, the question is posed about multi-tasking. Is it productive? Is it even possible? There is also some good info from "flow" and creativity guru Csikszentmihaly about the "zone" of creativity and how we access it.
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.
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."
Watercolor Woke-up this morning and came in and sat down and did a few minutes of watercoloring. It's funny how the mind works. That little voice in our mind that is constantly talking. Almost everything inside of me said, "Don't put your silly-looking, childish watercolors up for the world to see." But, another part of me says, "Who cares?" And really who cares? It's not about that for me. It's about creating. That's all. Is it good? I don't know..don't care to know. When I play a solo on the horn, I have the same feeling. Yeah..sure..there is a part of me that wants everyone to like it but, over time that voice has gotten smaller and smaller. And as that's happened, I've felt more and more free to create/improvise. Amazing how fear paralyzes us and stops us from creating. Trip Took a train ride out into the countryside today. Went to Higashi Moro in Saitama. About 20 minutes (walk) from the station is a great pine forest area with trails and an old Japanese temple. Really a special area for energy. I love doing chikung in a pine forest. Anyway, it was a nice trip. Took some photos. No iPod. No phone calls. No email. Took the train back home but, stopped in Asaka (Saitama) and sat at an outdoor cafe and enjoyed the evening breeze and read E. De Bono's "Lateral Thinking."
Lateral Thinking Maybe we can think of lateral thinking as thinking "outside the box." Seems like most of us are taught in our "left-brain" (logical, practical)society schooling to think "vertically." Lateral thinking is more of a horizontal approach to thinking, problem solving and creativity.
Exercise Did a lot of walking today. Decided when I got home to do some yoga, chikung and weights.
Documentary Watched 2 documentaries today on "beat generation", avant-garde writer William Burroughs.
Art/Photography Lenswork Extended - June Issue Tonight I've been checking out photographer Ian Foster. He lives in a small village near Norwich, England. I was looking at his folio called Waterline I. It's a collection of abstracts based off of boats of all kinds in dry-dock that exhibits their battles with the sea. I found out that his influences are Rothko, Barnett Newman, Josef Albers, Clifford Still, Sean Scully and Howard Hodgkin. Except for Rothko (one of my favorites), all the others were new to me. So, I've been searching around on the net to look at some of their work. Amazing how checking out one photographer today has led me to 5 new artists that I didn't know about.
Movie Started watching one of my favorite movies, "The Scent of Green Papaya." Went to Tsutaya and rented dvd's of movie director, Tran Anh Hung's two films, "The Scent of Green Papaya" and "The Vertical Ray of the Sun." I saw "Green Papaya" at an Asian film festival a few years ago and was knocked out by the style and timing and rhythm of this movie. I love how he takes so much time to let a scene develop. Seems like a lot of directors don't have the courage to do that. Maybe afraid their audience won't have the patience for it. Also, loved the soundtrack by Ton-That Tiet. The way he shifted back and forth between an Asian vibe to a kind of 20th century western classical music vibe was amazing.
Listening Dance Suite, Sz 77 - Bartok Slovakian Dance - Bartok Improvisations Op.20, Sz 74 - Bartok Alan Watt Podcast May 25 (Cutting Through the Matrix) Alan Watt Podcast May 27 (Cutting Through the Matrix) Alex Jones' Podcast May 28 Lenswork Podcast May 27 Some ask my why I listen to Alan Watt. A few years ago, I was very frustrated (had been for 30 years) because I felt like I could never get real news on tv or in newspapers. I went on a search for real news. Well, eventually I stumbled on Watt's podcast and was amazed. I wasn't amazed because he talks about current events and/or the political world and the garbage they feed us daily. No, he is several layers removed from all that and has developed an interesting perspective based on years of research into old books, documents, reports and following the movements of big foundations/think tanks. During most of his podcasts, he mentions books/writers as far back as Plato that have shaped the world we live in and has really helped me to see more clearly the flow-direction-movement of society today...the people/organizations that want to control it...and why. I have most of the books he has mentioned. Was able to get most of them online as pdf files. I guess in the beginning I did that because I was so surprised with things that he was saying, I wanted to check him out and see if these things were for real. The "waking up" process was a little shocking at first but, now I feel a lot less stressed and my mind is more freed up for creative thinking.
Design Experimented with a new business card design. Got an idea to put my upcoming gig flyer on the back of my business card. Will continue working on this. Seems like a lot cheaper and slightly unique way of getting the word out.
Teaching Taught an ensemble class today. Instead of playing some of the standards we've been working on, decided to play "free." Talked a little about that vocabulary....free jazz. Does that mean that other kinds of jazz isn't free? If it isn't free, what is it? No answers today. Anyway, it was so interesting to hear how creatively the students played when we dropped all the "rules." It took a few minutes for them to lose their shyness and fear of mistakes. I had remembered that recently one of the students mentioned that M.C. Escher is her favorite artist. I have been reading Escher on Escher - Exploring the Infinite.
I took this book out of my bag and we talked about Escher and his work. We looked at a few examples and I asked the ensemble to "play" his "Symetry Work 25". Hahaha..everyone looked kind of gave me a strange look. But, a few minutes later it was amazing to hear what they came up with. So damn creative! Showed them a photo I took in Shibuya train station a few days ago outside the Fukutoshin Line. Asked them to imagine they are in charge of doing a soundtrack for a documentary about this artist and they have to compose/improvise some music for the film while this work is being shown. Again....they were sooooo creative!
