July 22

July 22
Political Correctness
The origin and nature of political correctness.
Newspeak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Literature Suppressed on Political Grounds
Suppressed Political Grounds


Phone gadget to diagnose disease
LENSWORK Podcast 547

"Political correctness (noun) and politically correct (adjective) (PC) are the terms applied to language, ideas, policies, and behaviour meant to enforce ideologic conformity to an orthodox authority. The usages are principally pejorative — ridiculing the “unquestionable authority” of the orthodoxy and the authority figure. The adjectival term politically incorrect denotes language and ideas, unconstrained by orthodoxy, that might offend the orthodox PC folk."

Political Correctness - Wikipedia

I've been hearing terms like politically correct, conspiracy theory, freedom fighter, militants, evil-doer, climate change, globalization, race card, hate speech, physically challenged, Indigenous citizens, Native-Americans, Flight attendant, peacekeeper, and pro-life. I wonder where a lot of these words come from. Kind of sounds like "newspeak" from 1984 to me. Hard for to me to put into words. But, I wonder how much my thoughts are "programmed" by the language. We often talk about computer languages and programming computers. How much are we "programmed" by our language? The media is so powerful and persuasive now. It's so easy for them to adjust the language. How does this affect my thinking, my view of reality, my ability to create and improvise. Living in a foreign country gives me an opportunity to observe people using a different language and the corresponding behavior, thought patterns and perceptions of reality. Since the basis of this blog is about creativity/improvisation, it makes me curious about the effects of language on my creativity.

July 7

Creativity/Projects



Reviewing this issue of Lenswork this morning, I was reminded in the Editor's Comments about the importance of project oriented creating. For example, in the world of photography, Brooks Jensen prefers to already have visualized a project and then go out and go after the photos to make the final project a reality. Of course it's fun to also have days when we doodle, improvise freely, take photos randomly and just kind of float through the day. Jensen's comments were part of a larger article dealing with procrastination in the creative world and offering suggestions how to overcome it.

My first introduction to project oriented music making was when I moved to Washington, D.C. in the early 1980's. I was teaching trumpet lessons at a music store in Fairfax, Va and was around a lot of rock musicians. They were always talking about their projects. Some of them were involved in bands that had never played in public but, had been getting together once a week for 2-3 years. I always thought that sounded like a great idea. In Tokyo, I'm surrounded by "force" in the "jazz world" that seems to push everyone to put together projects that might last 1 day/1 gig (afternoon rehearsal/evening gig).

Interview

Slide Hampton
One of my very favorite improvising musicians. I was at a jam session in Pittsburgh and was amazed at Slide's "storytelling" on the horn. I heard other cats just trying to successfully "make it" through the chord changes. But, Slide was operating on a completely different plane. He was so relaxed, no tension (apparent) in the body. His motivic development was beautiful.

I recommend listening to both parts of this interview. If you can't, definitely listen from 2:11 of part 2. You will be listening to a true "master" speak volumes in 2.5 minutes.

Part 1

Part 2


Charlie Haden/Pat Metheny


Lester Young on Reading Music


Dexter Gordon on Being an "Oddball Artist"


Quotes from Karl Marx


Practicing
Working on Carmine Caruso exercises today. Because of the physical nature of this work-out, I usually do these only 3 times a week. After reading Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery again (it's been a few years since I first went through it), I suddenly noticed a great similarity between some of Werner's "Steps to Change", Caruso's 6-note exercise, Marc Copeland's ear training exercises, tai chi and my chi kung work-out.

Ed Neumeister
Creative Practicing - Practice Creatively, Part I of V






John Grisham on Writing

June 21

Books
Couldn't resist going to the used book sale at Book-Off in Shirokanedai yesterday. Couldn't believe it! I got all this stuff for about $10! Picked up a couple of great little things:

I'm collecting and reading/studying all of DeBono's books now. Great ideas on creativity..especially "lateral thinking."

***See the documentary below***

I had kind of forgotten how much I used to enjoy looking at mind-bending illusions.

I was lucky to find 2 old issues of my favorite magazine right now.

I'm really looking forward to spending some time in this book and studying about one of my favorite composers!

Documentary
I was amazed/shocked the first time I saw this documentary. In fact, this is one of the things that started me a mission for the past 3-4 years to get down to where the "rubber meets the road" regarding the reality of the world we live in and the one that is being presented to us..hahaha..talking about mind-bending illusions!

"The Corporation"
***see the book above***


Random Word
Spent some time sitting in a cafe at the bookstore this evening and doing some random word exercises that I saw recently in Tom Wujec's book, Pumping Ions.

June 17

Listening
Podcasts
I really like the Lenswork podcasts and magazines because its all related to the creative process. Not much info about photographic technique.
Lenswork #535 Examining Our Habits
Lenswork #536 Repeat After Me

What It Means To Be Human - "Biological Colonialism" podcast
On this episode of What It Means to Be Human, bioethicist Wesley J. Smith examines the biological colonialism that has come in the wake of the devaluation of human life. With the rejection of human exceptionalism, we now have the commoditization and exploitation of the body parts and functions of the poor, effectively treating human beings as mere natural resources to be exploited and/or harvested. Listen in and learn what it means to be human -- and why it's so important.
Text

What It Means To Be Human - "Granting Rights to Plants in Switzerland"
An ethics panel in Switzerland is considering granting rights to … plants. On this episode of What It Means to Be Human, Wesley Smith, Discovery Institute senior fellow in human rights and bioethics, looks at how Switzerland's enshrining of "plant dignity" is a symptom of a cultural disease that has infected Western civilization, causing us to lose the ability to think critically and distinguish serious from frivolous ethical concerns.


Gymnast Shawn Johnson Put To Sleep After Breaking Leg

Bill Moyer's Journal Vodcast - Talks with Robert Reich
June 12, 2009
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich sits down with Bill Moyers to talk about the influence of lobbyists on policy, the economy, and the ongoing debate over health care.

New Juice
Blueberry/Cantalope


I know..I know..it's blank. Give me a couple of days...a new song is on it's way..^_-

Exhibition
Went to see the Ryoichi Aratani Photo Exhibition at the Canon Gallery in Gina. He is a great photographer who is always around the Yokohama jazz club, Airegin, taking photos of musicians. What I surprise I got when I arrived at the exhibition. Aratani-san had one of my photos displayed at the entrance to the gallery along with 3 or 4 others throughout the exhibition. In addition, he had a copy of Photocon magazine June '09 issue sitting on the table. Photocon had a few of Aratani's photos from the exhibition in the this month's issue including one of mine. Aratani will move his exhibition to Fukuoka, Japan in July.





Photocon Magazine
http://www.photo-con.com/
http://www.photo-con/0906/index.html


HPGRP
Went to the hrgrp gallery in Aosando (between Aoyama & Omotesando) to see Miki Kubata's exhibition. Very cool, very unusual. hrgrp is a very nice space.

Reading
LensWork May-June 2009 Issue
Brooks Jensen
Editors Comments
Ten Motivations
"From time to time, we all need motivation to keep a project moving-or more commonly, to break the inertia of inactivity. Here are some ideas to get moving and finish your photography projects."

DeBono-Lateral Thinking
Difference between vertical and lateral thinking:

Rightness is what matters in vertical thinking. Richness is what matters in lateral thinking.
DeBono-Lateral Thinking, chapter 2 pg 37

Art
When I met Tommy-G at Aratani's exhibition, he told me about a great artist in Kyoto, Japan. Her name is Rie Mandala and you can see some of her work on flickr.




Rie Mandala's Art
http://www.flickr.com/photos/riemandala/




CONGO
Check-out my friend CONGO (sax). Sometimes we play together at Airegin in Yokohama. He is extremely passionate about the music and so creative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txLf5wGeG1g&feature=related


Photography
A few photos I took yesterday and today....

June 4

Change Routes
Because I live in Tokyo and am always using the train system here, I've never felt a need for a car. Something that has been a simple and cheap thing to do to stimulate ideas is to walk different routes from my house to the train station. Improvisation in life. I've run into so many unexpected things. Sometimes I'll see a new shop that opened, a beautiful Japanese garden around someone's house, etc. Drive to work? Try some different routes and be awake. Amazing what you'll see.

Clearing
Clearing out my email account this morning. Such a good feeling to clear and make a space for something new to enter. Clearing is one of the very most powerful techniques I've used over the past 15 years to get "flow" happening. Sometimes when I feel stuck, I clear something out. It doesn't matter how small.

Photography
Working on a new photoshop technique that I learned in the new issue yesterday. It's going to take a little practice to get it together.

Lenswork Extended
I'm going through this bonus dvd that comes with each issue of the magazine. It's filled with tons of photos, folios, interviews, etc. The interviews are cool. They are discussing camera technique. It's all about the creative process.

Lenswork Podcast:
"Practice Until It's Second Nature"
May 4, 2009