CBC love

Some Twitter love from two of my favourite CBC fellas: Brent Bambury + Matt Galloway.

 

#thrilled #iloveCBCradio #late #3weeksago #betterlatethannever

Inspiration: Comedian + Writer Demetri Martin

Demetri Martin is talking about his creative process on Q right now.
Really great. Smart + funny.

Some good lines:
"I have to make sure my writing is a by product of my life" (ie. authentic - not just carried out for a goal of making a movie)

"If I spend the day making things I feel good. If I spend the day reading Twitter I feel lousy"

" I love Stand up comedy because it gives me a short feedback loop"
The same could be said of blogging. :-)

Comfort

"You caught me on a funny day... I'm not feeling very confidant today."
- Chris Martin on Q this morning

Inspiration: Jennifer Egan

My sweet neighbour Jen (who works at the IFOA) recommended A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan to me and I have been savouring every word of it this month. Last night listened to a fantastic interview with her on Writers and Co. She explains that the novel explores the concept of time and how our perception of it has changed drastically since the internet. She also expressed a concern for a lack of solitude in today's buzzed out society which she feels is critical to the creative process. Highly recommended.
ps. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. ooh ahh.

Inspiration: Eddie Izzard

Comedian Eddie Izzard was on Q this morning. He's been studying french for the past couple years so that he can now perform his act in Paris + Quebec entirely en francais! (Impressive) His advice:
"You've got one life: Live it. Push the boundaries and find out where the edges are."
Inspirational.

Thinking about Slogans

Great episode on Age of Persuasion today on Slogans.

The always insightful Terry O'Reilly traces slogans back to the battle cries from medieval times. (The word comes from the Gaelic "Slaugh Gairn" which means "cry of the host.")

If you run a business it's a good idea to spend some time thinking "What would my slogan be?" It's an excellent way to help further define + refine your company.

Great podcast: The Age of Persuasian on cbc

Great episode last week on the Age of Persuasion on Luxury Advertising.
Some key lines from Terry O'Reilly:
Madison Avenue is aware you are actually two people: The person you are and the person you want to be. Luxury Advertisers are only interested in the latter.
and
Celebrities are prestige delivery systems.
You can listen to the full program here.

Feist on Creative Process + Collaboration

Really great interview on Q just now with Leslie Feist and Anthony Seck on Look at What the Light Did Now: A documentary film about Feist and her collaborators. I have always found Feist to be very juicy + insightful when discussing her creative process and have long admired how she includes many visual artists (including puppeteers!) into her live shows. I'll be buying the DVD as soon as it comes out and anticipate giving it a glowing review later in the month.

Beginning work on Mannequin print

As I mentioned a few weeks ago I'm creating some small sewing related prints especially for The Workroom. Today I began work on the small ochre mannequin print which is a smaller version of the print which appeared in Canadian House + Home in the spring. See above.

Below a few process pics.

Mixing the ink
Ochre = 27% Magenta 94% Yellow 20% Black

Applying ink with spatula
(The other images on the screen are covered with paper so that the ink does not go through them)

After a few test prints production begins

1st Layer drying
This will be a large edition of 25.

Good company while screening = Eleanor Wachtel's interview with Jonathan Franzen.
I liked his line 'Most depressives are also the funniest people I know. Most of my friends fit into this category"

Yay Mad Men is back

Mad men is back and Don Draper is as intense and troubled as ever.
The opener was worth every penny of my 3.49 download from itunes!
Great interview with Terry Gross + creator/writer Matthew Weiner on NPR'S Fresh Air here.

Lots to think about: Spark 104

Today Spark rebroadcast an episode from February which explored Personal branding and Online friendship. Was a fantastic episode with very smarty pants guests which left you with lots to think about.

A few nuggets:
NY Times writer Anand Giridharadas on BRAND ME
-The internet has forced everyone to become a marketer
-Online people have become more corporate and corporations have become more personal
-Ensuring that everything one posts aligns with your personal brand can be exhausting
-He worries that the emphasis on reputation + explicit self packaging is taking away time from actually working on one's product!
Sadly I agree on this point!

The Online friendship section contained a very sparky debate between Danah Boyd and Bill Deresiewicz (author of Faux Friendship).
You can listen to the whole episode here. Highly recommended.

If you run a small business you should read this book

Ever since I wrote about Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg + Google Creative Director Ji Lee in January I've been thinking a lot about the concept of FREE and how it is factoring into our new economy. (Both entrepreners had emphasized the fact that the more they gave away the more they got back.
Nora Young also touched on the subject recently in her Spark interview with TED producer June Cohen who explained that TED's goal is to make their conference videos available for free to as wide an audience as possible.

Consequently I was ripe for the reading of FREE: How Today's Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing by Wired magazine's Chris Anderson. Anderson begins the book by tracing the history of pricing and commerce and then unpacks the various types of free including the newly invented model of a 'Freemium'. (wherein a company offers a free basic version of their product along with a paid premium version) The book is full of thought-provoking material written in an optimistic and highly readable style. The most enjoyable book I've read this year so far and methinks essential reading for anyone running a small business.

What makes us happy in our Home: Prospect and Refuge

There is a a great show on cbc radio 1 right now discussing what makes us feel happy in our home. Behavioural Psychologist Colin Ellard is stating that we basically need two kinds of space: Prospect and Refuge.* These needs are deeply biological based on our ancestor's need to protect ourselves from threats (refuge) and our need to see a vista and peruse our Bounty! (Prospect)
Unfortunately I think most Lofts have neither....but I think you can build them in.

* I think Frank LLoyd Wright coined this idea. Winnifred Gallagher also discusses it her her book House Thinking. A good read.

Good Company: All Songs Considered

One of my favorite things to listen to when I'm screening is NPR's All Songs Considered. I especially enjoy the episodes where Bob Boilen brings in a guest DJ to play + talk about some of his favorite music. The listener gets music and a music lesson all in one! Tonight I screened while listening to Guest DJ Tucker Martine. He's a producer known for doing really atmospheric moody stuff. Recently he produced Laura Gibson's latest CD. He talked a lot about his creative process. He loves happy accidents (yay) and strongly believes that in art you always "Gotta leave in some of the mystery."

You are not a Gadget

Very good interview on the Sunday Edition with Jaron Lanier author of You are Not a Gadget. He discussed the de-humanizing impact of social media. Argued that Facebook is very restrictive for kids - does not allow them room to reinvent themselves. Also expanded on the idea of digital Maoism: a term he has coined.
Very thought provoking (especially for people still attempting to make a living off their creativity)

Filling the Well: Design matters Podcast with Maria Kalman

After a couple weeks of eating, drinking and being merry it's time to fill the well.
Tonight did some painting while listening to a great Design Matters interview with the wonderous Maria Kalman. She talks alot about her creative process and feelings about illustrating vs. writing.
Really loved the fact that when she has an art opening she asks people to bring in some "light sewing" to be done (by her!) as she likes having something to do with her hands at all times. My kind of gal.
ps. You can subscribe to Design Matters in iTunes.

Inspiration: Reading One Book a Week for a Year

Designer and writer Michael Surtees has a wonderful blog called Design Notes. This week he posted a great interview with fellow creative guy Inaki Escudero who fulfilled his goal of reading a book a week for a year. Inspired to perhaps try such a thing himself Michael interviewed him to find out more about how he accomplished the readings and why.
Inspirational.

ps. One of Escudero's fave picks Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organization is definitely on my list for 2010. Clay is a frequent guest on Spark and is always enlightening+ entertaining.

via swiss miss.

Data recording on steroids: The Feltron Annual Report

Detail

Listened to a Spark podcast tonight and discovered The Feltron report:
a data based "portrait of a year" produced annually by Graphic designer Nicholas Feltron. Personal statistics in the report include number of books read, miles travelled and "Least kosher meal eaten".
In the interview Nora explored, among other things, the question of why we have become so obsessed with self reporting and cataloguing all our data and whether it actually serves a purpose. One point I thought particularly interesting: Feltron feels the reports become more + more interesting as the years go on and predicts they will one day serve as heirlooms. hmmm.
I love the idea of data collection as story telling.
Great interview. Highly recommended.