Saturday, February 28, 2009

Where I've been

I am going to change the order for my next subscription piece and send things out ASAP. I'm getting faster, I think.

Last night, somehow, I got dragged out to a bar with young folks and spun the whole time, making bracelets for six people. One of them was the cutest woman I've seen in a while.

After Michael recommended TEDTalks to me last week, I've been hooked: it's a great way to be inspired while working since I have to just sit still for long periods of time. He started me with Ken Robinson's talk on education killing creativity (this I listened to during laundry time). Then I watched the famous youth orchestra in Venezuela, and Jose Antonio Abreu's talk, which made me think that symphony orchestras should ONLY be manned by high school students. I remember being in high school, in youth orchestras, and it was the highest high I had in those days. THEN, I watched Benjamin Zander, and he tells the same story about the Auschwitz survivor at the end that he told us when I was in all-state orchestra under his baton in high school. I wrote my entire graduation speech about what I learned from him. Then, one of my favorite performers, Anna Deavere Smith. And two talks by Chris Abani, b/c I had been thinking about Ching-In and poetry.

See? Zero work has been done on the piece I've wanted to work on since January. Elizabeth Gilbert's topics helped me calm down a little about not getting studio work done right now. Yesterday was great, locking myself at home for a day to work. But today all the obligations rear up again. I can't bat them down for long enough to really work, in the way that truly feeds me.

3 comments:

polarchip said...

I love TED talks!!

Anonymous said...

I SO want to have access to TED talks. I've been 'hearing' about them for quite awhile now, but they are not captioned (and I can't hear electronically-generated sound). I've tried lip-reading, but that doesn't work either; the camera doesn't allow me to shift my focal point.
In TED's 'help' section, they say they are "working on" providing transcripts, but none have appeared...I check regularly, and have written in, but for now, I remain envious.

aimee said...

I thought of you while ODing on the talks! And wondered about if there was a way for you to be able to be included. I'm kind of surprised and also disappointed; I'd think of all places, TED would have considered accessibility more seriously.