NPR Delights

NPR  has become my go to place for news and information, and no that's not me being a shitty pseudo-intellectual liberal (well, maybe it is, you decide).  I legitimately love the features, and how diverse, in-depth and affecting they are.  They often have me sobbing one solitary tear, a bit like Barbra Streisand in "The Way We Were" when she thinks she's about to make sweet sweaty 1940's love to a drunken Robert Redford. 



First Example: 

 This little story about what happens to military dogs when they've finished their service.  Hearing about the people in the military who are fighting to make sure these animals don't get left behind will make you feel great about being a human, but then you might just get mad as hell to think there are people who think it's ok to use them and then just dump them.  And then, like me, you might cry the aforementioned single tear when you hear a veteran who was a handler say that once he got back to the US, all he wanted was his dog back with him.



The Second Example:

This next feature probably won't bring you to tears, but if you're a writer, it might get you thinking, and feeling a little inspired.  I know self publishing seems lame, but if self publishing an e-book can put some of the control in your hands and make your dream seem one step closer, and if there's money to be made...why discount it?

James Grissom on Elaine Stritch

 

 

I've been reading a lot of the tributes to Elaine Stritch over the past few days, and while I've enjoyed a great deal of them, this passage by James Grissom from his blog Follies Of God, is the last word. 

 





Rare Footage of Garland, Bacall, and Sinatra at a Noel Coward Performance in Vegas

Discovered some fascinating footage of a Noel Coward performance at the Desert Inn in Vegas, thanks to The Judy Garland Experience.  This must have been around the time Sinatra was doggedly pursuing Lauren to be his next wife, and it's interesting to see them being so chummy.  Garland looks great here, as the early to mid-fifties are my favorite period for her, both vocally and looks wise.  And, bonus points if someone can tell me who the sophisticated blonde is with Coward.  I'm guessing it's his wife.  Color me obsessed.

Small Books, Big Ideas

If you fancy yourself an artist, or creator of any kind, these two books need to be on your shelf, and Austin Kleon is someone you should be paying close attention to.

The first, Steal Like An Artist is all about the idea that the art you love can and should fuel the art you make. It clears away the obstacles in your mind that say "this has already been" said, done, written about, etc. Of course it has, but it will never be done in the same way that you will. 

The second, Show Your Work, discusses the importance of sharing your creative process with others.  It's about building and marketing your brand, in a non-mercenary or schmoozy way.  It's also completely current and loaded with techniques about using todays internet savvy world.

In other words, This shit is crucial, and will keep you inspired as you blaze your creative trail. 

The "Ideas Issue" of The Atlantic is Out

I'm always looking for new articles and bits of inspiration about the creative mind.  I'm kind of a self help junkie for creativity as a way to overcome writer's block. 

It's funny, the way I used to understand it, writer's block was what happened when you casually and freely sat down to create your next work, and...nothing came.  For whatever reason, the corner you'd written yourself into seemed impossible to escape. 

But, for me, and I think for most people, writer's block is what happens before you even sit down at the desk.  It's the fear that if you take that chance and sit down at the computer, nothing will come, or what will come will not be worth the time spent.  If that's the case, why not spend the time wading through episodes of "Breaking Bad" or chomping on popcorn at a mediocre movie, or playing Farm Hero's Saga?

The way I combat it is to keep creativity on my brain in tiny segments, to consume ideas as much as I can, and the most recent issue of The Atlantic is full of terrific bits of inspiration and techniques.  It's the "Idea Issue", and features articles on the power of a creative partnership, insights on where creativity comes from in the mind, and 6 creative solutions to "thorny" problems. 

There's also an interesting article on the trend of killing off mother's in children's media.  Sure this topic has been discussed ad nauseum, but the writer's thoughts on  the recent addition of the "fun" father figure in films like Despicable Me, and Wreck It Ralph are worth reading.

Podcast I Love: "You Must Remember This"

I'm an avid reader of Entertainment Weekly's "Must List".  It's loaded with great recommendations for those who devour media, and it doesn't stop at music and movies, but branches out into crazy shit like...theater!!  And podcasts!!  And BOOKS!!!  Yes, they still print em.   And if you actually seek out some of the little gems, you'll feel real damn proud of yourself afterwards.  Occasionally it feels like they have some kind of weird deal with the distributors, but most of the time it feels legit. 

A couple of weeks ago, this caught my eye...

 



It was my lady, once again, in print.  It happens every once in awhile that I catch her image in a magazine (I mean, she lives on peeps.  Her legend is far fucking reaching) and two things happen. 

Thing #1.  My eyes widen and I shriek on the inside like a child at Christmas time.  I'm so excited that she's still being paid attention to in this modern age!  She is RELEVANT! 

Thing #2.  My eyes dart madly across the page, like a meth addict seeking his next fix (yes, I'm watching "Breaking Bad" now, and it's every bit as putrid and crusty as I thought it would be.  It's also compelling television) I seek out whatever trash they may have printed, so I can gird my rage against the turd who wrote it.  Is the word "tragedy" less than three words to the left or right of her name?  Do they bring up the damned pills, yet again??  "WHY CAN'T THEY LEAVE THAT POOR LADY ALONE!!!!)

In this case?  No tragedy, no slander.  Instead they point to a podcast by the name of  "You Must Remember This" which focuses on the untold or forgotten histories of some of Hollywood's greats.  If done well, this little podcast could be a gold mine, and yet, I had pretty low expectations.  I've heard a lot of media pieces on Judy and a lot of them have been salacious, or cheaply produced, and it was quite possible this could be one or the other...and yet?

I went straight to the episode focusing on Garland's later years hoping to love it and fearing I wouldn't.   Verdict?  The creator, writer and host, Karina Longworth has crafted a really thoughtful, very well written and insightful podcast with her unique perspective.  The Garland episode actually made me think about things I'd never thought before, which I certainly should have.  Possible-  Garland's hold on gay men was anathema to the male dominated straight media?  They used the connection to dismiss her and discount her hold on people?  Yeah.  Yeah they did.  Listen to the podcast, as Longworth illustrates it better than I could. 

 One of the great things about this show is that it doesn't just do a blanket bio on whatever star it's currently focusing on.  It zooms in on a particular moment, and unpacks it for the listener.  And she speaks with a very distinctive voice.  She's best when she's looking at the lives of women, as she does in the Garland, Novak, Frances Farmer, and Isabella Rossellini episodes, because you can feel her passion for the topic.

I'm personally hoping she'll do an episode on the weird pictures of Sammy Davis Jr and Jayne Mansfield at some freaky satanic ritual in the sixties.  I need that shit debunked or I'll never listen to Sammy Davis Jr with a completely untainted ear.

Stacked!

Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in potential, pages of it in fact.  Drowning in books that I haven't opened because my head was turned by something else, or that I've abandoned because what lay within its pages wasn't as instantly addictive as I had hoped.  Below are just a few of the contenders for my next read, concluding with my current read, which I am determined to make it through.

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi-  I am a sucker for Fairy Tales.  They cut through the bullshit and get right to the core of things.  Some people are good, some are evil, some beautiful people are clothed in the mask of beasts, dead people can talk to you through trees, and when you are nice to the world it will be nice to you back when you least expect it and most need it.  It's a brutal, but hopeful world where good triumphs in the end even if a few fingers or heels get cut off, or children are sold into indebted servitude, it will turn out right.  So when I heard that this latest novel by Helen Oyeyemi was a re-telling of the Snow White story which takes place in mid-twentieth century America?  I bit.  It digs deep into our feelings of race and beauty and what it means to be "good"?  Yes please.  One of the protagonists (in the role equivalent to the Evil Queen) is a Hitchcockian blonde?  All right already!!  And yet, in it's first fifteen pages as I lay drowsily in bed, it did not hook me.  And so, on the pile it goes, to sit until I have more resolve.

Not Without You by Harriet Evans-  A young woman in the forties becomes a major film star, and in the present day, a rising star who idolizes her begins to unravel the mysteries she left behind.  It's been likened to the films of Douglas Sirk in book form. 

A Stranger In A Strange Land, 1984, One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Slaughter-house Five, In Cold Blood-  These books I picked up in a surge of desire to read some of the great works that I've always wanted to dip my feet into and understand.  And yet, I haven't yet.  There's always something newer, and shiner, and less stalwart and true that attracts me before I truly give these a shot.  And yet, I own them, they sit in my home, so they are one step closer to being read by me.  Sometimes I wish you could soak books up like sunlight, just hold them close and absorb their wisdom.

Dorothy Must Die by some chick I'll probably end up resenting-  How much easier it is to cannabilize on a masterpiece than to write one from scratch.  I say "cannibalize" because this writer literally takes the heroes of the story and turns them into villains.  Dorothy, the Tinman, The Scarecrow, The Cowardly Lion?  They turned out to be real assholes and are enslaving all of Oz.  Glinda?  Grade-A bitch.  Who's the true heroine?  The character this chick dreamt up using as a template the very heroine she shits upon in print.  And still, I have to give it a shot even though this has already been done to death and I wasn't too pleased with the results of previous efforts.

You Must Remember This by Robert Wagner and some ghost writer-  An appreciation of the Hollywood way of life back in its golden age.  I checked it out from the library as part of research for a current project I'm working on, or projects I'm hoping to work on.  As fascinated as I am with Hollywood in its hey-day, it helps to know what the day to day life was like, even if it is a rose tinted semblance of it.

The Trip To Echo Spring by Olivia Lang-  The relationship between writers and alcohol is one that hasn't really been written about in depth, and it's something I've always been intrigued by.  In part, because I had fantasies that a couple shots would release my genius, and set me on a course of  typing that Kerouac would envy and that would lead to sleepless nights and pages full of heartbreaking wonder.  This is also the reason I've sometimes wanted to get my hands on Benzedrine.  Yes I know it's a terrible drug, and led to a life of sometimes Hell for one of my heroines, and yet, those writers in the the thirties and forties got A LOT of shit done!!!  Anyway, this book focuses on a couple of my favorites (Tennessee Williams and F.Scott Fitzgerald) one that I'm curious to know more about (Hemingway) and a few I really know nothing more than the superficial (Raymond Carver, John Cheever).  It's part group bio and part travelogue and it's not been cohesive enough, so far, to keep my attention.  I recently abandoned it to read my latest book...

10% Happier by Dan Harris-  My current book.  I'm nearly a hundred pages in and I'm hooked.  I don't recall ever having seen Harris on television, but his story of neuroses tamed through meditation, and his search for productivity without the hair pulling is readable and relatable.  Hopefully the answers he finds will prove applicable.

Roadside Humor

There's a gas station on Brodie Lane, appropriately named "Brodie Mart", that I must rarely drive by at night, as it's only recently that I've noticed the neon sign...

As nice as it is to imagine that the other letters died out purely by coincidence, and that this is proof of a Divine sense of humor, a glance at the liquor store next door thoroughly convinced me otherwise...

 

 

Well played, business owners, well played.



The Beauty and Courage of Marian Anderson

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of Marian Anderson's historic concern at The Lincoln Monument.  The story itself is truly moving, and a terrific example of courageous people coming together to do the right thing.   It's always been one of my favorite historical events, and every time I see footage of Marian standing in front of that bank of microphones before thousands of people, I'm struck by how regal, how graceful, and how brave she is and feel what I imagine to be a fraction of what it was like to witness that moment.

 

 

And yet, as important as this moment is, I feel like individual attention should be paid to Marian and her voice, because they stand on their own as worthy of awe.   The spiritual "Deep River" is one of many stirring performances...

 

 

 





Tell Your Story

"You own everything that happened to you.  Tell your stories.  If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better."--  Anne Lamott

This quote really resonates with me, and probably does with most writers.  Of course I keep things to myself for fear of hurting the feelings of those I love, and if I'm honest with myself I keep just as much to myself for fear of the repercussions of the ones I...don't love.  I mean, society demands that we keep quiet about those feelings, and we certainly wouldn't want them to leak out and bite us in the ass later.  But if we are writers?  If we want to be story tellers?  Aren't those the very stories we should tell?  Stories with meat, heat, and emotion?

Be A Huge Part of the Creative Process in Austin

 

   Hi Every one!  I'm reaching out to you to connect with you about Amplify Austin, the 24 Hour Festival of Giving to the Austin Community.  Specifically I want to deeply encourage you to give to Zilker Productions, and to tell you what it has meant to me, and why I it will make you feel good in your heart to give to this organization. 

Click here to give now

     My family and I moved to Austin when I was eight, and pretty much since then, the Zilker Summer Musical has been a part of my life.  As an audience member?  It was something we could do as a family, that was free, outside at an Austin Institution, Zilker Park.  We could join together with the literally thousands of people who saw this show each night.  And for two to three hours I got to be with my family and take a moment to dream.  I would save the programs, and pour over them later, draw my own versions of the illustrations on the front...basically just bliss out on everything Zilker.  It was my Broadway and one of my first dreams as a performer was to be up there someday.   

     The Zilker Summer Musical has been here for over fifty years encouraging people (kids, artists, and dreamers of all kinds) to escape into something pretty special.  I know how important these donations are.  I've seen what the money does.  It gives a small stipend to the actors who contribute up to three months of their time.  It pays for the sets, the costumes, the publicity...

     And just think, if you click here and give even $10 before 6PM today (BECAUSE THAT'S WHEN THE WHOLE MATCHING FUNDS SHEBANG IS OVER) you can watch the heartfelt community show that is The Zilker Summer Musical and know that you were a big part of what was up there.  If you can afford to give a little bit of a dream to that kid sitting ten people over and creating a previously unthought of future, you really should.

For those out of town who want to know more about this theatrical event, go to the zilker website

Click here to give before the time runs out