This is a brilliant talk by Ken Robinson about the nature of intelligence, creativity, and what our educational system is doing to kill it. Do schools kill creativity? Only if you go to class.
Filed under: Creativity | Education | Humor | Science | Video
I’ve been keeping a sketchbook handy lately and though I’d post some drawings. This one is a bit of a repeating theme that came out better than usual. The first version is felt-tip marker. The second is all shined up in Photoshop. Special thanks to my close personal friend Elvis Costello for the lyric.
Filed under: Art
J and I have decided to start a new blog about our family and our experiences getting through life (or just the day) as four card-carrying members of the ADHD club. We’re not all medicated and all have different challenges that arise, at least in part, from the ADHD. Also, given that Julie is a super-powered hero of organizational strategies (organizational strategies - mind you - are quite different from actually being organized) it seemed like we might be able to give folks in similar situations some tips.
Check it out, if’n yer interested.
I’ve liked the Cardigans ever since “Lovefool” (which I really didn’t like much) was popular. Since then, they have gotten older and darker and I’ve loved each album they’ve done in the past ten years or so. This first one is off of their latest album “Super Extra Heavy Gravity (2005),” and the second one is from “Gran Tourismo (1998)”. I suppose that’s all there is to say. What do you think?
Loosing My Favorite Game
I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to be Nicer
Having cut out the centers of two thick hardbacks to make secret compartment books for the kids this past xmas, I can really appreciate the sheer effort it must take Brian Dettmer to create these works of art. The aesthetic value is obvious. I think I’m going to give this a try. I love any excuse to wear through dozens of x-acto blades and even think I’ve a few books that would be well suited to a project like this.
I couldn’t decide which I liked better, so here’s both videos from “Later with Jools Holland” (One with each singer).
No Lucifer
Waving Flags
I was sent this link years ago and remember sharing it with my co-worker Steve. We laughed so hard it started to hurt and my face got all crampy. I tracked them down again and still find them very funny. You’ve really got to start at the first card and just keep going.
Some of these look frighteningly familiar to me from being raised in a house that was occasionally invaded by the bad vibes and self loathing that is Weight Watchers. Like the Italian Chicken. Yup. Pretty sure we ate that from time to time.
Well, enjoy these vintage Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974.
I miss Don and Janet. We used to see them all the time and went to their house every whatever-day-of-the-week it was to watch Friends when Julie and Don were in Graduate school together. Janet is one of the most talented interpreters of imagination and how it splashes out all over everything that I’ve ever known. She once made a bar (yes a bar) for Don as a birthday present.
What happens when they decide to make something together? Tales of the Merman, that’s what. If you’re one of those fuddy-duddies who need things to make sense, then I don’t know what to say to you. I never have.
1987: The year after I graduated from high school. My bands used to play with Screaming Trees now and again when they came to Eugene. They’ve always been one of my very favorite bands. I still don’t understand how they weren’t huge.
Take a half hour out of your day and listen to this speech. It is worth the time to hear what may be a speech our grand children will learn about in school.
Filed under: Politics
I’ve seen a lot of photographs of wild animals. Hell, we all have, right? I’ve even seen them up close and personal living in Kenya for a year. I’ve taken a few pictures of zebras in Hell’s Gate and elephants near Amboseli that I’m even a little bit proud of. But I’ve never seen the likes of Nick Brandt’s photographs. Looking at these things I can’t help wondering why anyone else even bothers.
Filed under: Art
I fell in love with this sound on Robyn Hitchock’s “Airscape” from the eerily beautiful album, “Element of Light”, but I’ve never really heard a whole song played on a Glass Harp. This guy is really good.
I was visiting my friend John’s MySpace page a minute ago and saw that he has posted a trailer for a documentary about one of my favorite bands from Seattle, Silkworm. Halfway through the trailer they start talking about Michael’s death. I hadn’t even known he had died.
It was a little more than two years ago when, apparently, his car was hit by a woman speeding and trying to kill herself. Michael was a great drummer with - as I recall - an amazingly sweet personality and no pretension. That was rare in the 90s rock world of Seattle.
I remember standing to the side of the stage at the Off Ramp watching him play. Coincidentally - after posting just an hour or so ago about smiling rock musicians - I remember him smiling shyly as he played. Man, he really hit the drums hard.
I’m sorry he’s gone and my thoughts go out to his family and the rest of Silkworm. Cheers, Michael.
I posted this video a long time ago, but it was before the new-fangled video hosting places made it easy to embed video. Or maybe it was this creaky old Wordpress blog software that wouldn’t let me do it. Whatever the reason, bask in the wonder that is the Lyrebird:
next page »