The C (creative, Crystal, calibrated, compiled) Week in Review #4
This week, I have been thinking about what tools we really need to fulfill last week’s list of the skills we actually need. I have gotten some enthusiastic responses to what skills a person ought to really know…that everyone should have a foundation in. The idea would be that along with specializing in a particular skill set, you would experience the most major sets of skills leading up to it along with studying the theory. I am a product of a liberal arts education…but I do wonder if that mode of learning, set up originally to address upper middle class career aspirations from a different age, is now the best fit moving forward. My instinct tells me that a mix of traditionally more “hands-on” learning and theoretical learning, even at the level of higher ed, is key.
In any case, back to working on my own work more this week… and tackling issues in web design and development–one of those things from last week’s post on the essential skills to have. Gettin’ there, gettin’ there.
As for creativity in my week, I watched a friend of a friend play a little concertina last night…or, rather play a little on a little concertina.
Apparently he busks in Charleston once a month near the library… we are going to seek him out a bit today.
Otherwise… here are two snippets of things that I recommend….
Crazy Heart
Finally saw it this week with my sister….Crazy Heart (which I think of as being titled after the main character “Bad Blake,” that is, when I think of the film I don’t think of the given title, but of his character) had me wrapped in amber, the kind from Arizona skylines, the one from aged whiskey, the kind of an insect caught in a viscous fluid….Amber of basking in sun-warmth, like how you know that light is anything but artificial. I don’t remember the last time a film wrapped its way around me… and, if you haven’t yourself, I have known those people: immensely talented drunks or addicts or former drunk or addicts that spin out more creative work from their little finger than most of us can from our whole hand. The film Crazy Heart captures all of this. Here is what I also love. No one is crucified, vilified, exempt, all bad or all good. I love that the amber doesn’t sink to the rock bottom and it doesn’t stand forever in the yellow spotlight. This is why you go see a film, a goddamn film, not a movie, but the way a film can be, dramatic without big drama. Good for them all. This from Wikipedia about the film (for as much as Wikipedia can be trusted, but here it goes anyway)…
The film was produced for $7 million by Country Music Television, and was originally acquired by Paramount Vantage for a direct-to-video release,[2][3] but was later purchased for theatrical distribution by Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Good for Scott Cooper from down Abingdon, VA that got it together to make it thanks to Robert Duvall, good for T Bone Burnett, good for Maggie Gyllenhaal, and by god, good god for Jeff Bridges. All in all in all one helluva a job…. One complaint was that it didn’t have much of a plot… actually, I think it showed the life of one type of addict quite brilliantly, that is, that things happen around him but his emotional life does not change till he sobers up. Gyllenhaal had to be our emotional barometer, which she pulls off brilliantly. Her characters also has a subtle arc, she does get what she wants in the end… not a marriage, but being a real journalist. That all worked for me….
One other note, I went looking for more about the actors and came across Jeff Bridges’ website. Very worth checking out… not every part of the site is a successful design, but I do like what they did with his “handwritten” and drawn bits: http://www.jeffbridges.com/main.html
Next bit– born and raised in West Virginia, I never knew Bill Withers was from there till I was listening to a PRI story this week. There is a new doc out (no theatrical release scheduled yet) about the Soul singer.
Bill Withers
Still Bill
There was a fantastic bit they played on air in which Bill and his daughter sing together. I almost stopped the car. She blew me right out of the seat.
The gist of the doc seems to be that Withers retreated on purpose from the spotlight, that dealing with the things you deal with being famous never suited him. Until I looked up more about him, I also didn’t realize how accoladed he was.
Beautiful day here… going to do some more writing. I should go see Nikki Giovanni this afternoon for free…I’ll let you know if I get there.