Sharon Koltick

What is the ‘other’ trying to show you? I find this encounter fascinating. The leopard seal sees the diver as one needing assistance and then tries to teach the diver how to hunt and eat penguins. The leopard seal saw the diver as having the same needs as he did… how can we understand each other’s ‘otherness?’  without trying to impose our needs as their needs?

Watch the encounter between a National Geographic photographer and a mammoth leopard seal.

What can you say, without saying a word? What can your body express? Actors and dancers are often more cued in than your average musician on how the body can communicate. Let this piece be an inspiration for musical performers to expand their vocabulary to include the language of body movement.

Natalie Portman does a short scene to visually explain the craft of acting. This film is part of a series “14 Actors Acting.” They have added a soundscape to the scenes, but watch them once without audio to simply view their performances in the raw. Great stuff.

Natalie Portman “14 Actors Acting” Series NYTimes Magazine.

Some other actors featured include: Javier Bardem, James Franco, Tilda Swinton, Anthony Mackie, and Michael Douglas to name a few.

In response to a list I saw in this month’s American Songwriter magazine, I decide to put together my own list of “10 Songs I Couldn’t Live Without.” There are certain songs that just hit you at the exact right time, move your body, and open your world… Here are ten “songs” that rocked my world. (They are not technically all songs, since some are instrumental…but it’s my list, and a tribute to my schizophrenic taste.)

Darling Nicki, Prince, Purple Rain
Do You Love Me? Nick Cave, Let Love In
Graceland, Paul Simon, Graceland
Requiem Pour Un Con, Serge Gainsbourg
Windowlicker, Aphex Twin
Bith-Aneth, Masada, Live in Jerusalem, 1994
Zombie, Fela Kuti
Twist and Crawl, The English Beat,What is Beat?
Waiting Room, Fugazi, 13 Songs
Pit Stop (Take Me Home), Lovage

To consider himself a mediocrity was hardly any better than believing he was a genius: Fyodor doubted the first and conceded the second, but more important, strove not to surrender to the fiendish despair of a blank sheet. Since there were things he wanted to express just as naturally and unrestrainedly as the lungs want to expand, hence words suitable for breathing ought to exist.

inspiration for the poet, from The Gift by Nabokov

The creative process is an allusive one, but know that often what seems menial or unproductive can be what leads up to a creative breakthrough.  Audrey Flack describes the similarity between ‘Dream Time’ and the creative process:

“The element of time in the creative process is similar to dream time. It stretches and contracts as you work. You can work on something for weeks and weeks and nothing will happen, and yet something can transpire in only an hour. The last five minutes of dream time can process data of epic proportions, and yet one needed the entire night’s sleep to arrive at the dream images.”

In short, don’t be afraid to keep working, the breakthroughs will come in their own time. It’s Monday and the work week begins. Get creative!