Drum Circles
This is my second post in the 2010 WordCount Blogathon, or #Blog2010 on Twitter – a challenge to blog every day for a month. If you found me through the Blogathon and this is your first time at Tastee Pudding: welcome!
I live across the street from Tompkins Square Park in New York City’s East Village. My daily soundtrack includes the rumble of buses on Avenue B, a hound dog bellowing from the famous Tompkins Square dog run, and, if it’s the weekend, a nonstop flow of drumming – a rolling sound punctuated with hollow pops. (I can hear the drumming right now, as I type this.)
Sometimes I see the drummers when I’m walking my dog. Today was one of those days, and I decided to capture the moment on video (more…)
More on Improv Lessons for Freelancers
The awesome Zach Ward of Dirty South Improv blogged about Improv Lessons for Freelancers (a session I led with Jordan yesterday at SXSW); he offers a nice distillation of some key points, plus a video of Jordan leading the “Yes” game. It’s fascinating to see the moment when people “get it”…which is why so many of my friends adore teaching Level 1 improv.
I’ll be posting my own overview of the session once I get more than 10 minutes of down time! (SXSW is a rather manic experience…)
Related Links
- Zach’s TED talk on the improv principle of “Yes, and” (video)
- Article from Fast Company: “Do Improv Comedians Make the Best Design Thinkers?” (thanks to Shawn Westfall for sharing this on Facebook)
Hello from SXSW
In the green room at SXSW
Jordan and I just finished leading a session at SXSW called Improv Lessons for Freelancers. I’m still processing the experience, but wanted to say a huge thank you to anyone who helped us promote it, and to everyone who came — I almost felt like Jordan and I were incidental, because without such a smart, positive group of people in the room, it could have gone very differently.
The feedback so far has been very heartening – most rewarding was hearing that people thought we did a good job of facilitating group discussion, because that was very important to us – not steamrolling. Jordan was especially excited when the head of UrbanDictionary.com said he loved the session :).
We’re revved up and thinking about other ways/places we can replicate the workshop. But for now: there are films to watch, people to meet and sunshine to soak up like the thirsty, thirsty sponge that I am. To be continued…
Be In The Scene You Want To Be In
Image by Pedro Moura Pinheiro on Flickr
“If only you’d remember before ever you sit down to write that you’ve been a reader long before you were ever a writer. You simply fix that fact in your mind, then sit very still and ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart’s choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself. I won’t even underline that. It’s too important to be underlined. Oh, dare to do it, Buddy! Trust your heart. You’re a deserving craftsman. It would never betray you.”
-The character of Seymour, writing to his younger brother, Buddy, in Seymour, An Introduction by JD Salinger
I found this quote here, and it immediately reminded me of something my improv teacher, Ari Voukydis, said last week: “Be in the scene you want to be in.” In other words, if you find yourself in the middle of a scene that sucks, remember that the scene is what you make it (this is improv, after all – we’re making it up as we go).
Like so many improv lessons, this advice applies to life, as well. Yesterday I had lunch with a friend who still, after many years, feels like he’s stuck in a job that has no relationship to who he wants to be on this earth. He’d leave, but he doesn’t know what else he wants to do. He works it over and over in his head, but never reaches a convincing conclusion. Meanwhile, time ticks by…
As another improv teacher, Topher Bellavia, once told me, “It doesn’t matter what choice you make. It only matters that you make a choice, and commit to it.” This also applies to life offstage. So often we think there’s a “right” choice, and we remain paralyzed, terrified of getting it wrong. But people: these lives? They’re ours. They’re made up of the choices we make, and the things we do. If you don’t want to be someone who works at a law firm – don’t be that person.
I know, it’s not that easy. We have the voices of the naysayers in our heads — parents telling us we’re being naive, “friends” telling us we’re lucky just to have a job. Sure. But to apply another improv principle, the notion of “Yes, and”: one thing can be true, AND another thing can be true. We can be lucky to have a job, and we can give thanks for our good fortune every morning; AND, every day, we can feel deep in our gut that this job is not our true path in life, and we can take steps to find another one. Gratitude and desire are not mutually exclusive.
So: write the book you want to read; be in the scene you want to be in; live the life you desire.
“In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, ‘If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination,’ and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand.”- Brian Andreas
Related Links:
- An Accident of Hope, a blog by Summer Pierre, the author of The Artist in the Office: How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week (this blog is where I found the Salinger quote above)
- On Seeking Fulfillment, a post from my previous blog, Creative DC (“Finding fulfillment isn’t about finding a magic bullet – a ‘dream job,’ a perfect city to live in, a perfect mate; instead, finding fulfillment is about developing the ability to know what you want, and the will to go get it.”)
Improv Lessons for Freelancers
My husband, Jordan, and I are leading a session at SXSW 2010 called “Improv Lessons for Freelancers.” (If you aren’t familiar with SXSW, you can read about it here.) Check out the audio promo we recorded, below, and help spread the word!
For the official session description, including a list of questions we promise we’ll answer, click here.
