lateral pimp slap

(yet another unrelated title)

If you clicked the links I posted yesterday, you visited Coudal Partners website. It's an interesting place to hang out, especially when one considers there's very lil', if any, direct product pushing. Coudal Partners is a design, advertising and interactive studio. The site isn't a place where they post a list of awards or reels, they feature an abundant amount of cool (un)related links, pages, and projects to explore.

I'm a fan of the site for many reasons, one being this presentation by studio leader and founder, Jim Coudal. The speech is long, but there are a few points that stood out. One being the studio's approach to an entrepreneurial design practice. They still have clients, they still do work-for-hire, but a significant amount of their revenue also comes from things they create and run.

Smart stuff.

I'm learning a lot from the design community, particularly ways to create, run and maintain a creative business. If I were to take the same approach as a writer, what would my "studio" look like? How would I create an entrepreneurial writing practice?

My tools are words. My primary product takes the form of a stage play, and eventually my products will include fiction, television, film, print, and visual design.

I'm giving myself this challenge: establish my studio within the next 18 months. It won't be anything elaborate, it'll be a simple and quiet space where I present my product. Hmmm. This should be interesting. Lots of research to be done.

Also, I recently realized the importance of pre-planning. If I want to work on my novel in Paris next summer (and that is something I want to do), I have to start planning now. This studio stuff also needs a hefty amount of pre-planning.

Yo, and this dude is doing some cool stuff.

So much goodness in tight corners

(I have no idea what that title means.)

I have lots of links to offer.

These sites bear witness to my growing gushy-ness for typography and layout. I think it's safe to say I'm acquiring a hobby.

Ta-da!

I'm in a play! It' s small, delicious piece of theater. Yum, yum.

'Scope

Freewill Astrology often has fun and spot-on horoscopes. This week's post:

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22–Dec. 21): [Nov. 22–Dec. 21] Now that we're almost halfway through 2007, it's time to assess how well you're capitalizing on this year's unique opportunities. So let me ask you a few pointed questions. Have you been reinventing yourself from the ground up at least once a week? Have you been shedding old shticks and learning new tricks? How relentlessly have you committed yourself to the arts of liberation? There's still a lot of time to become even more receptive and responsive to the steady stream of wake-up calls that life is sending your way. For the next six months, you'll have cosmic luck on your side whenever you actively court the fertile blessings of future shock.

Answer key: I think so. I feel like I have. Not as much as I probably should.

I hope the universe will treat me kindly in 2007 and beyond.

The culturally-divided Hustle

Just finished reading Gina Bellafante's nytimes piece about the play Plantanos & Collard Greens by lawyer-cum-motivational speaker-cum-playwright David Lamb. Bellafante doesn't write a review of the production, it's more like a commentary about the work's success. Word of mouth has carried the work to hundreds of college campuses (including a few ivies), and 90,000 folks went to see the play during its New York run. Without the backing of big names or sponsors, Plantanos & Collard Greens found its audience a la Tyler Perry style.

I haven't seen Lamb's play (I'm only familiar with the subway ads); and I'm not a huge fan of Tyler Perry's stuff, but I have to be amazed by Lamb and Perry's hustle. Plantanos & Collard Greens' success with audiences commanded the attention of NYTimes and other mainstream media. The same went for Perry's Madea series.

These events re-affirm the multiple ways to get the work to the people. It's word of mouth. It's collaboration. It's risk. It's pounding the pavement. It's guts, soul, grit, focus, faith, and drive. It's all about the hustle.

Hmmmm. One more thing to think about while in graduate school.

what u see is what u get

I bought a Canon Powershot SD400 18 months ago with the intention to post more pictures here and on the site.

Pictures of what?

Your guess was as good as mine.

I had romantic visions of walking down a cobblestone street in Soho and being stopped in my tracks by a warped wooden stool holding up an old man with "interesting features". Paralyzed by the poetic beauty before me, stricken by the back of Muse's hand, I'd whip out my camera and click away. Within hours those pictures would stand before you bare, raw, vibrant, yearning to be devoured.

No such luck.

That old man sitting on the stool is actually disgusting.

And I fucking hate Soho.

I'm convinced things will change, and when I see posts such as this one by artist Dennis Hollingsworth, it pushes me to fulfill my original intention.

Surfing on this wave of inspiration I post this picture I took in Paris:


Voila!

The Stretch

After months of debating and researching, I decided to stretch the third hole in my left ear. I took the first step this past Saturday. I have the baby gauge (14) but want to get high enough to sport an 8 or 6 gauge. Yikes! Crazy stuff but I'm excited.

Moleskine / Art

Barnes and Noble, located at Union Square, has expanded their Moleskine notebooks display. I was shocked, and slightly overwhelmed, by the sprawling bookcase holding various sizes, shapes, styles and functions. (If I were good at eye-balling size and demensions, I'd throw out the measurements of this display, but I'm not so I can't.) Tucked in the shelf at eye level is a 13-inch flat screen television playing highlights from the Detour The Moleskine City Notebook Experience exhibition. 70 designers, writers, illustrators and artists created pieces using a 3x5 Moleskine notebook as their canvas. Pretty cool stuff.

My lil' notebook has become the hip thing to carry. Even Moleskine's site has become a flashy and visual experience. I was a fan of the laid back marketing; the old site pitched the product rather than a culture.

Things change, huh?

The Basics

Aristotles Six Elements of Drama

1. PLOT – what happens in a play; the order of events, the story as opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what it means.

2. THEME – what the play means as opposed to what happens (plot); the main idea within the play.

3. CHARACTER – the personality or the part an actor represents in a play; a role played by an actor in a play.

4. DICTION/LANGUAGE/DIALOGUE – the word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the actors delivering the lines.

5. MUSIC/RHYTHM – by music Aristotle meant the sound, rhythm and melody of the speeches.

6. SPECTACLE – the visual elements of the production of a play; the scenery, costumes, and special effects in a production.

Sunset and grapes

I'm sitting in Hudson River Park, listening to a transgender teen tell two acquaintances about a fight she had with another female last night. They all have beef with the same chick and are swapping bits of information and gossip.

As you can see it's been a chill day--nothing too crazy. I finally posted a synopsis for my plays on the site (there's a link on the left under the title "headquaters").

Have you leafed through this month's copy of Believer magazine? It features an essay by playwright Gina Gionfriddo. She's one of my favorite writers. It's cool to read her work in a different genre.

At some point in the very near future (this weekend?) I will begin the arduous task of dumping the unnecessary stuff I keep in my apartment. The hippie in me yearns to shed the crap I've accumulated while living in New York before I make the move to PVD. I have to determine what needs to go and what can get the boot. I'm doing a masterful job of procrastinating, but I realize it'll only screw me over in the end.

Stew

Lots to get to; let's get to it:

The current issue of Black Book magazine features a cover story about the White Stripes. Lots of great pictures. I had no idea Jack White had such delicate features.

Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are playing against the shady-and-low-down San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. I'm backing the Cavs.

Two sites about books: here and here.

I'm tired of the current crop of social-networking sites but have no where to turn. Twitter is lame, and I'm in Like with You seems just as whack. Sigh.

I think this is clever and will post my own list soon.

Works in progress
I'm working with some great artists on a slew of exciting theater projects.
I'm doing research for my new play and [gasp!] my first novel.
Yo, making art is fun, yo.

Words make cra sleepy

I'm reading five books. I went from skimming nytimes.com and playbill.com to reading five books.

I bought a book bag last week so I could carry around these books and my eyeglass cloth.

You can find out what I'm reading if you look to the left of the post, directly under the stick figure carrying a stack of books.

The book list is up. It's not the layout I wanted, but the book list is up.