Razor's Edge : Neighborhood Found Prompt

*
I'm returning cautiously to some event walking. Building up slowly and carefully, paying attention to my back and knee, pushing just a little for fitness sake and not pushing too much to set myself back again. And setting an attainable bar, not reaching for the sky with only a 6 foot ladder.

A few weeks ago I signed up to do a 5k walk, which is a part of a bigger event. I have a friend who is walking (or maybe she's jogging, or a combination, perhaps) the half marathon part of the event. She will start an hour before me and her time for a half marathon is now under 3 hours - yay! But that means I'll cross the finish line maybe 30 minutes before her. Maybe.

And that's okay.

So signing up for this event has kept walking more in my fitness routine than it had been. I am certainly not giving up on swimming; I need that; my body needs swimming; my mind need swimming. But I've been walking more than I had been and I've added distance. Which, obviously, means longer walks.

This week on one of my walks, I was in familiar territory, though I hadn't taken that particular route for a while. It's in an area I tend to drive through or around, but not much walking.

Walking an area brings out sights you don't see from a car. Again, obvious, I know. But I came across this delightful installation. And I thought it would might a nice prompt for this week.

Look at the picture.

What book would you put in the mailbox?

What book would might you discover there?

Or choose to write about the people who live in the house who installed this feature?

Or what book would you write to put into the mailbox?

Go. Write for 10 minutes.

*

Razor's Edge: Where We Live

*

Today's prompt is a series of pictures. Found prompts from a recent walk. An intriguing place which sparked the creative fire and I want to know more.

Tell me the story. Who lives here? Or who died here? The history?

If you'd like, start with this ...

That morning, as the sun fell across her face, she knew ...

*

Found Words

I love to swim. It's kind of solitary but not really. I mean, I swim along and the water blocks out conversation and, usually, people don't try to have conversations with me while I'm swimming.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about swimming in a pool.

So I'm swimming solo although I might not be the only person in the pool. And I don't mind that; it doesn't bother me at all. Unless it's too crowded. But as I'm swimming more I'm finding the times when it seems to be more crowded and try to not go. The pool at my gym isn't that big so there's not a lot of space for hordes of others. If there are a few walkers and water exercise people in the walking lane, that leaves three lanes to swim in. And if there are more than two people in a lane - well, I can't imagine that. Really. Two gets a little tricky depending on skill level and preference. For example, the "circle swim" doesn't work in my opinion, unless we're doing exactly the same thing. Which leaves splitting the lane and then, we better both be doing the crawl, back stroke, and kick boards; no butterflies or breast stroke or someone will get whacked.

And what does that have to do with found words? Not much.

Except I'm talking about the swimming pool as a source for catching snippets of conversations. Generally out of context and the punch line may be missing or you get only the punch line. And I've noticed that there are some people who tend to be posers in the pool.

I'm not talking about the hip young "meat market" type of people in swim trunks flexing their muscles. For the most part, that is not what my gym is made up of, which is why I joined it a number of years ago.

But there seem to be some people who like to sit in the jacuzzi or stand in small groups in the walk lane and "hold court," so to speak. They have opinions to share and sermons to make. I don't mind. It makes for some interesting character sketches or writing prompts or ideas for stories to discover between my laps.

Where do you pick up some lines for your writing?


The pool gem so far this week is as follows:

"Yah, like that. Insurance companies. I tell ya, it's in their best interest to keep us sick."
.

where is this heading?

I'm having fun making the sight and sound collages. I've started a new blog to post these little films and the ideas are flooding me faster than I can even jot them down. I will continue to periodically put them up here, but you might want to check out some of the other things I'm doing. I'm considering asking friends to let me link to some of their films, as well.

There's only one new one up on the other site right now, but if you want to take a look, you can find it at Dashboard Buddha Films .

found: plaster excavation

Sometimes I run across a photograph or a piece of art or a performance piece which inspires me. I probably "run across" more of them than I notice, if I'm honest with myself. I do get lost in getting to my next assignment or trying to figure out when - or where - I will squeeze in lunch or dinner into my schedule as I'm navigating traffic and looking ahead on the road to see if I can continue as I am or need to find an alternate route.

That reads like an excuse for not being present in my life. For my moments - which may span days - of not practicing mindfulness. And it is what happens. I do get into a fog of what I have to do and ignore what is new and unexpected and even inspirational. The good thing is that those time periods are shorter and I notice that I've sunk into that pit of scarity thinking.

So, as I am crawling out of another of those holes, I found the above picture of the plaster excavation piece, Vessel, by Serena Barton. And, you see, I had already seen that piece before. I admired it, told her "good job" and then it went out of my mind. Completely. Until I saw it on her blog (you can read more about its creation and the process at Serena Barton's blog).

This is a very alive and rich piece of art. I see in it the inspiration for stories and poems, dense with landscape, character, and the mystery of storytelling which threads through language and holds it all together into a cohesive piece into which we can sink and drift and dream.

Where does this piece of art take you and your writing?
What kind of place is it?
Who (or what) exists there and what do they do?

Prompt: As I stood at the threshold ...

Vessel by Serena Barton
plaster excavation
c. 2008

found: quote

From the "No Plot? No Problem!" book by Chris Baty (the founder of NaNoWriMo, which I've mentioned in several previous posts):

"exuberant imperfection"

... how to approach the writing of the rough draft of a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

...and did you know that "The Great Gatsby" and some other pretty famous novels are only about 50,000 words? I'm not saying I will write the next Gatsby, but I will finish a draft of something.

...I will be going into November (NaNoWriMo) with this phrase in mind. And I'm already trying to apply it to other areas of my life. Not easy for a recovering perfectionist - but I like it!

photograph from CalArti

found: new Larry Lessig video

A new video from Larry Lessig as part of the Free the Airwaves/whitespaces project.

found: characters

This video was created by echopanda for Joanna Newsom and uses her song, Peach Plum Pear, from her debut album. This combination of old homemade videos includes some excellent scenes and characters for writing character studies, short stories, poetry, and so on - however you are inspired.

I like Joanna Newsom's music. To be honest, I haven't found anyone else among my group of friends who likes her "Appalachian-meets-avant-garde take on folk music." If you hate the music, hit the mute button. The video is worth it even if you want to (as one friend said) poke your ears with a sharp instrument rather than listen to her voice. I like her and realize she's not for everyone. Give it a try, though, you might be surprised.

chipping away at the arts

A video from one of my favorite spoken word artists, Juliana Luecking, about an attempt in NYC to limit video artists. Queen Juliana, as she is known on YouTube, Moli, MySpace and more, has a "People Are a Trip" video project in the works which is fabulous; earlier works on YouTube are available here, where she does periodically post updates; the more recent work is available on Moli. She has questions she asks people on the street, in their homes, at the park, and so on, with her video camera and then posts their responses. Sometimes people video themselves or their friends and send them to her. One of my favorites (on YouTube) is one where a guy from another country created a written and visual response to all of her questions at the time and mailed it to her; she recorded herself opening the package and each page in his creation.

She is also a poet and artist and is outspoken on attempts to silence or limit artists (as well as other social and political movements, I'm sure). I believe it doesn't matter where the attempts at censure are occurring or whether it is writing/art/film/theater/radio/etc, it affects us all. As cliche as it has become, there is still truth in the "when they came for [insert marginalized or oppressed group] .... and when they came for me, there was no one left."

Juliana is smart, funny, serious, dedicated, and talented.

Enjoy. And check out some of her other work.

look & listen: Scott Brick

The looking isn't really the point of posting this video; it's the listening part. Although, as a fan of Scott Brick, it is interesting (for a few minutes, anyway) for me to see the voice in action. I spend a good deal of time in my car for work; currently I have a couple places I go fairly often which require about an hour each way, so I have found a good source for audiobooks. I really like this reader and I want to share his voice.

Nibble Notes

The writing book I'm currently reading is The Writing Workshop Notebook by Alan Ziegler. There are many tidbits of information organized in to sections, with lots of quotes from other writers and creative types. I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book and yet I find it worthy of recommendation.

And quoting. Although some of the things I have underlined or starred or circled are quotes Ziegler gathered and presented to me. So how do I cite a quote of a quote? Hmm...a tangent for me to look up so I don't step on the wrong toes.

But I ramble; back to my point.

Under the "Notebooks" section of "Notes on: The Material," I smiled with recognition when I read Ziegler's suggestion to "Write 'nibble notes' (consisting of key words, idea kernels)." I was already in happy agreement with the writing about having different notebooks - one to carry in a pocket, a little larger portable book, one to live in the car, one which lives at home - in which to write. I've found myself with journals scattered here and there and have finally settled on my own random pattern: the largest possible page size which fits in the outer pocket of my Eddie Bauer bag (4"x6"), a lined inexpensive 8x10 composition book tossed in my work bag, an "ideas" Pentalic a la Modeskin hand decorated on my desk, a Fat Lil' Notebook in the driver's door of my car, and a writing workshop/group Modeskin in my going walking bag.

And then I saw it: nibble notes. Grin. As I read more I was relieved to find others quoted who don't write or create at exactly the same time everyday or in the same place. And it's okay. And keeping the notes on whatever is handy if you don't have notebook is okay, too.

I like Ziegler's writing style and I like how this book is organized so far. Basically, he's writing about writing options and how what is important is for each writer to find his or her way. What works, what doesn't, encouraging experimentation to see what fits.

And he relates writing and other creative pursuits. He encourages movement to help generate writing; movement which may include walking or dancing or standing in the middle of the room and dancing with just your arms - or riding a bus, train, boat and letting your body be carried in the motion.

Everything seen, felt, smelled, imagined, overheard, touched or untouched is potential for a writer. Always carry a pen/pencil and some paper to jot down that one or two word found inspiration. And maybe inspiration isn't always the right word. If something draws your attention, put it to paper for later. Or send yourself a text message from your phone. Note it, somehow.

Go on. Nibble.

found: character study

True story: Sitting in the central lobby of a hospital wing was a patient's boyfriend and some other guy he seemed to know. The two had spent all night with the female patient. Reason for stay was unknown to me, except she was wearing a neck brace. The boyfriend had really long 70's style sideburns with short curly hair slightly matted and pushed to one side, probably from sleeping on one of those chair beds. Or maybe he was lucky enough to get an actual cot in the room.

Regardless, here he is in the hospital with his pal. Sitting in the lobby talking dirt about other people, sitting on the worn blue plastic twin chairs, stuffing his face with -- you ready? -- cheese in a can being squirted onto habanero Doritos. And talking with his mouth full, the orange bits of either chip or cheese, maybe both, popping out between loud crunches and splattering the floor. And beside him is one of those giant nearly gallon sized containers you can get filled with pop at the convenience stores.

I tried not to stare, but the sight struck me as odd and fascinating in a way. Whoosh, squirt, pop on the top, chip and cheese into the mouth, crunch. "Wha' yu say, bu'dy", spray the orange. Repeat.

Found: thoughts on openness

From Zen Howl by Natalie Goldberg and Dosho Port.

what if..."the busy, confused, distressed mind is a false state of being [which distracts us from] tasting the natural harmonies of life"...?

Sometimes we have "fear in the moment of full expression - the zen howl - that fear [can act] as a barrier to that open space...". The goal of practice is "to realize fully the moment that is presented."

My question: what if we are present in the moment and in contact with our mode of expression? What do we feel in that open space of being?

found object: on poetry

A smile found taped on the edge of a bookshelf in Hawthorne Powells: "Most people avoid most poetry because most poetry ignores most people." - Adrian Mitchell




photo from Optimistic Voices