The Body and The Pen

During a job recently, the client was busy with an independent project and I was reading the September 2010 issue of The Writer. One particular article caught my attention: "An essayist finds her stride" by Jenny Rough. She wrote about learning to skull and her writing. Learning to skull and, as her instructor put it, be in flow with the water. She went on and told about her learning curve with paddling, the seeking and failing and trying again, and the moment when she felt that connection. I leave the article reading to you. Nice parallels. It made me think about my current situation and lessons.

I made some notes to write this post.

A few hours later I arrived at my second job. On my first break I went into my blog reader to see what other people have been posting. That day's post from WOW: Women on Writing, was called Writing is Exhilarating and is about, yes, the challenges and thrills of physical activities and writing - similarities.

I knew that I definitely was going to follow through with this post. 

I have been exploring the connections and interdependent influences of movement, of physical activity, and writing. Really, of creativity in general; but my creative focus is writing, so that is what I write about.

I've done three of the Paddling Poet workshops with Ridgefield Kayak in Ridgefield, WA. These have been amazing and inspiring. Participants who have never written but wanted to and didn't know how, wrote. One person who said she was not a poet but loves to read it started taking notes as instructed and after a few minutes exclaimed, "I wrote a poem!" She was floating in her kayak in the middle of Lake River.

Movement. Being outside with the elements. Or inside with the people. Walking, hiking, crunching through snow, sloshing in puddles, thwacking through the mud, swishing through pines/bamboo/cottonwoods/red-leaf maples - moving with the wind, the sun, the clouds, paddling the river. Inspiration, moving through, flowing. That connection Ms. Rough was seeking and achieved. I have felt it, too.

Right now, though, I'm dealing with the reverse. Last week I made the decision to not do Portland's first half marathon. Yes, I was one of the first to sign up when it became available and I was excited. I thought I'd beat my Seattle half marathon time; I had lots of time to train; I was determined.

It's been a series of small setbacks this year. I bounced back from the ten weeks of "Northwest Crud" as it became known, last winter into spring. I was definitely behind on training and slow to get back into it. But I did get back to a level where I could do the Cascade Lakes Relay - which was awesome, again - and I beat my times for last year, which was a surprise.

I was dealing with a sore back prior to the relay. I did what I needed to do and it was better; and I had a quick recovery after I was done with my legs. But the problem persisted a little; receded; resurfaced.

I've been on the fence about whether to let go of the half marathon goal or push through it. I've been doing massage and chiropractice and ibuprofen and strengthening/rehab stretches. Increase my walking and drop the focus on pace. Decrease my walking and focus on posture.

The pain was primarily coming with walking - after a mile or so. Sometimes an ache, a tightness, would continue afterwards - but the pain went away. Most of the time.

So my journey became a little different that Jenny's - I had to learn to adjust my activities by listening to my body. I had to not let my frustration become hopelessness or depression - which it can. Doing less walking, less moving, can stir those feelings, as well. So I pushed for 6 miles with a friend and I did it! The next week I was hurting more and only did 3 miles. Then I tapered back to 2 miles; which I did, muscles tightened, I stretched them out, finished up without pain. No pain - that was my goal.

With that I decided that it was better to let go of this marathon - half marathon - and listen inward. There will be other opportunities if I want to do it again. Right now I need to take it slow, build it up, and do other things. Swimming is back in my workouts. More stretching.

Right now the situation feels like a teeter-totter, because less activity has probably contributed to a weakened core, which contributes to some of the back pain. So the pain causes decreased activity - and so I go around the circle. The return to the pool will help. And I hope to get back to more walking - but, for now, it's a little at a time. Knowing when to push and when to pull, to walk upright, to swim, to lift weights or not.

Revise the goal. And keep moving. Keep writing. Keep creating. Because the creating happens even when I ache, when my back muscles burn, when I cry because all I could do was walk 2 miles. Sometimes writing involves the same revision of goals: if the story isn't working, put it on hold, try another point of view, kill off a character, work on the memoir.

Movement: of body, of words, in the flow.

found: performance

Two of my all-time favorite dance performers are presenting new work. The process leading to this production is one of dedication to their art and communities. What the year-long commitment to practice, flying here and there (within and without the US) , fundraising, and performance entailed, I will leave up to readers to discover. Both of them have the skill, presence, and dedication required. I am sure it will be an evening of delight and inspiration. Four opportunities to see these masters perform their own duets and to perform a new work created for them by Deborah Hay, another master of dance.



Music in the Middle: An Evening of Duets
with Mike Barber and Cydney Wilkes
Friday-Sunday October 31-November 2, 2008
8PM, $15 admission nightly
additional matinee performance Sunday @ 2 PM



Music in the Middle is the NW premier of Deborah Hay's duet Found Music, as well as that of two duets created by long time collaborators and Portland favorites Cydney Wilkes (Cul De Sac) and Mike Barber (Bomb), These two duets explore the artists' responses to how two individuals can inhabit the same space. Original music for Bomb and Cul De Sac is composed by Barber's and Wilkes' long time collaborator Heather Perkins.

event: PICA's T:BA:08

PICA's Time-Based Art Festival 2008 is coming soon. September 4-15, to be exact. It showcases theater and performances from here at home and around the world. There is a wide range of performance events: some will inspire, some will challenge, some will wake you up or raise some emotions. It's a time to try something new -- step out of the comfort zone of what you know and like and take a little risk. It's only for an hour or two ... unless it is a major event like last year's Gatz (a theatrical production which included a reading of the entire book, "The Great Gatsby"), which was six or seven hours, with a dinner break. And so worth it. That was one example where I thought I'd skip the show, but then decided, what the heck, give it a shot, and don't go back after dinner if I hate it.

I went back after dinner and was there when they closed the book after the final word.





There are passes to be bought if so inclined, or individual tickets. There are some free events so anyone can go. There is a late night events hub, The Works, which has music, spoken word, sometimes film, performance ... and is filled with energy. One of my favorite local performance events will be there, Ten Tiny Dances. And others I haven't heard of.

Every year I find at least one new music artist/group which becomes one of my favorites. This year I have already planned out the events I want to see and, with a couple of exceptions, am scheduling work around the event.

There are also some free artist talks. Some low cost workshops. And fun. And new work. And art. And on-site events. Neighborhood events. It's a big cultural party of the arts and it's only here once a year for ten days.

And did I say, it has energy?!?

There is one major on site event on September 14th which is free and will be a not-to-be-missed event. It's the "The City Dance of Lawrence and Anna Halprin " with Third Angle New Music Ensemble and choreographers Linda K. Johnson, Cydney Wilkes, Linda Austin, and Tere Mathern and writer Randy Gragg. This event combines music, architecture, water, dance, performance and creativity for two performances only. Did I mention it's free?!?

found: new Larry Lessig video

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

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.

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.

I AM

A spoken word piece by Eric Mata

I want to update my K-inspiration image (K as in a mathematical constant) and I want to preserve this video in my blog, so I'm moving it to the contents section.

Movable Type

Just as any surface can become a canvas for a painter, any stationary or moving object may become the page for a writer.

Consider: cars!

Okay - so I admit that I have Google as my home page when I open Mozilla. I've even customized it to iGoogle, with a changeable banner across the top, the phase of the moon, a little calendar which I can change the background to match my mood, and an assortment of little boxes with information. Among the nuggets of news bytes and trivia I selected is a "how to" box. I don't know why, except that there are the occasional tidbits which inspire me to a rant of humans declining ability to think for themselves or a fascination of seeing how do they make those little toilet paper roll covers out of Readers Digest - like watching a car wreck and being unable to turn away. For example, right now I see "How to Make a Diaper Candy Holder Favor" in the box on the bottom of my screen. It took me a few minutes to even figure out what the title meant; I'm trying to restrain myself from even looking at that one, though I am assuming it has to do with baby showers (I hope).

One day I noticed a link in the box, "How To Create an Art Car". I've seen various art cars around town for several years; some mild and super funky and some outrageous and built up and out. One a little scary looking, unless you're into metallic evil clowns, Extremo the Clown. This was one of those train wreck moments and I had to take a look. Step one, according to WikiHow, is to select your car, with the warning that "if you're planning to drive your art car on a regular basis, you'll want one that is in good mechanical working order." And thus I've proved my point about catering to those who prefer not to think. Meow.

As I looked at a Cheshire cat and back to back VW bugs, I remembered reading about a local art car with a twist. "Trixie" I mentally shouted! And went in search through cyberspace. I don't know whether to say that Trixie is owned by, or companion to, gl, of Scarlet Star Studios, in Portland, Oregon.

Trixie is the dynamic poetry car about town. She sports giant magnetic poetry - like you see on the refrigerator, only bigger. gl even set Trixie up with her own blog page where you can see "trixie poetry" created by people who come across her. One of my favorites is the "neighborhood poetry program" at the top of the page.

Thinking of Trixie and her magnets I have a new meaning for "open mic poetry." Or maybe of poetry by and for the people.

If you could, where would you write your message? Or, if you were to write your message to the world on a car, what type of car would it be? Would you write a poem? Would it be an art car or a poetry car or a blending of the two? What would it say?

photos:
top left: Trixie at her second Burning Man
bottom right: one from the Trixie archives

Movement as Story

"Movement is as necessary to mental and physical development as food." -- Grace Nash

As writers, we are frequently on the lookout for and open to the possibility of inspiration. We observe what is around us. Anything can be fodder for the next poem, short story, essay, or freewrite - regardless of genre. We take the visual, the aural, the auditory, everything coming in through our sense organs and express meaning and experience through our words. Fact or fiction, nature-based or relationship-centered, everything can be conveyed through words. We paint and dance and sing on the page -- or write it in unexpected places. (For an example of an unexpected place, check out the "juxtaposition of wildness and urbanity" by the January '08 South Waterfront Artist-In-Residence, David Oates.)

For writers, our artist's colors are words and spaces; the page (be it paper or electronic) is our palette; and the writing instrument (pen, pencil, keyboard) is our brush. We convey movement and distance and timing through rhythm and flow of language.

The video link below shows a trailer for Normal and Happy, a dance performance by tEEth. This video gives a good sense of the overall piece, which I saw at PICA's TB:A:07. Their performances tell story through movement, color, light, sound, and interactions of the unexpected. Their work is inspirational in the cohesion and strength of the performers and their message.



What do you notice about the different types of movement in this piece? Write about how the movement of the opening pair of dancers feels in your body. How would you translate the dialogue of their bodies into words? Who are the two women in the kaleidescope box? Or the bumpy pink people scratching their stomachs? What else catches you in a visceral way? Can you find something with which to develop a character?

[If you are unable to view the video from this page, click to visit the tEEth video page.]