andrewSTEPHENgoodrich

"The lessons we learn from the wild become the etiquette of freedom. We can enjoy our humanity with..."

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:32:44 -0600

“

The lessons we learn from the wild become the etiquette of freedom. We can enjoy our humanity with its flashy brains and sexual buzz, its social cravings and stubborn tantrums, and take ourselves as no more and no less than another being in the Big Watershed. We can accept each other all as barefoot equals sleeping on the same ground. We can give up hoping to be eternal and quit fighting dirt. We can chase off mosquitoes and fence out varmints without hating them. No expectations, alert and sufficient, grateful and careful, generous and direct. A calm and clarity attend us in the moment we are wiping the grease off our hands between tasks and glancing up at the passing clouds. Another joy is finally sitting down to have coffee with a friend. The wild requires that we learn the terrain, nod to all the plants and animals and birds, ford teh streams and cross the ridges, and tell a good story when we get back home.

And when the children are safe in bed, at one of the great holidays like the Fourth of July, New Year’s, or Halloween, we can bring out some spirits and turn on the music, and the men and the women who are still among the living can get loose and really wild. So that’s the final meaning of “wild” - the esoteric meaning, the deepest and most scary. Those who are ready for it will come to it. Please do not repeat this to the uninitiated.

”

- Gary Snyder, Practice of the Wild

"Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in,..."

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:16:58 -0600

“

Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!”

This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

”

- Douglas Adams

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:14:43 -0600

““Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.””

- NYT: Slumburbia

Remind me to write a book or two about this quote sometime.

Josh Charles, Captains, Sol Giant

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:18:16 -0600

Josh Charles, Captains, Sol Giant:

“Soul went into hiding in the arid decade that has thusfar made up the 21st Century. No grease, no gris-gris, no grits, no groceries, no nuttin’.”

Peter Gabriel covering Bon Iver’s...

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:54:01 -0600

Peter Gabriel covering Bon Iver’s “Flume”.

Hauntingly beautiful.

"What I think I’m most looking forward to, beyond the emergence of music/art that never would have..."

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:18:06 -0600

“What I think I’m most looking forward to, beyond the emergence of music/art that never would have emerged prior to this Leveling, is the lack of excuses that will exist. At whom will artists point their fingers when their art isn’t greeted with the commercial success they feel it deserves? Since forever the artists’ fingers have wagged at: the label, the distributor, the publicist, the radio person, the web designer, the booking agent, the management … pretty much everyone but themselves.”

- George Howard

http://www.9giantsteps.com/?p=1104

Quieting the Lizard Brain: I really enjoyed this discussion from...

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:07:20 -0600

Quieting the Lizard Brain:

I really enjoyed this discussion from Seth Godin about the small part of our brain that is wired to avoid risks (to have children). And how this part of us often pops up at the end of a project (the last-minute thrashing that ends up costing us a lot, if not everything). When I first started watching this, I thought I fell into this category. For a little while now, I’ve been working hard (or, at least, expending a lot of energy), but have not felt like I’ve really accomplished much. A little later in the presentation though, Seth talks about “thrashing at the beginning.” This is in fact where I fall. I know that once I commit to something, I will see it through to its end. I am the guy that delivers. I will ship, no matter what. This knowledge (now) makes me very cautious as to what I commit myself to. The vast amounts of energy I’m spending these days, I believe, is going towards deliberating about where I want to commit myself. I know that once I have decided I will be (willingly) swept away down that road never to return, so picking the “right” project is extremely important to me now. I used to say “yes” to just about every opportunity that came my way. This works if you are playing the odds and need 10 projects to be able to finish one. Instead, I’d end up working diligently on 10 projects and wearing myself out. I must’ve burned out at some point this last year (I’m not sure exactly when) and am now dealing with the hesitation to commit until I’m overwhelmingly confident. And it IS exhausting work. I’m fortunate to have quite a number of opportunities open to me, so the deliberation can be a bit overwhelming. But knowing that this is, in fact, a healthy trait of progress (in Seth’s opinion anyway) makes me feel more confident that I’m on the right path. This is simply a period of discernment.

Vic Chesnutt - Flirted With You All My Life

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:33:30 -0600

Vic Chesnutt - Flirted With You All My Life:

Almost too much to handle.

Every day.

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:27:33 -0600

Every day.

"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and..."

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:45:02 -0600

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

- Antoine De Saint-Exupery

"[Mostly] things don’t start with special individuals - it is the rest of us and our..."

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:02:34 -0600

“[Mostly] things don’t start with special individuals - it is the rest of us and our willingness to adopt something that we see around us that really matters in the spread of behaviours and ideas through populations.”

- Facebook and the influentials

Video

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:50:22 -0600

An Artists House Thanks Giving

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:19:04 -0600

artistshousemusic:

or: “Why Are We Doing This In The First Place?” revisited

So, as I hope everyone did, I had a great opportunity these last few days leading up to Thanksgiving to reflect on the blessings I have in my life. While I try to remind myself of these things on a daily basis, they seem to become more vivid and poignant around the holidays when I reconnect with old family and friends. Sitting just beyond my love for those I know, my health, and all of the fortunate gifts I’ve been given, I’m most thankful to be able to do work that is meaningful and fulfilling.

While I’ll admit to periodically becoming overwhelmed with the numerous hurdles that many artists and creatives face in this very vast sea, I’m renewed every time I’m able to help someone from our small community to take a positive step forward in their careers. Whether it’s a brief explanation of mechanical royalties or a recommendation for a mass e-mail service, it’s progress. That’s why Artists House exists: to help musicians and music entrepreneurs create sustainable careers. It’s very much parallel to the starfish along the beach story. It seems like an insurmountable goal when you look at the big picture. But when I realize that it makes a difference to each ONE that is helped, that’s what makes the goal absolutely worth pursuing.

I’m very optimistic about the future, as the changes we’ve seen over the last two years or so actually make our (my) mission easier to realize. I see the unnecessary divide between business and art closing up. It’s possible now for some, and will soon be possible for a multitude of others, to successfully sustain a creative business. With integrity. On their own terms. I’m not talking rock stars here. I’m talking about the very blessed opportunity to make a living from craft. The ability to live well and create well. The issues at stake are becoming less about money/fame/success versus integrity (the old label system — where your opportunities were oft directly proportional to how much you were willing to give up), and more about your ability to form your own original vision and see it through to fruition. That’s an amazing and beautiful thing. Artists, both the careerists and hobbyists, are empowered like never before. And we are only seeing the beginning.

As I wrote last year at about this same time: “Musicians should know their business, and the music business needs to start getting real about art.” We’re there, it’s happening.

Thank you all for your mutual support in what we do. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to do work that I find fulfilling. Thank you for being a group that I feel gives more than it takes.

If you ever have thoughts to share, or resources you need help with, contact us on twitter or send me an e-mail personally at andrewsgoodrich [at] gmail.com!

Thank you.

Photo

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:15:05 -0600

"Next time you see someone with a plan or chart with made up projections, imagine it also contains..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:55:23 -0600

“Next time you see someone with a plan or chart with made up projections, imagine it also contains unicorns and dragons. It might as well.”

- Unicorns and Projections

abelson: #477: lightnin’ hopkins - lightnin’s blues (live...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:44:01 -0600

abelson:

#477: lightnin’ hopkins - lightnin’s blues (live 1964)

it’s like everything that could possibly redeem mankind (truth, beauty, humor, ray ban sunglasses, tuxedos, melody, simplicity, the mid-60s, black-and-white film, integration, improvisation, insight, pompadours) was distilled into three and a half minutes. and at the end, as if lightnin’ hopkins hadn’t already given us enough, he says out of nowhere, “when that ticktock quits ticking, you don’t keep time no more,” which is the best thing anyone who’s not oscar wilde ever said about death.

davidhoffman: Typekit is radical. From the new site they...

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:19:42 -0600

davidhoffman:

Typekit is radical. From the new site they launched today:

This will change the way you design websites.

Add a line of code to your pages and choose from hundreds of fonts. Simple, bulletproof, standards compliant, accessible, and totally legal.

It looks like they have around 300 fonts available. Assuming designers don’t abuse their newfound font selection this is going to be awesome for the web-at-large. At $25/year for the cheapest paid plan (and a free plan where you have to show a Typekit badge on your site) I’m hopeful to see this adopted by a lot of designers/developers.

"Here’s a rule that’s so inevitable that it’s almost a law: As an organization..."

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:08:36 -0600

“Here’s a rule that’s so inevitable that it’s almost a law: As an organization grows and succeeds, it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring. With more to lose and more people to lose it, meetings and policies become more about avoiding risk than providing joy.”

- Upside vs. downside

Photo

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:05:48 -0600

"In the same way bad designers sometimes never get better because they don’t know what..."

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:18:37 -0600

“In the same way bad designers sometimes never get better because they don’t know what they’re aiming for, some companies have a culture that just promotes bad taste and doesn’t encourage improvement. The ideology permeates the entire organization, lowering the required level of awesomeness expected from each employee. Companies like this just float along, in the background of capitalism, exchanging goods and services for money. And that is it. They suck.”

- http://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html