Hello, friends!
We’re cruising along through January, and on the cusp of February 2023. Where does the time go? Hope everything is well in your world!
Here are seven things I paid attention to this week:
1. R.I.P. to the legendary folk and rock singer David Crosby. My early entry into the magic of music was sitting on our living room floor listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (Déjà vu) on vinyl. Those harmonies, come on. Still rocking until 81, he’ll be missed.
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2. On the backside of the MLK holiday, I found this book and film helpful. We’re still fighting for equality among the races in our world. Let’s not be naïve. We need to go back, to not repeat history in the future. These cultural artifacts are helpful conversation partners.
3. I launched the new and improved podcast: Art of Paying Attention (catchy title, huh?). In the first episode, I did a little riff on Art, Activism, Creativity, and Faith. Every cultural moment of upheaval produces new art, creativity, and fresh expressions of spirituality. Let me know what you think? I have some new interviews lined up for this month, and next.
4. Rick Rubin is the famous producer for bringing Johnny Cash back from the musical dead in the early 2000s. Rubin is also known for producing iconic albums with the Beastie Boys, Tom Petty, Eminem, and the list goes on for days. He wrote a new book on the creative process and it’s worth every penny. Rubin also did a fantastic interview with Malcolm Gladwell. These conservations apply to artists proper, and every human, because we’re made by the Divine Artist.
5. A quote I’m carrying around from Neil Gaiman’s book Art Matters, on the power of art, creativity, and imagination:
“Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.”
― Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art
6. One more quote. Rowan Williams talks about the place of poetry with the endless ability to explain what can’t be explained. I also recommend this magazine, Image Journal.
“If poetry has nothing else to say, it says this: this world is much more peculiar than you imagine. There’s more of it than you can get your head round in any one sentence, any one form of speech, any one rhythm of speech. There’s always more. And that’s a theological point, because it spills over into a sense that the world is there because of the extravagance, the excess of divine wisdom.”
+ From the poets’ interview with James K.A. Smith, “Obliqueness and Extravagance: A Conversation with Rowan Williams and Shane McCrae,” in issue 115.
7. Been following the progress of Damar Hamlin, the NFL player who essentially died, and came back to life during a Monday Night Football game. A beautiful picture of when humans get it right.
Go pay attention... it’s our proper and endless work, and make some great art with your life…
Ryan