Animal Rubber Bands Blog

Apparently my new found approach to novel authorship has helped, since I am writing again.

And if I remember correctly, this lack of direction snafu is where I stopped writing the last novel I worked on…not that I ever stopped writing it in any kind of a definitive way, I just went on to other things. I have no shortage of creative pursuits with which to involve myself.

There is a quote in the current novel-writing-book I am reading which says that you must believe that you and only you can write your book, it has to be that individual and driving. I do believe that. I have particular insight which will and is bringing it to life.

So, I have come up with a title, a tentative plot and an ending, and now I know where I am going with it–not that I can’t take a different exit if I so desire, just that I know which highway to be on.

So I am happily typing away again, with new found hope and direction.

Yay, me.

This evening I went to go see Festival Express. The movie was an incredible snapshot of some of the great music of the early 70s. Some of the bands featured in the movie (such as The Band and Janis Joplin) I had heard on the radio and enjoyed their music. However, watching them perform live made me appreciate their talent even more. Janis Joplin’s recorded music does not show the passion and energy she puts into every song she sings. Watching her sing one song live drained me. I don’t know how she did it.

The Grateful Dead were incredible throughout the whole movie. The movie showed some great jam sessions with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and some of the other musicians in the festival. One of the greatest scenes in the movie showed a drug/alcohol induced jam session with one of the guitarist of The Band, Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir. Everyone was having a good time singing (especially the guitarist of The Band). It was amazing to see such great musicians having such a good time together just playing music.

Lastly, Buddy Guy was amazing. The song that they showed him play at the festival was incredible. As an added treat, 2 people in the theatre were actually on the train with the bands and another person worked on the sound of the film. It was an amazing experience to watch.

Over the years, the technique of yoga exercise has been linked with society’s understanding, the progress of humankind and well being, and that was a long time before the recent trendy times. As persons recognize, to practice yoga exercises is to promote the intelligence and harmony of both mind and body. In yoga, it is important to have a grasp on the many advantages an individual may obtain, and how to thoroughly perform the postures to realize the maximum potential gains from the experiences. Clearly, yoga has brought holistic natural health benefits to a large number of people also it can do precisely the same for you.

Pressure plays a enormous role in destroying the standard of a person’s life, and this is where yoga should prove successful. On your body aspect, the practice can enrich the body’s functions and shape as well as improving joint suppleness. yoga may likewise benefit heart and lung performance, thus preserving the whole human body at the optimum amount of functioning. postures can stimulate your whole physique, clearly assisting with a full detoxification as it guarantees maximum circulation to different areas of the body. Consequently, this allows getting rid of body toxins from just about every small out-of-the-way parts of your body and providing vital vitamins and minerals. As for the psychological facet, meditation works amazingly to realize a mind synchronized with the human body. This may arise as the finest awareness of who you really are plus your role in the world plus the capability to experience how the body has been advanced, since you are more connected to your inner thoughts. Primarily, the wonderful advantages of yoga leads to slowed ageing, increased stamina and a fantastic zest for living!

Holbo on The Valve:

The problem with Theory, as a normal feature disciplinary life, is it the nature of Theory never to be normal – always to be excessive and paradigm-shattering. You cannot oblige people to be this, on a regular basis, and expect them to maintain their intellectual honesty, not to mention dignity and equilibrium. Not that I want to restrain geniuses. (I’m sure if they really are, they will break any restraints I tried to install anyway.) I don’t want to oblige ordinary scholars, who might do something modest and solid, to pretend to be geniuses and do something fantastic and shoddy.

As Jodi Dean says in the comments:

what you support is a way of thinking that strives to be normal and paradigm reinforcing (as opposed to excessive and paradigm shattering), a method or way of thinking characterized by honesty, dignity, and equilibrium that produces modest, solid scholarship?

Presumably this way of thinking would trust ‘classical’ forms – conventional logic, standard argument. It would not insist on originality or in overcoming anything at all. It should avoid eclectism in favor of significance.

So, making the familiar strange is not advisable, but making the familiar reassuring and comfortable is? Shock is not a goal of a work, but serious contemplation or perhaps recognition of the rationality of the world?

Are there examples of works that do this that you admire? Presumably Mill.

And, if you reject the putting all the eggs in the theory basket in the passage that you quoted and I had quoted from someone else, would you say that the plain thinking (I’m trying something else instead of ant-theory) approach that you advocate resists the bureaucratic cooptation and assessment going on now in higher education?

Yeah – sounds like the Department of Merit Badge Earning, not literature…

Orange Door Gallery was “it” for a while. In fact it was the only place to be at the end of a first Friday night, for about two years. A not-for-profit space that ran entirely off of the sweat of it’s two main directors, Grady and Heide Trepanier. The shows were always above average. Entering the gallery you had no idea of what to expect, from Angry Johny’s folk paintings, to Large paintings of half naked glistening 20 year old boys,to photographs of Iraq’s children. But they were always a great show. Something that would make you question, make you re-look, and make you inspect. They were thought provoking shows that operated as a catalyst to young artists with high ambitions. The gallery itself was a marvel. On a second floor on Broad St. with a great view of the other galleries it felt like a world outside of Richmond. Old people, young people, scenesters, artists, other gallerists would all mingle till midnight getting drunk on cheap PBR and Yellow Tail. Screaming about the art or a video projection, or some singer who happened to be performing for the night. People left with a fire under their skin. Maybe it was the staircase that took away the inhibitions, or the extreme low lighting in the gallery? Whatever it was we don’t have it any more. Heide and her team of resources had to leave the space due to funding. They are missed. Richmond and the ones who knew of their importance miss Orange Door every time they venture out to the galleries.
So this raises the question, who can or will replace Orange Door in spirit and mission? What are the keys to a space that facilitates conversation like O.D.?
1. Openness to all things smart in art
2. Willingness to experiment
3. Great showcasing ability
4. Mix-able crowds who stay to look at the work past the normal 3 minutes
5. a comfortable sitting area to talk, drink, bitch, and whine about art
6. Funding from things other than the sale of art
7. Dedicated staff who keep the space open when real people will come visit
8. Respect for VCU students (most of whom are making the smartest work in the city)
9. Cheap rent
10. Outside influences I.E. dance groups, performances, video screenings, public readings
11. Educated staff of artists who understand the work and are willing to talk to people about it
12. Open and comforting environment

I remember the night The Brother’s Quay came to the opening of Grad Student’s work. Out of all the galleries in Richmond they were pulled to the only one that realized that the opening party is a party, and people have to be free to let loose. So if the Brother’s come back to Richmond ever I have a feeling they will have no where to go. Which is sad for them, but we are the ones who have to live here. So do we have nowhere to go?

We can look at art anywhere, but is there anywhere to discuss it? To breathe it in? To enjoy it and celebrate our little club of artists and patrons? I haven’t found one since.