Confessions

1. I have not been posting as much as I'd like to.
2. Boo.
3. It kills me because pretty much all I want to do is this blog.
4. But life is intervening.
5. Earning a living and all that.
6. But here's a tease: I'm developing a Creative DC business plan. There is so much more I could be doing with this blog - expanded coverage, more interviews, more features.
7. And a cafe to go with it. With workshops. And other stuff.
8. (This is my dream.)
9. So be patient, dear reader.
10. One day soon there will oh so many postings, and so much more.

47 percent of DC is creative?

Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, recently drove around the DC area with a Washington Post reporter, commenting on which neighborhoods exhibited signs of creative life, and the nature of DC's "creative class."

According to the reporter, Annys Shin, Florida's work "argues that cities that attract highly educated "creative class" workers fare better economically."

So what exactly is the "creative class"?

"(Florida) defines the creative class by occupation, rather than by traditional measures such as employer or education. It includes not only the stereotypical bohemians, such as artists, dancers, and writers -- classified as "super creatives" -- but also accountants, lawyers, mathematicians and computer programmers.

All told, the definition covers about 47 percent of the Washington workforce..."

I'm not sure what to make of this. On the one hand, I love a definition of creativity that doesn't stop with artists, and I love calling attention to how creativity in various forms helps cities and communities thrive.

On the other hand, I don't like the idea of defining creativity and its value solely in economic terms. If it helps creative people and work get funded to emphasize how creativity fuels the economy, then great; but I worry if, culturally, we come to measure creativity solely by economic output.

I also take issue with using someone's source of income as the sole measure of their creativity; this issue came up in an online discussion of the Post article I've been describing (the discussion was with Steven Pedigo, one of Florida's former students and now the research manager at the Greater Washington Initiative):

Silver Spring, MD: ...Would a waitress who draws or does standup comedy in her precious moments away from the paying job count as "creative class" member, and if not, why not?

Steven W. Pedigo: Technically, no, well maybe, yes you've nailed one of the limitations of measuring the creative economy. While the waitress doing stand-up comedy is extremely creative, she is counted by her fulltime job.

If someone who is extremely creative isn't considered a member of the "creative class," then "creative class" is a catchy but inaccurate name for a probably astute economic concept. (I say "probably astute" because (a) I haven't read the book, and (b) I'm no economist.)

New headline: we're all creative. Economic constructs come and go, but our innate creativity remains.

RELATED RESOURCES

• Read the Post article, "The City as Modern Muse"
  
• Read a transcript of the washingtonpost.com discussion
• Learn about The Rise of the Creative Class
  

Get thee to Rock Creek Park

Yesterday was a terrible-horrible-no good-very-bad-day (if you don't get the reference, read this book), and I woke up today feeling like I still had some leftover blech to shake off. Without even really thinking about it, I found myself turning my dog's standard morning walk into a hike through Rock Creek Park - and boy, did it do the trick.

I stood on a bridge over the creek and stared at the reflections of the big, majestic, angular trees in the water below, and I was transported away from whatever nonsense had been bugging me - the spell was broken and I was myself again.

I'm taking a class on how to start your own business, through the National Women's Business Center, and the other night our teacher counseled, "Get rid of stress - it keeps you from using energy in constructive ways. And as an entrepreneur, you'll need all the energy you can get."

I think the same goes for all of us - we all need all the energy we can get if we are going to move mindfully through life, and be awake enough to savor everything around us -- and, ideally, to create. When we let ourselves sink into stress, we are really giving up on the creative life - letting ourselves become passive victims rather than active creators of rich, rewarding lives.

So if you're feeling like Alexander (again - if you don't get the reference, read this book!), like you just can't shake off what you know is ultimately a whole lotta nonsense, my advice is to get thee to Rock Creek Park. Walk, bike, whatever your fancy, but pay attention to your surroundings... notice the trees...breathe it all in...shake off the nonsense...and then get back to stuff that matters.

Creative cooking

To live a creative life,
we must lose our fear of being wrong.
-Joseph Chilton Pearce

It's true - creative living requires courage. Courage to listen to what you really want, and courage to act on what you hear. Sometimes, practicing risk-taking in small ways can help psych you up for a bigger leap of faith. Hence, the power of cooking.

Yes, cooking. How many DC residents are paralyzed by the thought of preparing a simple meal? "I'm not a cook," you might say. "Hooey," I might retort. As with all creative endeavors, the first step is to pay attention: what do you like to eat? If you like tomatoes, browse tomato recipes online - epicurious.com is a personal favorite, but a simple Google search can do the trick.

And don't be afraid to experiment. Take stock of what's in your fridge, and think about what would taste good together; for example, the other week my husband was making pork chops (his first time, so he was using good old Fannie Farmer for guidance), and I wanted a vegetable of some sort. We had a bunch of fresh tomatoes from the farmer's market, but not much else. I improvised, mixing in chopped up onions and peaches. The result was a sweet salsa-like side dish with a bit of a bite, which tasted delicious when paired with the pork chops.

Kim O'Donnel's weekly live online discussion, "What's Cooking?", is a great way to get your creative juices flowing when it comes to food. Kim celebrates what's in season, and suggests ways to work off of one or two ingredients to build a meal. For example, in today's discussion:

Rockville, Md.: Please help. I never know what to do with chicken. I have some boneless skinless chicken thighs defrosted for dinner tonight and am out of ideas of what to do with them. The simpler the better.

Kim O'Donnel: Make a sauce: A pinch of sugar or small amount of honey, a little soy sauce, some chopped fresh ginger, garlic, chile, squeeze of a lime. If you have fish sauce around, a few glugs of that. Marinate for 30 minutes without lime, then squeeze lime before cooking. Grill on skewers or without. You could also roast in oven at 350. Rice, local tomatoes or cukes. You're in business.

You might be thinking, "yeah, but I'd never think of that." Or, "I'd never have those ingredients on hand." Well, in the beginning, you can use people like Kim as your guide - imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so follow her suggestions, but keep an ear out for the voice inside you that says, "what about adding [insert ingredient here]?"

Worst case, you have a meal that doesn't taste so great. You'll live!

Best case, you get the wonderful feeling of being nourished by a meal you prepared...and inspired to try something else outside your comfort zone.

Some resources to help you get inspired:

• Savor local farmers markets. My favorite is the Mount Pleasant farmers market on Saturday mornings (9-1, May-November).
  
  
• The "What's Cooking" archive and blog
  


• The Mindful Cook - a wonderful book about "finding awareness, simplicity and freedom in the kitchen."

What in DC inspires you to cook? Favorite resources? Don't be shy!

UPDATED 9.22.06
A Creative DC reader posted this tip:

"I use an organic produce delivery service, like washingtonsgreengrocer.com or doortodoororganics.com. It has saved me from going to the store and buying the same stuff every week. I have to be creative and figure out what to do with what shows up."

Pretty Girls and Robots

Check out my friend Chris's art at Bedrock Billiards starting Saturday, September 23.

Here are pictures from his last show at Bedrock.

Here are some illustrations of bloggers he did for technorati.com.

Here is a blog maintained by a pug.

Sunshine on a cloudy day

This burst of color captured my attention, and I wanted to pass it along on this rainy day.

Photographer: inked78
Description: H Street Farm Fresh Market, 600 block of H Street NE.

Artist in the park

Last Friday, around 3:oo, I was walking through Walter Pierce Park in Adams Morgan, and decided to pull out my camera. "I'll take pictures that support the idea of Creative DC," I said to myself. "I'll just stick to my regular route, and I'll photograph anything I come across that showcases the creative life of the city." The next thing I knew, I came across this guy sitting in the park, drawing. I also saw a mural, sidewalk chalk art, and front porches decorated with flowers, windchimes, flags and sculptures. Art is all around us.

September 11

All day I've been thinking about those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. I send them wishes for peace. I honor them by living life fully: treating each day as a gift, feeling and expressing gratitude, living compassionately, being patient with others, never knowing what they might be going through.

I'd like to share something I wrote on 9/14/01, and edited more recently.


Feeling 911

Helicoptor overhead. Each morning I wake and feel a moment of peace before: the helicoptors.
I stiffen.

I’ve gone from shellshocked, to losing myself in my work (assembling online resources for coping, understanding – hoping others may understand better than I), to feeling in a fog.
All throughout I’ve been stiff. I don't know how to act.

Psychologists say we need to balance our grieving with moving on. They say we can’t come to a standstill entirely. Religious leaders say that if we allow terrorists to keep us from our lives, we allow them victory.

We must be strong, we must keep on keeping on.

But Bill Moyers on PBS mentioned standing still, and ever since it’s all I’ve craved. STILLNESS.

And the nation rushes forward to plan our retaliation, and instead of solace, this brings more violence,
and I cannot digest it. And I do not wish to sound naïve, I know we must strike back, but to hear these people -- “my people” -- speak of revenge, of killing --

I can understand strategic targets, can understand that some lives may need to be lost to make a statement that can protect us in the future, we cannot just weakly stand by and accept what has happened (what has happened?) --

But a hunger for revenge, a desire to kill – I find this as horrifying as the footage of the World Trade Center, as horrifying as Palestinians dancing and celebrating in the streets.
As revolting.

And then eventually,
The sound of wind brushing through the trees outside my window.
My dog sleeping.
I know it's temporary, but I savor the relief.
I know it's temporary, but I savor the relief.
I know it's temporary, but I savor the relief.

DC Shorts Film Festival

I love short films. To me, the brevity of short films often leads to tighter storytelling, and they tend to take artistic risks I don't see in feature films. For example, I had the privelege of attending the Sundance film fest 2 years ago, and I saw this wonderful animated short called Ryan - a very impressionistic exploration of an artist's fear of failure (which I think is really fear of creative power...a great quote I saw recently said we're not afraid of failure, we're afraid of success.) The animation style is incredibly expressive and evocative. I'm not saying an animated feature couldn't accomplish that - just that I haven't seen one that does, and on measure, I tend to walk away from short films feeling like I've just witnessed a very personal labor of love.

Which is all my way of leading up to saying: check out the DC Short Film Festival, coming up the weekend of September 14-17. 112 of the films they're screening are local - those of you who dream about filmmaking but think it's out of reach because you live in DC, take note. In another shout-out to the local creative community, the trophies awarded at the end of the festival are custom-designed by the Washington Glass School.

Learn more about the festival, and get a detailed schedule of screenings, at www.dcshorts.com.

Those Crafty Bastards

I posted a while back about Crafty Bastards, an annual crafts fair sponsored by Washington City Paper, happening this year on October 1 from 10-5. They've now updated the site with a list of this year's vendors - what a group! These are people who are inspired by everything from vintage clothing to cocktail umbrellas to tattoos, and who create everything from tshirts to lamps to dog bowls.

Here are some of the vendors from DC (let me know who I missed!):

Angela Costanza
"I screen fun, original t-shirts from my absurd illustrations. If you find them enjoyable, then you're absurd enough to wear them. Thus, absurdi/tees/ was born."

Kristina Bilonick Jewelry, Accesories, Clothing
"Printing on a variety of used and new apparel, Kristina Bilonick revamps blah clothing with her organic, retro imagery. Also check out her kiln fired glass jewelry!"

Rania Hassan
"I'm obsessed with print gocco, knitting, and painting, and dream of methods to combine the three."

Ben Claasen
"Come ride the back of an enchanted winged flying toad with me as we journey through a magical land of boot wearing marmalade eating meercats. Or some crap like that."

8th Street Soap
"Local to DC, 8th Street Soap Kitchen has been creating homemade, handcrafted artesanal soaps from natural ingredients since 1999. Carefully scented with essential oils and delightfully packaged. Good. Clean. Fun."

Kathleen Shafer
"popular and stylish dc flag t's and the one and only i heart dc t, because the flag is awesome and so is dc."

DC Craft Mafia
DC Craft Mafia is a group of local crafters and artists with products ranging from different styles of jewelry to miniature robot quilts to accessories.

These guys are a great testament to the creativity happening all over this city.

UPDATE 9.8.06
Thanks to Rania Hassan for calling out these additional DC artists who will be featured at Crafty Bastards:

Paula Simon
"Woolarina.com is two fiber addicts who dream of supplying the world with brightly colored, one-of-a-kind woolen goodness and whimsical related crafts."

Debbie Lee
"I handstitch images inspired by music, the 80s, pop culture and goofiness. A baby wearing an "N is for Nerd" shirt always makes me laugh."

Joy Cooney
"I make fun jewelry, revamped purses and kitschy accessories. Clutter inspires me to recycle what other people consider disposable and turn it into art."

Tina Henry-Barrus
"Tina the seamonster makes things to make your life happier. From funny hand screened t-shirts, to wearable bits of art, everyone always finds something to smile about."

Avner Ofer
"World photography documenting changing cultures their people, landscape and places. I tell stories of other places with an intimate examination of life."

Caitlin Phillips
"Rebound Designs is devoted to the rescue and transformation of discarded books everywhere. Unique BookPurses combine fashion with an appreciation for literature and Naughty Bits pins add a dash of spice with text from trashy novels."

See me perform, part 2

What: The Shower, an improv show with an all female cast, debuting *this Friday*

When: Friday, September 8 and Thursdays September 14-October 5

Where: Flashpoint's Mead Theatre Lab (916 G St NW - half a block from the Gallery Place metro)


How much: Tickets are $5 at the door.

Um, so what's up with all the improv posts?: I didn't want to smush this together with JINX in one big, honking post, so I decided to make them separate posts. Other bloggers may have done it differently, but this was my choice. I stand behind it.

Will the show be funny? Yes.

Do you promise? Yes - well, no. I mean, it's improv. We make it up as we go. We might have an off night. But that's the whole thrill of it: watching to see if we'll make it, or if we'll fail. Like watching figure skaters at the Olympics when they do those fancy jumps.

Do you pinky swear? My, you're persistent.

Thank you. That's what my mom says. Oh dear, I see a speck of dust that needs - dusting. See you at the show.

See me perform improv

I'm in an improv troupe, JINX, and we have a bunch of shows coming up. Dates and times below. I hope you'll check us out!

When I tell people I do improv, the most common response I get is, "Oh, like that Who's Line is it Anyway show." Actually: no. Or, only a little bit.

Like that show, we do make it up on the spot - all of it. Which is exhilirating and a helluva lot of fun, let me tell you. But we find our comedy in different ways. "Who's Line" puts a premium on jokes, whereas we believe that the best comedy comes from playing it real - real characters, often in real situations. In fact, one of our 'bibles' is a book called Truth in Comedy, which comes out of the Chicago improv scene, where some of today's great comedians - Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert - got their start.

I got involved with improv by accident (I happened to stumble into the equivalent of an improv open mic night, and ended up performing) , and it quickly became an addiction. This is not an uncommon experience. In an interview with The Believer, Tina Fey says,

"I became immersed in the cult of improvisation. I was very serious about it. I was like one of those athletes trying to get into the Olympics. It was all about blind focus. I was so sure that I was doing exactly what I’d been put on this earth to do...

...New York is filled with Second City alumni roaming the streets at night, looking for their improv fix."

And with that - here are the JINX show dates:

Thursday, Sept. 14, 8pm, $5
Friday, Sept. 15, 8pm, $10
Thursday, Sept. 21, 8pm, $5
Thursday, Sept. 28, 8pm, $5
Thursday, Oct. 5, 8pm, $5

All shows are at Flashpoint Gallery's Mead Theater, near 9th and G NW (about half a block from the Gallery Place metro stop).

---
Improv links:

• Washington Improv Theater (WIT): Excellent improv theater company in DC and the reason I got involved with improv. Great classes and workshops. (Read my profile of their artistic director, Mark Chalfant.)
  

• YESand.com: YESand.com is an online portal into the world of improvisational theatre and comedy. Good articles on the art of improv, and active discussion forums.
  
  
• Improvhello: Blog run by WIT player Zack Phillips, chronicling developments in the improv world and other things that strike his fancy.
  

Improv books:

• Truth in Comedy by Del Close, Charna Halpern and Kim "Howard" Johnson

• Impro by Keith Johnstone

• Improvise by Mick Napier

Buyindie.net

This morning I had coffee (well, actually, he had coffee - I had grapefruit juice) with Vince Wadhwani, who runs the wonderful Web site buyindie.net. Buyindie.net is a directory of independently owned businesses, from yoga studios to bookstores, coffee shops, and more. What inspires me most about the site is that behind each independent business is a person who hatched an idea and made it happen. Whether you aspire to run your own business, write a novel, or tend to your garden, being surrounded by other people who are practicing creativity helps fuel you, like sunshine for a plant. When you take the time to support an independent business, you're voting with your wallet to help creativity of all stripes flourish.

Pancake Mountain

So I was telling a friend of mine about Rock-N-Romp, and he said, "That reminds me of Pancake Mountain." Come again? Where is this luscious destination?

No, gentle reader - Pancake Mountain is not a natural wonder formed from breakfast treats (the tantalizing photo at left is purely gratuitous); rather, it's a DC-based cable access show featuring dance parties with indie bands and dancing fans, ages 5 and up. Past bands have included The Go Team, Arcade Fire, and others, and have been filmed at venues like the 9:30 Club and Black Cat.

Joe Heim of The Washington Post describes Pancake Mountain thusly:

"A sort of slapstick Sesame Street that combines Pee-wee's Playhouse silliness with the inspired lunacy of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the program also boasts an ultra-hip and ever-expanding musical guest list."

For more information, check out pancakemountain.com or myspace.com/pancakemountain.

How to Find the Work You Love

In honor of Labor Day, I want to share a quote from one of my favorite books, How to Find the Work You Love by Laurence G. Boldt:

"Begin doing the work you love as soon as possible, even if you don't get paid for it, or if you can only work at it part-time...There is something about getting started in the work you love that attracts opportunities and opens doors...

If you want to work as an artist and you are making your living as a waiter, don't think of yourself as a waiter who hopes one day to become an artist. That puts the work you love off somewhere in the distant future. Rather, think of yourself as an artist, temporarily supporting yourself by waiting tables -- and paint, draw or sculpt as much as you can."

Or, in the words of Joseph Campbell:

"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living."

Do you love you work? If so, what did it take to get where you are today? If not, what's standing in your way?

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