Questionnaires: The Adventure Continues

This is Part 4 in a "Fun with Questionnaires" series. Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3...

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Hard to pick just one - but I'll go with innkeeper

What profession would you not like to do?
Politician

What is the quality you most like in a man?
Kindness

What is the quality you most admire in a woman?
Agency

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Obedience

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Everyone you love is here (dogs included)

From Inside the Actor's Studio and Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire

Surprise: it's art!

Over the weekend, a friend of mine stuffed plastic eggs with mysterious, upbeat messages and left them around the city.

Meanwhile, in Birmingham, England:

"Residents awoke recently to find pianos spray-painted with the words "Play me I'm yours" scattered across the city.

The public invitation to tickle the ivories is the work of an art collective whose organizers say they want to create a sense of unity and wonder in a place where both are in short supply."

-All Things Considered on NPR, March 24 (read or listen to the full story - thanks, Letty, for the link!)

Inspired? Read artist and blogger Keri Smith's tips on how to be a guerilla artist.

Mas Questionnaires

This is Part 3 of a 4-part "Fun with Questionnaires" series.
Check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4...

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Practice yoga, have sex, float in the ocean, nap on the beach

What is your greatest fear?
Regret

What historical figure do you most identify with?
I have to cheat and go with someone fictional: Mrs. Dalloway

Which living person do you most admire?
I don’t know

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Sleepiness

What trait do you most deplore in others?
Lack of empathy

What is your greatest extravagance?
Sushi

From the Proust questionnaire, via Vanity Fair magazine

Take an improv class!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: improv changed my life (for the better, that is!). If you're looking for a creative outlet, and/or a way to meet interesting people, sign up for a class today - I promise you won't be sorry.

Learn more and register!

Fun with questionnaires, day 2

Fun with questionnaires continues:

What is your favorite word?
Cranberry

What is your least favorite word?
Fart

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Food that is lovingly and ethically produced

What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Bleak city landscapes in the grey dead of winter

What sound or noise do you love?
The ocean

What sound or noise do you hate?
Car alarms

What is your favorite curse word?
I haven't heard it yet

(Questions from Inside the Actor's Studio)

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SEE ALSO:

• Fun with questionnaires, part 1
• Fun with questionnaires, part 3
• Fun with questionnaires, part 4
  

Fun with questionnaires

I used to like watching Inside the Actor's Studio in high school (before James Lipton started interviewing people like JL0), and my favorite part was the questionnaire at the end; I wanted to be on the show just so I could answer the questions. Accordingly, I always turn to the last page of Vanity Fair magazine first, so I can read the similarly-styled Q&A feature (both are derived from the Proust questionnaire). And big thanks to Kate for turning me on to yet another questionnaire, this one on the website for the Leonard Lopate show, a public radio show in NYC.

I'll be posting a few questions from these questionnaires each day for the next however-many days it takes to get through them all. I'll post my answers, and hope you'll post yours, too.

Beyond answering the questions, think about using them as prompts to get you writing/composing/painting/insert-verb-here-ing. Let me know how it goes/what you come up with!

First questions, courtesy of the Leonard Lopate show:

What have you read or seen recently (book, play, film, etc.) that moved or surprised you?

At the risk of being redundant (since I wrote about it the other day): this online video

What are you listening to?

A playlist that includes tracks from Bruce Springsteen, Neko Case, Garden State soundtrack, Paul Simon, Fiona Apple, and Lightspeed Champion

What are you currently reading?

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

What's one thing you're a fan of that people might not expect?

Family Ties Vacation. Also, basketball.

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SEE ALSO:

• Fun with questionnaires, part 2
• Fun with questionnaires, part 3
• Fun with questionnaires, part 4
  

Dreaming of Far Away

Try as I do to live in the present, sometimes I can't help dreaming of being elsewhere, and a recent post from post.com's Kim O'Donnel from her vacation in Vieques did not help! I want to be there so badly right now that the yearning is palpable - my heart may even be pounding faster. To be able to gaze out at the turquoise sea, hear the rustling of palms, sip a mojito, and drift into a blissful reverie...

Not that I can complain about the weather here in DC today (sunshine, blue skies, daffodils and crocuses in bloom - the wonderful signs of spring), but lately I have been fantasizing about a number of getaways, including:

• A yoga retreat in Costa Rica (via Tranquil Space)
  
• The Channel Islands, off the southern coast of California
  
• Yellowstone Park
• House-swaps with families in Tahoe, Paris, NYC...and, ok, twist my arm: Hawaii
• Berlin
• Tuscany
• New Zealand

That's a lot of fantasy to keep bottled up inside. But the finances at the moment do not permit a grand getaway, so taking a leaf from the gospel that is The Artist's Way, I'm wondering - how can I give myself a taste of one or more of these places, without actually going there? Where is the easy and accessible turquoise sea, the serenity of the yoga retreat in the jungle, the slow and easy living (and food, and wine) of the Italian countryside? Where can a DC girl get a taste of these things?

Do tell, good readers...do tell!

Online video as art

So I'm here at SXSW Interactive, and one of the first things I saw (in a session called "Quit Your Day Job and Vlog") was this video, by video artist Bre Pettis, in which kids imagine what the future will bring - all you can see is their mouths:

http://room132.com/2006/03/12/in-the-future/

I found it so beautiful and moving. Along with the other video showcased in the session, it completely changed my feelings about creating video for the Web - made me see it as art for the first time, and got my inspiration cylinders firing. Now I'm toying with ideas, but the most daunting challenge is getting a handle on the mechanics - I've never shot video before. In the past, I've held back, figuring video just "isn't something I do" - but I suppose I'll never learn without diving in. (There's a movie screening here called Beautiful Losers, which looks great - the tag line is "Make something from nothing.")

Any DC-based vloggers (video bloggers) or online video artists you'd recommend? Any tips for someone diving into producing video for the first time?

UPDATE 3.18.08
Check out DC Media Makers, a local group dedicated to making (and teaching people how to make) online video

Keep DC Weird?

I'm in Austin for the SXSW Interactive conference. One of the first things I saw when I stepped off the plane yesterday was a "Keep Austin Weird" tshirt proudly displayed in a gift shop window, and it got me thinking...is DC weird? Is "weird" just shorthand for "interesting" or "creative"?

In the cab from the airport, the driver told us that there's a town north of Austin called Round Rock (named after...a round rock, apparently, that someone saw in a creek up there), and then there's another town between Austin and Round Rock, and its motto is "...between a rock and a weird place." And this, for South Austin: "We're here because we're not entirely there."

I'm trying to imagine a neighborhood of DC with a motto. Any ideas?