September 2008 Archives

A while back, I wrote a little thang called "Shaved My Beard". And, you know, there was a lot of hullabaloo. I remember, I got a letter from Shaquille O'Neil about it, which really surprised me. I wouldn't have thought he'd have the time.

Shaq hasn't written in a while. So this weekend, with help from Veronica Vortex, iMovie, and a Flip cam, I revisited that piece, moving picture stylee. Herewith:

Shaved My Beard from Cecil Vortex on Vimeo.

Here's the latest in the ongoing project the cognoscenti likes to call the Virtual LP. I love the cognoscenti. I just can't let myself get too attached. You know how they are.

This tune marks the "World Wide Web" debut of Shonny Vortex, who turns in a, I'll say it, stellar performance on backup vocals. The song's about a true fact -- 7 coats I had, 7 coats I lost. I've literally had and lost around 7 coats over the last stretch while My Mind Was Wandering. A maddening thought, one I could only quiet by, you know, setting it to music. Thanks for listening. May all your coats come home.
-Cecil

time: 1:01 seconds; specs: 950K
Press Play to play.

I posted an interview this evening over on the O'Reilly digital media site with Jesse Thorn, the host of "The Sound of Young America" (an excellent radio show that's distributed by Public Radio International.)

Thorn's launching an intimate convention/vacation/education/entertainment extravaganza this summer called MaxFunCon. Most of the conversation was about that event -- where the idea came from, what the focus is, why it won't feature half-naked pictures of Dane Cook.

At the end, he shared a bit about how he gets stuff done that I thought would make a nice addition to the About Creativity interviews on this site:

MaxFunCon bills itself as, among other things, "a convocation of awesome people who seek to become more awesome." In your own life, is there anything you've found that helps you achieve more awesomeness?

Jesse Thorn: When I was just out of college, I couldn't get a job. I was really depressed about it, and I had been trying to get a radio job. But I couldn't even get any job. It was really horrible. I was applying for retail jobs and not getting them.

I was really down, and I was thinking, "Why am I driving back and forth to Santa Cruz, an hour-and-a-half from San Francisco?" At the time, I didn't have a car, so I was driving back and forth in my mom's car. I thought to myself, "I should just quit doing this. There's no reason I'm doing this."

And I talked to my now wife/then girlfriend, Theresa. And she said, "Well, you don't do anything else," and I thought, "Yeah, that's true, I don't do anything else. Maybe I should keep doing this." [laughter] And it has been the regular demands of making sure that I'm doing something that has backed me into a corner in order to be creative and think of new things. The fact that I have to make a radio show every week. For many years I did it when I had a real, regular day-to-day job, and now it is my job. The fact that I have to think of new stuff to connect me with people. It's sort of boring, but it's that backed-into-a-wall state where I'm able to be creative.

I'm a very harshly self-critical person. To be honest, I'm a very harshly critical person in general. [laughter] Which I think is one of the reasons why I find improv so beneficial. I'm only able to really create when I have to. So I've set up my life so that I do have to.

And the things that I have to do are things that I love to do, so it works out.

"Were McCain elected to the presidency, he would be the shortest president in 120 years."

John McCain: More of the same. Only shorter.

it's a matter of asking
that tape recorder, are you gonna
spool this? Do you want to take a sec?
hold a sec? paste that moment
across some plastic?

Cuz I don't wanna let you go, sec.
I want to throw you in a drawer next to
some passports and
a picture someone
drew of me
when I was 17.

His pals don't need much, ya see.
They wear snappy hats. Elbow each other
at the sight of something, hey!

Hey look at that snappy hat!

All they want is a patch of dirt
to trash. To take off their hats.
To scrum.

They've got cleats, ya see. Underneath
them fancy pants. And

cleats
beget

traction.

So-called Bill and I have recently started posting about digital creativity over at digitalmedia under The Creative Beat. This subsite is an extension (an outgrowth? a spur?) of the interviews you've found over over here, with a little more focus on things-tech.

Last week, SCB had a fun post on Eno's Oblique Strategies and where they can be found online. And mere moments ago, I added a chat with Craig Schwartz the co-founder of toonlet.com, a neat site that makes it easy peasy for folks to make cartoons. Drop by when ya get a chance....
-Cecil

Verne-der-ful.