Warning
On November 12th
The look of this blog will be changing unpredictably for a while until I find a WordPress theme I really like. Do not be alarmed. It’s easy to find one that is perfect except for one unacceptable thing.
Blog page: 22
Ratatouille and Freud
On November 11th 1 Comment
In Brian Bird’s lovely film Ratatouille, the gastronomically inspired rat Rémy creates virtuoso improvisations in the kitchen of Auguste Gusteau’s restaurant. The other cooks insist on rote repetition of the deceased great chef’s recipes as their attempt at continuing his legacy. Rémy is visited by Gusteau’s ghost, who urges him to innovate and take risks. It is clear that Rémy is far truer to — literally — the spirit of Gusteau than the other cooks, ironically by deviating from his recipes. The other cooks are well-intentioned in their desire to follow Gusteau, but instead of emulating his love of creation and discovery, they make his legacy a dead thing — a fetish. Read more »
Creative process in 8 stages
On November 10th 2 Comments
I am not a huge fan of the Kubler-Ross “stages of grief” and theories of “stages of …. ” derived from it. People mourn in bits and pieces and don’t march through neat stages. But the Huffington Post has this short article by painter Kimberly Brooks on the 8 stages of the creative process, and it rings true. In my clinical work with creative persons I have heard so much about this. It can really be useful for people to know that the painful, confusing, discouraging parts are just a stage in the process. It can help people, strangely, not be too discouraged by their discouragement.
Loooong hiatus
On October 29th
I’m reviving my blog in a new form after ten months of silence. I’ve copied the few posts I still like from the old location and I’m changing my approach. At the regional meeting of ISPSO, Annette Clancy asked me what happened my blog, which I kept up for a couple of months until it fell by the wayside. It was more than run-of-the-mill laziness and competing interests. It really made me uneasy in a way I couldn’t identify. I was blogging anonymously, or so I thought until a helpful commentator pointed out it was easy to discover my name. I felt it was important to do be anonymous until I found my way, but I also felt it was a bit cheesy and dishonest to comment on the world from a comfortable hiding place.
Annette’s question Read more »
Dewey Beach Music Festival
On September 28th 2 Comments
I’m at the Dewey Beach Music Festival in Dewey Beach, Delaware. I’ll be presenting tomorrow to musicians attending the conference.
It’s a nice conference, well worth attending. I like these regional music conferences. Earlier this year I was a panelist at the Hyperactive Music Festival in Albuquerque.
They are different in some important respects from psychoanalytic conferences. The dress code is a bit more casual, for one. The daytime is all business and after dinner it devolves into multi-venue pub crawl. Not for the faint of heart. I was impressed with the quality of young bands and artists trying to find an audience. These people are creating our culture. Read more »
Recent Comments