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Hand Forged Vessels
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Wednesday, March 31, 2004 |
This film is based on the true story of journalist Stephen Glass. You may remember when he was fired from The New Republic. It turned out that this "star" journalist had made up a lot of the articles he'd claimed were true.
Does this make a good movie? Actually, it does. It's shown quite well. There's a sense of suspense throughout. Even after the truth starts to come out, the story is fascinating.
The special features include an excerpt from the TV show, "60 Minutes:" an interview with the real Stephen Glass. Has he changed in the five years between the end of the film, and the interview at "60 Minutes?"
Now I'm curious about the novel he wrote after he was fired as a journalist. Clearly fiction was his forte. But he also completed law school after being fired. Law school? Maybe he'll become a world class defense attorney?
At any rate, the film is good.
9:07:27 PM 
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Tuesday, March 30, 2004 |
I urge you to put "Beyond Borders" on my list of "must see" movies, if you haven't seen it already. It's a love story that takes place over a decade, set in London and in war torn areas around the world. A socialite woman meets a passionate relief worker....
The documentary about making the film is fascinating too. This is the kind of movie that's unforgettable. Maybe it's even life changing. It was for the actress who played the heroine.
Love, suspense, moral dilemmas, social concerns, and - more love. Need I say more? This rates 4 stars for sure.
9:05:04 PM
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Friday, March 26, 2004 |
Yesterday I heard myself thinking "There's so much to learn!"
To my amazement, I noticed that I was thinking this in a very happy "tone of thought." I felt excited that there's so much to learn. I felt eager.
It reminded me of the way I used to feel at the start of each quarter at the University of Chicago. I'd stand outside in that beautiful campus with its gothic buildings and landscaped squares. My new class schedule would be in my hands. Sometimes I'd look over the handouts from the first class meetings. Excitement would flood through me. So much to learn - and now I'd have a chance to dig in to three new subjects.
It's wonderful to be back in that state of being. For several years I've been more caught up in feeling overwhelmed, even panicked by "so much to learn." Working as a computer coach I began to feel hopeless about it. No way could I catch up with what I thought I was supposed to know at the time. And new software and hardware developments were coming along faster than I could keep up.
Making art, So much to learn is like looking at view full of beautiful paths. Each path leads to more paths. They're all wonderful.
12:20:48 PM
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Mark Goldstein has a terrific article on his photography blog called "Beating the Photography Blues." How long has it been since you used your camera? Are you using it every day?
The ideas in the article can apply to any art medium. Also, photography is good for "inspiration photos" for most art forms. I can't think of any kind of art for which photography couldn't be an inspiration. Photos could even inspire a new piece of music, couldn't they?
Be sure to check out the comments at the end of the article, too.
9:05:17 AM
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004 |
Apparently bloglet.com is having problems again. I miss my subscriptions to various weblogs. And this means other people are not getting my weblog updates either.
Oh well, that's computer life. I'll start checking my subscribed weblogs individually again.
I especially enjoy ladida and Workings of the Mind.
2:13:55 PM
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Watching this film offered me some welcome nostalgia for rock n roll and earlier decades. This was mixed with some fascination and horror about the true story of the Pentagon papers. This would be a good film just for a segment of U.S. history. If you lived through that period, you'll enjoy being back there (especially, knowing you survived it.) If you're too young to remember it first hand, the film should offer some fascinating insights into history.
The film is well done, with good suspense throughout. 4 stars because it's not only entertaining, but has information everyone should know.
1:27:11 PM
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This is a good, basic thriller. It's funny that we watched it right after The Pentagon Papers, which uses quicksand as a metaphor for the country's Vietnam War involvement.
We watched Quicksand two evenings ago. To be honest, I can't remember a thing about it except that it was a good thriller. Usually films this forgettable go down fast in my ratings. But I do remember it was good entertainment. So I'll still give it 3 stars.
1:22:32 PM
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At first this film was interesting just because it's set in modern Japan. The initial scenes of Tokyo, filled with flashing neon lights and fabulous buildings, were fascinating. But the main characters in the film seem to be lost. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be lost in very interesting ways.
For a while, I kept expecting something to happen in the film. Finally my partner and I agreed that it was just too boring. We quit.
My advice is not to start this one.
1:18:53 PM
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Monday, March 22, 2004 |
Guess what! Once you have a website published...it means you have a website. There are some great things about this. You can give people the website address so they can see for themselves what you do. You are more accessible to the world.
And that's about it. It doesn't make you happier. Doesn't make you a better person. Of course you know that. But when a big project like a website is underway, it's easy to forget that being happy right now is fine. I had days when I forgot. (OK, I admit it - at least a full week!)
So if your website is still not done, be sure to be happy today anyway. Right now.
12:28:11 PM
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Sunday, March 21, 2004 |
I've been amazed over the last three months or so, about how well things get done when I'm not trying hard. Just about every day during 2004, I've done what I felt most like doing. And I've gotten more accomplished than when I was setting a lot of clear, specific goals and planning how to achieve them.
I used to try various ways to get myself to follow through and get things done from my lists. Or I'd schedule time blocks, set up a routine. These methods worked to some extent, but there was a lot of friction, resistance, and downright unhappiness.
Bossy Cathy: "OK, now you've gotta do such and such. It's very important. Do it now!"
Slave Cathy: "Aw, I guess. All right. If I really have to." (She can't really make me, can she?)
As part of my effortless slide into effortlessness this year - life has been quite different. No alarm clock. I wake up when I wake up. In the morning I do what I want to do. After a while I may want to do something else so I do that. At the end of the day when I'm really sleepy I go to bed.
It's an extremely complicated system, as you can see.
My partner has been telling me for years that this would work. But I didn't believe it. Robert Genn went through similar experiments with time management for years, then ended up with the same effortless system. In The Painter's Keys he calls it "the Joy mode."
That's a good name for it. Mostly I've been full of joy this year. There have been some days when I pushed myself around and got miserable, but most days have been free and wild and wonderful.
I'm a lot less logical now in the order in which I do things. Or perhaps I should say, that the logic is a different kind of logic. The order emerges from the inside, instead of being imposed from the outside.
It makes no sense to say something like "give effortlessness a try." Trying keeps it away. "Give effortlessness a chance" says it better. Or - give joy a chance.
4:42:01 PM
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Thursday, March 18, 2004 |
To make this week even more special, the new art website is published. It's far from done, but there's something at every link. I'll be adding more artwork and articles practically every day for a while.
Just as you can subscribe to this weblog, you can subscribe to notices about additions to the main website. I'll send these notices once or twice a month. And of course, your contact information will be kept completely private.
I'd like to sell my vessel sculptures through galleries, so if you have a favorite gallery and can recommend my work to them, I'll greatly appreciate it. The new website will make it easy. And of course I have slides ready to send as well.
1:40:42 PM
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This is an especially good week. The three new mixed media vessel sculptures are delivered and on display at the Center Gallery in Sautee, GA. This is my local gallery. It gives me special pleasure to show my new work to my local community first.
In case you're anywhere nearby, the opening reception is this Saturday, March 20, 6:30-8 p.m. The exhibit will run through June 5, 2004, so there's plenty of time to see it. I'm asking that any sold sculptures be left on exhibit till the end of the show. However, there's no guarantee that this will happen. So - if you're interested, an early visit will be better.
This is my first showing of absolutely new work in ten years. So I'm pretty excited. I've solved a lot of problems to get to this point. Has it been worth it? Absolutely.
1:35:08 PM
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Sunday, March 14, 2004 |
Just finished watching The Runaway Jury for the second time this week. That tells you right away how much we liked this film. I can't say much about the plot without spoiling it for you, but it unfolds beautifully with one surprise after another. There's a coherence and moral depth to the film that makes it a 4 star plus. Dustin Hoffman is magnificent. The whole cast does a great job.
Ha! I just found out it was written by John Grisham. This wasn't obvious in the film introduction. Probably I'm the last in the world to know this. I've read Grisham for years but not right when the novels first come out. They cost too much for a quick reading thrill. This does explain, though, why the film is so good. It's clever, fast paced, and relevant to current social concerns. That Dustin Hoffman, though, really makes it superb.
10:28:55 PM
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I've been doing something new that's working. My file folders are really working for me! Maybe it would work for you too.
About once a week I go through the file folders in the top drawer of the 2-drawer cabinet next to the computer. These file folders are grouped in hanging folders according to project. I move out any folders or group of folders I'm not working on THIS COMING WEEK FOR SURE.
If I might work on a project or activity this coming week but I'm not sure, I move it to the bottom drawer. It's not that far away. I can still find it quickly if I decide to work on it. Meanwhile, it's not staring at me every time I look in the top drawer.
What I like about this is that the top drawer is now really "loose" and not too full. It's easy now to find the files I need. It's easy to file papers too, so my piles aren't as high even in the midst of an intense work session.
Of course to make this work, I had to move a lot of folders out of the bottom drawer. The ones I want as reference files or future project files went into a 4-drawer cabinet further away from my desk. OK, I admit it. There's also a portable file full of folders that I'll put into the 4-drawer cabinet after I've cleaned THAT out. This is OK though because meanwhile, my active projects are much easier to do.
3:59:37 PM
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Wednesday, March 10, 2004 |
An interesting thing happened today when I was adapting some heavy duty cartons for shipping my new sculptures. I was applying packing tape to the edges of some carton flaps with the idea that this would minimize the cardboard dust. About halfway through doing this on the second carton, I noticed that I was cutting strips that fit the edges exactly.
It was just by feel - or some unknown brain activity. I was holding the tape applicator in the air with one hand, pulling some tape off with the other, and then cutting it off against the serrated edge of the applicator. I wasn't looking, just letting my hands do it.
I wasn't holding the tape applicator along the edge of the carton flap, or measuring, or even thinking about it. I'd decided that it didn't matter how long the strips were anyway. I could overlap them if they were short, or cut them off if they were long. But suddenly each strip was exactly right.
It reminded me of Louise Nevelson saying with some disdain that if you had to measure, you weren't really doing sculpture because you didn't have the feel of it. You should be able to make everything fit by feel, just knowing what was right. Sorry I don't remember the source of this. It was either the video on Nevelson, or her autobiography.
This experience also reminded me of the Inner Game books by Tim Gallwey - plus the Inner Game of Music written by Gallwey and Barry Green. This was Self 2 cutting the tape the exact length, by its own mysterious means. Of course, as soon as I realized what I was doing, I became self conscious and my accuracy rate decreased some. Gallwey would say that Self 1 was back in the driver's seat, trying to boss Self 2 and thereby keeping Self 2 from doing what it can do so effortlessly.
Barry Green has a new book out. Maybe I'll get it. It might keep Self 1 busy thinking about something besides giving Self 2 directions.
6:25:55 PM
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Monday, March 08, 2004 |
This is the story of two very close friends from girlhood on, starting in the early 1970's in Great Britain. It makes me curious as to whether or not all the Brits in the '80s were carrying on with drugs and casual sex, or just the ones shown in the movie. I guess this is when my partner and I were rearing the kids, so we missed all this. From the film, it wasn't really a loss.
The film has some appealing characters, and the plot is OK, though a bit contrived. But since the plot rests on one of them being especially neurotic, it edges pretty close to soap opera. I'm not sure I'm glad I saw it. Two stars would be generous.
10:22:01 AM
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Saturday, March 06, 2004 |
Today is my sixtieth birthday. For two or three weeks I've been apprehensive about it. Birthdays often trigger "what have I done with my life" anxiety in me, but this one has done so more than usual. Partly it's because it's one of the Big 0 birthdays. Partly it's because my father died of a heart attack when he was sixty. He died young, lonely, and unfulfilled.
So what happy thoughts can I think? Chopra and others advise choosing a younger age when you were in top physical shape, and practicing thinking of yourself as being that age now. This could work. So why doesn't that reassure me?
This morning it occurred to me that maybe these fears have a useful purpose. Of course they could spur me on to exercise more and exercise better, eat a heart healthy diet (as best that can be determined these days), and express lots of love. That's all to the good, especially if it all comes about effortlessly. But maybe there's something more?
If someone came to me and asked for a prescription for a happy old age, what would I write?
1. Memorize the poems you love. Read new poetry and learn those too. If you come to the point where you can no longer see, you'll have a treasure stored up in your mind.
2. Practice mindfulness, effortlessness, and the power of your attention and thoughts. If you come to the point where you can no longer do anything outwardly, your thoughts will still be able to have great power in the world for good.
3. Decide to be happy no matter what - and happy with other people as they are.
OK, thanks doc. This looks like a prescription for a radiant old age. I'll start with some of Robert Bly's poems and go from there.
10:00:37 AM
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Friday, March 05, 2004 |
Women's e-news reports that the new Constitution in Iraq will guarantee that women hold at least 25% of the seats in the interim government. That's almost double women's representation in the United States, which stands at 14%. And the Iraq quota is just a minimum standard.
It would be interesting to study all the new Constitutions and government institutions that have been created in the last twenty years or so. I think too of South Africa's Courts of Reconciliation, surely one of the most creative and powerful institutions in world history. Think of what this model could mean in America. Are children learning about these in U.S. schools?
I was a girl in high school when Sputnik created a crisis in U.S. education. America realized we were falling way behind in math and science. Now America is falling way behind in democratic institutions. Do we have the will to catch up?
9:04:17 AM
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Monday, March 01, 2004 |
Have been quiet here because I've been writing up a storm for my new website. Something broke the ice there. I'm definitely unstuck! Am pulling together notes I've made here and there for years about my work. It all seems to be working.
My three new mixed media vessel sculptures will be on exhibit nearby at the Center Gallery in Sautee, GA. The opening reception is March 20. I'm sure I'll have my website published by then - at least all the parts about bowl sculptures. That will be something to celebrate.
5:52:16 PM
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