Belieeeeeeeeeeve Dat

The Combinations Rule

Ran across this today and initially it felt like good advice/affirmation for my profession. It simplified what I do really. It made me realize how much I love unique combinations. I like combining things via graphic design to communicate an idea. I like videos/writing/singing/art that pairs a message with a metaphor and makes me cock my head differently. I like trying to create that stuff.

The more I started thinking about this Combinations Rule the broader its appeal got. Made me think of people I know who have vast knowledge and interests. People who go by Doctor but also read poetry, take photos, watch birds and don't suck at crosswords. I find those people more interesting than people I know who have excessive focus (someone who knows more about the Bengals than Marvin Lewis and is unable to talk about anything else).

I think that maybe we had our chance in post secondary school to major in one topic and streamline our attention to one thing. Maybe we should spend our adult years dabbling and learning. I'm not saying you shouldn't study nasal passages and be the world's expert on them if that's your dream. I'm just saying read magazines about oak trees as well. Experiment with juggling. Watch romantic comedies. Take a dance class. Maybe people focus in excess because at a certain point they enter a safe zone. If you know everything about nasals then you can run in those circles and never say the wrong thing or get rejected. I'm sure to some extent we all do it. I get plain coffee at Starbucks whenever I go there. I'd like to think it's because I'm bucking the system somehow. But really it's because I'm scared of their lingo. I'm scared of asking for the wrong thing/size and looking stupid. And because of that I'm missing out on delicious (albeit stupidly named) combinations. When I got to Thai restaurants I only get the Pad Thai because I know I like it. It's safe. I haven't learned how to play the guitar yet because failing at it doesn't feel good. This fear of failure, looking stupid, tasting something weird keeps us from learning and experiencing stuff. Which keeps us from reaching our potential of being relevant and distinctive people shaped by combinations of skills, desires, tastes, theologies, etc. Let's all dabble a little this week. I'll pick up my guitar and try a mochalingo if you try something.

Inventionary

I need a venture capitalist to read this idea and give me money. What if there was a poster with paper thin speakers that allowed you to experience groups like this in all their glory. They could be scratch and sniff too. I'm thinking these dudes would smell like root beer floats and Stetson. Send me cash. We'll change the landscape of college dorm room decorating.

In The Wee Small Hours

So last night as Leah and I laid in bed we talked about things that lovers talk about. Our hopes/dreams. Our frustrations/anticipations. NKOTB. Just before I dozed off Leah said to our ceiling fan, "I wonder if they're nervous." You see, today is the New Kids big come back performance. In fact, as I type Leah is downstairs, magically transformed into a 13 year old, watching the Boys on one of the good morning shows. She's probably twittering her friends in phys. ed. telling them what they missed.

NKOTB. OMG. ITIMDISIL. (I think i might die i'm so in love)

They twitter back, TMBTBDOMEL (today might be the best day of my entire life) NJK (no joking)

Daydreamin'

This song will be in your head for the day and you will be blessed.

Fort Francis

Do kids still make forts? Is that a thing anymore? I like to wax nostalgic about the summer days my neighborhood crew and I spent creating elaborate encampments worthy of media coverage. The kind of forts Daniel Boone would swoon over. Wooden fortresses that could protect us from invasion or hold enemies hostage long enough for the enemy leaders to get us our demands (helicopters full of popsicles and fireworks). Two-story spy mansions with secret entrances and underground tunnels. We had a woods behind our house that was owned by a convent. There was a cabin that nuns retreated to from time to time for even deeper silence and refuge. We didn't know that. We thought it was a half-way house/cabin for escaped convicts. A prison was down the road so it made complete sense.

I remember one week where we broke into this cabin to use their tools to build our own cabin. We loved the convicts' cabin but we were scared of getting killed. We needed our own place. And tools. So we used their saws, machete, ax, etc. to cut down about eight medium sized trees. This actually happened. I'm not just waxin' fantasy. Long story short we got caught. The Father of the St. Francis convent (and part time Columbo) used his super sleuth skills to ruin everything. Three things happened in that moment.

ONE: We got into lots of trouble with our parents and learned that stealing from nuns is wrong.

TWO: The cabin lost its appeal when we found out it was for nun camp overs and not for runaway felons.

THREE: we had a bulletproof excuse for not finishing our perfectly planned cabin. Usually we had no excuse. We just stopped. The fort that was going to be completely underground ended up being a two foot deep hole. The double decker tree loft ended up being a tree with a few sheets of plywood nailed into it. As much as I like to remember all those sweet forts the truth is we never finished one. Ever. We started lots. Had great plans and great excitement. They just always ended up being hard work. The fun part was the brainstorming.

I haven't changed much since then. I still love the "what if" a lot more than the "what now?" Maybe I need to change. Maybe I need to get better at finishing stuff. Who knows. Or maybe I just need to find grown ups who used to run with neighborhood crews who actually completed forts. The kind of kids who graduated from cub scouts and stuck with piano/viola/drum/trumpet. Maybe I just need to surround myself with former and current over-achieving, viola-strumming, knot-tying nerds. Because lets be honest. Even if I make all these great plans to change into someone who finishes stuff with as much gusto as I start stuff, I know I'll lose my excitement after I buy the TrapperKeeper and other colorful organizational tools. There's probably still a circle of about eight tree stumps near a rustic nun-cabin that can vouch for that.

El Moustachio

A Collection of Cleverness

May it inspire you to create something clever today.

Apocalypse Now

If this photo is real we're all goners. Forget bird flu. This is the Kodiak Invasion. Bearkrieg. Devil Jockeys. Death Derby. Bearbiscuit. John Wayne's nightmare. Rodeo clowns.... of terror. My Little Bearcovered Pony.

Production Stills

I loaded the 40+ shots I took up on flickr. I didn't edit them or anything. Feeling pretty lazy this Sunday morning. But it's pretty cool (I think) to see Mark's set up. The guy is a true artist. Everyone involved with this project (except me) was a volunteer. Their only pay was the pervasive smell of body fluids stained into the walls and curtains. It's so humbling and energizing for me to work with talented people who volunteer their time and skills. Makes me want to write a song and get tons of famous people to sing it together with headphones and raise money and heal the world/make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race. Click here for the pics.