I find ... constantly ... that the most important bit of information needed to understand a concept or complete a task, or that one really necessary step in a process on the computer, was not listed nor mentioned by those writing or giving the instructions. It can be frustrating, but then, it's just like real life, isn't it? Sometimes the lack of that one thing is simply an oversight on the part of the instructor. Sometimes it is because they do that one thing so naturally it never occurs to them that for someone else struggling to learn this ... whatever it is ... that one little self-obvious step is instead something totally hidden in the fog of confusion and darkness.
But how many of the really important lessons of life can you learning by hearing someone talk? We seem to need the pain of failure, the disappointment of hopes and dreams, before we completely internalize and live by a lesson. Though why this should be true of computer program instructions I do not understand! Ah well, maybe I've not learned that lesson yet?
In this week's voice lesson, I had another major "A-ha!" moment. We are taking me ever higher in pitch, and as a tenor, that is where I need to learn to "live" vocally. Yet I have always felt pressure build up in my head as the pitch gets well up there, and it forces me to strain against it, to force the sound somewhere. But no forcing is allowed in vocal production, as tension always causes even more strain upon the listener than the singer! So, I've been working with trying various methods of avoiding the buildup of back-pressure in the head on higher pitches.
Along the way, of course, I made the most gorsh-awful squawks and squeaks. And what seemed to work, to be the answer, worried me. We've been working so hard at getting the sound out in front, and not swallowed inside me. But what seemed to work involved letting the resonance, the vibrating pulse of the sound, stay inside the center of my head, and go right up through the center of my head to my skull. It was just so wrong from everything I've been working on with Jackie and Kevin!
So, as we worked on scales and vowels into the passagio (passage into head-voice) and head voice (that bizarre area that isn't "regular" chest voice nor falsetto where tenors and sopranos go to get high), I talked of the process and findings I'd achieved, and noted my concerns that I'd been going down the wrong road. Yet as I was singing, she was very impressed with the reduction in tension and improvement in sound quality up high. And we spent some time there.
And then, she just sort of absent-mindedly noted that while the pitch resonance needed to go up through a pipe through the center of the head clear to the top of the skull (as I'd noted it felt it was doing), the vowel resonance (where in the head or mouth of the singer the vowel "feels" to be) needed to keep coming forward in (or even out front of) the mouth.
Whoa, we gotta stop and talk here!
All along, over all these years of singing in choirs and taking lessons, EVERYONE has always said the upper parts of the voice are produced quite similar to the lower parts, and should be as unified as possible. Now I'm being told that above a certain point, the pitch sensation goes one direction and the vowel another ... at a perpendicular angle, getting farther from each other as I go up. This is ... WRONG.
Isn't it?
Jackie sat there very quietly for a moment, and just looked at me while thinking through something with her hand over her mouth. No, she said after a long minute's thought, it isn't wrong, it is correct. The sensation of pitch resonance goes right up to the top of the head for tenors and sopranos ... as the vowel comes farther and farther forward. They start out very similar in "feel" but begin to diverge somewhere on the path to higher pitches.
And it was so natural for her that she had never thought of mentioning it. In fact, neither of us could think of ever hearing or seeing anyone talk about this. Which seems bizarre, as it is one of the MOST needed bits of understanding to gain access to a beautiful and easy sound while singing those high notes!
It was amazing, as we worked at adopting the mental and then the physical applications of this realization, how quickly I could sing my high scales, repeatably, and with vastly reduced tension. And at such altitude! We've worked up to the "tenor" high Bb before, though it was produced with enough tension to sound quite strained. We went to Bb, softened and lightened the vowels and got them forward, then to B, then to C. The tenor top "C". Stable, on command, and repeatable. Not at all "pretty" yet, but then, I was up there fairly easily, and now we can work on learning how to sing pretty up there over time.
So, how much of LIFE is like that? We struggle, we fight to gain an inch of progress, we feel stupid as we just can't find a way to do or be what seems so easy for others ... and then, we find that one little thing that isn't what we'd thought it must be. Suddenly, what was such a great struggle to get even close to doing is doable with only a reasonable bit of effort and attention. Soon, it will be a natural motion, an easy step, an effortless process.
And after a short period of enjoying the new-found ability, it starts all over again. Welcome to the world!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Heavy Duty Learning
It seems that life is now ... and perhaps, forevermore? ... to have a heavy-duty learning curve. A really heavy-duty learning curve! The past week I made no wonderful new photographs, nor even spent time post-processing images on the computer. Yet it was fast, furious, and exhausting.
For the past several years I've been learning about our Brave New World in the Digital Age, but it seemed more in the theoretical of how one speeds up things than the practical details. It has seemed there were always more details to work on. Now I'm getting a much better picture of how to vastly speed up the doing of what I do, in the particulars of actually doing it. And I am so relieved.
So much of the "instruction" or help (and that is not a good word to use around me right now ;) ) seems to consist of glorious statements of what all you can accomplish with this blog reader and that newsfeeder and this gizmo and that plug-in for Photoshop and that app for face-book. And my, you can make links to all kinds of people if you twitter!
Ok, so, what do I do next? I go to the next page on the help file ... and am told of other glorious things I can do with this gizmo, NOT ONCE do they actually say here's the step-by-step process! So, when we invoke the start-up procedure, we find easy-to-follow steps in clear English, right?
Naw, couldn't be so lucky. We find ... gibberish. Truncated statements. Oddly used or phrased verbiage. Options that don't seem to do anything, or if blindly chosen, do something very different than what it seems like the verbiage suggests. And a "help" system written by the same dolt who wrote the pages about all the glorious things you ... theoretically ... could do with the gizmo. If somebody actually would ever say how!
But this week, I actually have been able to read, view, and digest several highly informative instruction sets on ... DOING ... something! The details of how to accomplish what the software is designed to do! Amazing, how this little bit of real help turns one's outlook around. Just amazing.
So we are now in the implementation stage of delightful new tools and tasks. In ways that should both streamline my work and allow me to do more to and with my images and words than I have been, and in less time. Ta-Da!
For the past several years I've been learning about our Brave New World in the Digital Age, but it seemed more in the theoretical of how one speeds up things than the practical details. It has seemed there were always more details to work on. Now I'm getting a much better picture of how to vastly speed up the doing of what I do, in the particulars of actually doing it. And I am so relieved.
So much of the "instruction" or help (and that is not a good word to use around me right now ;) ) seems to consist of glorious statements of what all you can accomplish with this blog reader and that newsfeeder and this gizmo and that plug-in for Photoshop and that app for face-book. And my, you can make links to all kinds of people if you twitter!
Ok, so, what do I do next? I go to the next page on the help file ... and am told of other glorious things I can do with this gizmo, NOT ONCE do they actually say here's the step-by-step process! So, when we invoke the start-up procedure, we find easy-to-follow steps in clear English, right?
Naw, couldn't be so lucky. We find ... gibberish. Truncated statements. Oddly used or phrased verbiage. Options that don't seem to do anything, or if blindly chosen, do something very different than what it seems like the verbiage suggests. And a "help" system written by the same dolt who wrote the pages about all the glorious things you ... theoretically ... could do with the gizmo. If somebody actually would ever say how!
But this week, I actually have been able to read, view, and digest several highly informative instruction sets on ... DOING ... something! The details of how to accomplish what the software is designed to do! Amazing, how this little bit of real help turns one's outlook around. Just amazing.
So we are now in the implementation stage of delightful new tools and tasks. In ways that should both streamline my work and allow me to do more to and with my images and words than I have been, and in less time. Ta-Da!
Friday, March 13, 2009
What is truly "me"?
After reading what I'd written yesterday about the growth and discovery of one's self as a 50-something, it seemed to me that I should have begun with how we are supposed to answer the basic question, what is "me". What do we find when we get there, and how do we know we've actually arrived at the right place?
I'll use the mechanism or process of learning to use my own vocal instrument. Learning to sing. I've got a marvelous teacher for re-creating the use of the vocal mechanism, as that is what she says she does. Note, this isn't re-creating the mechanism itself. Most of her students come to her expecting that, which she states right up front is an impossibility. And it is in this journey to find the proper use of the mechanism, how it really works when freed of all our expectations, controls, and fears, that we learn what our voice is.
She works from the knowledge that each individual vocal instrument has it's own inherent capabilities and possibilities, and cannot be at it's best until it is firmly grounded within it's own nature. It probably can do far more than it's owner has any clue. But before we can get a clue, we have to know what the basic voice really is.
We have all heard many other voices, and heard many comments over the years about what is "good" singing and how to do it, and we try (without often realizing it) to mimic what we like in other voices and claim it as our own sound. All of these things really lead to problems when we then try to sing as we think we should. As she puts it, the brain knows how the body works and how to make any sound it is capable of, but the mind, with all these preconceptions about what singing should sound and feel like, gets in the way.
There are several cognitive problems in how we think of and perceive our own voice. First, no matter how another voice sounds to us, it WILL NOT feel or sound (to the singer making that sound) like we think it would. So if we mimic the way it "should" sound to our own ears or "should" feel in our own body, we make a very different sound instead of what we intended to. You see, a well-produced voice, especially as the pitch rises, starts to sound thin to the singer making the sound. A good sound to hear isn't big and grand inside the singer, but OUTSIDE, and if you make it sound big "inside" yourself, it is a muffled, mushy, and less pleasant sound for anyone listening to you.
Second, even if we could copy the outward, "heard" sound of another voice, that choice in and of itself locks a great deal of the unique parts and capabilities of our own voice out of possibility. It's a choice to be smaller and lesser than we could be, not greater. And besides, if all we are is a copy of someone else, why not just play them on an iphone?
And the very important third problem: We don't have a choice as to what our instrument is. Period! Any more than we can choose to be eight foot tall or jump the Alps in a single bound. The first task, in learning to sing properly, is to find out what our own instrument naturally is as we develop the fullest capabilities of that particular instrument. And through that process, we learn the choices that can wisely be made to utilize that instrument in ways that we would find worthwhile, interesting, and rewarding. And that perhaps, we can become passionate about doing.
So the first part of the journey ... and a continual companion along the way ... is an examination of all the tensions and bobbles and kinks in how *I* sing at this moment. All the extraneous "fluff" that isn't actually necessary or useful for making a clean, naturally-"me" sound. Puzzle out the source for each and every bobble, and then imagine the replacement habit or thought that is the appropriate practice or thought for your voice. Then practice incorporating it as you lose the previous glitch.
Guaranteed, you will make what (to you) are the weirdest sounds you've ever made. It will seem to you to be the most gawdafful caterwauling you've ever done. And it will take time to come to grips with the new sounds as really "your" sound. Also guaranteed, you'll be sure NO ONE would ever want to hear this awful new muck you are producing as "singing".
The weirdest part of the whole thing? Most everyone around you will start telling you that your sound, your voice, is clearer, more open, and vastly more interesting than it ever has been. It's more "you" than you've ever been before to everyone around you. And ... your new voice can stand up and do tricks for you that your old voice could never even try. It becomes ... more ... fun ... and it leads you to places that will surprise but delight you.
And this is different from learning to really be yourself as a human ... how? It was quite a revelation to me to find that the most amazing and useful training on how to become a more complete and unique human was what I learned from my voice teacher!
Jackie Dickey, and hubbie and fellow trainer Kevin Skiles, thank you!
I'll use the mechanism or process of learning to use my own vocal instrument. Learning to sing. I've got a marvelous teacher for re-creating the use of the vocal mechanism, as that is what she says she does. Note, this isn't re-creating the mechanism itself. Most of her students come to her expecting that, which she states right up front is an impossibility. And it is in this journey to find the proper use of the mechanism, how it really works when freed of all our expectations, controls, and fears, that we learn what our voice is.
She works from the knowledge that each individual vocal instrument has it's own inherent capabilities and possibilities, and cannot be at it's best until it is firmly grounded within it's own nature. It probably can do far more than it's owner has any clue. But before we can get a clue, we have to know what the basic voice really is.
We have all heard many other voices, and heard many comments over the years about what is "good" singing and how to do it, and we try (without often realizing it) to mimic what we like in other voices and claim it as our own sound. All of these things really lead to problems when we then try to sing as we think we should. As she puts it, the brain knows how the body works and how to make any sound it is capable of, but the mind, with all these preconceptions about what singing should sound and feel like, gets in the way.
There are several cognitive problems in how we think of and perceive our own voice. First, no matter how another voice sounds to us, it WILL NOT feel or sound (to the singer making that sound) like we think it would. So if we mimic the way it "should" sound to our own ears or "should" feel in our own body, we make a very different sound instead of what we intended to. You see, a well-produced voice, especially as the pitch rises, starts to sound thin to the singer making the sound. A good sound to hear isn't big and grand inside the singer, but OUTSIDE, and if you make it sound big "inside" yourself, it is a muffled, mushy, and less pleasant sound for anyone listening to you.
Second, even if we could copy the outward, "heard" sound of another voice, that choice in and of itself locks a great deal of the unique parts and capabilities of our own voice out of possibility. It's a choice to be smaller and lesser than we could be, not greater. And besides, if all we are is a copy of someone else, why not just play them on an iphone?
And the very important third problem: We don't have a choice as to what our instrument is. Period! Any more than we can choose to be eight foot tall or jump the Alps in a single bound. The first task, in learning to sing properly, is to find out what our own instrument naturally is as we develop the fullest capabilities of that particular instrument. And through that process, we learn the choices that can wisely be made to utilize that instrument in ways that we would find worthwhile, interesting, and rewarding. And that perhaps, we can become passionate about doing.
So the first part of the journey ... and a continual companion along the way ... is an examination of all the tensions and bobbles and kinks in how *I* sing at this moment. All the extraneous "fluff" that isn't actually necessary or useful for making a clean, naturally-"me" sound. Puzzle out the source for each and every bobble, and then imagine the replacement habit or thought that is the appropriate practice or thought for your voice. Then practice incorporating it as you lose the previous glitch.
Guaranteed, you will make what (to you) are the weirdest sounds you've ever made. It will seem to you to be the most gawdafful caterwauling you've ever done. And it will take time to come to grips with the new sounds as really "your" sound. Also guaranteed, you'll be sure NO ONE would ever want to hear this awful new muck you are producing as "singing".
The weirdest part of the whole thing? Most everyone around you will start telling you that your sound, your voice, is clearer, more open, and vastly more interesting than it ever has been. It's more "you" than you've ever been before to everyone around you. And ... your new voice can stand up and do tricks for you that your old voice could never even try. It becomes ... more ... fun ... and it leads you to places that will surprise but delight you.
And this is different from learning to really be yourself as a human ... how? It was quite a revelation to me to find that the most amazing and useful training on how to become a more complete and unique human was what I learned from my voice teacher!
Jackie Dickey, and hubbie and fellow trainer Kevin Skiles, thank you!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
How do we become ourselves?
Apparently, a great deal of hitting our 50's is about becoming truly ourselves. Up until then, we are so busy with doing things and charging forward, we don't really stop to wonder what's next until then. Any kids that we've "lived" for, looked after, and built our lives around head off on their own ... and leave us with more time spent by and on ourselves. But even if we don't have children, we've still been doing the hard-charging thing. Somehow, we start to ponder this vacant space in our life of routines.
And then, this new thought starts lying around the corners of the mind: I'm not (somehow) who and what I have thought of myself as ... what's wrong with me or my life? Soon it is joined by thoughts about why the work we've felt so important isn't as far along or as important as we'd hoped it would be by now. Or even if it is, why it is suddenly lacking the call to drive our hearts anymore, as past accomplishments lose much of their importance. What has been important, judged by what we've spent our hearts and time on, steadily loses luster. The rules and expectations of others that we've accepted and lived by seem to make less sense.
The judgments that we've placed upon ourselves, for whatever reason, chafe and bind and seem to hurt our hearts and souls. How could we have lived this long and have done so little, become so ... little. We look at others and see substance, and inside and see emptiness.
It's all part of life, from all I can see it's almost a programming thing built in to human existence. And it is, in reality, wonderfully useful! It's how we finally come to grips with our own selves, and get to like and even ... enjoy being ourselves! Not that it is a fun process, mind you, but the end result is so worth the difficulties of the journey.
It's also a time for coming to grips with our parents, and even their parents. As I've talked of these things with others, it is interesting how many had wonderful grandparents who, they now realize, were a much nicer as a grandparent than as a parent. I think a necessary component of this part of our growth as an adult is to allow our ancestral family members to be human. Flawed. Vastly imperfect. And finally, at peace within our own hearts.
I've come to believe that if we cannot give our ancestral family their own separate places of peace, we cannot find any for our own selves. We cannot forgive our own hearts unless we can set aside the turmoils and troubles of those we have held dear, or perhaps, dearly needed to hold dear but couldn't no matter how hard we tried. Those whose own troubles have troubled us.
There may be things we seem to need to understand about our past and the past of our progenitors ... why is of course, such a large part of our concerns and thoughts. But as we walk along this path, at some point, we need to allow the flawed humans that shaped us their separate peace, laugh with their memories, cry a bit, and from and within it all learn to give our own foibles a place of peace.
And in that place of peace, we find ourselves. Really for the first time, not as we have thought and seemed and hoped and dreamed, but as we are. More potent than we have feared, not as shining as we had hoped, but still, a useful and interestingly very unique human of worth.
A new person, who finds life to be worth the passions needed to live it fully, "just because". Who knows how to laugh, more importantly, what to laugh about, and most importantly, finds their own life a delightful puzzle to solve by the simple and even naive pursuit of it.
It is strange, but that is really the part I think we need to re-acquire, naivety. Not out of inexperience, but from great experience. In fact, the best kind of naivety only comes from great experience! And in that naivety we gain joy, peace, and a rekindled passion for what really interests our hearts in the life of the world around us.
We learn to let go and live.
And then, this new thought starts lying around the corners of the mind: I'm not (somehow) who and what I have thought of myself as ... what's wrong with me or my life? Soon it is joined by thoughts about why the work we've felt so important isn't as far along or as important as we'd hoped it would be by now. Or even if it is, why it is suddenly lacking the call to drive our hearts anymore, as past accomplishments lose much of their importance. What has been important, judged by what we've spent our hearts and time on, steadily loses luster. The rules and expectations of others that we've accepted and lived by seem to make less sense.
The judgments that we've placed upon ourselves, for whatever reason, chafe and bind and seem to hurt our hearts and souls. How could we have lived this long and have done so little, become so ... little. We look at others and see substance, and inside and see emptiness.
It's all part of life, from all I can see it's almost a programming thing built in to human existence. And it is, in reality, wonderfully useful! It's how we finally come to grips with our own selves, and get to like and even ... enjoy being ourselves! Not that it is a fun process, mind you, but the end result is so worth the difficulties of the journey.
It's also a time for coming to grips with our parents, and even their parents. As I've talked of these things with others, it is interesting how many had wonderful grandparents who, they now realize, were a much nicer as a grandparent than as a parent. I think a necessary component of this part of our growth as an adult is to allow our ancestral family members to be human. Flawed. Vastly imperfect. And finally, at peace within our own hearts.
I've come to believe that if we cannot give our ancestral family their own separate places of peace, we cannot find any for our own selves. We cannot forgive our own hearts unless we can set aside the turmoils and troubles of those we have held dear, or perhaps, dearly needed to hold dear but couldn't no matter how hard we tried. Those whose own troubles have troubled us.
There may be things we seem to need to understand about our past and the past of our progenitors ... why is of course, such a large part of our concerns and thoughts. But as we walk along this path, at some point, we need to allow the flawed humans that shaped us their separate peace, laugh with their memories, cry a bit, and from and within it all learn to give our own foibles a place of peace.
And in that place of peace, we find ourselves. Really for the first time, not as we have thought and seemed and hoped and dreamed, but as we are. More potent than we have feared, not as shining as we had hoped, but still, a useful and interestingly very unique human of worth.
A new person, who finds life to be worth the passions needed to live it fully, "just because". Who knows how to laugh, more importantly, what to laugh about, and most importantly, finds their own life a delightful puzzle to solve by the simple and even naive pursuit of it.
It is strange, but that is really the part I think we need to re-acquire, naivety. Not out of inexperience, but from great experience. In fact, the best kind of naivety only comes from great experience! And in that naivety we gain joy, peace, and a rekindled passion for what really interests our hearts in the life of the world around us.
We learn to let go and live.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The lives of the created ...
Somehow, our creations often have lives of their own. Authors talk of this when they talk shop, how they fight with their characters time and time again. I think most of the time, the characters have the best interest of the story in mind, but that is not always apparent to the author, and so can be amazingly irritating. Fighting with characters who only live in your own mind, think about that ... just who do they think they are, anyway?
Of course, not all characters in stories play nice with their authors. In fact, I've wondered if that isn't the reason some characters get such spectacular endings to their personal tale! Still, I think it oft unwise to take your creator's angst out upon a poor character ... or, for a photographer, to forget to "finish" an image that just didn't quite somehow make it up to what we thought we saw at the moment of creation.
I had such a moment yesterday, when an image I'd originally created several months back just ... stopped me. I hadn't been thinking or stewing over it, and it was from a session with many standout images. There was no reason to even think about that image any more. Still, there was something about the image that gave me a feeling when going through that session looking for other images, that I'd not ... finished it right, somehow. It needed work. It could be so much more, it could be something if only I completed it.
And now, I have. What was there in this image was what was there all along, what somehow I think my eyes and brain could see from the moment I captured it. My mind apparently couldn't grasp the essential part because of attention to what were, in the end, extraneous details.
When I finally eliminated the non-essential and therefore extraneous details, a clear and interesting image appeared with an obvious "treatment" that it needed. And though it is wonderful to see it now, completed and at rest, I feel very silly I couldn't see this all along.
The block of stone needed to have the extraneous stone removed to become the statue it could be. The writer needed to find why her characters were unhappy. And I needed to find the essential elements of that image. In all three examples, there is a certain ... something, I'll call it life ... native to the created. And the creator needs to be attuned to what his creations ask of him in order to achieve the completed work.
Even a creator is wise not to dictate! I am grateful for having found the needs of that image. It is one of my favorites right now. And I am also grateful that, unlike for the author of written stories, my images don't actually argue with me inside my own head!
Friday, March 6, 2009
It's a Beautiful Day
It really is a beautiful day outside, today. Sunny with some fleecy clouds, temperatures in the upper 50's (f.), with only a slight breeze. The next couple days are supposed to get cloudy and colder with a possibility of snow! Changes can occur so fast this time of year.
The one constant thread in my "thinking" life is that I must learn faster. There is so much I need to learn well enough to use to advance my career as an artist and teacher. There are so many unanswered questions every where I turn for information. There is great discourse as to the programs and habits I need to learn!
Still, I love finding new things and place and people to grow by. This has become my current addiction. Not, overall, a bad thing, perhaps?
The one constant thread in my "thinking" life is that I must learn faster. There is so much I need to learn well enough to use to advance my career as an artist and teacher. There are so many unanswered questions every where I turn for information. There is great discourse as to the programs and habits I need to learn!
Still, I love finding new things and place and people to grow by. This has become my current addiction. Not, overall, a bad thing, perhaps?
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Brave New Marketing
The brave new marketing is Facebook, Twitter, and the whole gamut of social-networking. Rod Evans, a photographer who is both a wonderful artist and good at social-networking (hereinafter referred to as S-N), has a very good audio interview out on the subject. You can find it at "Behind the Camera Talk" ( http://www.behindthecameratalk.com/?p=52 ). In the 10 or 15 minutes of this audio interview, he explains both what this (S-N) is, and how it currently works, better than any other explanation I've seen.
He notes to begin with, that this is based on how we as humans meet and mix at light social functions, like parties. If you go to a party, step up on the sofa, and say, "Will everyone here please be my friend" they're going to think you are weird and avoid you. But if you just play it cool as you would in real life, you can make a number of friends by say, offering to take them out for a drink after making their acquaintance and getting a pleasant exchange of light conversation going. And he goes on to explain the way that you use your product within this milieau, instead of a drink, to please folks and gain acceptance and a growing circle of "friends".
It explains to me exactly what is happening in the pages of the people who are VERY successful at this brave new world of S-N, and why I don't have a clue how to fit into their "conversations". As the fitting father of two children somewhere on the Aspergers/Autism spectrum, though not far enough out on the spectrum to be noticeable myself, I do not "get" light party-type conversation. It seems aimless, pointless, and mentally scattered to me. A riddle I've never understood, and a jungle in which I am utterly lost.
This is the kind of talk that to my brain sounds like: "Loved the blue sky today | yea but I forgot my shades | didn't hardly see the car ahead of me | you never see anything anyway | Jonah's got a lousy cell | my texting was over-limit last month | my neighbors' built a new wall and it's UGLY | the new one in front of the place on 15th is cool | I can't believe the new Bachelor is that snarky | I wish I could go to see the Druids play on the 27th ...".
I have never been able to fit into those conversations with any degree of aplomb. In fact, a high degree of dabomb is more like it. This type of conversation twists and turns and never seems connected to any thought pattern and never ... gets anywhere. What is the purpose? What does it do? And why is anything anyone says in this conversation of interest to anyone else in the conversation? Most of the time, they don't even seem (to me) to be paying attention to anyone else's comments.
These flowing, burbling, rocky, twisty streams of words clearly are interesting to those "normal" folk who get it. Why is it so interesting for some people to note on their Facebook or Twitter that they are stuck in traffic? Why is someone's poorly-worded chocolate craving post a matter for 20 follow-up posts by howling others?
Intellectually I do know what is different my comments. There is some kind of rule-set, some pattern to the patter, some vague pathway that others sense and fit their words into. I am totally blind to this ... whatever it is ... and so, I'm never on the same path as those around me.
This brave new marketing world is rather depressing for someone coming from my vantage point. The straight marketing of a superior product through all the "old" marketing tools is passe. It is now the marketing of the hip/cool/haughty/whatever-is-hot persona that scores. Yet how does someone like me compete in this marketplace? I'm not the only one in this wilderness, and there have to be ways for "us" to win too.
I, like James Tiberius Kirk of Star Trek fame, do not believe in the no-win scenario! But this has me stumped. I'm having a great deal of trouble figuring this one out. I am very open for answers out there in the great beyond. Help, anyone?
He notes to begin with, that this is based on how we as humans meet and mix at light social functions, like parties. If you go to a party, step up on the sofa, and say, "Will everyone here please be my friend" they're going to think you are weird and avoid you. But if you just play it cool as you would in real life, you can make a number of friends by say, offering to take them out for a drink after making their acquaintance and getting a pleasant exchange of light conversation going. And he goes on to explain the way that you use your product within this milieau, instead of a drink, to please folks and gain acceptance and a growing circle of "friends".
It explains to me exactly what is happening in the pages of the people who are VERY successful at this brave new world of S-N, and why I don't have a clue how to fit into their "conversations". As the fitting father of two children somewhere on the Aspergers/Autism spectrum, though not far enough out on the spectrum to be noticeable myself, I do not "get" light party-type conversation. It seems aimless, pointless, and mentally scattered to me. A riddle I've never understood, and a jungle in which I am utterly lost.
This is the kind of talk that to my brain sounds like: "Loved the blue sky today | yea but I forgot my shades | didn't hardly see the car ahead of me | you never see anything anyway | Jonah's got a lousy cell | my texting was over-limit last month | my neighbors' built a new wall and it's UGLY | the new one in front of the place on 15th is cool | I can't believe the new Bachelor is that snarky | I wish I could go to see the Druids play on the 27th ...".
I have never been able to fit into those conversations with any degree of aplomb. In fact, a high degree of dabomb is more like it. This type of conversation twists and turns and never seems connected to any thought pattern and never ... gets anywhere. What is the purpose? What does it do? And why is anything anyone says in this conversation of interest to anyone else in the conversation? Most of the time, they don't even seem (to me) to be paying attention to anyone else's comments.
These flowing, burbling, rocky, twisty streams of words clearly are interesting to those "normal" folk who get it. Why is it so interesting for some people to note on their Facebook or Twitter that they are stuck in traffic? Why is someone's poorly-worded chocolate craving post a matter for 20 follow-up posts by howling others?
Intellectually I do know what is different my comments. There is some kind of rule-set, some pattern to the patter, some vague pathway that others sense and fit their words into. I am totally blind to this ... whatever it is ... and so, I'm never on the same path as those around me.
This brave new marketing world is rather depressing for someone coming from my vantage point. The straight marketing of a superior product through all the "old" marketing tools is passe. It is now the marketing of the hip/cool/haughty/whatever-is-hot persona that scores. Yet how does someone like me compete in this marketplace? I'm not the only one in this wilderness, and there have to be ways for "us" to win too.
I, like James Tiberius Kirk of Star Trek fame, do not believe in the no-win scenario! But this has me stumped. I'm having a great deal of trouble figuring this one out. I am very open for answers out there in the great beyond. Help, anyone?
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
A little delay
I'd hoped for the head cold to let up, so that I could get back to all the work on the grounds of our home. Meditative time with a chainsaw, trying to get as much wood off the lawns as possible as the grass is already starting to grow.
A little delay is dictated to me by the vicissitudes of the cold. Ah well, I'll write instead. Or go pick up my "little" one, our youngest son, who may be sick so the school secretary just called for me to pick him up. Maybe we can suffer together? Ah well.
Still, even if it is too bright out there for my eyes to enjoy the sight, thanks to sinuses that are not happy at the moment, I still know the sight out there is beautiful. Whether or not I can see it this moment is irrelevant, it is beautiful out there.
Hold to the beauty of all that is around you, and I'll try to get past this cold. Into the future we shall go together!
A little delay is dictated to me by the vicissitudes of the cold. Ah well, I'll write instead. Or go pick up my "little" one, our youngest son, who may be sick so the school secretary just called for me to pick him up. Maybe we can suffer together? Ah well.
Still, even if it is too bright out there for my eyes to enjoy the sight, thanks to sinuses that are not happy at the moment, I still know the sight out there is beautiful. Whether or not I can see it this moment is irrelevant, it is beautiful out there.
Hold to the beauty of all that is around you, and I'll try to get past this cold. Into the future we shall go together!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
I keep trying!
Yes, I keep trying to figure out and apply all the newfangled widgets, and I think I'm actually getting someplace. As in linking this blog to my facebook personal and artist pages so that it automatically appears there. And I need to link facebook to my other blog here and my blog on MyPhotoMentor.com also.
I'm think I'm supposed to be twittering for MPM right now, and after I finish writing this I'll check the schedule laid out for me. If so, I'll have my first go at twittering. It is fascinating to learn how to communicate with these tools as a way of learning and of growing.
Still, it seems that my life in the "Wilderness of Ethereal Boundlessness" (better know by it's acronym, the "web")is still a bit ... disconnected ... from itself at times. I look forward to learning how to integrate all this more smoothly than I do now. And through all this, I work at keeping focused on my life as an artist and teacher/mentor, besides husband/father/woodcutter extraordinaire.
And speaking of woodcutting, if this cold I've got lets up a bit I'll probably be back out with the chainsaw in the morning. I've still got several acres of lawn covered with the massive limbs and brushwood that fell during the ice-storm back in December. I do enjoy my time working on the property, it is almost a meditative act for me. Maybe I'll do a bit of pruning on another fruit tree too. There are always options, aren't there?
I'm think I'm supposed to be twittering for MPM right now, and after I finish writing this I'll check the schedule laid out for me. If so, I'll have my first go at twittering. It is fascinating to learn how to communicate with these tools as a way of learning and of growing.
Still, it seems that my life in the "Wilderness of Ethereal Boundlessness" (better know by it's acronym, the "web")is still a bit ... disconnected ... from itself at times. I look forward to learning how to integrate all this more smoothly than I do now. And through all this, I work at keeping focused on my life as an artist and teacher/mentor, besides husband/father/woodcutter extraordinaire.
And speaking of woodcutting, if this cold I've got lets up a bit I'll probably be back out with the chainsaw in the morning. I've still got several acres of lawn covered with the massive limbs and brushwood that fell during the ice-storm back in December. I do enjoy my time working on the property, it is almost a meditative act for me. Maybe I'll do a bit of pruning on another fruit tree too. There are always options, aren't there?
"Where" doesn't matter anymore ...
Or so it seems. Does it matter if I type this in on a computer at home or the office I have somewhere else? Or on someone else's machine or even (with a higher-cost cell service I haven't chose to pay for yet) from my phone? What you see "here" is the same, either way.
It's just me, you see, isn't it? Where doesn't matter hardly at all these days. In fact, "where" only comes in to the story when I post photographs for you to see that show a particular location. And rarely, do the photographs even indicate a specific place.
Remember how news accounts used to always start with a byline of the name of the correspondent and the location it was filed from? It gave credibility to the account ... if the reporter was writing about something happening in the Transvaal and filed it from Boring, Oregon (which really DOES exist!), what credibility would he have had? When you read new articles now (well, if you do), do you ever even notice the byline, the "where"? I realized sometime ago I had stopped looking at those from major news outlets. I asked a couple people in a coffeehouse if they checked the bylines ... and they were puzzled ... I had to point to the byline and explain what it was to them.
Clearly, my little sampling of two coffeehouse paper readers had never looked at a byline. And I'm writing this from home on account of my body not quite rejecting this stupid cold as I would have preferred. The location, the "where", of the cold, now ... that MATTERS!
And that you are "here" reading this, that matters too. Your being "here" is everything!
Thank you!
It's just me, you see, isn't it? Where doesn't matter hardly at all these days. In fact, "where" only comes in to the story when I post photographs for you to see that show a particular location. And rarely, do the photographs even indicate a specific place.
Remember how news accounts used to always start with a byline of the name of the correspondent and the location it was filed from? It gave credibility to the account ... if the reporter was writing about something happening in the Transvaal and filed it from Boring, Oregon (which really DOES exist!), what credibility would he have had? When you read new articles now (well, if you do), do you ever even notice the byline, the "where"? I realized sometime ago I had stopped looking at those from major news outlets. I asked a couple people in a coffeehouse if they checked the bylines ... and they were puzzled ... I had to point to the byline and explain what it was to them.
Clearly, my little sampling of two coffeehouse paper readers had never looked at a byline. And I'm writing this from home on account of my body not quite rejecting this stupid cold as I would have preferred. The location, the "where", of the cold, now ... that MATTERS!
And that you are "here" reading this, that matters too. Your being "here" is everything!
Thank you!
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Age of Now
In all the years I've been a professional artist, I've never spent so much time in front of a computer as I do now. Is this trend going to continue on a continually expanding basis? If so, in another couple months, I'll have to sleep while working the computer!
And yet, this is the way we keep in touch with our fellow humans today. Blogs. Twitter. Facebook. Text and multi-media messages through cell phones. Email. Does your RSS feed your twitter off your facebook? or is it the other way around?
To give some personal satisfaction, I've been taking voice lessons and have a competition coming up that I'll sing in. The Oregon National Association of Teachers of Singing Classical Auditions. The organization of course is normally known by its acronym, NATS. And the rules and entry forms are all on the website, download the appropriate pdf file.
Ah, but the singing is still live, person to person. It's thrilling and terrifying and a steep learning curve and I love it. But even there, there are some intriguing differences from what you would think.
The singing you learn to do by feel rather than sound, as you work through how it sounds with an "external" set of ears, your teacher. And as all performance singing involves presenting the meaning of the text, it is acting. And what is a major key in learning to act, to involve the emotions of those who watch? You go internal, into a sort of la-la-land you create around the story of the text, and make the audience disappear from your head!
So, the singing is done by feel, and the emotive acting is done by shutting out all external physical sensors, including awareness of the audience you are trying to move. And professional artists spend most of their time communicating through computers.
Nothing is as it seems, I think!
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