Category Archives: creativity
A Peek Inside My Office If You Dare…
Where the magic happens. (If by "magic" you mean "endless facebooking."
I’d love to tell you that the reason I’m sharing this little tour of my home office is because I was simply inspired to do so by its sheer beauty, its gorgeousness and its wondrous ability to lift me up where I belong…but the truth is, I finally pulled my finger out today and shovelled about a gazillion bits of un-filed paper into other unknown crevices in an attempt to make it look at least semi-decent. And as Fiona O’Loughlin herself says, “there’s no point to doing anything without an audience”! So the moment I had mopped my brow from such complete and utter cleaning-exhaustion, I put finger to i-phone and documented the shizz out of it.
Because if I’m totally honest, heaven knows when or indeed if it will ever look this way again.
A few bits and pieces I'm reading right now.
I swear I didn’t line these up specifically to show you; they are quite truly what are on my desk at the mo. I’m about halfway through “Dear Fatty” which I’m enjoying very much and connecting with in more ways than one (see my previous post on this here).
My PRECIOUS.
This is my prize and joy (yes, that’s right, I said PRIZE!) I ripped the original poster off a pole in Saskatchewan, Canada, where I had spent the entire day driving across the state 7 months pregnant, with two small children in the back of the car, just to seize my once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the man himself live. When he walked out onstage, I almost wept. What a masterclass in comedy that was. I should write an entire post just on that gig. Note to self: add to to-do list.
The clutter corner! At least it's colourful.
My philosophy on interior design? If it’s gonna be messy, at least make it a mess of pretty things.
My magnetic noticeboard. I'm just proud that after months of having it sit on my floor, I finally pulled my finger out to hang it!
I originally bought this from Ikea thinking I would stack it with to-do lists (one of which is actually up there; if you look closely you’ll see my daughter has thoughtfully ticked off every time and then written DONE down the bottom, despite me having not even read through the thing since it was put up), but instead it’s just become a bit of a rotating arty board, filled with magnets from my travels, photos and works of awesome from my kidlets.
And I love it umpteen times more than even the most inspired to-do list in the world.
Postcard from Adelaide!
Spotted at the ridiculously groovy BOHO in Adelaide!
In short:
- I am blogging about all things Cabaret Summer School over here this week if you care to play along!
- I am missing the kids terribly. Luckily I am nearly halfway through the trip already, meaning I am nearly officially “on my way back towards them.” I could write at length about coping with missing them when we are apart, but suffice to say that I do my utmost to have a bloody brilliant time when I’m away so that the separation is worth it. If I’m Little Miss Misery Guts, then it really is a waste. I am throwing everything I’ve got into learning, writing, creating and…blogging!
- tonight I went out for a wonderful working dinner with the force of awesome that is Sheridan Stewart. Sheridan hosts Titters: An Award Winning LineUp of Funny Women (in which I shall be performing, as well as ‘An Unexpected Variety Show’ at Adelaide Fringe this year) and is just a rocking ball of energy and inspiration. I feel so fired up an excited about the upcoming festival season and following our chats tonight, am pumped full of ideas (some of which are pretty out there and nutty, just the way I like em!) of how to spread the word about my little old show. Looking forward to sharing with you as the action unfolds!
Take care darling peeps, wishing you much razzle, dazzle and all that jazz.*
*Cabaret reference probably intended.
xox
2012 Mission: Dance Every Day For A Year
I have challenged myself this year in a very spontaneous fashion (meaning that the resolution gave birth the moment I actually sprang into action doing it on January 1st) to dance EVERY SINGLE DAY in 2012.
It doesn’t matter if it’s one song or one entire night.
But I am gonna dance, damn it.
Why?
Today I even jumped onto iTunes (thanks to my wonderful hubby who gifted me with a nice juicy voucher for Christmas) and downloaded some of my favourite ever dance tracks, the majority of which involve some element of 80′s cheese.
I am armed.
I am dangerous.
I am DANCE.
Breaking the Bad Habit of Setting the Bar Too High.
Image courtesy of Parada Creations. I am pretty much in love with her entire catalogue.
Before you read on, know upfront that I have no answers to how to address the problem mentioned in this title. I only have questions. I welcome suggestions.
This was all triggered by me putting together a “Year in Review” post – inspired in no small part by a 2010 post by the fabooshy Tess Waters – and already it’s been quite revelatory. And self-indulgent. And back to revelatory.
Reading all that has happened in 2011 according to this here blog has made me feel quite chuffed, disappointed, proud and…exhausted.
Why, oh why, do I insist on setting the bar so freaking high? Or rather, why must I insist on having multiple bars?
Here’s the thing: in the past six months I’ve finally done something which I’ve never done before. I focused on ONE project, that being “The Unexpected Variety Show.” I put everything I had into it and am now seeing the benefits of doing that. Things are happening. It’s gaining momentum. I owe this in a huge way to my sister-in-law Liz, who had a little intervention with me mid-year, kindly urging me to stop trying to kick a billion goals and instead just focus on one, to see where that might lead.
And she was right.
But now I find myself drawn to other ideas again, other projects that excite and inspire…great problem to have, but not great for my nervous system or my family’s chances of having a calm and content Mama in the house.
Plus, I feel like more than anything, I want to get better at just enjoying my life. Not just the moments of career milestones, but enjoying the simple things in each day. I want to savour making gluten free pancakes, to be content in tickling my kids til they cry, to relishing listening to Billie Holiday while sipping Moscato in a scented bath.
All of these I do currently, but I seem to never be able to enjoy without my mind ruining it by wandering to my endless to-do list and then beating myself up about not cracking through it as quickly as I want to.
How does one be content?
Anyone? Anyone?
Crickets? I will even take advice from you, my six-legged silence-fillers.
P.S. This Year in Review post is coming soon. Brace yourself. I am.
Links of the Week: (Or, “WHAT? You mean there’s more to Cyberspace than ME?!”)
The hubbster and I.
How to even begin to communicate the whirlwind of things inspiring me of late. It’s so crazy, my head is full of so many plans, ideas, possibilities, adventures, lists and logistics, I’m literally having trouble getting to sleep. EVER.
Anyhoo…I shall possibly wax lyrical about some of the following during the coming weeks, but for now I just wanted to share some of the bits and bobs that are rocking my socks, leg warmers and other bits of 80′s clothing of late:
Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter behind such beautiful films as “Adaptation” (one of my all-time favourites), gave this rather mind-blowing speech recently at a BAFTA screenwriter’s lecture. So much to say on this…
Note: I already shared the above on my official Facebook page, but it’s just too good not to smear it around the internet like jam on a pancake.
Apparently Michelle Williams nearly quit acting.
Oh dear heavens, do watch this video. I wanna see the movie!
Oh how I dream of travelling around in a fried up Kombi. And having a man in India handing me a Vegemite sandwich. (If you got that, we are officially friends.)
A piece by Seth Godin on being the best, that I’ve been reflecting on a lot since I first read it. I particularly dig this:
What we can become the best at is being an idiosyncratic exception to the standard. Joshua Bell is often mentioned (when violinists are mentioned at all) not because he is technically better than every other violinst, but because of his charisma and willingness to cross categories. He’s the best in the world at being Josh Bell, not the best in the world at playing the violin.
The ever-wonderful Rachel Hills on Britney and the pain of being pretty. I remember reading that Britney did 1000 sit-ups a day too. I don’t care how freaking fantastic I look, nothing’s getting me over the 100 a day mark. Oh, fine, alright…at this point nothing’s getting me past 1 a day.
Gala Darling goes to one of NYC’s Creative Mornings: aaaaagggghhh! My coolness barometer just exploded. I want one! Can I make it happen in Caboolture? Hmmm….
The Musical Equivalent of a Writers’ Group
My sister Ang is a musician (an AMAZING singer) and as of the past couple of years, a fellow mama. These days we make an effort to hang out at least once a week with our little bubs in tow, hers being a little more little than mine.
This week, however, we did something we should have done eons ago.
Upon spying a library book hanging out at my piano – as our household library books tend to do, for some reason – called “1000 Songwriting Ideas”, Ang picked it up and started reading out some of the prompts. Between managing toddler meltdowns, baby feeds and dirty dishes, we proceeded to brainstorm, laugh and come up with ideas for songs we could each develop from there. Specifically, we put PEN TO PAPER…and came up with the idea of the musical equivalent to a writers’ group. That is to say, each week when we meet up, we need to set ourselves a goal to achieve for the following week, and present it to each other, to keep each other accountable, at the following “meeting.”
My beautiful sista.
I’m so excited about this, as Ang really is one of my muses in this life. I have spent the better portion of my years trying to make her laugh, you see. She gets me. She is my ideal audience member. So to know that each week I’ve got her to entertain, is a great carrot to haul me off my butt and towards my goal of coming up with a stream of new comedy songs in time for Woodford Folk Fest in December.
Plus…I write much better stuff when I actually have an audience to perform it immediately to. I’m a ham like that. So lazy in rehearsals. I really need to have somebody there to entertain, even if it’s just in a workshop setting, even if it’s just ONE person, like in our writers’ group, I need that part of the equation to motivate me.
So here’s to more sisterly time with the added bonus of some creative stuff a-happening as a by-product.
As well as cute photos of our respective little’uns hanging out.
My Ella with Ang's Bonnie. Awwwwwww!
Doing Stuff You Love Even When It Hurts
*Image courtesy of TerraBlueArt
I am in the midst of an epic transition at the moment, specifically in terms of looking after my health.
Have you ever gotten to that point where you’ve just thought: “ENOUGH?!” Well, this week, I have.
I have FINALLY pulled my finger out and gone to see a naturopath, and her advice thus far is exactly what the…well, naturopath, ordered.
It was pretty freaking amazing. When she did her iridology thang and told me she could see from my iris alone that:
- I am a perfectionist.
- I beat myself up when I don’t get to where I want to be quickly enough.
- I have scarring on my left lung (yes, from pneumonia on my left lung when I was 15!)
- my thyroid is having issues (though I did know that already).
…and much, much more.
It was so accurate that my eyes nearly popped out of my head, but then luckily they thought better of it, given that at the time she was sticking a bright light into them.
Anyway, point is: I am impressed and willing to obey.
I am hoping this will lift me from the fogginess, the fatigue and the damn pain!
I haven’t written much on this at all here, but post car-crash, my back is just damn awful. I hate sounding like a grandparent, but there it is. While I was in Melbourne for the Fringe Fest, a journalist asked me in an interview why I keep performing when it hurts so badly. What a great question. I told her: “Because I love it. Because it’s fun. And because without it, I would be deeply, deeply depressed.”
Then I popped more Nurofen.
The first Comic Mummy DIY: Cape Up Your Batman!
Your materials.
I do love me a good DIY. Oh, if I had a penny for every DIY I’ve ever read (and never actually completed) I would have me enough pennies to think about making a damn fine penny-mosaic.
As such, I thought it high time I brought a little DIY magic onboard club Comic Mummy. This one’s a little bit of awesome I cracked out the other day, when Mister 7 approached me with the manners of a Deportment School graduate* (*may be code for whingeing) and asked whether I, his darling and extremely crafty mummy, might be able to conjure up a cape of sorts for his Batman figurine.
Child. Say no more.
The results were, I believe you could say, STUNNING.
And being the selfless crafty-mistress that I am, I couldn’t keep such resourcefulness to myself. So here it is. Instructions on how to achieve such lofty heights of brilliance yourself.
You will need:
- 1 Batman figurine (or insert your figurine of choice.)
- 1 Cape (either robbed from another figurine or bought. Or, if you are really desperate, just cut off a bit of tea-towel.)
- Stickytape.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR CAPED BATMAN:
Step 1: Take above-mentioned materials.
Step 2: Tape that mo-fo.
And voila!
Note: there is an optional Step 3, should cape tear off, which it occasionally* (*might mean regularly) will. In this case:
Step 3: return to Step 1.
If Step 3 recurs, then go to Step 4.
Step 4: hit your head against a wall. Then go to step 5.
Step 5: write a blog post.
Presenting an Artist’s Talk at Surrealism: Up Late @ QAG/GOMA
Image via Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art
I am an ARTISTE!!!!!!!!!
I have told myself since I was out of the birth canal, only now it’s official, yo! Namely cos I’ve been asked to give an industry talk at “Surrealism: Up Late” this Friday night at Queensland Art Gallery. I’m talking about innovation and why it’s important. Which has gotten me thinking lots of things about risk-taking, failure and extending oneself and why we need to do it. I’ll post my thoughts (and possibly some vid, if I can manage it!) from the talk early next week.
Naturally, while I’d like to THINK it’s all about me, in reality I’m only a snippet of a pretty rocking night of special events for Up Late:
6.00pm MUSIC DJ El Norto
6.00pm FILM Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro Delicatessen 1991 (99 mins)
6.00pm FILM The Prisoner (TV series) (60 mins)
6.45pm TALK ‘The Innovators’ Curator’s perspective with David Burnett, Curator, International Art
7.00pm TALK ‘The Innovators’ Industry perspective with Jenny Wynter, comedian
8.00pm FILM Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro The City of Lost Children 1995 (112 mins)
You can book tix here!
Top 7 Moments of the LA trip
Above: The Hollywood sign as viewed from the Second City headquarters. Comedic tears ensued.
Well, it’s done. WOW. The highlights, in no particular order:
1. Working with musical improv genius, Michael Pollock (pictured above). The two of us spent many, many hours one-on-one, making up so many improv songs that both of our minds began to fry AND I kid you not, I continue to be making up songs involuntarily in my brain before I even realise I am doing it. Does that even make sense? Possibly not. Point is, I learned so, so ridiculously much and as a bonus, Michael sent me home with reams of notes, exercises and ideas to continue on with back home here in Oz. Oh and he gave me piano lessons too, which I am ridiculously STOKED about.
This was always part of the plan (i.e. to help me develop my ability to accompany myself onstage for musical improv) but has the added benefit of making my playing sound so much better in general. It’s going to take time to develop these new habits, but if there’s one thing I’ve been particularly inspired by it’s how much can get done when you just put your butt to the seat and focus!
2.
2. Gary Austin, Gary Austin, Gary Austin. Helen Hunt thanked him in her Oscar speech and now I have absolutely no musings as to why. The man is beyond brilliant. Again, we had dozens of hours one-on-one working on my solo stuff, which is intense to say the least. (I must point out here that this trip we had the good sense to spread the hours out with built-in breaks, unlike my trip in 2006 when I tried to cram 6 hours a day of one-on-one coaching for a week straight and my brain almost fell out of my head.)
As an unexpected bonus, I presented a work-in-progress showing of my one-woman show (within which my solo improv work comes into play) to a number of Gary’s improv students and community. I’m so happy with its development; I’m going to be announcing a Brissie show shortly, then it’s off to the Melbourne Fringe. I have more exciting news coming on this (mainly involving plans for 2012) so. You know. Hold onto whatever you’re sitting on.
3. Seeing SHOWS!!!!!!!
I spent as many nights as I was able hunting down improv show upon improv show to check out, analyse, savour and be inspired by. There really are too many to mention, so let me just throw in the one I have great photos of (courtesy of Gary Austin, whose wonderful newsletter you can check out here: Gary Austin Workshops – AUGUST Newsletter)
- Back left clockwise: Helen Hunt, Kenna, Sandy and Ron, the latter three of which I had the great privilege of improvising with during my time in LA LA land!
4. Hanging out with my super-inspiring and ridiculously jawsome friend (we met as room-mates at last year’s Improv Masterclass Retreat in New York), Natasha Perez. She is a person who I know I will be friends with until the day I die. We dragged each other to shows, geeked out on all things music, improv and combinations thereof, and chatted into many of the wee hours about dreams, big and small. LOVE her.
5. Eating healthily, inspired by the LA lifestyle. (Hello WholeFoods, I think I love you.)
6. Having the whole trip capped off with the poetry of this guy sitting opposite me in the departure lounge:
7. Buying my children’s love back.
This trip was made possible thanks to the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, a fantastic organisation that supports emerging artists to pursue professional development opportunities, usually overseas. More info: www.ianpotter.org.au
