Weekend Artistry

Back to Kerouac’s 30 Essentials on a Monday.

#17 – “Write in recollection and amazement for yourself”
#15 – “Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog [for them]”

A weekend trip, seeing things out of season is the muse. It’s the first time for the hundredth time I’ve been to Grand Rapids: my only goal is to make amends and see things in an open-mind for probably the first time in a place with so much innate divide between the two athletic rivals.

To explain it, maybe, the Quality (Pirsig) metaphor of the café visit we make to Brewed Awakenings on Saturday. I had never been in, and described it as “slightly Mexican-looking.”

T.B said it looked “contemporary,” while Annie described it as “makeshift whilst having settled into home.” A hometown native, she had walked in, ordered and enjoyed the local coffee shop environment many times – but perhaps had not been asked to come up with a written impression for the first time with prior exposure. Deepening the question of Quality and gumption was Lindsay, a former barista of the shop, said it reminded her of something “adobe-esque” after we had read off our list of agreements over the phone. Why write down the appeal of the shop in the first place? First, it challenges everyone to live in the moment and be aware of the synthesis of our emotions and senses. Not to force those involved in the moment to think that everything they’re doing is being secretively noted or put on the spot but explanatory to those around a writer to get a sense of that inner dialogue – to see the story of the unfolding action spent in intimate company.

Second, the reason to capture the aesthetic is part of a sensitivity to creativity and being able to ask the right questions; absorbing newness (especially for the first time) has ultimately changed the way I approach writing and ultimate projects for the future. I accept that most writing probably is just adding to information glut – but some has come back, useful (and amazing) to what was going on around me at the time and what I can make useful now.

For example, what good is it to write semi-sober, semi-lush while exploring the human condition in the bars of Grand Rapids? The three of us went about doing it in three of four realms of modern life: the social, the public, and the private (though probably not the political). The social element, mixing with others and sharing their presence to the public; the world is now (right now) aware of our presence there. Private, as we had a wonderful condition of anonymity about us, giving us discretion to remain a triplet of entertainment to each other as we desired. More or less, we were there …

Back to sensitivity of creativity. Tom Page, Annie’s dad (and 3-D artist) said the food cabinet was “a work of art.” It’s only apt to describe the aesthetic in both form, and function, very succinctly. Take a part of the whole and break it down into something manageable, and meaningful. His artwork is displayed in the town – in a style left rough but precise to form and detail. He’s imaginative but truthful in his work on capturing emotion in his bronze sculptures.

The next day was nature’s art: islands, sandbars, and a nesting goose and three large eggs being incubated. The mother goose honked until her mate arrived. Next was meditation in the heat of the pines, the act imprinting things to my mind and mixed with the unique smell the needles make when struck with sun leaves a blend of memory, first impression and desire for similar future for others. As we try to contemplate our lifestyle choice now, and in the future … To live in a place with cascading iron-ore tailings, red dust, and it gets onto hands, notebooks, faces as youth and today, temperate, as twenty-somethings talking about our lives as we explore the future together. A community, we’ll approach it one day at a time; making sense of it.

Lifestyle: “Believe that it is yours now in spirit”

This is the fourth of six essays I decided to write as a result of the six lifestyle decisions I made (and attempted to adhere to) out in British Columbia. Writing is with me now in spirit. Some days it is my break, that little American opportunity to move up and take something from the precipice of unknown reaction, qualification and ability and move forward to create something – yet other mornings I feel like there is much work to be done to drive site traffic, to meet people in person to direct them here, to improve layout, web hosting, and many things that aren’t up to snuff with my vision for this experiment.

… an experiment … as the “Accidental Creative” manifesto goes, originality is derived from each of us as individuals; our backgrounds interact with the circumstances of our environment and form meaning with our mindset.

Sounds like the Midwest perspective to me. Traveling, so much longitude, East and West to be an ambassador for the lakes and streams. Lifestyle, with latitude, a manifestation of the lake effect, up North. Muse, because our location is bigger than our occupation – but that’s a personal philosophy. Fiction, or not so much, to toy with past reality and write for multiple audiences. All giving direction to move forward.

But now that I have it, we need to have it … to engage authentically in a healthy way that the world actually changes. As we discover our unique voices, we form a reality; Todd Henry calls it artistry to be part of deriving meaning out of our existence in this method. The world is going to change around us because it of.

And that message is uplifting. “You must find your unique voice if you want to thrive.”

So the past three months or so – travel, trains and a series of posts on life in motion and a lot of movement in British Columbia has been my source of unique environment. In the background, the core of one Midwest perspective – mine, though with some assistance -- were notes to share the things I noticed to understand and explain what was “now.”

But – though it is a catchy domain name (at least I think so) -- to consider it an entirety, or a monolith of perspective would be foolish. It is not the difference of perspective that binds people together but the communality of the way people view their lifestyle that intrigues me. There must be more “authentic” engagement to get at what I really want.

Burnaby Poetry

Burnaby Poetry

“Wake up in the morning
flirt, glance, touch, Love in the bed.
Only for a moment -- off to work.
Saying all emotions from within
Holding nothing back.”

“Art on the walls and
taking a shower of
the mind and humidity.
Air dry
Run in the nude – we’re out of towels.”

“Capilano art
For each reaction
is stupored morn.”

“Apples become apples.
First kiss at seven
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth,
Remember compliments,
Keep love.
[Sunscreen].
Work hard to bridge the gaps.
Mic attenuation.”

“I’m going to argue
that there is a shorter than short memory.
It’s like a loop.”

To keep it domestic,
we head to Al, from International Foods
Edmonds Street, whip a meal together on a budget.
“Live each day to the fullest,” he says after directing us to curry sauce. –
“Live honest” our vegetable saleswoman says, down the street
a forgotten standard in the lives of young.
And foremost, to “be interesting,”
So poems will be written about you,
Years later to be found scrawled and dusty.”

“Lamb curry to really feel the cosmos flying through,
as everything is expensive in Canada, me, am I ready for a shot?”
“Hell yeah.”
Always debating the impending shot, of Grant’s Scotch, I,
-- (but not Lisa) (my dear I’m writing you a love letter on 30 August) Is “out of control before I’ve left.”

On the train now, in brackets, instructions for editors.
[Write your happiest thought…]
The plan backfires, blah blah Granville Street you were so cool
Ten damn days ago with all your wild madness, really; then,
I felt like I needed no home nor direction and was content
A woman and companionship amongst throngs of red and white
So that is why things went wrong, Victoria.
I cannot ever capture the energy that it was the first time.
Only policemen doing “voluntary pour-outs” and the art tonight.
You’re the first, Victoria, to write for me.
“Right now, a glass of water.”
Willy, “Being surrounded by some seriously respectable friends.”
Hugo – “I found that Anna was my friend Shawn’s GF’s sister! So crazy!”
Shaq: “Balloons look swell when they float away.”
Some unintelligible drunk writing; typical Skytrain.
Two people professing thoughts of happiness in German.
For me, [never again] as the happiest thought.

“Did any of this make sense to you Victoria?
I regain energy from you but all I wanted to do
Was steal a kiss but it seems to hard to find
Ten seconds of time when you are not to be
In proximity of the old new man.
What was his deal anyways.”