What a wonderful series – The Art of Punk. Hidden treasure (for me).
Black Flag. Well, actually this episode is primarily about the artist Raymond Pettibon, who invented the Blag Flag logo and created the unique merchandizing for the band.
Dead Kennedys
Crass
Gisteren in het bizarre industriegebied Westhaven in Amsterdam foto’s gemaakt. Naar Zaandam gereden en geparkeerd bij Tamoil tegenover het Hembrug terrein om vanaf daar de tocht te beginnen.
Met het pondje naar de overkant. Aan beide kanten van het kanaal staan interessante snackbars. Uiteraard gesloten nu i.v.m. de lockdown.
Vanaf de pont loop ik naar rechts, het industrieterrein op. Bij de pond is een eigenwijs buurtje met een handvol woonhuizen. Het is wel een keuze om hier te willen wonen, zo omgeven door industrie. Met een magnifiek uitzicht over het Noordzeekanaal, dat wel. De tuintjes zijn meest volgeplempt met buizen, bootjes, gereedschap, dakpannen, hout en ander ondefinieerbaar bouwmateriaal.
Ik loop langs een enorm opslagterrein. Grote bergen zwart gruis. Geen idee wat het is. Kolen? Enorme kranen en andere indrukwekkende apparaten staan op het terrein om het zwarte gruis te verplaatsen en te verwerken.
Langs de industriële gebouwen aan de andere kan staat een strakke rij populieren.
Bij een rangeerterrein voor treinen breekt het beeld weer iets: enorme windmolens, treinwagons en materiaal voor rails. Een enorme transportbuis steekt de weg over.
Ik loop terug, en steek over via een weggetje dat Kajuitpad heet. Aan het eind van het pad is een afvalverwerkingsbedrijf aan. Een rij ooievaars staat op het dak opgesteld om het afval te lijf te gaan. Als ik dichterbij kom trekken ze zich terug het dak op, uit het zicht.
Bij de pont loop ik langs het grote beeld van het kussende stelletje in Delfts blauw. Leuk idee hier langs de uitgestrektheid van het kanaal.
Writer Cory Doctorow is blogging for 20 years. Here’s his extensive process. Pfew – respect!
A fun blog post by Joel Meyerowitz with photos of his daily life during this f**king lockdown period.
Just continue taking pictures.
In de Correspondent las ik het interessante “Note to self: Hoe notities maken je leven verrijkt”.
Ik maak ook al jarenlang notities. In verschillende vormen.
Voor mijn werk, IT pipo, maak in aantekeningen tijdens gesprekken, vergaderingen en ook schrijf ik vaak dingen op em problemen voor mezelf helder te krijgen.
Ik bewaar al deze notitieboeken. Ik heb een hele plank vol. Vanaf ongeveer 1998 ben ik ze gaan bewaren.
Van de ontwerptekeningen in deze notitieboeken maak sinds kort kunstwerkjes.
Ook maak ik veel aantekeningen terwijl ik boeken lees, als ik iets meemaak, op vakantie, op reis, of als een soort journalling (maar zonder het ritueel). Ik markeer teksten en zaken die ik wil onthouden. Die schrijf ik dan later in een tekst in Evernote. En soms publiceer ik ze hier.
Ik heb ook lijstjes van boeken die ik ooit nog wil lezen, films die ik wil zien, en andere lijstjes. Ik heb een speciaal notitieboek in Evernote met lijstjes.
In a Douglas Coupland burp, I reread Shampoo Planet and now Polaroids.
What strikes me now: Coupland’s style and subject matter could never be European.
Bret Easton Ellis exaggerated it in American Psycho with the overly exuberant description of the brands of Bateman’s stuff. But even in Coupland you notice that strange for us Europeans yet somewhat exotic way of describing consumer goods.
A legacy of a few hundred years is already immeasurably deep. After the freedom struggle, suddenly the most important event in the history of the United States (yes I know Coupland is a Canadian) is 9/11. And 9/11 is described as an attack on the United States. European history is teeming with 9/11 events. In the US, a president is assassinated every now and then, but Delaware, Arizona or even Texas did not secede from the US. In a documentary on illegals, I hear Americans talk about “our country” as something based on centuries of history. But most Americans have immigrated to the country in the last hundred years.
Coupland (paraphrasing – I lost the exact quote):
When there is an electricity outage, we sing songs, but as soon as electricity is back, we disappear in a haze again.
So it is during this vacation. For example, there is no television. You find that you read a book more easily and chat more, and feel much freer than when that blue eye demands its attention. It’s like quitting drinking or smoking: a TV addiction is in your daily pattern, and it takes a paradigm shift to get rid of it.
About legacy: a little further on, I read that Palo Alto is 100 years old. I rest my case.
Via Seth Godin’s podcast. He called The Creativity Leap “even better” then his own, at that time not yet published book The Practice.
The Creativity Leap is about activating the creative process in individuals and in organizations, and how creativity can transform people and organizations.
Invest in hobbies. Learn new things, cultivating a childlike, open outlook.
Seek out ideas from outside your normal world.
Creative ideas are formed during daydreaming, during doing nothing. On the other hand: practice makes perfect, without a lot of practice there is no mastery.
Learn to ask better questions. Start with “big picture” questions and then descend to specific questions.
Open-source collaboration and informal structures lead to cross-pollination and better solutions.
Research leads to better questions.
Practice improvisation and out-of-the-box thinking.
Have explicit attention to intuition; intuition is also a data point.
Work in communities.
Facilitate hybrid thinking; combine tech and artistic thinking, analog and digital.
Reuse, remix what is already there.
Make things within the constraints that are there. Creativity works best within constraints.
Get out of your brain. Look at yourself and things from a different angle. Get messy. Combine deep specialization with broad experience. Combine rationality with ambiguity. Combine a tight organization with a loose network organization.
Drift.
I think it was Tim Ferriss’ podcast episode with Richard Koch that put me on Richard Koch’s trail. First I read The 80/20 Principle, then bought Unreasonabe Success.
In the book, Koch describes the wisdom he has extracted from the lives of amazing people such as Nelson Mandela, Bob Dylan, Winston Churchill, Jeff Bezos, Albert Einstein, Victor Frankl, Leonardo Da Vinci, and others. Including, of course, Bill Bain and Bruce Henderson. Who. Bill Bain and Bruce Henderson, former Koch bosses at Bain and company and BCG, respectively. Of course, it is totally out of place in this list, but let’s just say this is Koch’s tribute to his former work
From the lives of the greats, Koch has identified 9 milestones on the road to success. These landmarks form the backbone of this book. Koch describes the landmarks and illustrates them in a highly entertaining way with stories about the greats of this world.
These are the landmarks that Koch identifies.
Self-belief. The courage to get started. Related to self-doubt. Self-doubt strengthens self-confidence.
Olympic expectations. Think big, think huge. Set expectations much higher than normal. Visualize that you are a great achiever, making success much more likely.
Transforming experiences. Learn unusual things from unusual experiences. The conventional path will not lead to unreasonable success. Special experiences do. Develop these experiences.
Breakthrough achievements are mostly innovative, sometimes strategic achievements. Combine extreme determination with extreme flexibility. Be innovative and laughably ambitious, and your ideas come from the soul.
Make your own trail, create your own segment, Invent a new field, narrow that field, and develop a unique philosophy.
Find and drive your personal vehicle. Jump on a major current and stand out. Or create your own vehicle. We would call this a platform these days, I guess.
Thrive on setbacks. Be anti-fragile. Find risks and actions. No actions, no learning, no improvement. Reframe disasters and setbacks.
Acquire unique intuition. Intuition is unique when it is important, original, unproven, imaginative, and based on deep knowledge. Where is your opinion that most others disagree with? (forgot who said that – was it Peter Thiel?)
Distort reality. Apply extreme optimism and determination. Inspire others.
I am very much into Austin Kleon at the moment. Earlier this week I shared a link to his 100-Things post. Following the 100 Things post’s links, I found this book abouit zine-making: Watcha Mean What’s a Zine? The punky inspiration was so appealing to me that I bought it immediately. Unfortunately, the only place I could find it with affordable shipping to the Netherlands was Amazon. Unfortunately, because I try to buy more and more from local stores and websites, doing my part to support small niche businesses.
The book introduces you to the punky indy world of zines and zine-making. Very inspiring. Makes you want to start making zines right away. And participate in this worldwide community around zine-making.
It’s covered: every aspect of zine-making, from getting ideas, writing the content, creating a zine to selling and distributing it. Tools, techniques, best practices, all are covered. An extensive list of references on various related topics. Beautifully designed.
No more excuses not to go make a zine. Or make something else creative.
7 stars out of 5!
