WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME WE’RE HAVING!

(by Nick Sturm @ Jellyfish, via Brandi Homan)

In many ways I am not a rabbit
or a spool of ribbon and that is important
because it is amazing How wrong
it would be to say I am going skiing
or Do you want to share this cantaloupe
when you mean Let’s do something
incredible It is not about being specific
It is about opening up your genius mouth
and decorating what comes out in all
sorts of felt and vapor and astonishment
My friends know this and are always unlocking
the garden where I sit in my naked wreckage
I have hidden an amp in the hawthorn
There is a jackhammer in the begonias
You can use it anytime you like

Why Lying Broken in a Pile on Your Bedroom Floor is a Good Idea.

Julie (JC) Peters on the “Never Not Broken” goddess:

“Ishvari” in Sanskrit means “goddess” or “female power,” and the “Akhilanda” means essentially “never not broken.” In other words, The Always Broken Goddess. Sanskrit is a tricky and amazing language, and I love that the double negative here means that she is broken right down to her name.

But this isn’t the kind of broken that indicates weakness and terror.

It’s the kind of broken that tears apart all the stuff that gets us stuck in toxic routines, repeating the same relationships and habits over and over, rather than diving into the scary process of trying something new and unfathomable.

This is exactly what my tagline and manifesto are about. To see the world from the broken perspective, where anything is possible. It’s a polar opposite to the guilt-ridden “fallen from perfection” brokenness taught in Christian circles. This isn’t a fall from perfection, it’s a rejection of the entire notion that perfection is an option, let alone a desirable one.

(via Julie Rada)

iTunes changed the music industry because it was more convenient than stealing. Most people made the value judgment that ten bucks for a clean, legal digital album was worth the alternative of fishing around for files that may or may not be damaged or infected.

Hollywood continues to completely ignore that lesson.

This paper on men falling asleep after sex is Exhibit A for weak evolutionary psychology

The two strands of evidence don’t actually seem to link up into a cohesive whole unless you’re willing to make the leap of faith that all our behaviors are molded and motivated by these deep-seated, highly evolved reproductive strategies. But if you can’t make that leap - and I’d very much include myself in that number - then the whole thing sounds pretty damn ridiculous.

Writers block, huh?

Toothpaste For Dinner, 12/31/11:

writer’s block, huh? that’s funny cause i’m a lawyer and i never get lawyer’s block

This is another problem we create with the cultural belief that art is magic, and creativity is a dark mystery. It’s not true.

I was at a writing workshop recently where the guest speaker insisted that you have to wait for inspiration, and just hope it comes. That was her process, and it meant a five year dry-spell in her writing career. You can do better. You need a process based in reality and not magic, based in action and not wishful thinking.

In related news: Fear and Plagiarism.

In the U.S. there’s a belief that, when it comes to sex, girls and boys are engaged in a battle instead of a relationship and there’s resistance to the idea that boys and girls can both feel both love and lust… The U.S. is very strongly tied to the model of marriage. We don’t want 15- or 16- or 17-year-olds to marry but we don’t think a relationship is love unless it’s the one and only, the person you’re going to marry forever.