My So-Called Penis

Fueling the creative spark.

Lately, a topic percolating in my mind has to do with the question of how to keep the creative embers burning. I have some sense, as I enter into my fourth decade, that this is becoming more difficult.

I’ve mentioned in the past how, when I was in the midst of the lethargy and dizziness brought about by my labyrinthitis type symptoms, I underwent something of a creative surge. I was depressed, fatigued, and constantly anxious, but I also composed what is without doubt the most sophisticated music I’ve ever written (soon to be available on my upcoming CD release) while also writing what I think is some of my best acid logic material. I had a sense of an increased ability to connect disparate properties found in both music and writing; in terms of writing, I had an ability to chase tangential ruminations down labyrinthine mental corridors to their fruition (I’m not sure what that means either, but I like how it’s phrased.)

Now, two or three years later, the fatigue, dizziness and anxiety are largely gone. But so is a certain creative spark.

I don’t think it’s simply that the creativity followed the disappearing anxiety of illness off into the sunset. I think getting older is part of it too. There’s a certain cliché, though no less true for being cliché, that the hunger, desire and ability to achieve artistic success tends to diminish with age (I’m aware of the numerous exceptions to this, but as a general rule, I think it does stand.)

However, at least in terms of guitar playing, I actually think I’m becoming more finessed a player, and am increasing my technical mastery of the instrument. This reminds me of players I used to see up in the Americana scene in Los Angeles — guys in their 40s, 50s and 60s who were absolute masters of the instrument. However, as I look back on it, I realized there was very little risk or experimentation in their playing. You didn’t have the sense they were particularly excited by what they were doing, you did have the sense that they were playing riffs and solos and ideas they had played 1000 times before. Now, there was a certain advantage to this repetition — they were capable of playing these parts very well, and the audience rightfully took pleasure at that. But you didn’t get the sense that this performer was playing all that differently than they had five years previous, or would be five years in the future. And there’s something dead about that to me.

One can theorize about the neurological or hormonal reasons for this. As people get older, maybe they experience a decrease in neurotransmitters or hormones that fuel creativity. It’s an interesting area of exploration, but not directly pertinent here.

So the question becomes, how does maintain one’s youthful hunger for experimentation? Perhaps by studying the exceptions to the rule — the Picassos, the Beethovens? Perhaps by forcing a steady diet of novel stimulus into one’s brain? Perhaps by consuming vast amounts of LSD and cocaine? I’m not sure.

As a somewhat ironic way to end this, I should note that I wrote a piece wrestling with many of these very same issues close to 10 years ago. So maybe it’s just all in my head.

Solar flare heads to earth – but hey, don’t worry.

This caught my eye: LA Times – Solar storm sends charged particles toward Earth

A massive explosion on the sun’s surface has triggered the largest solar radiation storm since 2005 and has unleashed a torrent of charged plasma particles toward Earth, though the threat to satellites, power grids and other high-tech hardware is believed to be manageable, scientists said.
…
Radiation from the explosion arrived at Earth within hours of the flash, said Doug Biesecker, a physicist with NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. A burst of charged plasma particles is expected to reach Earth by 6 a.m. Tuesday. That charged plasma is traveling uncommonly fast, making the 93-million-mile trip to Earth in about 34 hours, rather than taking two or more days, as is usually the case, Biesecker said.

The article is worth reading more for what it doesn’t say. No mention of the possibility that a massive solar plasma flare could cause the recently dead to rise from their graves and hunger for the flesh of the living. No concern about the great likelihood that solar plasma radiation will create giant sized insects who will travel the countryside searching for human victims whom they can literally pull apart with their pincher claws.

No mention of these very real possibilities.

And the media wonders why nobody trusts them anymore.

A lobster named George

I was nosing around reading about animals with long lifespans and came across mention of George the lobster. George is a lobster (you might have guessed that) and was purportedly 140 years old when he was released in the wild a few years ago.

At first one feels a twinge of jealously towards George. After all, what could we do with our lives if we could live into our 14th decade? But I wonder if it would be all that great. Sure, George might have seen many things – the advent of the automobile, the freeing of American slaves, the birth of television – but what of the dissappointments, the heartbreaks? Eventually life takes its on a person’s (or lobster’s) psyche. There comes a point, I feel, when one can say, “I have lived enough.” Perhaps George has reached that point.

I bet he would be delicious.

Teenager sued for hitting woman with his flying body parts

Teenagers… they can’t do anything right. For instance:

…an appeals court in Illinois recently ruled that a woman is allowed to sue a dead teen’s estate for injuries caused by his flying body parts. The 18-year-old boy was running across the Amtrak tracks to catch another train but didn’t make it — he was hit by an oncoming train going 70 mph and his body was torn apart by the force and flung onto a nearby passengers’ waiting platform. The woman, 58, was struck by a sizable chunk of the boy’s body and was knocked to the ground, breaking her leg and wrist.

The latest…

Well, in munich now. This is one city that’s not blowing me away. Leavng for luxemborg tommorrow.

I was thinking of a good gag today. You go up to a sales or hotel clerk and ask, ” Do you speak english?” When they say yes, you say, “wergly scnerzle flug? Disbobble nerfle strighterf! Zard? Zard! Zard!”

Ha! That would show them!

Like, gag me with a gargoyle

I was walking around Prague castle a couple nights ago and was very impressed with the gargoyle statues. They kind of look like they’re throwing up on you. So I came up with this link to photographs of the boys in all their splendor.

New new year

Well, the journey continues. Spent new year’s eve watching fireworks exploding over Prague. Tomorrow we move on to Vienna.

I’ll have more entertaining stories when I’m not writing on an iPad keyboard.

Warsaw and Wayno

I’m in Warsaw right now, having a martini that tastes like it was made out of vodka and man sweat. Nonetheless, this town has a lot more charm than I thought it would. Frankly, I didn’t put much thought into it, but it’s charming.

I also note that Wayno, the cartoonist who did the artwork for my book and CDs, has taken over the syndicated newspaper comic Bizarro  for a week. You can view some of the installments here.

Berlin update

So far, the trip to Germany is going well. I was inside the famed Berlin Cathedral today, taking a picture of the nativity scene, when it struck me that I was taking a picture of the first Christmas day, on Christmas Day. As a result, I was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. This garnered me the ability to fly and shoot lasers out of my eyes.

The journey begins

Well, I’m setting out today to begin my trip through Eastern Europe. I will return on January 14. Its hard to say how much blogging I’ll do; maybe little, maybe a lot. Who knows? Part of enjoying life is embracing its mysteries.