Last week I recommended Rick Rubin’s bible of creativity The Creative Act and I mentioned how I’ve been slowly taking the book in, only reading a few pages at a time. Page 139 above is worth a flag. It’s a list of “Thoughts and habits not conducive to the work.” How many of these have you experienced? At least ten of these really hit home for me.
Abandoning a project as soon as it gets difficult!
Requiring specific tools or equipment to do the work!
We’re all feeling these same unnecessary and unhelpful forces/ideas when we create. Awareness of them is the first step to not letting them derail our creative projects.
Someday I really want to meet you Rick Rubin and shake your hand, or go for a surf!
Reading this Week
Roz Chast Knows You’ll Always Regret Leaving the City for the Suburbs (New York Times Magazine)
The Most Beautiful Cornhole Set in America Was Made in Maine’s Maximum Security Prison (Spy)
Tim Burton on cancel culture and his Beetlejuice sequel: ‘I used to think about society as like the angry villagers in Frankenstein’ (Independent)
This Museum Has 300 Tanks and Over 100 Million YouTube Views (New York Times)
Watching
Paul McCartney’s images are on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London in an exhibition called Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm. As part of the program, Stanley Tucci interviewed McCartney. This is the only clip I’ve seen, the full interview is available for rent, which… come on National Portrait Gallery! Just post the entire thing already! I hope they will.
Episode 2 from the new Huckberry Homes series elicits serious beach house/creative cave envy.
Midday Reviews is cranking out some very pithy looks at iconic movies and what makes them special. Worth following.
Following
New York is a wellspring of amazing stories. Always will be. “Limelight is a documentary series that showcases the unique lives of New Yorkers across the city. The goal is to tell unheard stories that will widen our perspectives throughout daily life.” They just bubbled into my feeds with this short doc about the guys who lean the 9/11 reflecting pools. Beautiful stuff.
Content Coverage Submissions
Do you work on an interesting project you want to share? Watch a good video or have a photo project to suggest? Share your favorite pieces of content here and I’ll include the best ones in this newsletter.
Lots of good stuff with the latest newsletter, spot on!