Interview with Meryl Streep

DAILY MUSE | While a few years old now, this is a fascinating interview with Meryl Streep. I love to hear artists speak about their background in creativity. I think it provides immense inspiration to others on the creative path.

Also, it has the full length scene from “Sophie’s Choice” when you find out the horrific choice that Sophie had to make– stunning work.

The Yes Men (Full length)

DALY MUSE | I find it inspiring to see such creativity used in exposing hypocrisy and corruption in our society and culture. (Language alert!)

TODAY’S MUSE: Fallingwater

DAILY MUSE | Today’s Muse is “Fallingwater”, Frank Lloyd wright’s most famous house– and arguably one of the most famous houses in the world. Built in 1939, it marks Wright’s entry into the second act of his career. Since then, it has served as inspiration to countless architects and homeowners throughout the years. Can you imagine living in a home that is so rooted in and intertwined with the nature from where is springs? If I lived there, I’m sure I’d end up having tons of creative ideas hearing that waterfall running all the time.

TODAY’S MUSE: Your Porn Star Name

DAILY MUSE | I had dinner with friends tonight and we got on the subject of alter egos. We noted that creating an alter ego can create new space in your life. Someone mentioned the following method of creating an alter ego name, although I’ve heard of it in a different context– as a way of creating your ‘porn star’ name. What you do is take the name of your first pet plus the name of the first street you lived on. Mine is ‘Cinders Sunnyfield’… which doesn’t make much sense for me… but is fun to say. Other friends at the table were, ‘Major George’ and ‘Pepper Roseland’ and the funniest one of all– ‘Turtle Two Hundred and Eighteen’.

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TODAY’S MUSE: Rainbow-icality

DAILY MUSE | Arrange the clothes in your closet rainbow-icaly. Arrange the soxs in your drawers rainbow-icaly. Arrange the color markers, pens or pencils in the jars on your desk rainbow-icaly. Connect in with the creative power of color and the color spectrum.

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TODAY’S MUSE: Taking a Shower

DAILY MUSE | I tend to have great ideas when I’m in the shower. I don’t know what it is exactly. The massage effect of the jets of water? The effect of water ionization? But I would say that the percentage of good ideas I’ve had while taking a shower is higher than during other activities. Are you a shower genius too?

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Interview with Steven Spielberg (Full Length)

DAILY MUSE | Did you know that as a kid Steven Spielberg conned his way on to a movie lot, found a vacant office and and began operating as if he worked out of it? And that this led directly to him getting real work from the studio? Learn this and other new info (including discussions of his creative origins I’ve never heard him explain before) in this well done British TV documentary/interview with him. It also includes interviews about Spielberg with George Lucas and Sean Connery.

P.S. I just love how the British pronounce ‘controversy’

The Creative Power of Austin Powers

DAILY MUSE | I can never be sad when I watch the introductory sequence to “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery”. The music, the colors, the tongue-in-cheek homage to bright, shiny 60’s Pop culture– are all pure creative joy. They always lift my mood.

I already have the musical theme (the awesome Quincy Jones “Soul Bossanova”) on my Ipod. But now I can watch the intro sequence everyday! So can you. Enjoy!

Mike Myers’ account of how the idea of Austin Powers came to him is quite inspiring. While stuck in traffic a particular song (which happens to be one of my own favorites) started playing on his car radio. Myers said, “I heard the song The Look of Love by Burt Bacharach. And all the childhood memories of my father, of watching Monty Python and Benny Hill and Carry On movies and The Mouse that Roared and Strangelove, all the James Bond movies … it all came back.” (via The Canadian Encyclopedia) He began playing and experimenting with the elements of the character– right there in the car. The fundamentals of the Austin character were designed by the time he parked and got out of the car. He wrote the script in the following three weeks. Sent it off to a studio executive one morning and got a greenlight by the afternoon. Pretty cool huh?

TODAY’S MUSE: Connect With A Creative Ally

DAILY MUSE | It’s easier to be creative in community– with creative allies who will give you the permission to show up as the creative genius that you are. As allies they’ll give you the space to reinvent yourself- or the space to just show up and be great. They’ll listen to and honor your ideas. They’ll mirror them back to you. Sometimes magnifying them and expanding them. The more you surround yourself with creative allies, the more permission you will have to show up as creatively.

List all the people you know. Who among them are your creative allies? Or have the potential to be one? Connect with one today. Now, in fact. Pick up the phone. Make a lunch appointment. Or a date to go to a museum. Or to a play. Honor your current creative allies. Reach out and cultivate new ones. And also look to see who you might be a creative ally for? Reach out to that person. Be generous with them. Create and give them the space to just be great in.

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The Way the Music Died

DAILY MUSE | Here’s an excellent Frontline documentary describing the background of how and why the music industry has declined.

What new creative possibilities in music are becoming available now as a result of this?

Elliot Smith | Strange Parallel (Full Length)

DAILY MUSE | Here’s a documentary about singer songwriter Elliot Smith– another artist who tragically died too young. It’s not the best sound quality but it’s the full length version.

THE SUNDAY SERVING: The Elegant Universe

DAILY MUSE | Sorry everyone. Work got the best of me this week, so my posts dwindled. Here’s to a new week!

This week’s Sunday Serving is The Elegant Universe, a NOVA documentary based on Brian Greene’s book of the same name. It offers a comprehensive (and surprisingly understandable) explanation of String Theory which may hold the possibility of meeting Einstein’s dream of a single theory explaining the workings of the entire universe– a Unified Theory– a Theory of Everything.

Artists, writers, musicians, philosophers– in fact everyone– can benefit from the creative possibilities of dwelling in this kind of thought.

Part1 of Hour One

Part 2 of Hour One

Part 3 of Hour One

Part 4 of Hour One

Part 5 Of Hour One

Hours Two and Three are below the fold…

TODAY’S MUSE: Dada

DAILY MUSE | Dada came as a reaction to Work War I. As an artist what is your reaction to our current state of War?

These artists had some fun with Dada… Dada (A Pseudomentary)

Is Free Energy on its Way?

DAILY MUSE | Over-Unity or Zero-Point energy, essentially free energy from a machine that produces more energy than it takes to run it, way be closer than we think. Here is a great documentary on this fantastic, creative and hopeful development which perhaps one day may pose viable alternatives to oil and possible solutions to the subject of my post yesterday.

UPDATE | Sorry everyone! Here is the embedded link.

Four Years. Where To Now?

DAILY MUSE | Tomorrow will be the fourth anniversary of the War in Iraq. I’m taking a slight detour around my normal creativity fare today to suggest listening to this short, sobering discussion of U.S.  goals in Iraq, how they have shifted through the years, where we are now and where we are going. I can only hope that our administration and country will sober up from our war binge– and that somehow, someway, some good can come out of all this– eventually.

Click on the listen button on the NPR story page.

THE SUNDAY SERVING: Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth

DAILY MUSE | One of my favorite programs ever has been the multi-episode interview Bill Moyers conducted with mythologist Joseph Campbell entitled “The Power of Myth“. Wikipedia summarizes: “The interviews were filmed at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch during the final two summers of Campbell’s life (the series was broadcast on television a year after his death). In these discussions, Campbell presents his ideas about comparative mythology and the ongoing role of myth in human society. These talks include excerpts from Campbell’s seminal work The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” To that I’ll add that I believe it’s one of the most important television programs ever made.

The series is six episodes and well worth a watch at sometime in your life. Thanks to Bill Moyers and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for bringing this wonderfully illuminating series and book to us.

Part 1: The Hero’s Adventure

Part 2: The Message of the Myth

Part 3: The First Storytellers

Part 4: Sacrifice and Bliss

Part 5: Love and the Goddess

Part 6: Mask of Eternity (I cannot find this episode, only the first five. If anyone comes across it please pass on the link so I can update this post. Thanks.)

Here is a follow-up interview that Bill Moyers had with George Lucas years after Campbell’s death.

See all THE SUNDAY SERVINGS here.

TODAY’S MUSE : What’s on your desk?

DAILY MUSE | Check out this nifty, inspiring blog dedicated to the interesting stuff on the desks of creative people. So what’s on your desk?

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|via On My Desk

The Dark Side of the Rainbow (Full Length)

DAILY MUSE | A week or so ago I posted a YouTube video demonstration of the phenomenon known as “The Dark Side of the Rainbow” (Also known as “The Wizard of Floyd”), whereby Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon can be played in sync with events in the film ” The Wizard of Oz”. Since then I have found multiple postings showing the extended duration of this. These links below take it from the beginning and play the album through once. Some of the syncs are uncanny! | via meowcat889

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3: Great Gig in the Sky… incredible!

TODAY’S MUSE: Where’s George?

DAILY MUSE | ‘Every wonder where that paper money in your pocket has been, or where it will go next?’ Find out at WheresGeorge.com. | via Computer Companion

300’s Battle of Thermopylae

DAILY MUSE | The visionary new movie “300“, now in theatres, is based on the events of the Battle of Thermopylae, a 480 B.C. battle in which the Greeks defended off a Persian invasion– something I had virtually known nothing about. Controversy is brewing with the movie buzz, some comparing it to the situations in Iraq and the Mideast.

This timely documentary outlines the historical background of the battle. It’s a must see before watching the movie– perhaps a tool to help to separate some of the facts from some of the fictions.

Part 1