• The Magic Hour Podcast
  • Anthony Alvarado
  • DIY Resistance
  • DIY Magic
  • Workshops

Anthony Alvarado

Anthony Alvarado

Tag Archives: creativity

The How & Why of Zines

06 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by Alvarado in creativity, Uncategorized, writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art, creativity, distro, Joshua Amberson, Martha Grover, podcast, portland, The Magic Hour, writing, xray, zines

In this episode I talk to Martha Grover and Joshua James Amberson all about zines. Both Martha and Joshua are seasoned veterans of the Portland zine scene. So listen up young whippersnappers! We talk about how to make& distro zines, why to make zines, and also about the good ol’ days of zines (and Portland) and where things are now in the internet age.

http://themagichour.libsyn.com/episode-6-zines

screen-shot-2016-10-03-at-9-48-09-pm

Martha Grover

Martha Grover is the author of the zine Somnambulist. And the memoir The End of My Career, available from Perfect Day publishing.

joshua

Joshua James Amberson

Joshua James Amberson is the author of Basic Paper Airplane, The Prince Zine, and he writes for The Portland Mercury.

How Running Improves Creativity!

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Alvarado in creativity, excercise

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

creativity, endocannabinoids, excercise, murakami, running, running boosts mood

I am about to run my 1,000th mile using Nike runs. Which got me thinking about just how useful running has been for me: Not just for health but for creativity!

Here is me grinning my way through a recent morning run on the Mahaulepu trail in Hawaii!

jogn

OKAY, This might sound weird to you: a blog post about creativity that focuses on running . . .wha? But I think it’s funny that there are all these blogs, and books, and Ted talks or whatever about “thinking outside of the box”, and how to be creative . . . and exercise never gets mentioned but it is actually integral to creativity. it is so basic that it is forgotten and taken for granted. But the fact of the matter is, if you are looking for ways to be more creative getting enough exercise is the low hanging fruit. Low hanging fruit is good for you. Because you are likely to actually eat it!

low-hanging-fruit-300x170

Going for a jog ( or whatever you want to do swim, bike, yoga etc.) is the simplest, quickest way to get more creative! It is such a simple equation it is often over looked. But it boils down to this: if you are feeling good, healthy, if you have lot’s of energy, then you are going to be able to focus on your art better, you are going to have more mental and creative energy all around. It  is as simple as that.

I’m going to focus on running in this post, because it’s what I like, but substitute the exercise that works for you. Look:

1. Running makes you smarter.

2. Running makes you happier. How? Endocannabinoids!

3. Running makes you calmer

4. Running gets you high.

5. Running makes you more productive. (“People who exercised during their workday were 23 percent more productive on those days than they were when they didn’t exercise, says a recent study from the International Journal of Workplace Health Management.”)

More productive, calmer, happier, smarter, and uh higher.  Sounds like a pretty blissful combo. And guess what? When you have all that extra energy and happiness, and blood flowing to your brain, not to mention endocannabinoids flowing to your brain it boosts your creativity too. So the next time you feel like you’re in a creative rut, don’t turn to the internet for inspiration or Ted Talks or whatever, just try this: go for a run!

murakami

Haruki Murakami sums it up: “The most important qualities to be a…writer are probably imaginative ability, intelligence, and focus. But in order to maintain these qualities in a high and constant level, you must never neglect to keep up your physical strength. Without a solid base of physical strength, you can’t accomplish anything very intricate or demanding. That’s my belief. If I did not keep running, I think my writing would be very different from what it is now.”

Solvitur Ambulando

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by Alvarado in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

creativity, flanuer, pie club, ramble, stroll, take a walk, walking, walking the dog, walt whitman, walter benjamin

Solvitur Ambulando: It is solved by walking. What is? Anything! Any problem, question, any thing that you need to ponder and need ideas about, walking is the way to go. When you walk your muse walks with you. Some problems are one or two block walks. Some are larger and may require miles of walking.

As Steven Wright said; “Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.”

Walk. The word comes from the Old English word wealcan, which means “to roll”. One could make a joke here about “Walk & Roll”. But I won’t.

It is good to have an accustomed place to walk towards. This gives you the excuse to get walking. Because, unfortunately these days we feel like we need to be “going somewhere” in order to go anywhere. People rarely seem to just go out and walk just to walk. (A good way to getting around this is to get a dog. Dogs are too wise to need an excuse to take a walk.)

Walking-the-dog

For a while my favorite place to walk in the evening was this bar about a mile and a half down the road. Perfect for a round trip! However I recently quit drinking (yesterday) so I can no longer take advantage of that as an excuse to walk. It is good to have multiple excuses to walk. Lately I have started something I like to call PIE CLUB. It is just like FIGHT CLUB, except you meet up with a friend and eat pie instead of beating the snot out of each other in a basement. The first rule of PIE CLUB is you put real whip cream on the pie. Sadly, you can only eat so much pie a week. So I am looking into other nearby walking excuses. I’ll keep you posted.

Fight-Club-Brad-Pitt

Fight Club VS. Pie Club . . .
photo-1But this essay has sauntered away from the original point, walking, and into pie eating. Which reminds me the original definition of the word essay was coined by Montaigne, because he wanted to write in a way that was free to meander, saunter, sashay and lollygag from topic to topic in a path as idiosyncratic and unique as human thought. Thus the modern definition of essay, was invented, but the older definition meant, of course, to sally forth, that is : to walk.

 

Perhaps walking is so good for our thoughts and brains because in it’s rhythmic circumlocution, in it’s rhythms and it’s gait, it’s freedom, and it’s exercise which is both refreshing and strengthening it mirrors the rhythms and vicissitudes of human thought.

In the first years of this century, a man was seen walking each and every day—regardless of the weather, be it sunshine or snow—around the ramparts of the city of Vienna. This man was Beethoven, who, in the midst of his wanderings, would work out magnificent symphonies in his head before putting them down on paoper. For him, the world no longer existed; in vain would people greet him respectfully as he passed. He saw nothing; his mind was elsewhere.

—Walter Benjamin

walking-away1

If the term walking sounds too pedestrian to you, then think of it as a ramble. There is something very American about the idea of a ramble. Thoreau loved to ramble. Whitman loved to ramble, and take long breaks to ogle people. When you ramble in this way; pausing to sit or stand around, it is called loafing. Whatever your speed: get out there and walk! Today is a good day to start.

How do I love a loafer! Of all human beings, none equals your genuine, inbred,  unvarying loafer . . . he belongs to that ancient and honorable fraternity. —Walt Whitman

keep-calm-and-go-for-a-walk-3

Tools to bring:

An umbrella (if it’s cloudy)

layer your clothing ( if you leave in the morning or eve, it can easily change 10 degrees in an hour or two)

a notebook to capture ideas

pocket change to buy refreshements. Such as pie.

 

Top 20 practical tips for creative people

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Alvarado in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

creativity, get things done, habits, practical creativity, tips

My last post was a list of some of the habits of genius. Most of them are not that surprising, stuff like “People who think a lot tend to drink a lot of coffee.” And often my posts tend towards the esoteric ( see the 5 part series on magic from last month.)

But since it’s a new year I thought I would bust out some really practical tips. It is easy to lose sight of the obvious when one is pursuing the muse. Here are a dozen reminders of stuff so basic that maybe it’s time to take a second look at it. Often it is easy for the creative type person to get so wrapped up in the big picture that they forget to take care of the mundane, the day to day, the basics. But I assure you, if you are going to succeed as an artists, a musician, a thinker, a creator, you need to have your practicalities covered just as much as the next guy. Here are my top 20 tips of practical things you can do that will end up boosting your creativity as much or more than taking ayahuasca, spending 24 hours in a flotation tank, or astral projecting to Mars.

1. Get in shape. If you are in good health you will have energy. Lots of energy means more energy to work on your magnum opus. A friend of mine ran into the singer Bonnie “Prince” Billy, she mentioned that she had been feeling low energy the past few weeks. His advice to her – take up jogging. Sometimes it takes doing more activity, to have more energy. That “Prince” guy drops like 2 records a year so he must know what he is talking about.

VegChile_JOFR_LRG

2. Eat healthy. Eat more fruits and veggies than anything else, and you’re golden. This is closely related to #1. Your body is an engine. Food is the fuel. Crappy fuel = crappy energy. Eat well, to feel well, and it will help you think well. Off the top of your head can you name one genius who was fat? Chefs and comedians don’t count. Neither does Orson Wells, he did his best work before he was rotund.

3. Keep a journal. I’m not saying you need to write down every little thing that happens. But it is a great way to track your progress over time, and to store ideas for later. Every idea for a project that you can’t get to right away just put it in your journal. (I used to get a little carried away and spend too much time journaling, it was counterproductive, the solution was to just buy a small journal with only one page allotted for each day.)

moleskin

4. Also keep a dream journal. It can even be a part of the same regular day journal. Chances are your most creative ideas are happening while your asleep, and you just haven’t adequately trained yourself to remember them.

5. Cross-pollinate your ideas. Everyone needs to be able to talk shop. To bounce ideas off of someone. (That is 90% the point of college.) But you don’t need to go to college to chat with someone. Just have coffee or a beer, make it a weekly thing. Sometimes the solution to a creative problem doesn’t reveal itself until you hear yourself say it outloud. This tip is important because a lot of people work in a company setting, surrounded by others they can bounce ideas off of. The lone artists doesn’t have this. Thus you need to “cross-pollinate” your ideas on purpose. It doesn’t matter if your friend is working in the same field or not. Sometimes I get my best ideas about writing, while talking to a friend about music or science.

6. Books are fuel for your brain. Music can be fuel for your brain. Art is fuel for the brain. Movies are also fuel. Keep your tank full.

7. If you want to get good at something do it every day. The writer Patrick Dewitt once told me “If you’re not writing every day you’re not writing.” It’s true. Substitute whatever it is you personally want to master, whether it’s skateboarding, violin, or whatever and that is still true.

8. Make a weekly to-do list. Some might argue it’s better to make a daily, or a monthly list. That’s fine. The point is to have goals, know what your objectives are. Everybody in the business world knows this, creative people are prone to think that we don’t need to do this. That’s a dumb mistake. Know what you want to get finished this week. Write it down on a piece of paper. Not your computer. Not your phone. Write it down on a piece of paper. And check it off as you go. It’s that simple, and how much you get done in a week will double. (If you really want to go bananas with this tip check out the book Getting Things Done by David Allen.)

9. Have a calendar. Know what day it is. Know how long the current project is going to take, and what you want to work on after that. Don’t bother planning farther than 3 months out. Stuff changes.

10. You need a dedicated work space. Ideally you have a room where you can work with no distractions. If that is not possible then at least a desk, a space. If that is not possible, you need to get creative, depending on what you do this could mean finding a favorite spot at the local library, or a coffeeshop or something. If you look hard enough you can always find a spot free of distractions. try the local college, I used to sneak into the library of Reed college for the books and the atmosphere, although I was too poor to attend.

Frenchman's Bay

11. Use the library. Unless you got plenty of money, then just buy all your books. That’s the best but not everyone can afford it. No matter what, no matter how poor you get, don’t sell your books. You will regret it later. Sell records, sell plasma, don’t sell books.

12. Take drugs. Specifically psychedelics. Okay, this one isn’t “practical” but we can file it under obvious.

13. Read the Greeks. Plato etc.

14. If you can afford to drink the good whiskey instead of the swill, it’s worth it. Don’t drink beer out of cans. It’s not worth the loss in time and energy. In fact the less you drink, the more time and energy you will have to create. The creative genius who is also an alcoholic is a Hollywood myth. Don’t fall for it. Drinking is non-productive. The only thing drinking is going to help you produce is a hangover. So avoid the bar, but if you do go, do yourself a favor and shell out an extra buck or two for top shelf.

15. Get your stuff out there. Don’t be Kafka. If you’re a writer send your stuff to lit mags, to agents, to publishers. Show it to friends. If you’re a musician do open mics. If your a painter exhibit your work anywhere and everywhere. Start wherever you are. Don’t think you can “wait until it’s perfect”. That takes forever. But start getting your shit out there and that will help prod you to work harder and better.

16. You don’t have to go to college. It’s fine if you do, but it really isn’t necessary for any creative gig.

17. Develop a routine. This is probably the single biggest item on this list. If you can make working on your art automatic as brushing your teeth than you have already won. Pick a time that you can devote to work. Make it at least an hour and do it at the same time every day. Everything else follows from this.

18. Know whats going on. Read the news. You don’t need to read the paper from cover to cover every day. But at least read the headlines. If you’re an artist and you want to contribute something to the world, some artwork that reflects truth back to humanity . . . well then you should know what the hell is going on. Being a creative person is no excuse to being ignorant or culturally illiterate. (The trick is to balance this with with the next two.)

19. Avoid the internet as much as possible. It is a great resource for looking things up, it is a great reference source. It is also the greatest time-suck, mind-suck ever invented. It is dangerous. Turn it off. Don’t think that you are “getting stuff done” when you’re on the internet. Also 90% of the internet is poorly written, and repetitive, and you’d be better off reading about whatever you’re reading about in a book.

anti-tv

20. Don’t watch TV. Movies are fine. Netflix is okay in small doses because they take out the commercials. But basically TV is a total waste of time. You’d be better off taking a nap.

21. Get enough sleep.

The 12 habits of highly creative people

06 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by Alvarado in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

artists, creativity, genius, habits, Routine

Image

I recently read this excellent book by Mason Currey called Daily Habits. I highly recommend it.  While reading it I noticed that across centuries, countries, continents, and fields, certain habits kept popping up over and over. Listed here are the 12 habits I noticed. Every creative person follows a different path to chase their muse, but at the same time some definite patterns emerge in the lives of these artists. (The people in this book are the sort that are known by just their last name — Proust, Darwin, Picasso, Descartes, Tchaikovsky, Pollock, Faulkner, Twain etc.)

Here are the top twelve things that highly creative people gravitate towards:

1. lots of coffee!
2. working hard but, surprisingly often for only a short burst of time. Many writers only work for 3 or 4 hours each morning. (Architects and painters on the other hand tend to work all day.)
3. long walks. lots and lots of very long walks.
4. eating the exact same meal every breakfast, and lunch etc. So you don’t have to waste time thinking about it. (It’s weird how often this one shows up— Ingmar Bergman, Glen Gould, Patricia Highsmith, Oliver Sacks, David Lynch.)
5. alcohol to unwind . . . or some kind of daily “vigorous exercise” to unwind.
6. avoiding social obligations.
7. naps.
8. habitual reading. often artists will re-read a handful of their favorite authors again and again.
9. indulging in eccentricities. (Beethoven would pour giant pitchers of water over his hands each morning while he bellowed scales.)
10. either being a very early bird or a night owl. It’s easier to concentrate when there is no one around to distract you.
11. tobacco
12. avoiding TV.

← Older posts

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • June 2018
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • October 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010

Categories

  • Comedy
  • creativity
  • excercise
  • Magic
  • meditation
  • Uncategorized
  • writing

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy