E. Amato's Blog: Zestyverse, page 10

Quote of the Week - White

Kravitz - the nosy neighbor

"I guess nobody on earth is entitled
Not mothers, not children, not kings
Not a one single person on God's golden shore
Is entitled to one single thing
We don't deserve a single damn thing" 

~ Jack White, Entitlement

There's that pesky word: entitlement.

When I heard this track from Jack White's new album Lazaretto on KCRW, the lyrics stopped me. I don't know how Jack White can feel unentitled - I mean, he's Jack White -  but he must at least a little bit, or he wouldn't have been able to write this. If Jack White can feel this - everyone can. 
We need to tread different. We need to acknowledge that we're all always behind some fence peering over without the benefit of seeing the whole picture. We certainly have access to the whole picture, but only when we're communicating fully and openly. And that takes work.

Do we want to undertake that work?



Entitlement
Jack White

Every time I'm doing what I want to
Somebody comes and tells me it's wrong
Whenever I'm doing just as I please
Somebody cuts me down to my knees
Yeah, somebody cuts me down to my knees

In a time when everybody feels entitled
Why can't I feel entitled too?
Somebody took away my god given right
I guess God must have gave it to you
Yeah, I guess God must have slipped it to you

Stop what you're doing and get back in line
I hear this from people all the time
If we can't be happy then you can't be too
I'm tired of being told what to do
Yeah, I'm sick of being told what to do

There are children today who were lied to
Told the world is rightfully theirs
They can have what they want, whenever they want
They take like Caesar and nobody cares
Live like Caesar and nobody cares

I can't bring myself to take without penance
Or atonements or sweat from my brow
Though the world may be spoiled and getting worse every day
Don't they feel like they're cheated somehow
I feel like I've been cheated somehow

Stop what you're doing and get back in line
I hear this from people all the time
If we can't be happy then you can't be too
I'm tired of being told what to do
Yeah, I'm sick of being told what to do

I guess nobody on earth is entitled
Not mothers, not children, not kings
Not a one single person on God's golden shore
Is entitled to one single thing
We don't deserve a single damn thing

Here's a whole concert on NPR from the Fonda.

Happy Dance

The new short by Mitchell Rose just made me so happy, I have to share.



This is a collaboration with choreographer Bebe Miller and STRANGERS FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD WHO WANTED TO PUT THEMSELVES ON VIDEO DANCING!

How amazing is that???

It took a long time to make, and it was worth it. The film is cheerful and shows that dance can be communicative and effective on any body, any age. The seamless editing is a lesson in the art of film.

I've been a fan of Mitchell's work forever. If you like this, he has lots more dance shorts - all charming and wonderful in their own ways.

Quote of the Week - Fonda

"Ask questions, stay curious. It's much more important to be interested than to be interesting." 

~ Jane Fonda, AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards

This is great advice for any artist, well, for anyone.

When I was doing experimental theatre in college (oh yeah), my teacher gave us this one:

"When you're bored, you're boring. When you're interested, you're interesting."

Thank you, Peter B. Cucich.

Whether on stage, or making a film - whatever art form - this is the core, the way to open doors to creative solutions. In her book, Directing Actors , Judith Weston talks about listening, and how important it is in the process. The more I work with Judy, the more I realize that listening, in a non-judgmental way, isn't only the key to clear performances - it's a key to life.

And what is listening in a non-judgmental way, except being interested - truly interested. Asking questions is a way of engaging, of becoming interested; everyone and everything has a story.

Being interested, instead of interesting, as Fonda points out, is taking the focus off self. Whenever you can do this, life becomes richer. When life is rich, when inner and outer life is rich, creativity is fertile.

Quote of the Week - Cervantes

"Fair and softly goes far." 

~ Miguel De Cervantes

It's true, isn't it? And always so welcome in comparison to unjust and clambering.

I'm an Aries, and we like to hit the push through button. Sometimes, that is just not the best option. You can miss a lot when you power through and it's easy to knock over fragile things, or people/

Go fair and softly into your week, and see how it goes.

Poem - Learning to Waiting to Learn

Learning to Waiting to Learn
All those bad relationshipswere just unripe peacheseaten too soon
hard and dry where they should besoft and juicy
yet we get seducedby the how sweet it could bemissing altogether the how sweet it isor isn’t
My friend says the differencebetween a restaurantand cooking at homeis that you have to eat your mistakes at home
No one bites into a not perfect peachand tosses it. We don’t waste like that.We do waste, but not like that.
They’ll keep biting and bitinghoping for that one perfect bitedown to the pit. The hard thingin the middle that offers nothingunless placed in fertile soil.
We are creatures of optimismeven the pessimistsas we are creatures of evolutioneven the creationists
We will keep going and goingthinking it will get better. It will. Toss the peach. Let it decay compost the soil. Let the pit split emit seeds of sweet juicy futuresfor generations marveling at a peach treeon the sidewalk of a Brooklyn streetwondering where did that come from
then waitas long as it takesfor the ripe one
in the meantimethere are other things to eatkale and collardsbooks and songs
wait for the right oneyou can know it by its scentthe velour of its touch
when it comesbe gentleit is soft, sweetand contains anelixir you won’t want to spill
not even a drop.

c. 2014e. amato

#np Jonathan Wilson

Quote of the Week - Miller

"Man builds on the ruins of his former selves. When we are reduced to nothingness, we come alive again. To season one’s destiny with the dust of one’s folly, that is the trick.” 

~ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch

This book was the best birthday present!

Each sentence is like it's own book - Miller's paragraphs are their own worlds.

No other writer, except Bukowski, seems as alive to me on the page, as if you are right there with them.

Just finished it today and ready to start it over. Thank you, again, Henry Miller.

Quote of the Week - Oberst

“Don’t look down
just cross the bridge

And when you get there
you’ll know why you did.

There’s a better life
on the other side

It’s your double life
on the other side

It’s your second life
on the side.”

~ Conor Oberst, “Double Life,” Upside Down Mountain

I was so scared of bridges when I was little, I'd crouch down in the back seat so as not to see. I wasn't too crazy about tunnels, either. (Which is bad, now I think about it since I was definitely part of the B&T set.)

I'd not thought about bridges as parts of life, not in this way…some things are just to be crossed - not processed or feared or anticipated. Just keep moving.

It's definitely the moment for some new Oberst. This is feeling like a good companion to Beck's Morning Phase. You're listening to that, right?

Quote of the Week - Rosoff

"I was coming around to the belief that whether you liked it or not, Things Happen and once they start happening you pretty much just have to hold on for dear life and see where they drop you when they stop." 

~Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now

I found How I LIve Now when I was browsing library ebooks and it felt like someone had written pages right from my life. I'm not a big YA reader, but I had to read it. It took about 2 days to finish it - I just fell in.

People like to think they're in control - especially American people. Truth is, you are only in control if you insulate yourself completely - and that's not life - and even that will only work for so long.

And that's ok. It's not about control. It's all about the letting go. Following the river.

Quote of the Week - Keats

"Health is my expected heaven" 

~ Keats

I'm having a Keats moment.  He seems to be appearing everywhere.  This is from a letter to his beloved, Fanny Brawne. He did not get his expected heaven, at least not in his life - perhaps on the other side.

He lived so briefly, yet left so much art, work and love when he left.  I can only marvel at how he achieved so much of this through ill-health. And at the strange and cruel irony that he had studied medicine before choosing poetry.

For some fictional Keats, check out Bright Star - Jane Campion's rumination on creative fertility with the always interesting Ben Whishaw as Keats. Or some historical fiction - Passion by Jude Morgan.

NaPoWriMo 30/30 - Untitled

"From what realm of light were we shadows who darken the earth spawned?" ~Henry Miller
Less Freud, more JungMore Joni stardustless Inferno Dante
or is that optimistic
The science of my desire is for us to be time traveling star stuffsome of uswe are
But too wellI knowyou know
there are those who shadowbait switch the lightbring the darkhook eye its needlestitch miserable historieswe legacy in DNA
to win this argumentit’s always a good ideato bring upHitler
see
yet somehowthat remains a burntfragmentof a chapterof a storynot yet told

you are goldenI am silversunmoonwe thread down to molten corethis I knowand have seen
but I can’t speak for the restthese lifetimeseven strung together like pearlstoo short in strandsto ring roundthe truth


30/30NaPoWriMo2014


Yay!!!!!!! 
(Image from Sacred Circles Tumblr)