True North

The Boss

I finally gave myself an entire hour to listen to Bruce Springsteen's SXSW keynote speech from earlier this month, and let me tell you, it is gooood. I love him. I've loved him since I was 15, driving around with the boy I was crazy about, rocking out to Glory Days with absolutely no irony. Ha!

The speech chronicles Bruce's creative influences, from Elvis to Woody Guthrie and a whole lot in between. (Only he could posit that Do-Wop is the sexiest music in the world and actually convince me it's true.) But his overarching message is of the importance of artistic diversity. He talks about how there are mindbogglingly more bands and artists and genres and sub-genres now than there were when he was starting out, and that despite what the purists say, this is a good thing. He gives advice to younger acts, and that advice generally amounts to: be human. Be yourself. Keep doing exactly what you're doing, and do more of it.

NPR.com has the whole thing available here, where you can either watch a video of the speech or listen to the audio only. If you're looking for something to listen to in the background while you putter around in the kitchen or work on a craft, this is great stuff. (Though not all of it is safe for kids, be warned. He's a salty rock star and uses appropriately salty language.) At one point towards the end, I got goosebumps and had to go back and re-listen as he put into words one of my dearest-held principles. He said,

"Be able to keep two completely contradictory ideas alive and well inside of your heart and head at all times--if it doesn't drive you crazy, it will make you strong."  

I usually feel like I have two completely contradictory ideas inside, and it's taken many years for me to see it as a positive thing, which I overwhelmingly do now. Glad to think you agree, Bruce...

Give the speech a listen! And if you do, comment here and tell me what you think.

Listening to

Lately, my background music while painting and sewing has sounded like this. Turned up loud enough to drown out most everything else. Enjoy!

 

 

(This is a bit of an experiment - my first time putting a playlist into the blog. If you have any problems listening to it, please let me know!)

Our Summer Days

One week at the beach and a few adventures in the city later, plus some outside painting fun, weekly trips to the pool, red tomatoes finally coming in from the garden, new Gillian Welch in heavy rotation, nightly pre-dinner Pimm's cups with strawberries cucumber and mint, and Maeve's innaugural trip to the movie theater for the new Winnie the Pooh ... and I think I'm finally getting the hang of this summer thing.

P.S. If your childhood self was as obsessed with making friendship bracelets as mine was, then you'll find it's just like riding a bike to pick it up again. If you need a refresher, or you never learned, there are plenty of tutorials on the internet - just google friendship bracelets. I'm loving how effortlessly cool they look, especially worn mixed in with actual grown-up bracelets.