Creativity...

What happens when the creative well goes dry? Do you search for inspiration or does it have to happen on its own? What does inspiration even mean? If you have taken the time to search it out does it stop being inspiration at that point and is it just you using your own built in creativity? I suppose that their is no real answer to these questions and I am just kind of killing some time in the hopes that all of this writing causes something to pop into my head that lets me feel like I am being creative. But so far nothing is happening at all.

The Engine Driver - The Decemberists

There is a line from a Decemberists song - "I am a writer, a writer of fictions." I feel like that sometimes but I don't think that I do it very well and I honestly would rather write about honest things. That isn't always the easiest thing to do though because for me the honest things usually come from an emotional spot and I do not always have access to that emotional spot. I wonder sometimes if the emotional well that I draw from has a certain limit to its capacity and I am only able to draw from it when it is full. Perhaps that is what keeps me sane or should I say a level of sane? I just don't know. I do know that I enjoy writing and when it is going well there is often nothing else that I would rather be doing even if in the process I feel like my heart is being wrenched out of me or my tears are making it hard for me to see.

16 Military Wives - The Decemberists

There is just something that I truly love when as I write the words flow out of me and I see them appear in front of me on the computer screen. It energizes me as it continues and as my fingers move faster and faster and the words appear. It isn't like everything that I write down are genius words of wisdom but in the midst of the process it certainly feels like that is the case and when I am writing from an honest place it certainly feels like there is some added weight to what I am doing. I know that for me, when I write it does tend to be stream of consciousness stuff and so there usually has to be something that has triggered the thought or the effort.

Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect - The Decemberists

Sometimes it is as simple as the perfume someone is wearing or the clothes they have on. It could be some perceived slight that only I have picked up on and is not even real. But at whatever emotional level I am writing from it is real to me. In today's case it is a man wearing a plaid long sleeve shirt that he has buttoned up to his neck and black horn rimmed glasses. This bugs me and I am honestly not sure why. I know that he smacks of hipster from his full beard all the way down his skinny jeaned clad legs to his black Vibram 5-finger shoes or whatever it is they are called. It shouldn't bug me but oh it does. It does!

White Tooth Man - Iron and Wine

I shouldn't rail against the Hipster as I am one of them. I wonder if that is what frustrates me. I know that the way that I dress and the glasses I wear and the music I listen to are choices I have made at an honest level and I do so without any level of irony or detached amusement. I guess I wonder at the authenticity of others who look like I do. Is it jealousy? Perhaps it is. I honestly do not know. I do know that seeing the Hipster causes a visceral reaction in me that I am not always able to control as well as I would like to. This is all despite my attempts at being zen and detached. Perhaps that is my sin. Do I care to much? I wonder sometimes.

Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me - Iron and Wine

4-21-2010 (Wednesday)

It appears that there may be some initial resistance to my plan to replace the world's economy with Hugs. I heard from one Commentator Joel who absolutely refused to Hug a Hipster. Now I can respect that position because after all who would really want to Hug a Hipster. But I am unable to allow for any potential destabilizing of my chosen method of payment. The economy must stay strong and the power and value of the Hug must be inviolate. So therefor I decree that from the day of the beginning of my Theocracy all Hipsters will be done away with. Their presence and the fact that most people are not willing to or want to Hug them will do irreversible damage to my economic system.

We will just relocate them to a Hipster enclave. I am thinking Portland or Seattle because the mild weather will make it easier on them and they seem to thrive in the damp weather. Almost like mold really. But never fear. In the enclave the Hipster will be fed and allowed out daily to exercise. They will be allowed to listen to the latest albums from the hottest indy bands that haven't even been signed yet and in some cases do not even have an album to listen to. They will be allowed a long debate time each day as well as two hours each day to correct errors on the Internet about their favorite bands and films. But I will not allow the drinking of Pabst Blue Ribbon. It is not needed and will only serve to prolong the scourge of Hipster-ism upon the land.

Trust me in this. We will not be truly free until Hipsters are done away with. I tell you upon that glorious day. The sun will shine and the birds shall sing. All will be right with the earth. Now join me in a group Hug as we concentrate upon the gradual removal of the Hipster. My will be done.

4-19-2010 (Monday)

My friends and I went to the Portland Timbers game this weekend. It was opening game for this season as well as the last opening day for the Timbers in this league. Because next season is their first season in Major League Soccer (MLS). It was a great opening day. My buddy Nick and I have season tickets and they are in the third row right on the 48 yard line. So it was a fun evening overall.

But what I wanted to address in today's post was the fans at the game. The Timbers have a pretty rabid fan base. The game was sold out with a little over 15K people now when the team starts MLS next season the stadium will have been renovated and should be holding closer to 30K I believe. I just hope that we can continue to fill it. I think that Portland as a city and the parts of Oregon that surround it can pull in those kind of numbers. I know there are some non-believers out there and that is fine. But to them I say we will not know until we try. So I think it is a good move on the part of the Timbers ownership as well as the Portland city council to go for this chance.

But the best part of the day for me was seeing my friend's Travis and Andrew and Nick and then playing "Hipster Slug" (Copyrighted) "I own that so none you trolls better steal it. If you do at least send the traffic my way please." So anyway I am sure most of you are familiar with slug bug. Well this is a variant of that. Now I realize that most large city's have a fair share of their own hipsters but I think Portland seems to attract a special sub-set of hipsters.



So I thought lets play that and promptly punched Nick when I saw one. Well that was fun but honestly after a very little bit. Between the punching of Nick and him punching me back and Travis having a good eye for hipsters and lets be honest in certain parts of Portland you can't throw a can of PBR without hitting a hipster and they seem particularly drawn to the Timbers games. Well my arm was getting sore and there never seemed to be an end to them. They just kept coming and coming. They were always there around every corner with their tattoos and their black rimmed glasses and their smoking. It was like a zombie movie except the zombies had been replaced by hipsters.

As the Timbers season progress's I will be giving you more updates about the season and I think I will begin tagging hipsters Marlin Perkins style. I think it will benefit all of us to keep track of their movements around Portland. At the very least it may benefit the numerous coffee roasters in the area.