Rich 'N Roll

“We should not be taught that we must wait for inspiration. On the contrary – action will always create the spark.”

– Widsom for the Young Musician‘s spin on a Frank Tibolt quote –

You know those days where you feel like you just can’t come up with anything “revolutionary,” new, fresh, dynamic…? Be it music, design, photography, writing, or what have you, I feel like everyone gets in creative slumps, and I’ve had one too many recently. In efforts to revive my own creativity, after much thought and many a struggle, and in the hopes of helping others out, I’d like to share my newly-formulated two-part solution. So here goes:

1. Get inspired.

2. Make it grow.

“Create The Spark”

Getting inspired feels great. It can be anything from that rush of emotion and energy where everything just comes to you at once and you need to get your ideas out RIGHT NOW… or, something as simple as a random thought that pops in your head, slowly starting the flow. I believe that inspiration is the key to Creativity.

So, how does one find inspiration?
As the quote suggests… ACTION !

Notice the verb “find” in that question. Inspiration rarely just comes to you! Even if it does, often you’re doing something that put you in a state of mind to receive the inspiration. The great thing is, if you’re open enough and willing to receive it, inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime.

Here are some actions that generate inspiration:

• Browse the internet. (StumbleUpon is great for this!)
• Gather examples.
• Go for a walk.
• Explore some nature.
• Talk to someone.
• Listen to (new) music.
• Watch a movie.
• Read something.
• Write something.
• Travel somewhere new.
• Try something you’ve never done.
• Learn new techniques in things you enjoy. (for me: guitar, computer software, photography…)

Sometimes, too, it’s as simple as living your daily life with a critical, observant eye. Instead of letting everything pass you by, stop and look at the little things, or try look at the world differently.

You can go out to actively seek inspiration in these ways… or, inspiration can (and often) will come to you when you aren’t really looking for it, when you’re just doing the things you enjoy. I’ve noticed, however, that many times I feel the spark of inspiration are at inopportune times to record it (riding on a subway, going for a run, at work, etc). So, here’s another thing I’ve learned:

Always be prepared to record ideas!

• Have a little notebook handy.
• Bring a mini-tape recorder.
• Bring a camera (or camera-phone).
• Make a quick acronym so you’ll remember.
• Text or e-mail yourself.

So next time you’ve got Creator’s Block, or just need some fresh ideas, try getting out and doing something! You never know where it will lead you. If you have more ways to generate inspiration, I’d love to hear them!

Until next time… ROCK ON!

Autumn quarter is officially in full swing!  I’ve been pretty busy with a lot of things.  First and foremost, I’m starting the Autumn co-op job search… and I must say I’m probably about as excited as I am anxious!  I’m trying my hand at getting a Motion Design job, which is probably one of the more competitive sub-sections of Digital Design.  Wish me luck!  I’ve been having fun doing some Green Screen and Special Effects this quarter, and am hoping to get more Motion this quarter.  BUT, I finally finished my first ever Motion Reel!!!  Check it out on my portfolio site!



What else… oh, I’ve gotten into Climbing/Bouldering this quarter!  It’s a ton of fun, I’ve been going 2-3 times a week with a few buddies.  It’s really cool to challenge yourself on all the different routes, and I’ve already seen my strength and stamina improve!


Running has been great too.  We were in Chicago a few weekends ago for a race, which was a lot of fun!  The course was right on the lake, the weather was great, the runners were friendly, hangin with the Running Clubbers was awesome as always, and I had a pretty decent race for not having trained much (31:54 for an 8k)!

Oh, speaking of UC Running Club, I finally finished and published the club’s website!  Check it out at http://www.uc.edu/groups/ucrunningclub !  Speaking of, Club is at 5:15, and it’s 5pm right now.  I should be going.


Til next time…..

I apologize to, well, all three of my blog followers for not having written in a while. I’ve been pretty busy! And this entry will be pretty short because I have to go to work in 30 minutes.. but, this is an intriguing topic I want to share.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading out here (books, I know, crazy!). I like to read non-fiction books, on the philosophy of music and photography. But I find these books to delve into the deeper world of Creativity in general… and that all creative forms of expression are in fact related at their deepest philosophical core.




For example. My current read is The Listening Book: Discovering Your Own Music, by W.A. Mathieu.

Looks like a retarded children’s book, but it’s a series of collected short essays that simply have to do with discovering sound and the music inside you, and the music that’s all around you.  Which brings me to today’s thought.  Here’s what struck me this morning.

“There is a hearing meditation that has two parts: first you Unlisten; then, you Listen.   Unlistening means clearing sounds from their associations.”

This is almost EXACTLY a quote from another favorite book of mine, a philosophical exploration of Photography called The Tao of Photography, in which is stated:

“To see, we must forget the name of what we look at.”

Both of these approaches for Music and Photography involve removing the bias of the mind, and looking into the deep, plain-and-simple truth of what it is we are seeing and hearing.  Try it sometime.  Lie awake at night and just listen.  Don’t label a car outside as “a car,” but hear the vibrations and rhythm.  Let it enter you, feel it.  Same with sight – don’t see a tree and think “tree”.  See it’s shape, it’s energy, it’s texture and color.  Look at what it IS, and forget any prior knowledge or stigma associated with the objects and sounds.




I think of it as SEEING and HEARING for the first time!  It’s pure and true, fused directly with nature.  It’s not easy to leave this whole world we know… but it’s about getting in touch with a higher awareness, a simple world of stark yet beautiful reality. Try this with sound and sight, and I guarantee you’ll open new doors to creative ideas… I know I’m trying to! :)

Download it under the Music section of my blog site.

..For free, of course!  I’m pretty excited about this track.  It was a lot of fun to write and record, and it’s also the first song I’m releasing for which I used my new recording equipment.  It’s a fun song, a mix of classic pop rock with modern alternative rock thrown in.




Give it a listen, hope you enjoy it!  I have a lot more to come… two more songs are finished, but I’m struggling with album artwork.  Then there’s another track that needs some tweaking, and several more in the works.  I’ll keep you all posted!  Cheers!!

Man, another great weekend out here!  I’m officially getting back into running shape which feels great, spent some time at Crissy Fields (North Bay, near the Golden Gate) and Ocean Beach, had an amazing (yet inexpensive!) grill out with some friends in Livermore, and went hiking and wine tasting in the Livermore Valley!

This may seem like a random change of subject, but it’s related, I swear.  I’ve known for a while but just recently noticed that my creative focus and interests are cyclical over time.  I’ll be super into writing and recording music for a few weeks, then I’ll shift to photography, then I’ll get into individual design projects, etc.  With each transfer, I pretty much zone everything else creative out and focus simply on that one thing.  It’s nice to maintain creativity but simply transfer my outlet, but it can be a little frustrating… sometimes I feel like I never make big strides in anything, because I’m too busy “dabbling.”  Most of all, when I zone other things out, I fear that I’ll “fall behind” or lose all my skill.




Point being, I was big into music creation for the first couple weeks out here, and I got nervous my photography was falling behind. Within the past week, though, I’ve naturally shifted from music to photography… and now it feels like I’m falling behind in music!  I need to just relax, and realize I’ll return to it naturally… but I get impatient with my creativity, because I know I don’t have as much time for music back at school.

Along those lines, I got a library card recently on a whim and it’s been a great idea so far.  At first I wasn’t sure what to read, but after a few fumbled attempts in different genres, I’ve been thrilled to discover books about photography and music.  Here’s the one I’ve been really diggin’ recently:

101 Songwriting Wrongs and How to Right Them

Well, enough chitchat.  Here are some photos I’ve taken recently!

It’s great to share some good times with friends.  Best of all, my family is coming to visit me in a couple weeks, and Andy is visiting over Labor Day… I can’t wait to share the city with them!  Til next time… peace!

I believe the photo above pretty much sets the mood for the day.  Wow, what an unbelievable place Yosemite is!!  Absolutely breathtaking, so full of life and beauty.  I went there with my old friend Mike on saturday, we had a blast!  We left at 4 AM, started hiking at 7 AM… we hiked 16 miles roundtrip in 12 hours, to the highest point you can hike to in the park called Half Dome!!  And, of course, I took lots of pictures :)

All in all, an unforgettable adventure.  So much fun, extremely tiring, and an amazing experience.  This planet is just incredible :)

Well, I’m back on the West Coast for another summer co-op in San Francisco!  And I gotta say, this has been the smoothest co-op transition yet.  Since I’m living in the same place I did over winter, housing was a cinch, the flight was cheap and smooth, I already know my way around so no need to orient myself, and got a good and relatively inexpensive Craigslist bike!

I really have no idea what to expect from this summer, both in and outside of my job.  Being 21 now really helps, so I plan to check out all the venues and bars I couldn’t over winter.  I’m also hoping that my several months off will finally have healed my shin splints, so I hope to start running again in earnest.  I need to get my Portfolio ready for finding another job come Fall.  

 

Finally, I hope to get a lot of songwriting and song production done this summer.  Now that I have some time, I’m hoping to finish up a few songs I developed the past couple months during school.  Speaking of, I should have a new song coming out within the next week or so, called “Let Loose,” but I’ll keep ya posted on that.

 

Anyways, the weather is fantastic out here – mid-60s / low-70s!  So I plan to do a lot of biking, exploring, and hittin the beach.  I guess the only negative thing so far other than not really havin anybody to hang with is that, since I’ve been here before, it doesn’t feel new and exciting anymore… BUT, I guess I just have to make it so myself!  At least the view from my room is a lot better than last time:

I start work on Monday… hope everyone’s summers are startin off well too!

Well, Winter has faded to Spring, and so ends another co-op quarter.  It’s been an amazing experience… I’ve dreamed of the West Coast for years, and I must say, it definitely lived up to my expectations!  Unfortunately I’ve been encountered some physical complications between wrist pain and shin splints, but I’ve tried to take advantage of what I can the past couple weeks.  

 

I’ve been out taking a ton pictures recently, and especially the past few days. In my last week here, I’ve tried to hit many of the epic views of the city.  And let me say the views are UNREAL!  The great thing is, there are so many of them — there’s no way I could’ve hit them all.  But some day… I will return to this incredible city to visit, work, or live!!  Only time will tell.  Anyways, I fly home Saturday morning, and I must say I’m very excited to be back with family and friends, and to begin a great spring quarter!  So in honor of this great city and as a final farewell, I’ll let some photos do the talkin’.  La Paz, San Francisco.

 

Well, it’s that time of the quarter.  Whether you’re feeling the pressures of Hell Week(s) in school, or on co-op preparing to dive back into the workload, it never hurts to cut hassles and save time.

 

It’s been a busy Design winter for me, between work and independent projects.  Along the way, I’ve stumbled upon several handy tips for Adobe products that you may or may not know, but have saved me a world of time — and preserved my sanity.  They’re not earth-shattering… just a few little handy tips.  So first, I’ll share 5 quick, handy Timeline tips for Adobe Flash CS3.  Here goes.

 

 

#1) “Copy” / “Paste” Frames

Want to use your sweet animation in another file, without turning it into a movie clip?

Copy the keyframes/layers of a Timeline animation from one file, and Paste them in a different file.

1. Highlight the frames you want in File 1.fla
2. Right-Click, go to “Copy Frames”
   
3. Open File 2, make a new layer
4. Select the keyframe where you want the pasted frames to start
5. Right-click this keyframe and go to “Paste Frames” 

 

 

#2) “Edit Multiple Keyframes” 

Need your WHOLE complicated animation moved, without making a movie clip?

Move the physical position of multiple objects over multiple keyframes in a Timeline animation.

1. Select all frames of all objects you want to move
2. Click the “Edit Multiple Keyframes” icon (2 to the right of Onion Skinning, below the timeline)
    
   * Like Onion Skinning, two Handles will appear above the keyframes. 
3. Drag those handles to span the set of keyframes you would like to adjust
4. Select that same span of keyframes in the Timeline
    
5. Move objects to the desired location
6. When finished, un-click the “Edit Multiple Keyframes” icon

 

 

#3) “Remove” / “Insert” Frames

Need to move your timeline animation a few frames earlier (or later)?

Instead of dragging selected frames, delete frames or insert blank frames to adjust the position of all keyframes for the selected layers.

1. Select the amount of frames you want to add or delete.
2. Right-Click, and select “Remove Frames” or “Insert Frames” accordingly
   

 

 

#4) “Reverse Frames”

Use this handy feature if you need a Timeline animation reversed completely backwards.

1. Select the frames you need reversed
2. Right-Click, and select “Reverse Frames”
    

 

 

#5) “Add Shape Hint”

Flash completely butcher your attempts at Shape Tweening?

Add a Shape Hint to set the start and ending position of specific points.

1. Select the first keyframe  in the timeline of your Shape Tween animation
2. Go to Modify -> Shape -> Add Shape Hint (or SHIFT + Cmd + H)
    
3. A little red circle will appear in the center of the shape.  Drag it to the point you want to start with.
4. Now, select the last keyframe in the timeline of your Shape Tween
5. Notice the little red circle in the center again.  Now just drag the circle to the new position of the point.
6. REPEAT for pretty much every point that’s important in the animation, until Flash gets it right!
   

 

That’s all I got for now.  Like I said, nothing earth-shattering.  But, I’d love to hear if any of this is new or helpful. Or, if you’ve got a tip you’d like to share, leave a comment!

 

Download it under the Music section of my blog site.

 

I’m excited (and kinda anxious) to release my first original song.  Definitely not the first song I’ve written or recorded, but it’s the first time I’ve ever shared one with people outside my family!  I really like it, and that’s ultimately why I embark on my musical endeavors, to make something I enjoy and to have fun in the process.  But I figure if I like it, maybe others might, too.  Give it a listen, see if ya dig.

 

I’ve actually been up all night getting the track ready and finishing up the album art.  So it’s gonna be a long day, but it was definitely worth it.  I feel really good about it.  Actually, I think I’m gonna cut this post short… I gotta shower and get ready for work… til then, keep on rockin in the free world.