Category Archives: creativity
On Creativity
I write poetry fairly regularly. Pop culture criticism increasingly often. But I’ve wanted to write a novel for about 7 years, and so far have not had the time/guts/patience. I’ll be launching a series of posts reflecting on creativity and what it involves.
What I immediately run into, what I think most artists of any kind run into, is not just self-doubt, but in particular, unless you have the particular naive arrogance of the teens and early twenties, self-contempt. Any good craftsman has a wide and deep and constantly evolving familiarity with the successes in his craft, with the novel or the painting or the installation that succeeded, with the artists who are succeeding. In particular, with the history of all the great works in your particular genre within your particular field of art, that have been produced, and the ones that are currently being produced.
In the face of this, it’s hard, can feel nearly impossible, to produce anything at all original or new.
Which is why I’m beginning to grapple with the idea of creativity as something fundamentally not original, as, ultimately, imitation, perseverance, and will rather than inspiration and originality.
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Kickstarter Tea Documentary!
My friend Natasha has launched a Kickstarter to create a tea documentary! There’s an overwhelmingly large coffee culture out there but, like her, I often feel that tea is a little overlooked here in the States. I would love to see this talented New York blogger go on a tea journey from coast to coast and film it.
Check it out! (Even a $1 pledge is appreciated:)
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Make Art
“Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work … No matter what you read, no matter what they claim, nearly all creators spend nearly all their time on the work of creation. There are few overnight successes and many up-all-night successes.” – Creative People Say No
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56 Acronyms and Initialisms
Yet another reason John Green rules. (He explains the origin of Three Musketeers, y’all. The candy bar, not the Dumas tale). Also, Michael J Fox’s middle name doesn’t start with J.
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Interview: Natasha of The Snooty Tea Blog
Natasha lives in New York and is the tea-genius behind The Snooty Tea Blog, a blog I am a big fan of in which she curates, reviews, and extensively discusses tea. I reached out to her to find out more about her inspiration, and below are her delightful responses. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter!
Do you remember your very first cup of tea?
We’ve always had some form of tea in the house, and one of the first cups of tea that I can remember was made by my grandmother, who was staying with us for the winter. It was a mug of Celestial Seasoning’s Red Zinger, which she had doctored up with honey and lemon because I was suffering from some flu-y thing or another. She had made one for herself as well–maybe I’d tasted hers and requested one of my own. Dangit, the more I try and recall exactly what happened, the blurrier the details get. Call it senili-tea.
How did your passion for tea start? How did that segue into the The Snooty Tea Blog?
My passion for tea started after ordering up some Adagio goodies during the “Woo, green tea is the magical skinny-bullet!” craze of ’09. Since I wasn’t keen on purchasing creepy tablets of tea extract, I went the more natural route and decided to treat myself to some high-quality full-leaf bags. I became so enamored with the tea itself that I wanted to try more and more, as many varie-teas as possible–which is still true today.
The Snooty Tea Blog came about because all that sip-‘sploration had accumulated with it a hefty load of senseless tea knowledge. With nowhere else to put it, I dumped those tidbits and tea-scoveries onto a cabin-fever-inspired blog that I had started, but never had any real goals for. As it turned out, people liked reading my posts! Go figure. Everything else fell from there–getting contacted by tea companies for reviews, starting the Youtube channel, meeting some really amazing tea folks like Elyse Peterson of Tealet, Jeff Fuchs of Jalam Teas, and Nicole Martin of Tea For Me Please… Ece-tea-ra.
Recommend a black, a green, a white, and an oolong tea.
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Coffee and Irony 