Episodes
Friday Jan 21, 2022
Undercover Writing Partners! – Undercover Rubicon (Music Duo) Ep. 23
Friday Jan 21, 2022
Friday Jan 21, 2022
What do you do when you’re locked in your house for 6 months? Record an EP of course!
Inspired by the sound of 80s Post-Punk and Darkwave, this musical duo loves to take a look back at the past “to see how genres intertwine.”
This episode was recorded in late 2020: we were looking back on quarantine and how it allowed more time to make music. Before that, the duo says “the only time we had to make music was on vacation.” We talk about the evolution of a song in the writing process, the recording process, having opposite schedules, Depeche Mode, celebrity overdoses and the demands of celebrity… maybe why the Rubicon would like to be undercover in the first place. We also hear about Steve’s original band and their child-prodigy nine year-old drummer and get a glimpse into the evolution of a song.
Rebec… I mean Rubicon shares her perspective about why the pandemic was good (in some ways) and how she was hesitant to release a song that could be considered political. “I’m not built to live through a Revolution” she says quoting the meme.
Guest: Undercover Rubicon (Rebecca Leavitt / Raul Hernandez)
Apple Music
Instagram - @undercoverrubicon
Facebook
Featured Music:
Living A Lie by Undercover Rubicon
Time by Undercover Rubicon
“I Don’t Know How To Write” (In Too Deep sketch) written by Rebecca Leavitt and Steven Leavitt
In Too Deep by Undercover Rubicon
The 12th Hour by Transfiguration
Forever Somewhere by Eric Kennedy, Jo Blinman and Steven Leavitt
“Smooth Beat V2” by Undercover Rubicon
Mentioned in the episode:
Oliver Tree
Oliver Tree - I’m Gone (music video)
The Oceanographers "After Quarantine" - Spotify
Depeche Mode - Wikipedia
Tom Petty - Wikipedia
Tags: music, recording, Zoom Recorder, AirbNb, mixing consoles, Trident, Oram, multitracking, tape, mp3.co, ebaumsworld, Homestar Runner, music video, Cool Edit Pro, Adobe, fire, Oliver Tree, DTLA, album release, release party, VEGAS!, release date, promotion, social media, publicity stunts, Snapchat, Instagram, filters, plastic hair, scandalous, hair and makeup, poorly-kept secrets, DIY, cheapskates, quarantine, time to create, shooting locations, studios, roadie, vacation, too much work, Mammoth, Lake Tahoe, Spotify, listen numbers, cowriting, Time, Living A Lie, In Too Deep, monikers, siblings, live music production, no time, freetime, creative time, The Office, Netflix, DVD box-sets, VHS tapes, bootlegs, Goodwill, Salvation Army, scotch-tape, copy-protection, experimentation, 4-track, cassette, Hipsters, AKAI, reel-to-reel, Tascam, Wavesfactory, drum tones, 80s, kick, snare, tapes, Mom, The Oceanographers, “After Quarantine”, Pearl drums, drum tuning, guitars, singing, Hawaii, Studio City, grounding, breakfast burritos, Rich Mouser, producing, vibe, Venus Illuminato, hard-disk recorder, punch-ins, micromanaging, mindset, 2020, post-punk, darkwave, lyrics, ideas, vision, documentaries, genre studies, music history, Dropbox, riff, chord, melody, sketch, demo, Bon Iver, 17 years old, Jonie Blinman, childhood bands, Depeche Mode, Mitch’s Java and Jazz, Christian bands, creative arguments, St. Vincent
Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators, artists, inventors, designers, and producers. Along the way he gains perspective and multiplies his understanding of our universal potential for creating, living, and learning.
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Please review this podcast on Google Play, iTunes and Stitcher and help other creatives find their tribe!
Sunday Jan 09, 2022
Questioning Beliefs - Leo Lutz (Seventh Day Adventist?) Ep. 22 part 2
Sunday Jan 09, 2022
Sunday Jan 09, 2022
What happens when you start to question the moral foundation you grew up on? In this episode, Steve and Leo sit down to have another conversation about programming but begin to notice similar principles behind law, society, its mores, and even religion.
Leo grew up a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Protestant-Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of the Sabbath (on Saturday) as a sanctified day of rest. While studying the Bible, he started noticing circular logic and other problematic reasoning which led him to question assumptions from his upbringing and begin to let go of his faith. As an INTP, reworking his beliefs wasn’t personally as challenging as the fear of disappointing his family because leaving the faith could be interpreted as jeopardizing his soul and a cause for separation from the ones he loves.
What’s clear is that both Steve and Leo have had to do a lot of thinking surrounding issues of faith and community. Steve and Leo also talk about free-will, cults, workaholism, burnout and depression.
Guest: Leo Lutz
Deytah - Creative Digital Consultancy
Instagram: @only1skeemer
Episode References:
Seventh-day Adventist Church - Wikipedia
Business Wars: Cereal Wars - Apple Podcasts
Ninety-five Theses - Wikipedia
The Great Disappointment - Wikipedia
The History of the Millerites – ThoughtCo
Science Mike - The Cozy Robots Show (formerly Ask Science Mike)
The Burnout Generation, Anne Helen Petersen (Buzzfeed essay)
* If you’re looking for information on deconstruction, many listeners may find listening to these podcasts from Season 1 more helpful than the more recent episodes.
Self-Helpless Podcast – “Burnout” (episode) July 12, 2019
How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation (Article, Buzzfeed)
Connections (TV Mini Series, 1978)
Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators, artists, inventors, designers, and producers. Along the way, he gains perspective and multiplies his understanding of our universal potential for creating, living, and learning.
Host: Steven Leavitt
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Episode Music composed by Steven Leavitt
Editorial and production support by Josh Geenen
Please review this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, and Stitcher and help other creatives find their tribe!
Website: https://thelanguageofcreativity.com/
Instagram: @LanguageOfCreativity
Facebook Group: The Language of Creativity Discussion Group
Tags: Sabbath, Shabbat, Judaism, Seventh-day Adventist Church, The Great Disappointment, 1844, Hale-Bopp Comet, Heaven's Gate cult, Adventism, Kellogg, Post, Battle Creek Michigan, Business Wars, Cereal Wars, Ten Commandments, 10 Commandments, Deuteronomy, ninety-five Theses, 95 Theses, Bible, Star Wars, Protestant, sola scriptura, Calvinism, Arminianism, Teetotalism, Saving Mr. Banks, prohibition, healthcare, bartering, Science Mike, deconstruction, Liturgist podcast, hell, atheism, Dante's Inferno, New Testament, original sin, Wikipedia, free will, determinism, seminary, Faith Undone podcast, black sheep, healthcare, beer, Newtonian physics, Jewish, rabbi, Old Testament, Jesus, Christianity, pedagogy, teaching, original sin, Book of Tobit, Book of Enoch, biblical apocrypha, Eckhart Tolle, Kingdom of Heaven, Heaven, psychology, God, workaholism, procrastination, burnout, Ethos Church, programming, coding, Hell, Atheism
Thursday Dec 09, 2021
Creative Problem-Solving – Leo Lutz (Full-Stack Developer) Ep. 21, part 1
Thursday Dec 09, 2021
Thursday Dec 09, 2021
How can a programmer help put out a blazing wildfire? Steve talks to longtime friend and programmer Leo Lutz about unconventional creativity and what happens when you pair non-conventional thinking with an open approach to problem-solving. (Hint: you get culture-shifting ideas.)
Leo Lutz is cofounder of Deytah, a digital consultancy focused on helping small businesses and nonprofits solve problems related to user experience, development, and data solutions. Leo has a knack for teaching and creative problem-solving but also a love for audio. In fact, Leo and Steve used to do live sound together for Don’t Call Us Tori, a live music showcase that Steve co-founded with musician Shannon Hurley. (And did you know, Leo’s company Deytah built the I Create Sound website?)
In this episode, Steve and Leo discuss the uniqueness of possessing a N+P pairing on the MBTI and reflect on how their Myers–Briggs personality types intersect with their work. Steve asks Leo to explain what programming IS, and Leo addresses the notion that coders sometimes lack creativity. They also discuss The Magic Castle, mixing audio in church, and pedagogy (teaching).
Subscribe to the podcast and look for part 2 with Leo Lutz!
Guest: Leo Lutz
Deytah - Creative Digital Consultancy
Instagram: @only1skeemer
Matrik SEE (Requires Google Login)
Episode References:
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator - Wikipedia
HTML (programming language) - Mozilla
PHP (programming language) - Wikipedia
Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators, artists, inventors, designers, and producers. Along the way, he gains perspective and multiplies his understanding of our universal potential for creating, living, and learning.
Host: Steven Leavitt
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Music: Trap Door by Chef, Moonlight by Chef
Editorial and Production support by Josh Geenen (a very special thanks!)
Please review this podcast on Google Play, iTunes, and Stitcher and help other creatives find their tribe!
Website: https://thelanguageofcreativity.com/
Facebook Group: The Language of Creativity Discussion Group - Facebook
Tags: wildfires, Colorado Search and Rescue, Google, Chromecasts, Apple, Windows, fire, coders, coding, programming, Indiana Jones, Myers-Briggs, Intuitive Perceiver, MBTI, Firefly, Jung, cognitive functions, audio engineering, orchestra, education, The Magic Castle, closeup magic, stage management, church, broadcast, satellite, Jellyfish Lake, computers, algebra, tutoring, user experience, UX, HTML, PHP, HVAC, law, guitar, emergent systems, macOS, Unix, Next OS, Steve Jobs, JavaScript, TypeScript, multi-factor authentication, inspector, Ozobot, Tim Cook, early adopters, late adopters, Swine flu, Polau, #2 pencils, number 2 pencils, live-sound, A2, pedagogy, Palau, students, users, authoring, how-to
Saturday Jul 10, 2021
The Secret To Making Hit Records – Joe Solo (Record Producer) Ep. 20
Saturday Jul 10, 2021
Saturday Jul 10, 2021
Would you like to know a little secret about making great records? Who doesn’t want to know a great secret!
The origin story goes that Joe Solo discovered Macy Gray while she was working in a Beverly Hills diner and he decided to develop her career, vowing to work “however long it takes” until they made it big - a promise that took nearly 15 years to fulfill. Since then Joe has worked with the likes of Fergie, will.i.am, Erykah Badu, Shinedown, and Shiny Toy Guns and labels such as Atlantic, Epic, Universal, Sony, BMG, and Warner Brothers. A producer, songwriter and composer, Joe started out as a guitarist but his life trajectory was permanently altered when instead of a new guitar pedal his dad bought him a Tascam Portastudio for his birthday.
Joe and Steve talk shop discussing the psychology of producing, the tricks they use to capture great takes, managing (and eliciting) a performer’s emotion, and delivering constructive feedback. They talk about how the studio can be an instrument, and how certain sounds were achieved on classic records (like Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”). Joe talks about the importance of listening to new music, and he and Steve touch on helping an artist find their own authenticity. Steve also gets Joe to share about his love of Hans Zimmer’s music and the movie Interstellar (by his favorite director Christopher Nolan)… and we get to hear about that one time that Steve was on the set of Inception while the train was driving down the middle of a downtown street! Joe says “Composing exists in film to command a certain emotional response from the audience, it will always be the job of the music in a film to serve the story.”
Joe has also helped many many independent musicians through his workshops and classes, and if there were one piece of advice he could give to every artist he meets it would be: “Never ever quit.”
Guest: Joe Solo
Website: https://joesolo.com/
Christy Nava – Soul Contracts EP
(Produced by Joe Solo and Steven Leavitt)
Listen on all-platforms!
Episode References
National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM)
Intro/Outro Music: Nothing Wrong by Lobate Scarp
Tags: songwriting, perfection, Michael Jackson, plug-ins, automation, Prince, phase cancellation, audio engineer, wavelengths, EQ, hertz, frequency, reverb, tracking, retracking, recording artist, emotion, magic, coaching, songwriting, guitarist, broadcast professional, experience, education, proactive listening, mixing board, AI generated music, emote, vibe, Lior Cohen, Def Jam, the human element, UBI, film and television licensing, Pink Floyd, The Wall, Us And Them, music publishing, Christopher Nolan, autotune, Macy Gray, Fergie, Shiny Toy Guns
The Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators, artists, inventors, designers, and producers. Along the way he gains perspective and multiplies his understanding of our universal potential for creating, living, and learning.
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Please review this podcast on Google Play, iTunes and Stitcher and help other creatives find their tribe! The idea and concept of tribe has never been so inclusive as now in our interconnected reality. We’d love for you all to join us.
Follow us on Instagram at @languageofcreativity
Friday Jun 11, 2021
The Acorn and the Oak – Michael Boyle (Therapist/Life Coach) Ep. 19
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Steven is having a bad day! Luckily, he was about to sit down with our next guest, Michael Boyle, a licensed psychotherapist specializing in work with relationships and trauma. Orphaned temporarily from his recording studio due to a COVID outbreak, Steven dons his backpack and his new mobile recording rig to host the podcast outside on a blanket down by the river!
Michael Boyle is a former college athlete and NHL Hopeful, who after suffering multiple head injuries became critically depressed. As a lifelong learner devoted to psychological and spiritual growth, Mike searched for over 20 years to find the very best tools, perspectives and methods to empower himself to go from “surviving to thriving.” After studying the intersection of science and spirituality, NLP, clinical hypnosis, nutrition, exercise, and optimal flow states. Michael became a licensed therapist (LMFT, CDBT), but switched to a coaching model because he found that the typical therapy context wasn’t helping people create true and lasting change. After thousands of hours of clinical experience and training, being a Coach seemed to provide a more effective balance for clients not just to heal but to thrive. Mike developed the Inner Advantage Method (I AM), a curriculum for turning hard times into holistic happiness. He founded the ALL Together Academy, the Relating Renaissance, and the Brotherhood of Men (whose mission is to empower men to overcome isolation, shame, and anger in order to become the rockstar dads, irresistible husbands, kick-ass professionals, providers and contributors they are built to be.)
Steve and Mike open up about toxic masculinity and the stigma behind being a sensitive man. They further debunk the idea behind the starving artist, talk about their spouses and why it is so valuable for artists to have partners who support their unique ways of life (Mike’s wife Tania is a musician). They also discuss concepts from psychology like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, somatic therapy, EMDR, PTSD, and the empowering idea of moving from Post-Traumatic stress to Post-Traumatic growth.
As Michael explains by analogy: “Every acorn has the capacity to become an oak tree. … What we can do as human beings is we can nurture our acorn, and we can put it in fertile soil, and we can give it water and sunshine, we can create the conditions that make it more likely to become an oak tree. But we don't make ourselves into oak trees, nature does that. It's natural for us to grow and thrive. … And when we grow and thrive, we become an oak tree… By becoming an oak tree, we are beneficial.
We create: We create environments for bugs and for birds and for kids to put a swing on. … The world misses out if [you or I do] not blossom and flourish and thrive and drop [our] acorns so that others can benefit. So it is in our design, it is already inherent in us to become an oak tree.”
Guest: Michael Boyle
Website: https://www.alltogether.love/
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/alltogetherloving
FB Group ALL-TOGETHER-THRIVING: https://www.facebook.com/groups/alltogetherthriving
Join The Relating Revolution: https://www.facebook.com/alltogetherloving/posts/10160601102702985
Email: mike@alltogether.love
Mike on the 10,000 No’s Podcast
Episode References
The Power Of Bad (book)
The Mask You Live In (movie)
Fuga (Tania’s band)
Lar C. Short – Grace Essence Mandala
The Way of Radiance (book) by Lar C. Short
Tags: therapy, COVID, growth mindset, A Bronx Tale, EMDR, somatic therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, victim-blaming, romantic partners of artists, trauma, PTSD, Post-Traumatic growth, healing, speeding tickets, privilege, reticular activating system, martial arts, The Human Design, sprouting and pruning, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators, artists, inventors, designers, and producers. Along the way he gains perspective and multiplies his understanding of our universal potential for creating, living, and learning.
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Please review this podcast on Google Play, iTunes and Stitcher and help other creatives find their tribe! The idea and concept of tribe has never been so inclusive as now in our interconnected reality. We’d love for you all to join us.
Follow us on Instagram at @languageofcreativity
(Recording a podcast down by the river.)
Friday May 28, 2021
BONUS! Zelda – Scott Thrift
Friday May 28, 2021
Friday May 28, 2021
tags: The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, NES, connection, play, video-games, hard drive crashes, save game, “endless adventure”, story, Joseph Campbell, meaning making, avatar, persona, duration, story-making, songwriting, reflections, experience, growth, memory, non-linear editing, Adobe Premiere, Japan, The Last Of Us 2, Playstation, Minecraft, adventure, CONTINUE?
Look for Scott Thrift's full-episode on this show called "The Present" (episode 15).
Wednesday May 19, 2021
Designing The Future – Stephen Bau (Social Architect) Ep. 18, Pt.2
Wednesday May 19, 2021
Wednesday May 19, 2021
New fields such as Biomimicry offer amazing insight into the way nature solves the most complex problems with stunning simplicity, allowing scientists to create amazing “advancements” in human technology. What is clear is how little we really know about everything. In part one, Stephen Bau begins to speak about The Holobiont: the emergent, living system of all nested systems. In part 2, we explore our complex social systems and how seemingly all attempts at utopia have been prone to fail. How might we create a more peaceful society and correct humanity’s voracious tendency toward self-destruction?
Bau founded the Builders Collective to inspire others to design a more resilient society. The Builders Collective uses human-centered design to create engaging experiences through art, design, and social change. Then in 2020, Stephen joined the Design Science Studio, an educational incubator tied to the Buckminster Fuller Institute aimed at making the world work for not just all humans but for 100% of all life on Earth.
Stephen and Steve discuss the ways in which we as humans inevitably design the world around us, the ethics of design, rethinking our economic and political systems, and reimagining education. They also discuss Buckminster Fuller’s concept of “Metaphysical Gravity,” and Stephen’s reimagining of it, seamlessly blending concepts of biological, personal, social, economic, political, and ecological scale into a “network of flows” that create mental models for human experience.
“In this way, we can explore the metaphysical model of ideas and values (philosophical, spiritual, mathematical, technological) embodied by the mental models for human experience and how personal habits have implications at the biological, personal, social, economic, political, and ecological scales by mapping these changes to the collective organization and coordination of human actions.”
How might we conceive of our place in the universe as part of a process of cultural evolution, social physics, and metaphysical design? If we’re the ones designing the world, can we use a better model of reality as the foundation for a set of values and aspirations to build a world that works for 100% of life?
Stephen’s Upcoming Podcast: Design For Resilience
https://builderscollective.com/design-for-resilience/
Join UX Academy!
https://share.trydesignlab.com/ux (affiliate link)
Buckminster Fuller Institute: https://www.bfi.org
Design Science Studio: https://www.designscience.studio
More from Stephen Bau:
https://designinfluences.com/author/stephen/
Building Leaders to Design a Resilient Society
Stephen’s portfolio:
https://stephenbau.myportfolio.com/
Stephen’s Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bauhouse/?originalSubdomain=ca
https://www.instagram.com/bauhouse/?hl=en
Episode References:
Yuval Noah Harari: global ethics
What is education: do schools kill creativity? (Sir Ken Robinson)
Mike Monteiro: ethics of design
Marty Neumeier: what is design?
United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals
The Seventh Generation principle
Tags: agile methodology, workflow, adaptation, collective intelligence, holistic, holobiont, cultural relevance, Bauhaus, capitalism, economic system, neoliberalism, new world Bauhaus, Weimar Republic, democracy of design, ethics, core values, scarcity, systemic racism, Rob Bell, Christianity, faith, Spiral Dynamics, feedback loop, new world order, empathy, persona, consciousness, circular economy, value, connection, metaphysical gravity, social utopia
Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators, artists, inventors, designers, and producers. Along the way he gains perspective and multiplies his understanding of our universal potential for creating, living, and learning.
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Episode Music:
Chef
”Nothing Wrong” by Lobate Scarp
Please review this podcast on Google Play, iTunes and Stitcher and help other creatives find their tribe! The idea and concept of tribe has never been so inclusive as now in our interconnected reality. We’d love for you all to join us.
Friday May 07, 2021
Design for Resilience – Stephen Bau (UX Designer) Ep. 17, Pt.1
Friday May 07, 2021
Friday May 07, 2021
Designers make powerful choices that ultimately affect real lived experience. What happens when those choices have unforeseen consequences?
Stephen Bau is a UX design mentor at Designlab but prefers the term “human experience” to “user experience.” Starting out at a young age with a love for art and deciding upon a path toward graphic design in Vancouver, Canada, Bau joined the industry at a tumultuous moment, when desktop publishing was beginning to consolidate entire teams of specialists into a single user with a Macintosh.
Steve and Stephen recount their experiences of living through the disruption caused by the early proliferation of the internet: desktop publishing and the home studio revolution. At this point, advertising shifted from a one-way channel to a conversation. With this new found access to people’s thoughts, advertisers pushed designers to “tap into people’s brain stems and trigger their fears.” This eventually contributed to the social media landscape we know today, and companies quickly moved to find out how to commoditize our interactions and attention. What could possibly go wrong?
They talk about The Social Dilemma, Futurist and architect R. Buckminster Fuller, and how Stephen likes to play his name off of the Bauhaus. They also touch on the challenges with social utopian ideals and the inevitability of things going wrong.
“Every technology has a bias, and you have to be careful of how you take those on.” Because we all make choices, we are all designers of our future.
Guest: Stephen Bau
https://designinfluences.com/author/stephen/
Building Leaders to Design a Resilient Society
Stephen’s portfolio:
https://stephenbau.myportfolio.com/
Stephen’s Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bauhouse/?originalSubdomain=ca
https://www.instagram.com/bauhouse/?hl=en
Further Reading/Links mentioned in the episode:
The Buckminster Fuller Institute
Lynn Margulis: Human Evolution
Tags: Buckminster Fuller Institute, User Interface Designer, UX designer, user experience designer, mentorship, Bauhaus, soft skills, people skills, graphic artist, social architecture, front end development, break the internet, the social dilemma, cognitive science, consumer culture, advertising, browser war, Mad Men, revolutionary, modern design, corporate economy, bifurcation, downtown corridor, suburbs, skyscraper, form versus function, Werner Erhard, Lynn Twist, the Soul of Money, The Hunger Project, David Bohm, disruption, urban farming, fallow fields, mycelia, internal microbiome, quantum leap, Robert Oppenheimer, Manhattan Project, synergy, Jiddu Krishnamurti, interconnectedness, quantum entanglement, infinite reality, biomimicry, holobiont, biomimetic technology environment, nested systems, death and birth
Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators, artists, inventors, designers, and producers. Along the way he gains perspective and multiplies his understanding of our universal potential for creating, living, and learning.
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Please review this podcast on Google Play, iTunes and Stitcher and help other creatives find their tribe!
Wednesday Mar 31, 2021
We All Tell Stories – Jarod Cerf (Writer/Brand Strategist) Ep.16
Wednesday Mar 31, 2021
Wednesday Mar 31, 2021
We all create narratives defining who we are, yet so many of us forget that we all have the power to craft and hone these narratives to define ourselves, our worlds, and the legacy we leave behind.
Jarod Cerf lives by his adage that everyone is a storyteller. A consummate storyteller himself, Cerf has long recognized the power of storytelling and crafting narratives not only in the artistic sphere but for major marketing firms, within college classrooms, in major media outlets, for himself, and his clients. “I have had so many titles: teacher, journalist, PR, marketing, etc. And what I finally realized is that I am a storyteller: someone who teaches, entertains, and guides the folks in my tribe … to inspire a course of action, a thought, or remember something by. That’s all storytellers have done, culturally, historically, throughout time.”
Sharing from his wealth of experience, this episode is quite the deep-dive into the existential, the esoteric, and the “Weird.” (“New Weird exists to overturn cliches and twist the traditional.” – BookRiot) Jarod says, “I follow story from characters… they are what define what happens… It's not my goal, personally, to write horror fiction or sci-fi or fantasy, I enjoy those, but that's not what I set out to write.” Jarod’s goal in coaching and writing is to illuminate the darkest places for people, whether they are struggling to develop their stories or their life-path.
Steve and Jarod discuss issues that often plague creatives like chronic pain. Jarod challenges the notion that suffering is necessary for creation. They also discuss creative blocks, marketing, what you should do with characters that seem to develop a mind of their own, and why storytellers are going to thrive in the new economy.
Whether our medium is a novel, podcast, song, or even the way we remember and construct our lives: “how we make other people characters in our lives” defines how we experience life itself.
Guest Jarod Serf
Website: https://herebetygers.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarodcerf/
Instagram: @hbtygers
Twitter: @jcertherealist
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herebetygers
Medium: https://medium.com/@jarodcerf
Work with Jarod: https://www.20minutestobrilliance.com/tygers and be entered to win our drawing!
Host Steven Leavitt
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Episode References
This is Water by David Foster Wallace
N.K. Jemisin: The Broken Earth trilogy
Ray Bradbury’s “Here There Be Tygers”
George Saunders reflects on writing
Joseph Campbell and storytelling
Here Be Tygers podcast - “The Different Worlds that We Live In & Imagine,” with Andre Rodriguez
The Truth in Art and the Art in Truth
Ray Bradbury’s There Will Come Soft Rains
Ernest Hemmingway’s Snows of Kilimanjaro
Ray Brabury’s The Happiness Machine
Robot Chicken’s Fraggle Watership Down
10,000 Hours to Mastery-Malcolm Gladwell
Tags: migraines, storytelling, purpose, creating, advertising, soul work, genre, New Weird, disruptive habits, trust, eureka moment, journey, planting a seed, joy in creation, guides, guidance, tribe, right-brained, marketing, automation, branding, emotional connection, attachment, patterns, memories, remembering, art, Fabio, Michelangelo, fundamental essence, story loops, seeking meaning, glyphs, aborigines, puzzling meaning, knowledge, wisdom, Santa Claus, heroes, clarity, purpose, drive, ideology, characters, mortality, jargon, fantasy, cognates, symbolic representation, lifelong learning, Joseph Campbell, anthropology, communication, method, non-linear thinking, typewriters, process, creative tools, auditory/visual, worldview, hermeneutics, narrator, timeline, amblyopia, flawed humans, cult of personality, public engagement, Discord, Twitter, presence, doodling, zaizen, archetypes, magic, illumination, journey
Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators: artists, inventors, designers, producers and more. Along the way he hopes to gain perspective and multiply our understanding of what we share in common while creating, living, and learning.
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Theme Music: “Nothing Wrong” by Lobate Scarp
Please review this podcast on Google Play, iTunes and Stitcher and help other creatives find their tribe! The idea and concept of tribe has never been so inclusive as now in our interconnected reality. We’d love for you all to join us!
Saturday Mar 20, 2021
The Present – Scott Thrift (Clockmaker) Ep.15
Saturday Mar 20, 2021
Saturday Mar 20, 2021
We’ve all said things like “where did the day go?” or “wow, it’s already the end of the year!” Traditional timepieces aim to keep us on task, but are we missing something in the pursuit of endless “productivity?”
Scott Thrift is a “filmmaker turned artist” (Wired Magazine) and the co-founder of the award-winning creative agency m ss ng p eces, which he left in 2013 to pursue his dream of making an annual clock. This was no easy feat considering no clockmaker in the world had ever created an annual movement. Scott became obsessed with the notion of “What does the world need now?” The annual clock was designed to address society’s extreme lack of what Scott calls “temporal bandwidth.” His answer? A clock designed to help people be in time rather than simply being on time.
Scott’s timepieces are unique in that they all have only a single hand and feature beautiful gradients instead of stark lines. Many people who experience the clocks begin to find they are forming a whole new relationship with time. As someone who struggles with society’s rigid interpretation of time, Steve speaks about his own evolving view of the relationship between time and creativity.
Scott shares his journey from Los Angeles to New York City. Frustrated with film school, he quickly forged his own success by making “something,” which took the New York Gift Fair by storm and ingratiated him with the New York design elite. This led to his involvement with the Ted organization where he was one of the first to make a behind-the-scenes documentary of the event. From funding three very successful Kickstarter campaigns to interviewing Brian Eno to getting his first clock into the MOMA store almost by magic, Scott’s mindset has taught him simply to flow with the river… he shares what he learned from the opportunities to rub elbows with creatives from endless backgrounds.
Scott now has clock movements that feature the day, the moon, and the year. His goal is to create pieces that stand the test of time: lasting a lifetime as owners of his clocks expand their relationship with the present.;
More on Scott’s special clocks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottthrift/
https://coolhunting.com/design/scott-thrift-clocks/
https://www.wired.com/story/moon-scott-thrift-slow-clocks/
Scott’s Kickstarters:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottthrift/the-present
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottthrift/today
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottthrift/the-present-day-moon-year
Scott’s Instagram: another way to think of the passage of time
Examples of Scott’s cinematographic oeuvre
The Visual Art of Brian Eno: Light and Time
References:
77 Million Paintings (Brian Eno)
Youtube channel for Cool Hunting
Tags:
The Present, annual clock, day, moon, year, gradient, Kickstarter, TED, Craig Venter, Brian Eno, the passage of time, longer now, being present, clarity, wisdom, growth, day, moon, year, German engineering, US-Customs, discipline, degrees of change, mind space, headspace, mindset, moving parts, potential, the gift of time, New York, MOMA, just do the next right thing, ad agency, design, video editing, timekeeper, circuit bender, temporal bandwidth, WFMU, staying-power. depth, creation, adventure, problem-solving, collaboration, time and space, circuit bending, supply chain, entrepreneurship, podcast, non-linear editing, audio editing, lines, supply chain, entertainment, Full Sail, film school
Language of Creativity’s host Steven Leavitt enjoys discussing the ins and outs of all aspects of creating, creativity, and life with his fellow creators, artists, inventors, designers, and producers. Along the way, he gains perspective and multiplies his understanding of our universal potential for creating, living, and learning.
Site: https://www.icreatesound.com/
Portfolio: http://stevenleavitt.com/
Theme Music: “Nothing Wrong” by Lobate Scarp
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