I call it Woman with Sandy Corns on Venice Beach in 1959.
More notes on the 30 Days Raw experiment: DAY 4
In addition to the delicious food I’ve been eating, I’ve been noticing a lot of mental improvement. Lots of clarity and focus. I’ve been in a better mood and I’m not in my head nearly as much. Maybe there’s something to this raw food thing?
Also, been sleeping less, waking up earlier and feeling totally fine about it. No lethargy or anything!
So, far so good y’all.
Be awesome.
Five years ago I snuck into the Grammy Awards.
I was supposed to have been invited but things don’t always work out as planned.
It all started a year before that when I wrote in my journal: “Next year I’ll be at the Grammys.” (You’ve got to really be careful about the things you write in your journal. If you’re an action oriented person, they may just happen.)
My being at the Grammys was less about my desire to hob-knob with rock stars and more about my relentless drive to always do what I say that I’ll do, to be courageous in the face of my fears, and to live my Life with authority. If you do anything with enough authority, the world will take you seriously.
The following is a brief account of what happened.
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Robert McKee has been teaching creators of all kinds for most of his adult life. In a recent interview about storytelling, he offered a statement that literally paused me. (I’ve replaced his words “write” with “create” because his answer can be used for artists of all mediums.)
“Beyond imagination and insight, the most important component of talent is perseverance – the will to [create] and [recreate] in pursuit of perfection. Therefore, when inspiration sparks the desire to [create], the artist immediately asks: Is this idea so fascinating, so rich in possibility, that I want to spend months, perhaps years, of my life in pursuit of its fulfillment? Is this concept so exciting that I will get up each morning with the hunger to [create]? Will this inspiration compel me to sacrifice all of life’s other pleasures in my quest to perfect its telling? If the answer is no, find another idea. Talent and time are a [creator]’s only assets. Why give your life to an idea that’s not worth your life?”
Why give your life to an idea that’s not worth your life?
Love it.
Here’s to the creators.
About two years ago, I became incredibly fascinated with polyphasic sleep or “The Art of Staying Up for a Really Long Time and Your Body Being Cool With It.” I had just started The Uberman Project, which was a series of personal experiments designed to test the limits of my mental and physical abilities, or to discover that I had no limits. (I was rooting for the latter.)
The first test was bent on answering the question: How much sleep does a human really need to be effective? I wanted to find out if I could sleep less and still produce the same quality of work that I produced when sleeping 5+ hours a night. When I became vegan, my sleep requirements dropped by a couple hours anyway, and I only needed 5-6 hours per night vs. the 7-8 that I needed when I was still consuming meat 3-4 times a day. If I could drop that to 2 (hours per night of sleep) then that would equal 4 more hours of writing, video production, or music composition that I didn’t have before.
Enter The Uberman’s Sleep Schedule
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To say that Friedrich Nietzsche has influenced my thinking would be quite the understatement. Many of my ideas on self-creation have been inspired by his Philosophies, especially his concept of the Übermensch.
The Uberman is a progression of his original idea. But there’s much confusion as to what the Übermensch was all about (especially after the Nazis had their way with it). So let’s explore what Nietzsche had in mind when he first “spoke” of his Philosophy and also review the supreme differences between Nietzsche’s version of the Uberman and my own.
Here are a few of them:
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This morning I awoke to an email from my little sister stating that her New Year’s Resolution was to become a vegetarian ‘like her big brother.’ (Actually, I awoke to Nick Drake’s Pink Moon playing on my cell phone/alarm clock, but I digress…)
If that wasn’t the most awesome thing a person bent on influencing the world could read first thing in the morning, then I don’t know what that thing could be!
(Wait I know: New York Times headline “Scarlet Johansson Entrenched in Sex Affair with Blogger”)
. . .
Becoming a vegan/vegetarian isn’t a difficult thing once you’ve made the decision. What can be difficult is finding quality foodstuff after having lived on a certain type of food or eaten in a certain style all your life.
Well, we can now consider the transition MUCH less difficult. Below, I’ve compiled a list of 50 of the best foods a vegetarian can eat. (And at least 45 of them are vegan!)
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I went through my oldest journal recently. It’s big & black, with gaffer tape supporting the spine, full of well-used pages, magazine clippings and questions. It inspires the hell out of me. The journal and the questions. Which is the subject of this post: questions, or rather the asking of proper ones.
Without questions there can be no answers. So both the wise person and the seeker of wisdom must ask good questions. Great questions. Questions that make your skin flush and the hairs on your arm rise to attention.
I went through the beast (my journal) and pulled out the questions that moved me. Questions that paused me. Questions that dared something deep within me to present itself.
So in turn I do the same with you. I dare you to answer these questions. In fact I double dare you. And if we really want to make this interesting, I’ll present a physical challenge: answer them (no doubt) and then act. Do it. Live Your Answer.
I dare you.
10 Questions That Will Absolutely Change Your Life:
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You may be surprised to find out that you have a lot of personal power hidden in the cracks, left unused in the spaces between things. In fact, all power resides in the space separating thought, and emotion, and in the gap between emotion and action.
For example, music isn’t in the notes you hear, but in the space between the notes. The difference between a clod and a genius on the piano is the difference in their ability to manipulate the subtle spaces between the tones.
A six year old kid plays the piano in a steady monotone—there is no rhythm and the notes come at expected intervals. She could be playing Chopin but you wouldn’t know it. The maestro at 60 years old creates art in the silence. There is a syncopation to her playing, tones are coming in and out of existence, she depresses the pedals at just the right time, creates longing in the dramatic pauses, and then fulfills you with rushes of harmony. It’s the same piece but the genius makes exquisite use of the space between the tones and this creates all the emotions the composer intended—and more.