Chris Jones is an Esquire mag writer who won a National Magazine Award last night. Here is the interview on U of Montana's website. He will be a writer in residence there.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
You Are Not Your Fame & Fortune
Dear Gentle Readers, Writers & Colleagues,
As you work in this sometimes-troubling, nearing-the-end time of the semester, consider the words of a 9th Century Zen master, Lin-Chi:
------
When hungry, eat your rice;
when tired, close your eyes.
Fools may laugh at me,
but wise men [and wise women] will know what I mean.
------
Write well.
Revise well.
Think as deeply as you are able.
Think radical and exciting thoughts about who you are and who you are becoming.
You are not and never were your grade in a class.
You are not your fame or fortune.
You are not the job or internship or award you may long for and may or may not receive.
You are so much more.
Do not be confused.
Pay attention to Rainer Maria Rilke who, in "The Man Watching," reminds us:
What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.
As you work in this sometimes-troubling, nearing-the-end time of the semester, consider the words of a 9th Century Zen master, Lin-Chi:
------
When hungry, eat your rice;
when tired, close your eyes.
Fools may laugh at me,
but wise men [and wise women] will know what I mean.
------
Write well.
Revise well.
Think as deeply as you are able.
Think radical and exciting thoughts about who you are and who you are becoming.
You are not and never were your grade in a class.
You are not your fame or fortune.
You are not the job or internship or award you may long for and may or may not receive.
You are so much more.
Do not be confused.
Pay attention to Rainer Maria Rilke who, in "The Man Watching," reminds us:
What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Poems
Dear Learners,
Below I copied a portion of a note I had sent to a student who once was working feverishly to complete a project. I thought some of you might benefit from reading some of my response and the two poems here.
------
You mention that you have short-comings. We all do. That's what thickens the
plot.
Otherwise we would be something other than human.
To share those short-comings is also a human necessity under the Big Tent of Journalism as I see it. And there are things that are kept private, too. Finding the right balance is the trick that I seek constantly.
Know that this project-- with its revelations of humanity, past and present, forces you to grapple in enlightening and educational ways with your private truths and falsehoods and your public ones, too.
In that process, we professors grapple with our own truths and falsehoods as
well.
To that end, I offer two poems I like.
I thought about these when I re-read your note and when I thought about your work and the issue of control: who has it, who wants it, who does not want it, and why, and what is BEYOND control, in another sphere from it, in the land of meaningful Story, based on the time-honored verities and based on the things we can see, hear, taste, touch & smell, and, yes, photograph and record.
POEM ONE.
Antonio Machado untitled poem, translated from Spanish by Robert
Bly.
And he was the demon of my dreams, the most handsome
Of all angels. His victorious eyes
Blazed like steel,
And the flames that fell
From his torch like drops
Lit up the deep dungeon of the soul.
"Will you go with me?"
"No, never! Tombs
And dead bodies frighten me."
But his iron hand took mine.
"You will go with me"...And in my dream I walked
Blinded by his red torch.
In the dungeon I heard the sound of chains
And the stirrings of beasts that were in cages.
POEM TWO.
The Man Watching by Rainer Rilke, translated by Bly.
I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can't bear without a friend,
I can't love without a sister
The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape, like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.
What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.
When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestler's sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.
Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.
Below I copied a portion of a note I had sent to a student who once was working feverishly to complete a project. I thought some of you might benefit from reading some of my response and the two poems here.
------
You mention that you have short-comings. We all do. That's what thickens the
plot.
Otherwise we would be something other than human.
To share those short-comings is also a human necessity under the Big Tent of Journalism as I see it. And there are things that are kept private, too. Finding the right balance is the trick that I seek constantly.
Know that this project-- with its revelations of humanity, past and present, forces you to grapple in enlightening and educational ways with your private truths and falsehoods and your public ones, too.
In that process, we professors grapple with our own truths and falsehoods as
well.
To that end, I offer two poems I like.
I thought about these when I re-read your note and when I thought about your work and the issue of control: who has it, who wants it, who does not want it, and why, and what is BEYOND control, in another sphere from it, in the land of meaningful Story, based on the time-honored verities and based on the things we can see, hear, taste, touch & smell, and, yes, photograph and record.
POEM ONE.
Antonio Machado untitled poem, translated from Spanish by Robert
Bly.
And he was the demon of my dreams, the most handsome
Of all angels. His victorious eyes
Blazed like steel,
And the flames that fell
From his torch like drops
Lit up the deep dungeon of the soul.
"Will you go with me?"
"No, never! Tombs
And dead bodies frighten me."
But his iron hand took mine.
"You will go with me"...And in my dream I walked
Blinded by his red torch.
In the dungeon I heard the sound of chains
And the stirrings of beasts that were in cages.
POEM TWO.
The Man Watching by Rainer Rilke, translated by Bly.
I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can't bear without a friend,
I can't love without a sister
The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape, like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.
What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.
When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestler's sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.
Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Pros and Cons of Human Tragedy is Journalism
The New York Times
Wednesday, April 15 2009
Roberta Smith
Art Review
One Image of Agony Resonates In Two Lives
Wednesday, April 15 2009
Roberta Smith
Art Review
One Image of Agony Resonates In Two Lives
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Unexpected Voice, Eyes, and Camera of Katrina Survivors
Here is an excerpt and link of NYT story that discusses "TROUBLE THE WATER," a documentary about Hurricane Katrina. Pay attention to the line below:
"They let their subject take them to the unexpected."
The New York Times
Monday, March 31, 2008
By Manohla Dargis
EXCERPT:
At that point some filmmakers might have packed it in. For whatever reason-it's easy to imagine that laboring alongside Mr. [Michael] Moore requires enormous patience-they stuck around Louisiana and did the most important thing any filmmaker working in either fiction or nonfiction can do: They let their subject take them to the unexpected. In this case the unexpected was embodied by two residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, an aspiring musician named Kimberly Roberts. Read More
"They let their subject take them to the unexpected."
The New York Times
Monday, March 31, 2008
By Manohla Dargis
EXCERPT:
At that point some filmmakers might have packed it in. For whatever reason-it's easy to imagine that laboring alongside Mr. [Michael] Moore requires enormous patience-they stuck around Louisiana and did the most important thing any filmmaker working in either fiction or nonfiction can do: They let their subject take them to the unexpected. In this case the unexpected was embodied by two residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, an aspiring musician named Kimberly Roberts. Read More
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Power of Focus: Watch the Tar Heels. Watch the Tigers.
As students and as teacher, we each have some similar lessons to learn.
A key one is focus. Don Murray highlights FOCUS as a key element in his template of the writing process.
Focus allows completion to happen.
I read a Hannah Karp story this weekend, March 31, 2009, in the Wall Street Journal, about Idan Ravin who is training NBA basketball players such as Denver Nuggets player Carmelo Anthony.
Headline:
Meet Idan, the Hoops Whisperer
How a Former Lawyer With No Basketball Experience Became the NBA's Hottest New Trainer
He uses unorthodox methods, including throwing tennis balls at his clients while they dribble down the court. He has them try to run from one baseline to the other and only dribble twice.
Excerpt from story:
Mr. Ravin's goal is to create so much chaos and stress on a player during workouts that the physical game becomes less cerebral and more automatic. He uses a combination of humbling psychological tactics and exhausting, unorthodox and sometimes spontaneous drills. He's been known to fire tennis balls at players while they're dribbling or make them stare straight ahead while dribbling two balls in each hand in uneven rhythms and walking from side to side.
In one particularly exhausting drill, Mr. Ravin throws 25 balls, one at a time, in different directions. The player's job is to catch them after only one bounce and then shoot.
One day this summer, as Mr. Anthony's 15-month-old son Kiyan sat in a stroller nearby, Mr. Ravin put the one-time All-Star through a drill called the "full court lay-up," in which Mr. Anthony had to run from one baseline to the other while making only two dribbles. Mr. Ravin times every drill and never hesitates to let a player know how much faster another superstar client completed it. "He knows exactly how to get into [players'] heads -- especially mine," says Mr. Anthony.
-----------
I thought about the tennis balls, all of you and what you are trying to accomplish, and then thought about this quote from former UNC basketball coach Dean Smith.
BEWARE OF THE LURE OF THE BARKING DOG
“Dr. Phog Allen, my college coach [at Kansas], said: ‘The postman doesn’t stop for every dog that barks. He’d never get his mail delivered.’ ”
---Dean Smith of UNC Chapel Hill in speaking of how to handle critics. He ranks as the number three college basketball coach with the most wins (879).
I also was reading something this weekend from management guru Peter Drucker. He said the key focus question to ask is not what are you doing, but what have you STOPPED doing.
Your power will increase when you focus. You can get immense satisfaction when you complete assignments. You can complete these best by ignoring the Tennis Balls, or to use another example, the Barking Dogs around you.
David Allen talks about the idea of becoming a "COMPLETIONIST."
I sent out a book chapter draft last week. About five weeks had passed from the original deadline. I felt badly about the delay. But I had been in communication with my editor about the delays. And it felt great to complete this phase of the project.
Last night I watched my beloved UNC men's basketball team win the NCAA championship. Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansborough. They've got focus. For that matter, the losing Michigan State team had incredible focus to make it to the championship game. The Mizzou Tigers men's basketball team also is learning focus under the leadership of Coach Mike Anderson, the co-winner of 2009 Coach of the Year. Anderson has transformed a lackluster team into "the fastest 40 minutes of basketball." That kind of basketball demands practice. And focus.
How do you focus?
What helps you to focus? How do you ignore the barking dogs, the tennis balls coming at you? How do you distinguish what matters and what does not matter?
BH, who is still learning the focus lesson
A key one is focus. Don Murray highlights FOCUS as a key element in his template of the writing process.
Focus allows completion to happen.
I read a Hannah Karp story this weekend, March 31, 2009, in the Wall Street Journal, about Idan Ravin who is training NBA basketball players such as Denver Nuggets player Carmelo Anthony.
Headline:
Meet Idan, the Hoops Whisperer
How a Former Lawyer With No Basketball Experience Became the NBA's Hottest New Trainer
He uses unorthodox methods, including throwing tennis balls at his clients while they dribble down the court. He has them try to run from one baseline to the other and only dribble twice.
Excerpt from story:
Mr. Ravin's goal is to create so much chaos and stress on a player during workouts that the physical game becomes less cerebral and more automatic. He uses a combination of humbling psychological tactics and exhausting, unorthodox and sometimes spontaneous drills. He's been known to fire tennis balls at players while they're dribbling or make them stare straight ahead while dribbling two balls in each hand in uneven rhythms and walking from side to side.
In one particularly exhausting drill, Mr. Ravin throws 25 balls, one at a time, in different directions. The player's job is to catch them after only one bounce and then shoot.
One day this summer, as Mr. Anthony's 15-month-old son Kiyan sat in a stroller nearby, Mr. Ravin put the one-time All-Star through a drill called the "full court lay-up," in which Mr. Anthony had to run from one baseline to the other while making only two dribbles. Mr. Ravin times every drill and never hesitates to let a player know how much faster another superstar client completed it. "He knows exactly how to get into [players'] heads -- especially mine," says Mr. Anthony.
-----------
I thought about the tennis balls, all of you and what you are trying to accomplish, and then thought about this quote from former UNC basketball coach Dean Smith.
BEWARE OF THE LURE OF THE BARKING DOG
“Dr. Phog Allen, my college coach [at Kansas], said: ‘The postman doesn’t stop for every dog that barks. He’d never get his mail delivered.’ ”
---Dean Smith of UNC Chapel Hill in speaking of how to handle critics. He ranks as the number three college basketball coach with the most wins (879).
I also was reading something this weekend from management guru Peter Drucker. He said the key focus question to ask is not what are you doing, but what have you STOPPED doing.
Your power will increase when you focus. You can get immense satisfaction when you complete assignments. You can complete these best by ignoring the Tennis Balls, or to use another example, the Barking Dogs around you.
David Allen talks about the idea of becoming a "COMPLETIONIST."
I sent out a book chapter draft last week. About five weeks had passed from the original deadline. I felt badly about the delay. But I had been in communication with my editor about the delays. And it felt great to complete this phase of the project.
Last night I watched my beloved UNC men's basketball team win the NCAA championship. Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansborough. They've got focus. For that matter, the losing Michigan State team had incredible focus to make it to the championship game. The Mizzou Tigers men's basketball team also is learning focus under the leadership of Coach Mike Anderson, the co-winner of 2009 Coach of the Year. Anderson has transformed a lackluster team into "the fastest 40 minutes of basketball." That kind of basketball demands practice. And focus.
How do you focus?
What helps you to focus? How do you ignore the barking dogs, the tennis balls coming at you? How do you distinguish what matters and what does not matter?
BH, who is still learning the focus lesson
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
What Writers Can Learn from the Purdie Shuffle
Voice. Attitude. Focus.
These are a few of the things that the larger than life drummer, Bernard Purdie or Pretty Purdie, has to teach us as writers. You can hear his work on more than 4,000 sound recordings, including those of Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, and Death Cab for Cutie.
See the quote below from Death Cab Cutie drummer Jason McGerr.
Think about the elements that make your writer's voice distinctive.
How does that voice merge with the voice that any individual story demands?
To what degree does your voice indicate that you are "completely in charge?"
Study this New York Times story by David Segal and learn all that you can, including Segal's own approach to the story.
The New York Times
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
C5
"It doesn't matter how much I practice, I will never play that shuffle like Purdie," Mr. McGerr said. "It's because he has an attitude that seems to come through every time. He always sounds like he's completely in charge."
Full Article
These are a few of the things that the larger than life drummer, Bernard Purdie or Pretty Purdie, has to teach us as writers. You can hear his work on more than 4,000 sound recordings, including those of Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, and Death Cab for Cutie.
See the quote below from Death Cab Cutie drummer Jason McGerr.
Think about the elements that make your writer's voice distinctive.
How does that voice merge with the voice that any individual story demands?
To what degree does your voice indicate that you are "completely in charge?"
Study this New York Times story by David Segal and learn all that you can, including Segal's own approach to the story.
The New York Times
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
C5
"It doesn't matter how much I practice, I will never play that shuffle like Purdie," Mr. McGerr said. "It's because he has an attitude that seems to come through every time. He always sounds like he's completely in charge."
Full Article
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
