Creative Mornings - Seattle

Here in Seattle, on the second Friday of every month, Creative Mornings provides a free lecture at the EMP. Creative Mornings is an awesome lecture series that occurs in 65 cities around the world. Each month a theme is selected, and speakers are chosen to give a talk related to that theme.

I began attending the Creative Mornings lectures back in May of last year. I can’t remember how I became aware of Creative Mornings, but the first talk I attended was on the subject of designing Arabic type. It was a subject I had little understanding of, and still don’t. The speaker for this event was obviously knowledgable on the topic, but I felt like there was little there for me. It was at that point that I was unsure if I should continue to use my vacation time to attend these lectures. But even though that particular talk wasn’t my bag, I made a mental note to see who would be speaking next, so that I could judge to see if this was something worth continuing. Turns out it was, and for more than one reason.

The first thing I like about Creative Mornings is the complimentary coffee hour before hand. Each month I have met and chatted with new people. I’ve met people who are developing their own businesses; who are photographers; developers; Educational content creators; and freelance adventure writers. Though I’m generally the introverted one in these situations, so far there has always been at least one person who had asked to sit down and begin a conversation with me. For as much as I like meeting new people, I really should be more proactive about introducing myself to strangers in these kinds of situations.

I have found over the last few months that the quality of speakers, and the topics of talks have steadily increased in quality since I have started attending Creative Mornings. I have listened to talks about how outer space is used to inspire creativity for youth from Justin Allan, the Design and Store Manager at 826 Seattle (a non-profit writing and tutoring center); to Chase Jarvis talk about how artists need to create work that only they can create, and then put that work out to be seen. The nice thing about these presentation is that they are all videotaped and posted on the Creative Mornings website for anyone to watch.

This last Creative Mornings’ theme was childhood, and the speaker was Jack Forman (bass player/frontman for the children’s band Recess Monkey, host of the Sirius XM radio show "Live from the Monkey House" on Kid’s Place Live, as well as teaching for the University Child Development School). Going into the talk I wasn’t sure that there was going to be anything in this lecture for me, but I found the talk was extremely interesting. I realized that he was giving me a new ways to think about how I can to my two and half year old nephew, as he continues to get more and more talkative every time I see him. Mr. Forman’s talk focused on asking children open ended questions, and getting away from one word answers. An example he used was to say don’t ask a child what 5 + 5 is. Ask them what they can do two fives. The first question has one answer, but the second is up for interpretation, and use of creativity. Overall it was a good talk.

This month’s Creative Mornings was also a little different because it was followed by the first ever Creative Mornings happy hour later that day. A small group of folks met at the Barrel Thief in Fremont. I met a handful of new people, and had range of conversations from BBC radio comedies to the negative aspects of gentrification. There was a even a free wine tasting event, but I didn’t end up participating in that. I liked the ambience of Barrel Thief, and wouldn’t have known it existed without this Creative Mornings event. It ended up being a really great day.

Much like my earlier post about using neighborhood coffee shops to find community when being new to an area, I also think that Creative Mornings a great communal event to meet like-minded creatives in your area. If there is a Creative Mornings lecture series in your city, I would highly recommend checking it out.

Almost Live! - Guide to Living in Seattle

Not to phone in another post, but time has not been on my side. After today, I'll definitely have more time to write. If you are are over 30, and grew up in Washington, then you probably know Almost Live! A local sketch comedy show that aired on TV from 1984 - 1999. As a kid (way before I lived in Seattle), it was the show that defined and informed my sense of what Seattle was. Here are four clips from the "Guide to Living in Seattle" show.

Putting the Attention on a Good Writer

This week has been busy. It's the first week of the new quarter at work, and school is hopping; and it's tech week for Seattle Opera's Rigoletto, which opens this Saturday. I'm also desperately trying to keep up with my health coaching certification coursework. Basically I go to work, bus to McCaw Hall for the opera, go home to sleep. I haven't had a lot of time to write, and so because of that, I'm taking this opportunity to promote a local writer, Brett Konen, whom I met as a supernumerary (extra/non-speaking/non-singing) on Seattle Opera's 2012 production of Fidelio. This article just came out yesterday, and feeds in nicely with my post The Neighborhood Coffee Shop. I hope you will take the time to read Brett's article, written for the Seattle Globalist, and check out a couple of these places. 

 

Three ways to get a global coffee fix in Seattle

I've personally been to El Diablo, on Queen Anne, and like it a lot. I'd also add the South African inspired Cederberg to the list. It's not specifically coffee related, as It specializes in tea and South African treats, but I feel like it's my only real contribution to this post.

The Two Walks: The Walk You Take With Your Friends, And The Walk You Take Alone (Or the story of New Year's Eve)

The Walk You Take With Friends:

At 11:30 on New Years we all left a friend's house on Queen Anne to begin the long half mile walk to Kerry Park to watch Seattle's fireworks at the Space needle. For anyone unfamiliar with Kerry Park, it is a vantage point from Queen Anne that looks down on Downtown Seattle. One can see the Space needle, The Great Wheel, the P.I.s old globe, and as a brilliant backdrop you can also see Mt. Rainier. It's a spectacular view, and there's a reason that so many people use Kerry Park for their wedding photos. 

The walk to Kerry Park was a lot of fun. Everyone had there solo cups in hand, and we all chatted as we walked down. I was talking to a dude who's a photographer in LA, and also does some roadying. I believe he was up visiting friends and family for the holidays. I also met chick who does hair and costume work for local theater. I always like meeting new people.

View from Kerry Park

The walk took about twenty minutes. We arrived at Kerry Park about 10 to midnight. I hard to know if it's merely hundreds, or thousands of people who turn up to watch from there. When we arrived, the spaceneedle was still clearly visible, and we could even see the The Great Wheel lit up on the waterfront. Sparklers started getting handed out by a friend, with a bag of quaint fireworks, and the champagne was cracked. Somewhere during all of that a wall of fog rolled in, and the Spaceneedle disappeared. By the time the countdown began, it was really just some fuzzy glowing lights going off behind the fog. That's not to say the experience wasn't still magical. Some where in the crowd some let  off a japanese lantern into the sky. The loan lantern floated up into the sky, quickly disappearing into the fog. I tried to get my phone out fast enough to take a picture, but couldn't. As everyone cheered to ring in the new year, we lit our sparklers and toasted with champagne. After the Spaceneedle fireworks were over, we began our walk back to the house.

Halfway between Kerry Park and the house we stopped at an empty baseball field to light the few bottle rockets we had. The fog was so thick that once we we're on the field it was like we were in our own little entertainment bubble. Everything outside of the bubble didn't exist anymore. It looked like everyone was having more fun with our own personal fireworks show, than we did watching the Spaceneedle fireworks. After the the bottle rockets were gone, and the last of the other little crackling fireworks were set off, we finally left our fog bubble for the house.

At the house everyone chatted a little while longer, before slowly beginning to trickle out. It was about ten to 2 a.m. when I finally set off for home. Earlier that night I had bussed it to the restaraunt we met at for dinner, and bummed a ride to the house. So when I left I didn't really have a plan as to how I would get back to Greenlake.

The Walk You Take Alone: 

I quickly decided after leaving my friend's house that I would walk from the top of Queen Anne to 15th Ave. W to try and catch the D Line bus. Timing wise this ended up being a good decision. Almost immediately after reaching the bus stop the bus arrived. The bus was pretty full, with riders in various states of soberness and drunkeness. While on the bus I used the One Bus Away app on my phone to see when the 48 bus would run at my second stop. I half-knew already that the 48 had stopped running for the night, but had hopped that maybe it would still be running. It was not. I then had to make a few mental calculations, and decided to get off the bus at 15th Ave. W and 65th. From there my plan was to walk east over Phinney ridge back home.

At this point it was about 2:30 a.m. At the time I didn't know the technical distance between there and home, but I knew it was do able. It turns out it's about 3.1 miles from where I got off the bus to my apartment. As I started walking I ran into two of 6 people I'd see out that night. One of the guys was standing, smoking a cigarette, and the other guy could barely stand. I was very thankful to not be that guy. I continued on a few blocks before trying to call a cab. The line was busy. I continued to walk, and flagged down a few cabs who were responding to calls, so they couldn't pick me up. At that point I fully committed to walking the rest of the way. 

Walking up Phinney Ridge isn't terribly tough, but it's a pretty steep grade, and when you just want to get home, it's not the most fun. Once I got to the top of Phinney, and started heading down the otherside. At that point the hard part was over, and I only had 2 miles left to go. At the bottom of Phinney, where it meets Greenlake, I saw a young bearded man in a trench coat, with a backpack walking past me in the opposite direction. He had a little bit a serial killer look, so I stayed on alert. At this point the fog was thickening again, and the road around the lake was beautiful and eerie. It was a great opportunity to take some photos with my phone.

As I reached the southern most end of the lake on Greenlake Way, I saw a guy walking off the beaten path with a flashlight (weird), and the silhouette of a couple walking the inside path of the lake. It was nice to know that at 3 a.m. I wasn't the only one still out. I didn't see another living soul on the last leg of my walk. It was a good opportunity to think about what I wanted for myself this upcoming year. Did I really want to be walking home alone next New Year's Eve? Did it matter that I was walking home alone this New Year's Eve? What do I want to be doing with my life? Where do I want to be 10 year? The only answers I came up with were that no I didn't mind walking home alone, and it would be nice if I wasn't walking home alone next year. Truth be told, when I got home at 3:30 a.m. I wasn't thinking too much about of that. I was just happy to finally be laying down in my bed. And then I just had to be up by 10:00 a.m. so I could meet friends for coffee and American Hustle.

Overall I was happy with my New Years. I spent time with some of my very favorite friends, and also had some time alone to think about life. I suppose the two walks are a metaphor for how I live my life. Maybe my New Year's resolution will be to walk alone less.