Monday, September 21, 2009
Best Bits: Writing Down the Bones / Meilleurs passages : Écrire coûte que coûte
Le français suit l’anglais. By/par Jennifer Hollington.
That's the great value of art – making the ordinary extraordinary.
Natalie Goldberg
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within is another great book for aspiring writers and storytellers. This one is written by poet Natalie Goldberg, and her prose is alive with images. An example:
It is important to separate the creator and the editor or internal censor when you practice writing, so that the creator has free space to breathe, explore, and express.... That voice knows that the term boring will stop you dead in your tracks, so you'll hear yourself saying that a lot about your writing. Hear "You are boring" as distant white laundry flapping in the breeze. Eventually it will dry up and someone miles away will fold it and take it in. Meanwhile you will continue to write.
My challenge in writing is less about the inner editor or censor, though she is always there. It’s more about the resistance Goldberg attributes to a wish to avoid work and concentration. Clearly, writing takes both.
It also takes having something to say. Too often, though, we feel that we don’t have anything interesting to say. But Goldberg reminds her readers that “A writer's job is to make the ordinary come alive, to awaken ourselves to the specialness of simply being.”
The same day I wrote this post in my balcony “café,” I was watching the neighbourhood cats and writing about them in my journal. Here’s one of the descriptions that resulted, my daughter’s favourite: “My cat, Karma, has just jumped up onto the second café chair to lick the cheese that remains on my plate after my pizza. Her tags clink on the plate. She is licking off every morsel.”
Writing Tips
”We learn writing by doing it. That simple,” says Goldberg. So try practising by following these tips:
The basic unit of writing practice is the timed exercise. You may time yourself for ten minutes, twenty minutes, or an hour....
1. Keep your hand moving. (Don't pause to reread the line you have just written. That's stalling and trying to get control of what you're saying.)
2. Don't cross out. (That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn't mean to write, leave it.)
3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. (Don't even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.)
4. Lose control.
5. Don't think. Don't get logical.
6. Go for the jugular. (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.)
She recommends that we not set out with a specific destination in mind, like writing a poem or novel, but simply give ourselves permission to write “the worst junk in the world.”
If that’s how to write, then the question of what to write remains. Here are a few of Goldberg’s suggestions:
Tell about the quality of light coming in through your window.
Begin with "I remember." Write lots of small memories. If you fall into one large memory, write that. Just keep going.... If you get stuck, just repeat the phrase "I remember" again and keep going.
Write in different places.... Write what is going on around you.
Visualize a place that you really love, be there, see the details. Now write about it.... What colors are there, sounds, smells? When someone else reads it, she should know how you love it, not by your saying you love it, but by your handling of the details.
Write about:...
· the most frightened you've ever been...
· reading and books that have changed your life.
Take a poetry book. Open to any page, grab a line, write it down, and continue from there.... Every time you get stuck, just rewrite your first line and keep going.
There’s plenty more great advice in the book and in my Best Bits of selected quotes, like this one:
Basically, if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things. Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot and don't think too much. Just enter the heat of words and sounds and colored sensations and keep your pen moving across the page.
Thanks to Deb for telling us about the book in her comment on Best Bits: Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper and, more importantly, for lending it to me. It was a pleasure to read and to share with Café Jen readers. As always, I would appreciate your take.
Related Posts:
· Best Bits: The Courage to Write
· Best Bits: Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper
· Best Bits: If You Want to Write
Le français suit l’anglais. By/par Jennifer Hollington.
That's the great value of art – making the ordinary extraordinary.
Natalie Goldberg
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within is another great book for aspiring writers and storytellers. This one is written by poet Natalie Goldberg, and her prose is alive with images. An example:
It is important to separate the creator and the editor or internal censor when you practice writing, so that the creator has free space to breathe, explore, and express.... That voice knows that the term boring will stop you dead in your tracks, so you'll hear yourself saying that a lot about your writing. Hear "You are boring" as distant white laundry flapping in the breeze. Eventually it will dry up and someone miles away will fold it and take it in. Meanwhile you will continue to write.
My challenge in writing is less about the inner editor or censor, though she is always there. It’s more about the resistance Goldberg attributes to a wish to avoid work and concentration. Clearly, writing takes both.
It also takes having something to say. Too often, though, we feel that we don’t have anything interesting to say. But Goldberg reminds her readers that “A writer's job is to make the ordinary come alive, to awaken ourselves to the specialness of simply being.”
The same day I wrote this post in my balcony “café,” I was watching the neighbourhood cats and writing about them in my journal. Here’s one of the descriptions that resulted, my daughter’s favourite: “My cat, Karma, has just jumped up onto the second café chair to lick the cheese that remains on my plate after my pizza. Her tags clink on the plate. She is licking off every morsel.”
Writing Tips
”We learn writing by doing it. That simple,” says Goldberg. So try practising by following these tips:
The basic unit of writing practice is the timed exercise. You may time yourself for ten minutes, twenty minutes, or an hour....
1. Keep your hand moving. (Don't pause to reread the line you have just written. That's stalling and trying to get control of what you're saying.)
2. Don't cross out. (That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn't mean to write, leave it.)
3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. (Don't even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.)
4. Lose control.
5. Don't think. Don't get logical.
6. Go for the jugular. (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.)
She recommends that we not set out with a specific destination in mind, like writing a poem or novel, but simply give ourselves permission to write “the worst junk in the world.”
If that’s how to write, then the question of what to write remains. Here are a few of Goldberg’s suggestions:
Tell about the quality of light coming in through your window.
Begin with "I remember." Write lots of small memories. If you fall into one large memory, write that. Just keep going.... If you get stuck, just repeat the phrase "I remember" again and keep going.
Write in different places.... Write what is going on around you.
Visualize a place that you really love, be there, see the details. Now write about it.... What colors are there, sounds, smells? When someone else reads it, she should know how you love it, not by your saying you love it, but by your handling of the details.
Write about:...
· the most frightened you've ever been...
· reading and books that have changed your life.
Take a poetry book. Open to any page, grab a line, write it down, and continue from there.... Every time you get stuck, just rewrite your first line and keep going.
There’s plenty more great advice in the book and in my Best Bits of selected quotes, like this one:
Basically, if you want to become a good writer, you need to do three things. Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot and don't think too much. Just enter the heat of words and sounds and colored sensations and keep your pen moving across the page.
Thanks to Deb for telling us about the book in her comment on Best Bits: Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper and, more importantly, for lending it to me. It was a pleasure to read and to share with Café Jen readers. As always, I would appreciate your take.
Related Posts:
· Best Bits: The Courage to Write
· Best Bits: Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper
· Best Bits: If You Want to Write
10 powerful questions / 10 questions stimulantes
Le français suit l’anglais. By/par Jennifer Hollington.
Every day or two, I dip my feet into the river that is Twitter. I don’t know anyone who can touch every post as they stream by, certainly not I. But occasionally I find a real gem, something I might not otherwise have come across.
Such was the case with @GuyKawasaki’s link to “10 powerful questions for conversations” by David Pollard of the blog How to Save the World. Pollard discusses the importance of asking powerful, open questions, particularly during research: “intelligent, appropriate, imaginative questions that provoke, that open new lines of enquiry, that challenge, that prompt thinking about an old issue in a fundamentally new way.” He describes a great question as one that is:
· inviting – drawing out the other participant(s) in the conversation, irresistably [sic] provoking a response
· engaging – exciting and accelerating and focusing the other participant(s) and re-engaging those not paying full attention
· generous – open-ended, giving the respondant(s) freedom and range to reply, and time and space to think and respond thoughtfully, not just dichotomous or multiple-choice answers
· attentive – to be powerful it has to be the right question, asked at the right time, the right way
The 10 questions strike me as being especially pertinent when planning or implementing change:
1. What stood out for you?...
2. What do you most care about?
3. What's the change been like for you?
4. What do you see your role being?
5. How are you feeling about that now?
6. What's holding you back? (asked to probe fears or procrastination, not to find fault)
7. What would you want to see come out of this?
8. How can I/we help you achieve your objective?
9. How do you know that's true? (asked not as a challenge, but as a means of exploring root causes of problems that may be stuck on dubious premises)
10. What comes next?
I recently conducted a series of interviews on CFS’s Innovation Management Process. As someone who has done lots of interviews, I’m comfortable approaching such conversations with a fairly loose interview guide and following the discussion where it goes naturally. But I wish I had had this list at the time. I would have used 2, 4 and 7 for sure.
Do you have any questions you like to use to stimulate conversation?
Le français suit l’anglais. By/par Jennifer Hollington.
Every day or two, I dip my feet into the river that is Twitter. I don’t know anyone who can touch every post as they stream by, certainly not I. But occasionally I find a real gem, something I might not otherwise have come across.
Such was the case with @GuyKawasaki’s link to “10 powerful questions for conversations” by David Pollard of the blog How to Save the World. Pollard discusses the importance of asking powerful, open questions, particularly during research: “intelligent, appropriate, imaginative questions that provoke, that open new lines of enquiry, that challenge, that prompt thinking about an old issue in a fundamentally new way.” He describes a great question as one that is:
· inviting – drawing out the other participant(s) in the conversation, irresistably [sic] provoking a response
· engaging – exciting and accelerating and focusing the other participant(s) and re-engaging those not paying full attention
· generous – open-ended, giving the respondant(s) freedom and range to reply, and time and space to think and respond thoughtfully, not just dichotomous or multiple-choice answers
· attentive – to be powerful it has to be the right question, asked at the right time, the right way
The 10 questions strike me as being especially pertinent when planning or implementing change:
1. What stood out for you?...
2. What do you most care about?
3. What's the change been like for you?
4. What do you see your role being?
5. How are you feeling about that now?
6. What's holding you back? (asked to probe fears or procrastination, not to find fault)
7. What would you want to see come out of this?
8. How can I/we help you achieve your objective?
9. How do you know that's true? (asked not as a challenge, but as a means of exploring root causes of problems that may be stuck on dubious premises)
10. What comes next?
I recently conducted a series of interviews on CFS’s Innovation Management Process. As someone who has done lots of interviews, I’m comfortable approaching such conversations with a fairly loose interview guide and following the discussion where it goes naturally. But I wish I had had this list at the time. I would have used 2, 4 and 7 for sure.
Do you have any questions you like to use to stimulate conversation?
10 powerful questions / 10 questions stimulantes
Le français suit l’anglais. By/par Jennifer Hollington.
Every day or two, I dip my feet into the river that is Twitter. I don’t know anyone who can touch every post as they stream by, certainly not I. But occasionally I find a real gem, something I might not otherwise have come across.
Such was the case with @GuyKawasaki’s link to “10 powerful questions for conversations” by David Pollard of the blog How to Save the World. Pollard discusses the importance of asking powerful, open questions, particularly during research: “intelligent, appropriate, imaginative questions that provoke, that open new lines of enquiry, that challenge, that prompt thinking about an old issue in a fundamentally new way.” He describes a great question as one that is:
· inviting – drawing out the other participant(s) in the conversation, irresistably [sic] provoking a response
· engaging – exciting and accelerating and focusing the other participant(s) and re-engaging those not paying full attention
· generous – open-ended, giving the respondant(s) freedom and range to reply, and time and space to think and respond thoughtfully, not just dichotomous or multiple-choice answers
· attentive – to be powerful it has to be the right question, asked at the right time, the right way
The 10 questions strike me as being especially pertinent when planning or implementing change:
1. What stood out for you?...
2. What do you most care about?
3. What's the change been like for you?
4. What do you see your role being?
5. How are you feeling about that now?
6. What's holding you back? (asked to probe fears or procrastination, not to find fault)
7. What would you want to see come out of this?
8. How can I/we help you achieve your objective?
9. How do you know that's true? (asked not as a challenge, but as a means of exploring root causes of problems that may be stuck on dubious premises)
10. What comes next?
I recently conducted a series of interviews on CFS’s Innovation Management Process. As someone who has done lots of interviews, I’m comfortable approaching such conversations with a fairly loose interview guide and following the discussion where it goes naturally. But I wish I had had this list at the time. I would have used 2, 4 and 7 for sure.
Do you have any questions you like to use to stimulate conversation?
Le français suit l’anglais. By/par Jennifer Hollington.
Every day or two, I dip my feet into the river that is Twitter. I don’t know anyone who can touch every post as they stream by, certainly not I. But occasionally I find a real gem, something I might not otherwise have come across.
Such was the case with @GuyKawasaki’s link to “10 powerful questions for conversations” by David Pollard of the blog How to Save the World. Pollard discusses the importance of asking powerful, open questions, particularly during research: “intelligent, appropriate, imaginative questions that provoke, that open new lines of enquiry, that challenge, that prompt thinking about an old issue in a fundamentally new way.” He describes a great question as one that is:
· inviting – drawing out the other participant(s) in the conversation, irresistably [sic] provoking a response
· engaging – exciting and accelerating and focusing the other participant(s) and re-engaging those not paying full attention
· generous – open-ended, giving the respondant(s) freedom and range to reply, and time and space to think and respond thoughtfully, not just dichotomous or multiple-choice answers
· attentive – to be powerful it has to be the right question, asked at the right time, the right way
The 10 questions strike me as being especially pertinent when planning or implementing change:
1. What stood out for you?...
2. What do you most care about?
3. What's the change been like for you?
4. What do you see your role being?
5. How are you feeling about that now?
6. What's holding you back? (asked to probe fears or procrastination, not to find fault)
7. What would you want to see come out of this?
8. How can I/we help you achieve your objective?
9. How do you know that's true? (asked not as a challenge, but as a means of exploring root causes of problems that may be stuck on dubious premises)
10. What comes next?
I recently conducted a series of interviews on CFS’s Innovation Management Process. As someone who has done lots of interviews, I’m comfortable approaching such conversations with a fairly loose interview guide and following the discussion where it goes naturally. But I wish I had had this list at the time. I would have used 2, 4 and 7 for sure.
Do you have any questions you like to use to stimulate conversation?
Friday, September 18, 2009
Hey there! okkervilriver is using Twitter.
Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Join today to start receiving okkervilriver's tweets.
Already using Twitter
from your phone? Click here.
An O'Hare Chilis; between the Sheryl Crow & Smash Mouth they played some song off Nuggets & it made the whole place briefly undepressing.w
about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter
23-hour trip from Tel Aviv straight to the Portland venue for my delirious solo show. Now to Cleveland. The band's relaxing in Tel Aviv. w
about 19 hours ago from UberTwitter
After a slightly harrowing London exit we're in Tel Aviv. My first time. I'm drinking a Turkish coffee with cardamom & trying to wake up.w
9:14 AM Sep 15th from Ping.fm
Now in London, Scala, where we first played a couple years ago. Soundchecking, hearing the girl go "One TWO, one TWO.." Tomorrow: Tel Aviv.w
6:12 AM Sep 14th from Ping.fm
Back from Dorset, where we didn't have much access to Twitter etc. End of the Road fest. Was lovely: hot Somerset cider & roaming peacocks.w
6:04 AM Sep 14th from Ping.fm
Walking around the city center in Oxford & it's quite pretty & I'm listening to the John Cale album "Paris 1919." w
8:09 AM Sep 11th from Ping.fm
Nottingham, a huge club complex. Wandering when it's closed, upstairs & downstairs, it's like a creepy funhouse but with empty beercups. w
8:23 AM Sep 10th from Ping.fm
All the band is covered in mud from Electric Picnic yesterday. In Galway now. I walked along the bay, watched the gulls & menacing swans.w
9:03 AM Sep 7th from Ping.fm
Manchester, 1st show of the tour, 3rd stinkiest club we've ever played. Sitting outside the bus discussing Lauren's days as a parrothead ...
4:48 PM Sep 4th from Ping.fm
Manchester, staying at our friend Bernie's home for wayfaring musicians.17 people in this house. 2 bands. 1 bathroom! Battling thru jetlag.w
7:39 AM Sep 3rd from Ping.fm
Packing last-minute for the UK. Power adapters. A sleep mask. All the permits and papers. I have precisely one more bag than I can carry. w
10:48 AM Sep 2nd from Ping.fm
Travis is enjoying one last american cheeseburger as well as some chicken wings. It doesn't get anymore american than that. Oh, wait, I' ...
9:53 AM Sep 1st from Ping.fm
Our Twitter was hacked & I feel like I did that time when a bum broke into my car, smoked just 1 cigarette, and stubbed it out on the dash.w
4:06 PM Aug 31st from Ping.fm Someone appears to have hacked into our twitter thing...hold on....
3:34 PM Aug 31st from Ping.fm
I've got the visuals, baby show me the motion. hit.
10:04 AM Aug 31st from Ping.fm call me captain friday, that's my grip b'yatch./
9:54 AM Aug 31st from Ping.fm
i'm in. i feel so close to you.
9:48 AM Aug 31st from Ping.fm
Preparing for tour. 9-volts, travel shampoos, laundry trips, fridge-cleaning, sock-counting, picking out books, collating foreign currency.w
8:57 AM Aug 31st from Ping.fm
Went to James Ensor at MoMA. I love the way his attic studio becomes this dreamspace that's terrifying but feels totally like a real place-w
10:51 AM Aug 29th from Ping.fm
Lauren's gunna build a guitar!!!
3:20 AM Aug 27th from Ping.fm
RIP Ellie Greenwich, who wrote "Be My Baby," "River Deep, Mountain High," "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home," and "And Then He Kissed Me."
4:14 PM Aug 26th from Ping.fm
Will is dousing himself with strong coffee and listening to Laura Nyro and to the Ata Kak record Chris from Jagjaguwar recommended.
10:24 AM Aug 24th from Ping.fm
Back in Brooklyn now and the rest of the band is Austin 'til we meet again on the other side of the Atlantic. -w
10:20 AM Aug 22nd from Ping.fm
In SLC I threw the tambourine and it bounced & hooked on the guitar stand. Biggest cheer of the night,like people thought I meant to do it-w
10:20 AM Aug 22nd from Ping.fm
Will is backstage in SLC, waiting for the stage to be ready for sound-check. There's an audience watching, which is sorta weird. Hope we ...
3:49 PM Aug 20th from Ping.fm
Travis is so excited to get out of this god awful texas heat. Both my apple trees have died and my peach tree is on it's way. We need ...
10:05 AM Aug 18th from Ping.fm
Will is sad about the loss of Jim Dickinson, sometime pianist for the Stones and producer of Big Star and one of his all-time favorite m ...
9:15 AM Aug 17th from Ping.fm
It's Sunday afternoon ,and Justin is recording a ridiculous Hungarian song for a puppet show.
1:41 PM Aug 16th from Ping.fm Will is in New Hampshire for his grandparents' 65th anniversary.
2:37 PM Aug 15th from Ping.fm
Speaking of guitarists: R.I.P. Les Paul - the inventor of multi-track recording.
1:25 PM Aug 13th from Ping.fm Lauren is geekn out on The Giant Pin (Nels Cline Singers).
11:09 PM Aug 12th from Ping.fm
(Travis here) I now own a car after 9 months of being without one. I've already done 3 repairs and now there's something wrong with th ...
5:56 PM Aug 12th from Ping.fm
Will is wondering what Lauren Delorean Gurgiolo aka "The Little Hobo" aka "Lil Pukey" is doing right now.
6:12 PM Aug 11th from web
Will drove back to Brooklyn from Austin this weekend. Three days of solitude, crappy fast food, lonely hotels, & the music of Brenda Lee.
9:11 AM Aug 10th from web
Scott just realized that this whole Facebook thing means he has to be witty over the internet..I wouldn't hold your breath though...
4:15 PM Aug 9th from web
Last day in the studio with Roky Erickson & Trav & Lauren today, listening to the mixes we just finished. So happy with this record. -W
4:14 PM Aug 9th from web
To clarify: we'll be updating both the okkervilriver Twitter AND Facebook pages. So you don't have to join Twitter if you're scared. -Will
10:43 AM Aug 5th from web
Will here - so we're finally taking this Twitter account and doing something with it, I think. With regular updates from the band.
4:57 PM Aug 4th from UberTwitter Coachella & Bonnaroo!
1:16 PM Mar 1st from web Okkervil in New Zealand http://tinyurl.com/b4wufx
11:34 AM Feb 22nd from web Aussie Groovin’ The Moo Tour http://tinyurl.com/at4e7c
2:25 AM Feb 20th from web
Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Join today to start receiving okkervilriver's tweets.
Already using Twitter
from your phone? Click here.
An O'Hare Chilis; between the Sheryl Crow & Smash Mouth they played some song off Nuggets & it made the whole place briefly undepressing.w
about 13 hours ago from UberTwitter
23-hour trip from Tel Aviv straight to the Portland venue for my delirious solo show. Now to Cleveland. The band's relaxing in Tel Aviv. w
about 19 hours ago from UberTwitter
After a slightly harrowing London exit we're in Tel Aviv. My first time. I'm drinking a Turkish coffee with cardamom & trying to wake up.w
9:14 AM Sep 15th from Ping.fm
Now in London, Scala, where we first played a couple years ago. Soundchecking, hearing the girl go "One TWO, one TWO.." Tomorrow: Tel Aviv.w
6:12 AM Sep 14th from Ping.fm
Back from Dorset, where we didn't have much access to Twitter etc. End of the Road fest. Was lovely: hot Somerset cider & roaming peacocks.w
6:04 AM Sep 14th from Ping.fm
Walking around the city center in Oxford & it's quite pretty & I'm listening to the John Cale album "Paris 1919." w
8:09 AM Sep 11th from Ping.fm
Nottingham, a huge club complex. Wandering when it's closed, upstairs & downstairs, it's like a creepy funhouse but with empty beercups. w
8:23 AM Sep 10th from Ping.fm
All the band is covered in mud from Electric Picnic yesterday. In Galway now. I walked along the bay, watched the gulls & menacing swans.w
9:03 AM Sep 7th from Ping.fm
Manchester, 1st show of the tour, 3rd stinkiest club we've ever played. Sitting outside the bus discussing Lauren's days as a parrothead ...
4:48 PM Sep 4th from Ping.fm
Manchester, staying at our friend Bernie's home for wayfaring musicians.17 people in this house. 2 bands. 1 bathroom! Battling thru jetlag.w
7:39 AM Sep 3rd from Ping.fm
Packing last-minute for the UK. Power adapters. A sleep mask. All the permits and papers. I have precisely one more bag than I can carry. w
10:48 AM Sep 2nd from Ping.fm
Travis is enjoying one last american cheeseburger as well as some chicken wings. It doesn't get anymore american than that. Oh, wait, I' ...
9:53 AM Sep 1st from Ping.fm
Our Twitter was hacked & I feel like I did that time when a bum broke into my car, smoked just 1 cigarette, and stubbed it out on the dash.w
4:06 PM Aug 31st from Ping.fm Someone appears to have hacked into our twitter thing...hold on....
3:34 PM Aug 31st from Ping.fm
I've got the visuals, baby show me the motion. hit.
10:04 AM Aug 31st from Ping.fm call me captain friday, that's my grip b'yatch./
9:54 AM Aug 31st from Ping.fm
i'm in. i feel so close to you.
9:48 AM Aug 31st from Ping.fm
Preparing for tour. 9-volts, travel shampoos, laundry trips, fridge-cleaning, sock-counting, picking out books, collating foreign currency.w
8:57 AM Aug 31st from Ping.fm
Went to James Ensor at MoMA. I love the way his attic studio becomes this dreamspace that's terrifying but feels totally like a real place-w
10:51 AM Aug 29th from Ping.fm
Lauren's gunna build a guitar!!!
3:20 AM Aug 27th from Ping.fm
RIP Ellie Greenwich, who wrote "Be My Baby," "River Deep, Mountain High," "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home," and "And Then He Kissed Me."
4:14 PM Aug 26th from Ping.fm
Will is dousing himself with strong coffee and listening to Laura Nyro and to the Ata Kak record Chris from Jagjaguwar recommended.
10:24 AM Aug 24th from Ping.fm
Back in Brooklyn now and the rest of the band is Austin 'til we meet again on the other side of the Atlantic. -w
10:20 AM Aug 22nd from Ping.fm
In SLC I threw the tambourine and it bounced & hooked on the guitar stand. Biggest cheer of the night,like people thought I meant to do it-w
10:20 AM Aug 22nd from Ping.fm
Will is backstage in SLC, waiting for the stage to be ready for sound-check. There's an audience watching, which is sorta weird. Hope we ...
3:49 PM Aug 20th from Ping.fm
Travis is so excited to get out of this god awful texas heat. Both my apple trees have died and my peach tree is on it's way. We need ...
10:05 AM Aug 18th from Ping.fm
Will is sad about the loss of Jim Dickinson, sometime pianist for the Stones and producer of Big Star and one of his all-time favorite m ...
9:15 AM Aug 17th from Ping.fm
It's Sunday afternoon ,and Justin is recording a ridiculous Hungarian song for a puppet show.
1:41 PM Aug 16th from Ping.fm Will is in New Hampshire for his grandparents' 65th anniversary.
2:37 PM Aug 15th from Ping.fm
Speaking of guitarists: R.I.P. Les Paul - the inventor of multi-track recording.
1:25 PM Aug 13th from Ping.fm Lauren is geekn out on The Giant Pin (Nels Cline Singers).
11:09 PM Aug 12th from Ping.fm
(Travis here) I now own a car after 9 months of being without one. I've already done 3 repairs and now there's something wrong with th ...
5:56 PM Aug 12th from Ping.fm
Will is wondering what Lauren Delorean Gurgiolo aka "The Little Hobo" aka "Lil Pukey" is doing right now.
6:12 PM Aug 11th from web
Will drove back to Brooklyn from Austin this weekend. Three days of solitude, crappy fast food, lonely hotels, & the music of Brenda Lee.
9:11 AM Aug 10th from web
Scott just realized that this whole Facebook thing means he has to be witty over the internet..I wouldn't hold your breath though...
4:15 PM Aug 9th from web
Last day in the studio with Roky Erickson & Trav & Lauren today, listening to the mixes we just finished. So happy with this record. -W
4:14 PM Aug 9th from web
To clarify: we'll be updating both the okkervilriver Twitter AND Facebook pages. So you don't have to join Twitter if you're scared. -Will
10:43 AM Aug 5th from web
Will here - so we're finally taking this Twitter account and doing something with it, I think. With regular updates from the band.
4:57 PM Aug 4th from UberTwitter Coachella & Bonnaroo!
1:16 PM Mar 1st from web Okkervil in New Zealand http://tinyurl.com/b4wufx
11:34 AM Feb 22nd from web Aussie Groovin’ The Moo Tour http://tinyurl.com/at4e7c
2:25 AM Feb 20th from web
The Oregonian Wednesday September 09, 2009, 8:53 AM
Will Sheff:The Okkervil River frontman headlines an opening-night slate that includes the Portland Cello Project, Fences and Damien Jurado. It'll be a night of pretty music.
8 p.m. Wednesday, Berbati's Pan, 10 S.W. Third Ave.; wristband or $15 at the door
Will Sheff:The Okkervil River frontman headlines an opening-night slate that includes the Portland Cello Project, Fences and Damien Jurado. It'll be a night of pretty music.
8 p.m. Wednesday, Berbati's Pan, 10 S.W. Third Ave.; wristband or $15 at the door
Austin musician drawn in by birds
By Brad Barry
The Daily Texan
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Share this article Published: Monday, September 14, 2009
Updated: Monday, September 14, 2009
Photo Courtesy of Annie Ray
Jonathan Meiburg, of the Austin-based band Shearwater, is this week's Music Monday guest.
Along with being the songwriter and vocalist behind the acclaimed indie rock of Shearwater, Jonathan Meiburg is really into birds. It was UT’s graduate program in ornithology that brought him to Austin, where he first joined Okkervil River and then moved on to playing in Shearwater full time.
Currently, his band, which fluidly oscillates between the intimate and the majestic, is playing in Europe as part of an international tour, but Meiburg took some time to tell The Daily Texan a little about himself.
Daily Texan: What album have you listened to the most in the last week?
Jonathan Meiburg: We’ve been in the studio finishing our new album over the last week, so that’s probably the most truthful answer; also Ege Bamyasi by Can.
DT: If you could collaborate with any musician in the world, who would it be?
JM: Roger Waters.
DT: What was the best show you’ve ever played?
JM: Maybe the Bataclan in Paris, last year.
DT: What was the worst show you’ve ever played?
JM: Cafe Mundi, solo, many years ago. No one came. I thought the kind lady behind the counter was cute though, so maybe it wasn’t the worst. I think she felt sorry for me.
DT: What is your favorite song to play live?
JM: Hard to say. I still like “Hail Mary” a lot, and “Rooks.” But I’m really looking forward to playing new songs.
DT: When you were forming the band were there any alternate band names you didn’t pick?
JM: I had the name in my head before the band got together.
DT: Where is your favorite place to eat in Austin?
JM: Hai Ky. And my own kitchen.
DT: Do you have a day job?
JM: No. Who would hire you when you’re on tour half the year?
DT: What is your favorite Web site?
JM: 10000birds.com
DT: What is a perfect day for you?
JM: A day that doesn’t involve travel by car, van or airplane.
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By Brad Barry
The Daily Texan
Print this article
Share this article Published: Monday, September 14, 2009
Updated: Monday, September 14, 2009
Photo Courtesy of Annie Ray
Jonathan Meiburg, of the Austin-based band Shearwater, is this week's Music Monday guest.
Along with being the songwriter and vocalist behind the acclaimed indie rock of Shearwater, Jonathan Meiburg is really into birds. It was UT’s graduate program in ornithology that brought him to Austin, where he first joined Okkervil River and then moved on to playing in Shearwater full time.
Currently, his band, which fluidly oscillates between the intimate and the majestic, is playing in Europe as part of an international tour, but Meiburg took some time to tell The Daily Texan a little about himself.
Daily Texan: What album have you listened to the most in the last week?
Jonathan Meiburg: We’ve been in the studio finishing our new album over the last week, so that’s probably the most truthful answer; also Ege Bamyasi by Can.
DT: If you could collaborate with any musician in the world, who would it be?
JM: Roger Waters.
DT: What was the best show you’ve ever played?
JM: Maybe the Bataclan in Paris, last year.
DT: What was the worst show you’ve ever played?
JM: Cafe Mundi, solo, many years ago. No one came. I thought the kind lady behind the counter was cute though, so maybe it wasn’t the worst. I think she felt sorry for me.
DT: What is your favorite song to play live?
JM: Hard to say. I still like “Hail Mary” a lot, and “Rooks.” But I’m really looking forward to playing new songs.
DT: When you were forming the band were there any alternate band names you didn’t pick?
JM: I had the name in my head before the band got together.
DT: Where is your favorite place to eat in Austin?
JM: Hai Ky. And my own kitchen.
DT: Do you have a day job?
JM: No. Who would hire you when you’re on tour half the year?
DT: What is your favorite Web site?
JM: 10000birds.com
DT: What is a perfect day for you?
JM: A day that doesn’t involve travel by car, van or airplane.
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Written By:
Gavin Riley
16th September 2009
At 01:32 GMT
0 comment(s)
Boy do Okkervil River put on a good show. Yes, Will Sheff may be a bit pretentious but we wouldn't have him any other way.
Around for over a decade now Okkervil River have ventured into territories that many dare not touch, writing songs about dead presidents and gruesome murders, whist quietly going about their business and becoming one of the most respected bands on the planet.
Tonight they provide the main support for headliners Fleet Foxes. Robin and the rest of the boys must have been quaking in their shoes after watching this show.
There have been multiple line-up changes over the years, most notably Jonathan Meiburg's departure for full-time Shearwater duties, but it was good to see new guitarist Lauren Gurgiolo has settled well into her full-time role in the band. Indeed she adds a new dimension to the band that's perhaps been lacking since Meiburg's decampment. Affluent on guitar, banjo and mandolin, she allows Sheff less responsibility and brings to life songs like set closer 'Unless It Kicks' which finally (this is the third time we've seen O.R live) included the phenomenal guitar solo that brings the song to a close.
For some reason security let us watch the show from the photo pit, which could have had a calamitous effect on our health.
As Sheff concluded the final song, he held aloft his mike stand and threw it into the photo pit missing yours truly by a few inches. But we didn't care. We just witnessed the best show of the weekend.
As security placed the stand back onto stage, there was the loudest cheer I've ever heard for an encore. It was never going to happen. They'd run over time anyway. But we were treated to a wonderful "secret" show the following day. More of that later.
Live Pics:
Monday, September 14, 2009
ometimes forgettable, sometimes a little bit brilliant, Norah Jones is the woman that no one admits to liking but there's no denying from any of you that at least one her songs has made it to your sleep playlist at some point or another.
A new album, then, is making its way to the masses, titled The Fall and due in just over two months on November 16th via EMI.
Mostly written by the New York singer-songstress herself, a few respected names are also confirmed to have co-writen including Ryan Adams on the track Light As A Feather and none other than Mr WIll Sheff of Texan geniuses Okkervil River on track ten, Stuck.
The upcoming long-players track-listing can be seen just below.
The Fall Track-Listing:
01 - Chasing Pirates
02 - Even Though
03 - Light As A Feather
04 - Young Blood
05 - I Wouldn't Need You
06 - Waiting
07 - It's Gonna Be
08 - You've Ruined Me
09 - Back To Manhattan
10 - Stuck
11 - December
12 - Tell Yer Mama
13 - Man Of The Hour
A new album, then, is making its way to the masses, titled The Fall and due in just over two months on November 16th via EMI.
Mostly written by the New York singer-songstress herself, a few respected names are also confirmed to have co-writen including Ryan Adams on the track Light As A Feather and none other than Mr WIll Sheff of Texan geniuses Okkervil River on track ten, Stuck.
The upcoming long-players track-listing can be seen just below.
The Fall Track-Listing:
01 - Chasing Pirates
02 - Even Though
03 - Light As A Feather
04 - Young Blood
05 - I Wouldn't Need You
06 - Waiting
07 - It's Gonna Be
08 - You've Ruined Me
09 - Back To Manhattan
10 - Stuck
11 - December
12 - Tell Yer Mama
13 - Man Of The Hour
will has one of these
Weathering life's storms
New Orleans-born Austin musician Lee Barber reflects on hurricane, divorce on debut album
By Michael Corcoran
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 05, 2009
When the storm hit in August 2005, songwriter Lee Barber couldn't predict the depths of his gloom. In a one-two punch to the gut, there was not just the devastation visited upon his birthplace by Hurricane Katrina. Just hours before the levees broke, Lee and Elaine Barber, his wife of 24 years, broke up.
It was at this intersection of storms literal and emotional that "Thief and Rescue," the 53-year-old Barber's debut solo record, was born. It's a brooding album that questions the validity of music during troubled times, then comes to the conclusion that even when a good song is all you have, it can be enough.
"Let's get lost in a song about nothing, sung by no one," Barber intones in a dark and warm voice on the album's final track. The last five minutes of the song are taken over by an improvised instrumental workout, with Craig Ross' curt guitar slithering between drummer Jon Greene's floor tom accents, wonderfully summarizing the communication between musicians on this seemingly charmed project. Matt Sever struggled to hit the crescendo on trumpet, but producer Brian Beattie left it in because it sounded like laughter.
"We didn't know how it was going to end," Barber said of "Let's Get Lost," which was nailed on one take. "We went into the control room and listened and Brian said, 'Does everybody feel like they've expressed themselves?' And we all grinned."
"Thief and Rescue," whose name is from a Barber painting used on the cover, comes out on Monday, not Tuesday as is the norm, because Labor Day seems right for an album bartered for with odd jobs and artwork. The musicians, including guest vocalist Will Sheff of Okkervil River, were paid in oil paintings by Barber.
This labor of love sprung from chance reciprocation. Barber had the songs but not the means to record them. Beattie had a brand-new home studio, dubbed the Wonder Chamber, but he wanted to give it a test run without anyone checking their watches and hearing cash register sounds. A deal was made where little money changed hands. In former Glass Eye bassist Beattie, Barber got not only a producer, arranger and studio time, but a multi-instrumentalist who played toy piano through Leslie organ speakers.
"I wanted the first project to be one where I concentrated on the sound and didn't have to get into the nuts and bolts of the songs," said Beattie, who had produced a 1999 album Lee and Elaine Barber made as the Barbers. "Lee had these fully formed little gems."
"I think every one of us was at the top of our game," said Barber, who works as a draftsman by day. The album was recorded in six days, mostly live, with horn parts layered on later.
The soft-spoken Barber found a polar soul mate in Beattie, who's also produced Okkervil River, Bill Callahan and Shearwater. "I'm cautious by nature and Brian's just got this boundless energy to try different things," said Barber, whose songs crawl out of a dark, Southern gothic place. "I think it worked: opposites attract."
Unlike the records Barber made with the Barbers, which had one member in his 20s, one in her 30s, one in his 40s and one in his 50s, "Thief and Rescue" is a spiritually cohesive effort, sequenced in what Barber calls "an arc of longing." The record opens with "The Mosquito," adapted from the poem "Lullabye" by Peter Everwine, which Barber cut out of New Yorker magazine about eight years ago and kept on he and Elaine's dresser. "I wanted to start at the middle of the arc," Barber said.
The album hits its emotional low points on "The Monkey and the Ass," which Barber said is the song that best describes the breakup, and "1000 Miles," a reaction to the devastation of Katrina. "Everyone has to deal with loss and change of this sort, and the older you get, the more familiar you become with it," he said. "For me, and a lot of us, music makes it easier to negotiate."
Elaine Barber gets in on this musical therapy, playing harp on the album's "Way Back (Shoo-Be-Doo)," a song that traces more innocent times. The couple has two grown children, Hedda, 24, and Wells, 18.
Lee Barber does not write songs quickly or easily. He said his goal as a writer is to compose songs that have staying power, like the hymns he grew up singing in the Baptist church, where his father was a preacher and his mother the organist. He was born in New Orleans in 1956, while his father was going to seminary school, but Barber grew up in Baton Rouge, La.
As a kid, his older sister turned him on to Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and others, opening up a whole new world. When Lee got his first guitar at age 16, he picked up fingerpicking patterns from a Leonard Cohen songbook. He fronted a soul band called the Hounds when in college in Mississippi, where he met Elaine, a classically trained musician. They formed an improvisational band, inspired by Captain Beefheart, Sun Ra and other sonic adventurers. But, Barber said, "I've always returned to 'the song,' to my original inspirations from those records that my sister brought home."
When Elaine got a gig playing harp with the Austin Symphony in 1992, the Barber family moved to town. They also relocated because they heard Austin was a place to grow a band, and the Barbers had gone as far as they could in Mississippi. But after releasing two critically praised and publicly ignored albums in the '90s, the Barbers hung it up and Lee turned his free time energies to painting.
But then when his world turned upside down, he reached back for his guitar. When he ran into Beattie at Zen on South Congress Avenue about two years ago, the two talked about the new songs Barber had been writing. A solo acoustic demo was delivered to Beattie's Travis Heights home a few days later. The timing couldn't have been better for Barber, who thought he'd given up music, but now has his name on one of the best Austin albums of 2009.
"Putting out a record is like giving birth," Barber said, cautiously optimistic about the upcoming release date. "I feel like I've gone into labor." Another reason Monday's the perfect release date.
mcorcoran@statesman.com; 445-3652
Friday, September 4, 2009
March 18, 2008
Dramatist Article- April/May
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL
By Jayme McGhan
The professional theatre has a new branch. Smack in the middle of the glossed over rows of indistinguishable houses, next to the mega strip malls with the Bed Bath and Beyond in the middle shining like the last bastion of soccer-mom bliss, around the corner from the forty-seventh Starbucks/Caribou/Dunn Brothers, nestled in the remnants of an honest to God strip mall from the eighties is the new home of the Twin Cities metro areas latest artistic endeavor, Yellow Tree Theatre. This is theatre for the burbs and by the burbs. You can’t beat it with a stir stick.
You also can’t help but admire the absolute tenacity and bravery the dynamic duo who started it possess. While all of their peers are heading to graduate school to continue their education, Jason Peterson and Jessica Lind figure they’ll just take the money they would have dumped in to an educational institution and open up their own theatre instead. Oh, it helps that they’re married and can co-sign a loan and a lease. The young husband and wife (father and mother as well), both originally hailing from one of the many suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, recently moved back to Minnesota from New York City with exactly this plan in mind; to start a professional theatre company in the suburbs. Jason, a talented actor with television credits including Six Degrees, Guiding Light, and As The World Turns will serve as the companies Artistic Director while Jessica, a member of the Guild, will get the joy of watching her plays on her own stage. The theatre will kick-off their season with Jessica’s play String this fall. In the meantime, a festival of short work will introduce the community to Yellow Tree Theatre in May.
“We always wanted to start a theatre in New York, but it was simply too overwhelming. Minnesota seemed right for us,” says Jessica. “There’s a ton of exciting theatre in the downtown area,” adds Jason, “but we wanted to bring the theatre to our own community, where we live. So we though, why not Osseo?” Why not Osseo indeed? After all, there are nearly two million people within twenty square miles of the northern suburb. Located on an extremely busy intersection, well over forty-thousand of this built in audience drive past Yellow Tree Theatre’s space every day. And what a space it is. Converted from the warehouse section of an old strip mall, the theatre now takes up a majority of the square footage and includes a lovely wine bar and socializing area.
The happy couple met while pursuing their undergraduate theatre degrees at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Married during their junior year, they began to get that inevitable bug to try their hand at New York theatre. After graduating, they moved to NYC and, for a short while at least, began a relatively successful climb. But it sure wasn’t a bowl full of cherries. “I was in constant communication with an editor at Samuel French who was trying to shop my play to a New York audience,” explains Jessica. “He finally told me that there simply wasn’t a market for my writing there. According to him, New York audiences don’t like happy endings. So, what’s the next move after that? Minnesota.” Hopefully Minnesota audiences do like happy endings.
“We want to tell good stories, that’s it. We want to produce new and exciting plays,” says Jason. “We don’t want to be a theatre for theatre people, for artists, for those who are already a part of the mix. We want to produce theatre for people who don’t see theatre,” he adds. “Even if we tried to be a theatre for theatre people, we’d fail at it,” laughs Jessica. Yellow Tree’s mission statement backs this up one-hundred percent, exclaiming proudly, “We want to see your uncle Al, the big burly truck-driver in the third row, get out his hanky, wipe his eyes, and blame it on hay fever.” In an industry that seems to continually be filled to the brim with artistic nepotism, this concept is an absolute gasp of fresh air.
Of course, the risks are high. In a country where new theatre companies fold quicker than an omelet, these two are putting their money where their mouth is. They took out a small business loan to get the theatre on its feet. “We’re positive we’ll at least break even. Worst case scenario, we walk out after our two year lease is done in debt,” says Jason. “But if we went to graduate school, we’d walk out after two years in the same debt. We’ll just consider this the school of hard knocks.” Jessica pipes up with conviction, “I’m more afraid of not pursuing my dream, what I really love to do, then being in a little bit of debt. It’s more important to us that we give it a go, and maybe establish a community while we’re at it. It’s not Broadway, it’s not the Guthrie, but it’s ours.” It seems that being behind the wheel of your own fate is, with a little roll of the dice, possible. Not only possible but perhaps preferable to leaving it in the hands of a literary manager/casting director/artistic director who have their own visions to worry about, sponsors to please, and friends to produce. Yellow Tree Theatre seems bent on proving it.
So all you suburbanites out there who have been wandering in the stucco-front capitalist desert without a fulfilling artistic drink for what seems like ages…never you fear. Yellow Tree Theatre has arrived. And they want you to invite your uncle Al.
Posted by Jayme on March 18, 2008 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Dramatist Article- April/May
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL
By Jayme McGhan
The professional theatre has a new branch. Smack in the middle of the glossed over rows of indistinguishable houses, next to the mega strip malls with the Bed Bath and Beyond in the middle shining like the last bastion of soccer-mom bliss, around the corner from the forty-seventh Starbucks/Caribou/Dunn Brothers, nestled in the remnants of an honest to God strip mall from the eighties is the new home of the Twin Cities metro areas latest artistic endeavor, Yellow Tree Theatre. This is theatre for the burbs and by the burbs. You can’t beat it with a stir stick.
You also can’t help but admire the absolute tenacity and bravery the dynamic duo who started it possess. While all of their peers are heading to graduate school to continue their education, Jason Peterson and Jessica Lind figure they’ll just take the money they would have dumped in to an educational institution and open up their own theatre instead. Oh, it helps that they’re married and can co-sign a loan and a lease. The young husband and wife (father and mother as well), both originally hailing from one of the many suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, recently moved back to Minnesota from New York City with exactly this plan in mind; to start a professional theatre company in the suburbs. Jason, a talented actor with television credits including Six Degrees, Guiding Light, and As The World Turns will serve as the companies Artistic Director while Jessica, a member of the Guild, will get the joy of watching her plays on her own stage. The theatre will kick-off their season with Jessica’s play String this fall. In the meantime, a festival of short work will introduce the community to Yellow Tree Theatre in May.
“We always wanted to start a theatre in New York, but it was simply too overwhelming. Minnesota seemed right for us,” says Jessica. “There’s a ton of exciting theatre in the downtown area,” adds Jason, “but we wanted to bring the theatre to our own community, where we live. So we though, why not Osseo?” Why not Osseo indeed? After all, there are nearly two million people within twenty square miles of the northern suburb. Located on an extremely busy intersection, well over forty-thousand of this built in audience drive past Yellow Tree Theatre’s space every day. And what a space it is. Converted from the warehouse section of an old strip mall, the theatre now takes up a majority of the square footage and includes a lovely wine bar and socializing area.
The happy couple met while pursuing their undergraduate theatre degrees at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Married during their junior year, they began to get that inevitable bug to try their hand at New York theatre. After graduating, they moved to NYC and, for a short while at least, began a relatively successful climb. But it sure wasn’t a bowl full of cherries. “I was in constant communication with an editor at Samuel French who was trying to shop my play to a New York audience,” explains Jessica. “He finally told me that there simply wasn’t a market for my writing there. According to him, New York audiences don’t like happy endings. So, what’s the next move after that? Minnesota.” Hopefully Minnesota audiences do like happy endings.
“We want to tell good stories, that’s it. We want to produce new and exciting plays,” says Jason. “We don’t want to be a theatre for theatre people, for artists, for those who are already a part of the mix. We want to produce theatre for people who don’t see theatre,” he adds. “Even if we tried to be a theatre for theatre people, we’d fail at it,” laughs Jessica. Yellow Tree’s mission statement backs this up one-hundred percent, exclaiming proudly, “We want to see your uncle Al, the big burly truck-driver in the third row, get out his hanky, wipe his eyes, and blame it on hay fever.” In an industry that seems to continually be filled to the brim with artistic nepotism, this concept is an absolute gasp of fresh air.
Of course, the risks are high. In a country where new theatre companies fold quicker than an omelet, these two are putting their money where their mouth is. They took out a small business loan to get the theatre on its feet. “We’re positive we’ll at least break even. Worst case scenario, we walk out after our two year lease is done in debt,” says Jason. “But if we went to graduate school, we’d walk out after two years in the same debt. We’ll just consider this the school of hard knocks.” Jessica pipes up with conviction, “I’m more afraid of not pursuing my dream, what I really love to do, then being in a little bit of debt. It’s more important to us that we give it a go, and maybe establish a community while we’re at it. It’s not Broadway, it’s not the Guthrie, but it’s ours.” It seems that being behind the wheel of your own fate is, with a little roll of the dice, possible. Not only possible but perhaps preferable to leaving it in the hands of a literary manager/casting director/artistic director who have their own visions to worry about, sponsors to please, and friends to produce. Yellow Tree Theatre seems bent on proving it.
So all you suburbanites out there who have been wandering in the stucco-front capitalist desert without a fulfilling artistic drink for what seems like ages…never you fear. Yellow Tree Theatre has arrived. And they want you to invite your uncle Al.
Posted by Jayme on March 18, 2008 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
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