week sixty nine >> "transmission"

Sarah Kay

in a most compelling transmission of transmissions,
spoken word artist Sarah Kay tells all about telling....
of story, and how we can discover our value through
uncovering and releasing the nuanced facets of our
own unique ways of tasting life. >> click video below

"transmission"   click to view

Mz Kay is doing some of the most important work 
on the planet, I feel.  thank you Sarah.

∞  ceci



 




















6

the launch

Our speaking engagement yesterday at UC Santa Barbara was a threshold for us and our work beyond measure.  We shared stories about our friendship, our collaboration, ZBOOK, our other books, and our new postcard project that we launched right then and there with the students: Z.POSTCARDS.  Because our engagement was to speak to the Personal Narrative class, we had the opportuntiy to delve into the performance aspect of the presentation.  In between power point segments, Jennifer performed a personal storytelling with words, movement, and the cutting of oranges... which she then 'passed out' to the students as I continued on into my sharing of history.  Also, for the duration of our "talk," we painted and created Live with watercolors and collage... as a way of sharing an experience of our cultivated modality of art making, versus an explanation.

The surface of our live painting was a "canvas" made of tiled blank postcards.  At the close of our talk we invited students to gather 'round to view the whole postcard piece and then select a card.  This was the launch of Z.POSTCARDS... our new project in which we initiate a newly crafted postcard, mail to anyone who wants to play, and when you receive yours you are invited to add your own mark of art, design, words, and expression to the postcard and mail it on, inviting others to continue the collaboration.  An invitation to play, create freely, let go, and discover the joys and possibilities through collaboration.  Each card is numbered and who knows, maybe someday some of them reunite and share the story of their journey, much like a balloon that's flown around the world.  The students from yesterday have the first cards of the project, and with that the opportuntiy to collaborate with us, plus to (re)discover the joys of the post! (as in the mail, something that seems to be quite forgotten these days)

The feedback from the class was wonderful and we had several stimulating exchanges with students after wards.  Most were sure that we knew about a website called PostSecret.  We said, what is that? Please tell us! Turns out to be so popular that you out there probably know of it already!  The students pointed out that the site is almost entirely geared to the college student market, as the creator of this project tours with his speaking engagements to all college campuses.  They thought maybe this is why we didn't know about it yet.  But upon visiting the PostSecret Facebook page I found a handful of my friends who already "like" it and many are far beyond college age, so how have we not come across it already? Crazy!  But SUPER glad to know of it now... so rad to learn something new from the students :) ~thanks so much!

PostSecret is an art project that invites us to mail in our secrets anonymously on postcards.  The postcards, the secrets, are then posted on the site.  That's it. And it is awesome.  The power of releasing secrets and reading other's has proven to be tremendous, capturing the attention of millions.  And the postcards themselves, the pieces of art people make of them to express beyond the words, are hugely compelling.  In the past 5 years, creator Frank Warren has published four PostSecret books of crafted and mailed in postcards of secrets.  Frank Warren also tours college campuses throughout north america with his speaking events called PostSecrect Live where he shares his story, yet to be shared secrets from a fist full of postcards not yet posted or published, the stories behind the secrets, and an open mic for students in the audience to voice their secrets.

Through our expereince in speaking about our work and performing our stories at UCSB yesterday, it became crystal clear that the power of the work we do is best conveyed face to face, in a live experience where we can tell our stories, share our passion, and speak on the teachings that have revealed through our work: the power of play, innovation, trust, and collaboration.  This is the start of something great, something that feels like it's been waiting for us to wake up to it, and yesterday was the launching point.  Thanks to our former professor Kip Fulbeck for inviting us to speak at his class, presenting us with the match with which to light this fire.   

It's funny, all this year I have been paying attention to "talks" and speakers themselves with adamant interest.  Primarily via TED talks and thru noticing how all the great teachers and innovators that I am inspired by are all active speakers and their speaking engagements are a major part of their careers.  Artists, scientists, authors, visionaries, and innovators such as Seth Godin, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Ken Robinson, Eve Ensler, Jill Bolte, Howard Rheingold, Michael Bernard Beckwith, and Jonathan Harris to name a few.  PostSecrect's Frank Warren, as I mentioned above, is yet another example.  And yet another is our 'SB prof. Kip Fulbeck, artist and university professor, 4 times published, who is continually invited to speak about his work and perform his poetry at schools, museums, and other events year round. 

We feel the noble charge to step up into the role of speaker.  As we now distill (thanks for the great word Kip!) and fine tune our direction and prime audience, we are choosing to begin with young women ages 12-22.

"all and everything"      click to view

One of these girls is shown on Z page this week "All and Everything" as we see Alice jump into the vast unknown... or launch, if you will.  And whether you be girl or boy, we all can relate to these moments that arise throughout our lives... when you are presented with the opportuntiy to step through to a new you, grab the ring, go for it, and jump... this is the launch that takes our work deep and wide, directly to eyes and ears and hearts everywhere.  We accept this noble charge with great honor.


∞ ceci
6

Ginsberg's HOWL

"howl"        click to view

Gotta love it.  In this very week of ZBOOK's "howl" came my way in divine randomness the renowned 1955 poem  HOWL by Allen Ginsberg.  It was written as a performance piece of course, Ginsberg being one of the founding fathers of the Beat Movement our of San Francisco in the 1950's.  HOWL found me this week via videos online unearthed as I was exploring poets on youtube.  Listening to Mr. Ginsberg's menagerie of words and phrases carving out a kaleidoscope of colors and images and stories within stories evoking visions in me of worlds I am getting a peephole to while simultaneously triggering mine own world... I started to feel ZBOOK in a big way... the visual poetry and holographic story it is... the infinite visual howl, that continues to reveal to Jennifer and myself the very ether of our beings.

Please enjoy listening to Allen Ginsberg's HOWL....

"howl" while holding ZBOOK        click to view

∞ ceci 

6

Collecting Stories

"lush"    click to view

On the upper right of Z page "lush"  is an excerpt from a now long gone magazine article that Jennifer cut out and collaged into ZBOOK.  These words are like a sound bite of a story, a voice from an experience. Reminds me of the "partial glimpse" that artist and computer scientist Jonathan Harris mentions in his TED talk about collecting stories.  Jonathan has always been interested in stories, using all kinds of mediums to capture them, and now is using the tools of computer and internet to create living documents about current human kind through collecting their on going stories.  This is from his FAQs on his website:

The intersection of storytelling and computer science is unusual — how did you arrive at it?
I have always been interested in storytelling, which I see as the soul of human life. As a kid, this meant writing my own comic books. As a teenager this meant keeping sketchbooks. In college, this meant starting a magazine of personal travel stories. After studying computer science, this meant finding a way to use the web to re-imagine what storytelling can be. At each step, I try to use whatever tools are available to me. When the tools change, I change.

In this TED talk (below), Jonathan talks about the sketchbooks he has always carried with him that he fills with his paintings, writings, documentation, and found artifacts from his days.... sound familiar?  He then began collecting found objects from which he became interested in the "partial glimpse" of people's stories, rather than the whole, because with a partial glimpse one can then fill in the rest with their imaginations.  Much like what I've been exploring with my recent art.  He goes on to more recent work also in which he now uses a camera to snap up stories, frame by frame, moment by moment, glimpse by glimpse.

It became clear to me about 5 years ago, that ZBOOK is a story of stories.  It is essentially a collection of glimpses from our lives -traces of our thoughts, experiences, creative whims- mixed with glimpses from the lives around us, via found objects and gleaned pieces of print, stickers, tags, and other "junk" (treasures).  As a forever kid who loves to find things, it has been so fun to have a place to play with and re-activate these found items of life.  For whichever stories unfold, even if created from a bundle of "partial glimpses," are a source for personal reflection and thus a potential opportunity to gain some fresh perspective on my own narrative.  Stories, "real" or imagined, are bridges for our communing with others and ultimately ourselves.

∞ ceci
6


ps(l): check out Jonathan Harris' sketchbooks ! ...exquisite.

The Story of Stuff

Speaking of the systems of industry and consumption that target us And that we participate in... have you seen The Story of Stuff ?  In just 20 minutes, this little video breaks down the infrastructure of our consumption based economy and our "stuff" dependent lifestyles and how the "linear system" of how our stuff is produced and consumed can't possibly sustain our "finite planet indefinitely." And all with super accessible and cute cartoon animation that bring in the palatable slash funny factor that keeps us giggling a bit so we can face and swallow the truth which, like I was saying in my last post, helps us get present to our reality so we can be in position for present action (change).

Annie Leonard, the author and host of The Story of Stuff, said this in the Los Angeles Times article from this month on her and her -Story- videos:

"We environmentalists are a whiny, wonky bunch," Leonard says. "We bombard people with facts. But who wants to join a movement where people just scold you? We have to make it inspiring. We have to make it fun."

YES! Exactly what Z page of this week "caution" is rooted in... awareness through pointing out the likes of the very silliness of our own "bought" into systems.  (And look at how our page "caution" also has linear system imagery, with arrows, just like Annie uses in her video.. neat!)  Annie's "fun" strategy of communicating that which is very serious is used in another of her videos The Story of Bottled Water, only 8 minutes and excellent. Both pieces contain links to solutions and actions we can take now. Watch them here....!

Click to View Large ... on the right side of "caution" find
the linear system going down, with arrows, like the 
horizontal one in The Story of Stuff

∞ ceci

6

Sticker Blub- check it dude

From THE LONDON DUDES COLLECTION,
posted 3/23/2010 at 10:19am on www.stickerblub.com  

Speaking of stickers, if you dig 'em you've got to check out 

Jesse Spear's Sticker Blub!  

www.stickerblub.com  

Jesse's open invitation to the planet: send her your stickers and she will post them to the site. And then one day in a future near us, she will be turning the collection into a sticker museum!  For realz, located in los angeles, the museum will also feature a "sticker lovers paradise" gift shop and every name who gave painted on the wall. 

Jesse Spears is a dexterous muralist and one badass artist.  

Be on the lookout for her. 

∞ ceci

6

happy Mama day!

click for larger view

dearest ~J~ happy mama day!

~J~ is a mother of 2 beautiful children, ~h~ is 8 and ~j~ is 3 in a couple days! ~J~ is truly the divine mama -it has been an honor and joy to witness J's opulent grace through her Being mother. The patient and ever present quality of her nurturing, the nurturing of her children's imaginations, creativity, & reverence for beauty, her devotion and earnest love for her family... ~J~ is an inspiration. Thank you ~J~ for the love you foster in your family is a gift to our planet. happy day! love u, cec

J & all~ Have you heard of StoryCorps? It's a nonproft group who has set up recording booths in public places all over the U.S. for people to freely enter in pairs to share a conversation, sharing their voices, their story.  A copy of every story is stored at Library of Congress and StoryCorps has become, since 2003, one of the largest oral history projects in U.S. history.  The project has produced a couple books, one of which just came out, called "Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps"   It shares the conversations btwn mothers & their children.  Here is an excerpt from last friday's Democracy Now! where Amy Goodman interviews the founder of StoryCorps, Dave Isay, about the book and how prevalent and endearing the voices & stories of mothers have been during this amazing adventure in the gleaning of stories.

In the celebration of storytelling and of mamas everywhere, please enjoy... Happy mama day to all!

link to this

 Happy mama day to mama Gladys and mama Lucky! We love you, we are so grateful for you!

∞ ceci

6