I Met the Walrus: 1969 Meets 2008

The film has been around for a while. Won its fair share of awards. But worth adding to the things TCLP admires because it’s such a perfect combination of words, pictures, art, animation, film making and technology. Proof that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts with a little imagination. Based on an interview with John Lennon by Jerry Levitan when he was 14. He kept the tape and 38 years later made it into this film. Directed by Josh Raskin. Pen sketches by James Braithwaite. Digital illustration by Alex Kurina.

Creative Lessons Learned from the Inaugural Address

In anticipation of President Elect Barack Obama’s inaugural address, WBUR’s Bob Oakes recently interviewed Ted Sorenson, who helped craft JFK’s memorable 1961 speech. In case you missed the broadcast, a couple of things all creative people can take note of. The first is that both Kennedy and Sorenson solicited input, lines and ideas from as many as 40 friends, historians, writers and economists. John Kenneth Galbraith contributed the memorable line “We will never negotiate out of fear, but never fear to negotiate.” Walter Lippmann changed “those who would be our enemies,” to a far more poetic “those who would make themselves our adversaries.” The lesson? Others can make our ideas better if we’re willing to listen.

Secondly, of course, is that the most quotable line was borrowed from Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes who in 1884 said, “It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return.” And it was virtually lifted in form and structure from a eulogy given by the mayor of Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1940 whose version of the same line was modified to, “Here may we be reminded that man is most honored, not by that which a city may do for him, but by that which he has done for the city.” The lesson here? Collect, save and yes, borrow material from the best sources available. Providing you add something to make it your own.

Five Great Quotes: Can You Attribute Them?

According to the eminently quotable Benjamin Franklin, three things tell a man: his eyes, his friends and his favorite quotes. Here are a few of ours, all relating to creativity and originality. Can you match them with their rightful creator?

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.”

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

“Perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add but when there is no longer anything to take away.”

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?

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Match quote with: Antoine De Saint-Exupery, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Steve Jobs, Scott Adams

Sir Ken Robinson on Why We Must Nurture Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson makes a powerful case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity. Here, from the 2006 TED Conference is his entertaining talk about education, creativity and how we need to think differently if we are to encourage creativity in our children. It’s still as relevant today as it was when he first gave it and worth seeing again or for the first time if you missed it in ’06. If you have kids, want them to think creatively, and hope education can do a better job this is a must watch.

It’s January 9. Most Christmas Trees are in a landfill somewhere.

They look green. But appearances can be deceiving. The average Christmas tree takes eight years to grow, absorbs 32 pesticide applications, requires diesel fuel to be transported, plastic netting to hold it in place on tree lots, and then after a maximum of four weeks in use gets delivered to a landfill to decompose. True, some trees are grown organically, cut down locally and composted, but the majority are more likely green from the paint that’s been sprayed on to make them a little darker. The ladder on the other hand is still at work, changing light bulbs (energy efficient ones, of course) and replacing smoke alarm batteries.