Ignore Everybody

Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod             Hardback Book:  176 pages                                   

Funny, witty, often irreverent,  Hugh MacLeod promotes the idea that everyone should stop trying to compare themselves to others in their field or not, stop trying to achieve what someone else has, don’t do what others want or expect of you, be creative, be yourself and go with your own thoughts and ideas.    Don’t get caught up in the notion of herd mentality.   Stand out.   Speak up.   Create your own destiny.    Quiet people get passed over and regret it.     People who make a case for whatever they believe in who stand up for their own thoughts who redefine normal are the people who make their mark in the world, who count who aren’t brow beaten and cowed down  by corporate suits.    Trying to go with what is commercial or expected makes YOU vanish.   The best way to get approval is not to need it.    If you are in a place where your creativity is stifled and your contributions are not appreciated then you are in the wrong place.    Ignore everybody that isn’t YOU and follow your own path, your own muse, stay ahead of what everyone is following or doing be the person who creates what everyone is talking about and wanting to be a part of.   He says your idea doesn’t have to be big it just has to be yours.    He highly recommends blogging – it is what led to his success.   A friend of his wanted to get into the proper social circles and meet the correct people to break into getting her writing accepted.   He suggested she start a blog and put a page or a chapter a day of her writing on it.    Once people read her blog and even if she ends up putting an entire book up on her blog for people to read for free her name would get spread around the internet and before long maybe two years she would be noticed by editors, agents and publishers who would get the buzz on her work and they would come to her she would not have to seek them out.   She said it isn’t done that way in France you have to be introduced properly through many introductions by appearing at the correct events and forming a raport with those in the field.  Cultivating such relationships is a slow process.    He said again his plan for her to circumvent all the red tape of French publishers and through a blog meet the world and be seen by readers, other authors, virtually everyone and gain a reputation as a compelling author based on her musings and her writings and not have to cultivate relationships that might or might not take.    By not caring enough to cowtow to the old way of doing things and taking her work to the world she would not be one of the crowd – she would be a star taking charge of her own work.    She did not take his advice, he thought she likely considered his idea gauche and that she really wanted to be a member of the Parisian writer crowd.  He felt such attachment would hold her back.    He has a lot of insightful ideas to impart.   A good read, kind of like a piece of clothing made out of wool– it feels really warm in the cold you just have to deal with the scratchy parts.

Steal Like An Artist:

Steal Like An Artist:  10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon           Paperback Book:  160 pages                     

Great book!   I highly recommend this book for everyone to read.   It is that good.   It is motivating, it is inspirational and it has so many terrific tips that not only should everyone read it they should carry it with them to refer back to constantly throughout the day.    Based on the premise that everything we know today is the work of people who came before us who took ideas of the people before them and expanded on them just as we continue down the line expanding, reworking and making our own ideas out of the information gleaned from the past.    Austin Kleon recommends not just taking the ideas of just anyone but if you are going to steal an idea – steal from the best, then put your spin on it.   And don’t just steal from one person’s idea, art, writings, musiscal composition, etc.  steal from many of the best ideas and inspiration you find then extrapolate, come up with something from before that you mold into your own artistic offering by adding your own creative leanings.    The 10 things nobody told you about being creative are excellent bits of wisdom that will guide the reader absolutely brilliantly.  They are:  1.)  Steal like an artist.  2.)  Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.  3.)  Write the book you want to read.   4.)  Use Your Hands   5.)  Side Projects and Hobbies are Important.   6.)  The Secret:  Do Good Work and Share It with People   7.)  Geography is no longer our master  8.)  Be Nice (the world is a small town)  9.)  Be boring (it’s the only way to get work done).    10.)  Creativity is subtraction.    If that doesn’t whet your appetite to read the entire book at one setting it should.   A savory mix of so many doable, simple yet so precise messages of help in whatever passion artistically pursues you.      10 thumbs up for this one.    This is a must read.   Short, sweet and artistically and creatively delicious.   Let the inspiration begin!

Echo After Echo

 Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta   432 pages

Pennsylvania high school student Zara Evans wants to be an actress. Her favorite play is the Greek tragedy “Echo and Ariston.” Not only, in her opinion, is it the most romantic play ever written, it has taught her everything she knows about love.

Zara sends in an audition tape and is asked to read. She arrives in New York at the old Aurelia Theater. The Aurelia, rumored to be haunted, is home to the visionary director Leopold Henneman, himself as much as a myth as the Aurelia.

On her first day at the old theater, the lighting director mysteriously falls to his death. Although Zara doesn’t witness the event, she does discover the body. There are rumors that the Aurelia is cursed, which causes her to become skittish. Then, shockingly, Zara lands the lead in “Echo.”

Henneman demands that she allow no distractions in preparing for the difficult role of Echo. Zara agrees, she quits school and focuses all her intellect and emotions on the role. Then the re is a second death. Could it be another accident, is the theater really cursed or is there a murderer hiding in the shadows? Zara isn’t sure.

She befriends Eliza “Eli” Vasquez, the assistant lighting director. With her brusque manner, myriad tattoos and mysterious demeanor, Eli captures Zara’s heart in ways no one has ever done.

The two share a passion for each other that is only rivaled by their individual passion for the theater.

This story, to me had overtones of Gaston Leroux’s “Phantom of the Opera.” The prose is beautiful and often lyric, but I didn't quite understand the visions Henneman kept having. He seemed too melodramatic for his role. Therefore, Echo After Echo receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.