Creativity And Isolation - a podcast by Jai//Em

Book Links (Other links are in the full show notes):
Audible: 30-day free trial
The Children of Blood and Bone
The Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Audible
The Vanished Birds
The Well Of Loneliness

FULL SHOW NOTES & LINKS:

Hey, hi and hello! Welcome to Creative4evr. The podcast dedicated to keeping you forever inspired, forever motivated, forever creative, and forever YOU.  I am your host, Janet, a.k.a. Jai//Em, a.k.a. the voice inside your head, a.k.a. your biggest fan, and together we’re going to get some creative shit done.

I want to thank everybody who listened to our last episode with my wife Kate as guest! We talked about High Fidelity, and it was so much fun! We had a great time and what sucks is we were talking about the book, the movie and the TV show for like 2 and ½, maybe 3 hours so I had to cut the shit out of our talk, which is so unfortunate but you know, that's that's how the cookie crumbles.  I wanted the show to be 45 minutes or less and I think it was like 43 minutes or something so we did what we had to do, but it was such a great time. Thank you so much for listening and if you haven't listened, Kate and II talk about, High fidelity the Hulu series / book by Nick Hornby / movie that was made in 2000 starring Jack Black and John Cusack. We had a nice time talking about the story, but also talking about obsession, and about songs that you lose once you break up with someone, and if love songs make you depressed or not. We had a nice time, went off on a few tangents and it was great!

Okay, so I have been trying to figure out how I want to address the Coronavirus (Covid-19) on the show. Now as you know, we aren't a news or current events podcast, we are not a health and safety podcast but, this virus, this world crisis is affecting all parts of our lives and that includes our creative lives. So many of us have been asked to isolate, to self-quarantine, some cities are enforcing a shelter in place... Now that all of this is happening and most of us have to stay at home, this is a good week to think about the creative things we finally have time to do.

#1) READ -- The first thing everybody can be doing is reading! My god read a book. Okay, if you don't read at least one book during this crisis, I mean, I don't know why I'm threatening you. I can't threaten you, but this is certainly something you can do, there has got to be a book on your shelf you've been meaning to read. And if not, there's certainly something on your shelf you should read again. I am a huge advocate for experiencing something creative more than once. You will always find something new in a book when you read it for a 2nd or 3rd time. If holding a book in your hand is too much and you just can't handle it, sign up for Audible and let someone read a book to you. There is a 30-day free trial which is plenty of time to listen to at least one book. Of course there are links in the show notes. Check out Audible, let someone read a book to you. It's super easy and you will get addicted to it.

#2) LEARN HOW TO USE DEVICES/TECH IN YOUR HOUSE -- This is easy! This is something that we take for granted. We buy a fancy phone or we buy some kitchen appliance or whatever and then we don't really learn how to use it. We get an app that does the one thing that we kind of want it to do, but it also has other features that we don't check out. There is something in your life-- a device, or a piece of software that you do not fully know how to use, and this is the perfect time to sit down and learn about it.  Especially if you are a creative that wants to shoot something! Phones have great cameras now, right? Learn it how to use it or download an app that will take your game to the next level and learn how to use that. Fiddle with your devices, look at your phone all day and just sort of, you know, nerd out!

#3) GET OUTSIDE AND ISOLATE -- All right speaking of shooting something with your phone. If you have not been asked to shelter in place, if you are still allowed to go out-- Get outside and isolate there! Especially my filmmakers, this is a good time to go by yourself and get some footage of empty streets. B-roll galore! You do not need another person to do this, all you need to do is be able to get to your destination in a way that allows you to practice social distancing and be safe. So if it's your car, that's great. If you are like me and have to ride the subway, maybe you just stick in your neighborhood so you can walk. But the streets are empty you can get footage right now that you can't usually get.

For my actors and other creatives who are comfortable being in front of the camera, this is a great time to get out in the world and film yourself without being stared at by other people on the street! If you want to start doing a vlog thing, but kind of you don't want to be stared at, this is the time. Isolate outside and be Creative at the same time.

#4) GET ORGANIZED, CREATIVES! -- We are not an organized people and this is a great opportunity. Pour yourself a glass of wine and start purging old emails or going through the pics on your phone to get rid of anything that isn't personal or necessary for your social networking media marketing stuff. Set up your file and folder system in the way that you've always dreamt about. Do you have a mailing list? Is it organized? Do you need a mailing list or a website? Do you need to set up a Twitter account to go with your business? Do you want to jump in and finally set up that semi-professional work email so that your side hustle can stop coming to your personal email address? Maybe you want to download some fresh wallpapers for your background for your computer, phone or iPad after you organize your files, so it feels like you got something new or made a fresh start. There's so much to do to get organized in a creative business sense, and this is the perfect time to spend an evening or an early Sunday morning (instead of going to brunch) doing just that.

Now, I am not saying you should clean anything. I don't want you to cleaning. That's a cop out creative. No cleaning. Get your creativity organized. It's harder for us to do and it's what we always neglect.  We have a super clean space but our computer is just full of email and icons all over the desktop. Now, you have some time set up your creative business life and organize it.

#5) WRITE -- This is not just for my writers-- ALL creatives should be writing things down collecting thoughts, ideas, inspiration, stories, reminders and memories.

The more we write down, the more of ourselves we document, the more we have to reference/pull from when we are creating something. This is a great time to strengthen that habit. Start a captain's log, you know and call it “Quarantine” and then start with “Day Five...” and go from there.Yeah start writing start making lists start putting your ideas somewhere and get into the habit of doing it for every day that you are working from home for every day that you were quarantined.

#6) STRETCH, all right?  Find a YouTube video to follow, clear a spot on your floor and spend some time stretching and breathing. This could be a beginner yoga class or a full-on fitness, P90 situation, but stay active inside. Keep breathing, keep stretching, keep limber. It will keep your stress down. There are many people offering free online and/or live streaming opportunities right now.  I saw today that Debbie Allen is getting ready to do a live dance class on Instagram. So if you're listening to this episode the day it comes out, you should probably check to see if Debbie Allen is live streaming her dance classes on Instagram because that would be amazing!

And I'm sure other people are gonna follow suit. This is a great time to just sort of spread out on the floor and start stretching and breathing and doing the things that will help keep our stress down while we are at home.

Alright finally,
#7) BE OPEN MINDED -- There's a lot of uncertainty right now, but if you can stay open-minded and look for opportunities to help yourself and others, we will all be the better for it.

People are already coming up with genius ways to help each other during this crisis. People are giving their apps and services away for free. Are starting online communities and collectives. What can you do to make this situation better for yourself or your friends? What can you do to take advantage of your Creativity while you are alone, while you have time at home.

What brave thing can you attempt this weekend since you can't go anywhere? Starting your book, starting your YouTube channel, starting a quilt project, or learning to code? What about conquering the musical instrument under your bed or in the corner? How many of you have guitars in the corner that you barely can play? What about painting, or drawing, or teaching your kid how to cook? What about reading 10 books in 30 days, or listening to 10 books and 30 days? This is the time to be cautious and safe and smart, yes.  But it is also the time to be open-minded. What can you be brave enough to do creatively during this time?

All right, so there you have it. Seven things you finally have time to do now that you're isolating at home.

Number 1 - Read a book!

Number 2 - Learn how to use a device or piece of tech or software in your house or around you.

Number 3 - If you can get outside and isolate film something get some b-roll

Number 4 - Get organized. Get those emails under control, get those files and folders organized

Number 5 - Put everything on a piece of paper or in an app. Your ideas, your inspirations your stories your reminders your memories. It is important to develop this habit to document your self.

Number 6 - Stretch, stay limber, stay active, move about and keep breathing. It will help keep your stress down during this terrible time.

Number 7 - Be open-minded. This is a great opportunity for you as a creative person to spend time not doing other things, not being distracted by people, and things going on after work and on the weekend. Try something new. Challenge yourself.

We all have time to do it. Let's take advantage of it. Let's see what comes out of this besides a bunch of babies, because as Kate informed me, there will probably be a lot of babies made during this time, but let's make some creative babies too!

Oh and just to share because I want people to read too-- I shall be reading the following during this time: The second book by Tomi Adeyemi of the fantasy series The Children of Blood and Bone follow-up called The Children of Virtue and Vengeance. Very excited about that. I'll be listening to that on Audible.

I will also be finishing The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. It’s a great book, very interesting group of short stories that weave together to tell a bigger overall story. Really enjoying that and will finish that up. Also listening to that on Audible. And then I think I'm going to reread a book I just recommended to someone else and then thought, Oh my god, now I want to read it again.

The Well Of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. It was written in the 20s and it's about this lesbian woman trying to sort of find her place in the world in the 20s. Radclyffe Hall herself, I believe was queer and it's a good book. So those are the 3 that I plan to get through by the time we all go back to work in about a month.

So yeah, that's going to do it for us today. We are on social media on Twitter and Instagram @Creative4evr.  You can send us emails at any time-- Hello@Creative4evr.com.

Don't forget to be creative this week, even if you just think about it later.

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Further podcasts by Jai//Em

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