Author: Nick Kempinski

Garr over at Presentation Zen has a great article on the Lessons Jazz can give everyday life. These lessons might come from the music world but can be used in any situation where 2 people are connecting.

1. “The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.” (Duke Ellington)
2. “Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can’t be taught.” (Paul Desmond)
3. “Don’t bullshit… just play.” (Wynton Marsalis)
4. “If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit!” (Louis Armstrong)
5. “Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.” (Charlie Parker)
6. “It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.” (Dizzy Gillespie)
7. “You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.” (John Coltrane)
8. “When people believe in boundaries, they become part of them.” (Don Cherry)
9. “Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” (Charles Mingus)
10. “I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession. If you can, then it ain’t music…” (Billie Holiday)
11. “A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not to dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves.” (Herbie Hancock)

A concept raised for Renaissance Souls is that you don’t need to do everything. Don’t go for a massive ice cream cone with one flavour. Don’t even go for a massive double scoop with a combo. For us Renaissance Souls, the idea is to have a sampler. This allows us to taste a little bit of everything: a bit of Sewing, a bit of Writing, a bit of time on the Car, etc…. Part of this is to keep our always wandering attention. Instead of allotting time to just one activity, only to feel drained when we do it. We do “one of…” something. We don’t plan until we are in the moment.

Bring in a phrase “Energy Management“. I read this from Worthwhile. And while I don’t think we need to “ruthlessly manage” our energy like Anita believes. I do think more then the number of tasks on our plate needs to be in consideration for whether or not we are overwhelmed.

Example: I’ve been working on a project to combine and relaunch a couple of sites into one. The project had some pretty tight timelines. But do you know what I did for the first 3 months? Picture a lot of reading, and a lot of filler. It’s not that my time was poorly managed, it was that people didn’t feel the need to rush. But now the project is getting to the end, people are running around like their hands and hair were on fire. Some people are seriously snapping from the stress. The project could have gone more smoothly simply by taking the amount of panic energy they have, and divide that by the number of months this project has been going.

Solution: Work energy should be managed like diabetes. It’s not always the level of sugar, it’s the spikes that cause the damage. The same goes for energy. We should be able to have a reading maybe twice or 3 times a day that tells us how are energy is doing. And our job is to make sure it’s a steady as possible. Spikes in energy could cause psychological damage like diabetes causes to the body.

I have the pleasure of working with an insightful and talented woman. Darylynn Rank entered my life in a weekend of coincidences where I met a man who went to the same high-school as I did, and graduated the same year I started. We never met until about a year ago. This might have been not so strange except for the fact that we were at his creative camp in Caltus Lake BC, and went to high-school in Guelph ON on the other side of the county. Darylynn was a workshop presenter for “finding your creative voice”.

Since then the course title has changed, however I have be privately working with Dari for some time. She is an exquisite navigator of the tides of experience, and is helping me find my own boat and ore to sail mine.

Now to the point….

For those of you living in BC; are willing to travel to Langara College; and have a desire to get through writer’s block or simply need to find the creative power to start hitting the keyboard, she is open to share her insight with you. Check out langara.bc.ca for her course Discovering The Writer Within.

I love cartoons. I don’t love every cartoon, but there is always at least one or two that peak my curiosity. Lately, the top on my list is Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The premiss is simple. Take a world where there are four nations: Earth, Air, Water Fire. In these nations there are those born who can mould the element or “Bend” it. But there is one, The Avatar, who can Bend all four.

There are loads of great lessons that come out of a 30 minute story. But today I made a connection. The Avatar is a Renaissance Soul ( or for some of you a generalist) . Here is a society that is built on specializing in one element. And here comes a single individual that is looked up in this world to be able to bend several elements.

Unlike the story, I think that we have thousands of Avatars walking our streets and roaming our world. They have in them the ability to bend more than elements. One might bend Music and Math; another Leadership and Sewing. The combinations are endless. What can you bend?

I’ve been quiet, Mainly because I’ve been in TO working crazy hours in a room they call the “War Room”. With that name, you know it’s going to be crazy. However, A long flight, and I’m back home in Vancouver.

I’m sure I’ve got reams of emails and voicemails waiting, and I’ll get to them, one by one. But in the meantime I’ll share a drunk time poem.

Words flow like Leffe
Sweet with a cinnamon taste
Hints of Valentines
Blurred by consumption
One line dulls the heart
One more the mind
Verse after verse the
Words mix and blur
Eventually
Creating only your desires
My Key and strokes are
Not my own
Until the day after
A trail of garments
And a naked stranger
Under your arm.

All I’ve got to say is…wow! Great flick if you get a chance to see it.

Take the aggression of the week out into the spring loaded floors of the Legion Auditorium on Commercial Drive. Sweat and stomp it out by Dancing to Live Jazz with the Blue Morris 6.

Legion Auditorium, Commercial Drive

Brought To you by Jungle Swing Productions

9pm – 12am

$13/$15

I did it again! I missed the first day of Spring last year, and I missed it again! For others it might not be a big deal, however Spring Solstice is one of the most important celebrations. Why? New beginnings; rebirth. There is a reason why it’s called “spring cleaning”. It’s the real New Year. Nature wakes up again; refreshed. As a tradition for the spring I read over the story of Jumping Mouse. So many lessons so many analogies.

Jason Warner is an experienced dancer that has successfully kept alive the swing scene in Abbotsford BC, Canada for the past 8 years. He has built a significant dance community out of Abbotsford for the sole purpose of sharing what he loves with his friends and the community around him. Since officially being open as of 2000, Suburban Swing has provided a place for people of all backgrounds, ages, and cultures, to come together, building a community that preserves the grandeur of swing. Come and Listen to the Blue morris 6.

Part of Swing Summit 2006

ASA Ballroom Abbotsford BC, Canada

Guys in Ties Girls in Pearls (Dresses)

I’m in the process of transitioning over to Dreamhost. There are several reasons why:

1. Damn! – They have a great deal for the bandwidth, space and scripting possibilities.
2. Rudy on Rails – I’ve been eyeing it for some time, but if I don’t have a host that allows it, what’s the point?
3. Attune to Customers Needs and Knowledge. – Now this is something unexpected. I originally signed up for the 1st 2 reasons. But as I was learning about how they do business I found they go to lengths to understand their customers expectations really well. Just look at these 2 options in their contact form they understand how to respond, when to respond, and maybe…just maybe they get the customer to chuckle:

Please select the type of this request:

• Just a casual question, comment, idea, suggestion.
• I need some help but it’s not super time-sensitive.
• I can’t get things done until I hear back from you, please reply asap.
• Things are broken and I’d like them not to be!
• OMG! EXTREME CRITICAL EMERGENCY!! EVERYTHING’S BROKEN! People are DYING!

Please select your general expertise in the area of this request:

• Please explain everything to me very carefully.
• I do know some stuff, but please don’t assume too much.
• Overall I know my stuff, but I’m a little shaky in this area.
• I have a good understanding of this stuff.
• Not to be rude, but I probably know more about this than you!

Nice!