Reedley Creative

first,  i would like to thank all of you who came out to  START,  we had a wonderful time putting it on for you and were very happy that you all came out to see what we are doing!   Thank you for taking your Friday and spending it with strangers.

I know it’s been some time since we last spoke, but it’s about time! So lets talk about the next event!

We, RC, have decided that it will be on May 1st and be called, get ready;

MAY DAY, MAY DAY, DINNER WITH REEDLEY CREATIVE!

pretty “creative” huh?  we thought so…

so clear your callander and keep your eyes pealed for more info!

The last few people just left the Start event, sponsored by Reedley Creative at Shinn Photography’s new studio. What an awesome group of people! There were folks of all ages both participating and attending, and it seems like we went a long way toward creating some real community. David Borofka read some great work, Mike Cantu read some of his older and newer poetry, Nick McIntyre shared some of the songs he’s written, and a whole host of people shared their art work. The artwork included photos, video, pottery, mixed media, oil paintings, and other forms. But the coolest part was the connections I saw forming around the room. We really do have an impressive community of creative people in Reedley. I’m curious to see where this goes.

Anyone have any ideas for the next event?

Hey, everybody! It’s 3/6/09! Are you ready? Have your black turtlenecks and sensible shoes on? Feeling creative? Ready to bust loose after a long week and meet the coolest people in town at the hippest new scene? I have it on good authority that the Mayor of Reedley probably won’t be in attendance. So come on down to Shinn Photography’s new studio on G Street at 6:30 pm. If you park on G street and don’t see it, listen for the sounds of cool and follow them. See you there!

What: Start

When: 3/6/09 at 6:30 pm

Where: Shinn Photo’s G Street studio in Reedley

What: Prose, art, media, and a time for cool people to hang out with each other. See the attached poster! If you want to bring something creative, contact andrew@shinnphoto.com.

I need to write this post really quick, because I want to make a prediction before the Oscars start, and they’re already to Mickey Rourke on the Red Carpet.

Slumdog Millionaire will win Best Picture. I know that’s not much of a statement, because half of Hollywood is saying that and if you read any pre-Oscar media you also already know it is going to win. But I want to express why I think it will win.

It’s this amazing film that has nothing to do with America or Hollywood (other than it features the very Western-oriented, Regis-inspired gameshow, and it was picked up and distributed by Fox Searchlight at some point) and yet Hollywood and American film geeks (including me) absolutely love it. It will win because it’s the right film at the right time. America elected President Obama under those circumstances, and the hope for national and global reformation that our country now feels is going to drive the voting members of the Academy to choose Slumdog as the year’s best movie. Once again, everybody feels like our country can be a positive force, a big brother country to the world, and we want to show that hopefulness by honoring the film.

Whether the film actually wins Best Picture, or if it only wins 9 of its 10 possible awards, I hope those young child actors from the real-life slums of Mumbai have the time of their life being the world’s biggest stars tonight.

so i took some time to come back here and now i’ve found myself somewhere ive never wanted to leave…

the idea that i have committed to create in conjunction with others in my community is a daunting one.  it’s a commitment that’s unsupervised by anyone but myself and will only benefit me if i take the time to actually participate.

my absence was not planned, there have been many trying days and nights since i last came here, that need no further discussion. what is pertinent is the time has come to unleash those creative energies that have for so long been put on hold for one reason or another.  it is as though the pain of the past has given way to a strength and determination to create in every aspect of my being.  even if the creation is as cliche as the last statement i made…

i was fortunate enough to get a weekend away. to drive for hours and see things that i had not seen in years, in seasons i’d never searched through before, renewed my love for all that their is to behold in this wonderful state of  ours.  never had i driven out  on 152 to the coast in February.  i had not seen the fields that line the highway as far as the eye can see, disrupted only by the occasional dilapidated industrial complex, so green and vibrant with life.  the blowing wind drove the rain across the highway and across my wind shield. the wipers of my car working in tandem to keep me safe, could scarcely fend off the barrage of droplets trying as they mite, to keep me from continuing on to my destination.

i saw that road in different lights on this drive coming and going, than i ever had before.  i had not driven into the night headed to the end of the continent with no time schedule and no rush.  i had never watched the storm clouds  gather to the east as the sun was setting in the west.  there were no surprises on the road, it’s the same road i traveled on as a youth, in the passenger seat of my mothers Pontiac, nervous and tense, losing myself to the sounds coming out of my headphones, waiting. opening my eyes at a stoplight  hoping it was the parking lot where my fathers car would be found. only to be dashed by the glare of the sun off the rear of the car in front of us.   the park too was where i remembered it, looking exactly as it did when i was nine, in the way that government institutions never seem to age, only to shrink in stature as you have found you have risen to yours.

i made it to the edge of my world again this past weekend.  having only ventured out past the edge of the continent twice, i find that there is something magical about standing at that edge, knowing that with some help you could keep going, but alone, you have made it, there.  i lingered until the urge to consume pulled me away on another adventure in the art of sustenance, feeling refreshed from standing over the rocks on a deck made by men from once living things, watching and listening to the ocean battle with the land for greater control.

there was a much needed reprieve from the everyday that was had this weekend. i now want only to capture the beauty and the filth that surround me in both word and image with such voracity that i can hardly stand to know my production computer needs repair and that there are lesson plans to finish when i return from the homes of friends that i have missed seeing in the handful of days that i have been gone.

thank you for the time you have spent with me here. Reedley Creative is putting on a reading and art show at SHINN PHOTOGRAPHY on MARCH 6th.  You need to be there. Maybe you will even get to be a part of it…

I just watched Steven Spielberg accept his Golden Globe lifetime achievement award, and his speech was really thoughtful. He mentioned how he, and his friends like “Marty” Scorsese and George Lucas, would never have been able to do it without having a mentor to look up to, to be inspired by. Spielberg hinted at the creative community’s duty to continue the cycle, and become somebody else’s mentor – to pay it forward.

I love that idea, so I am here to scream a request out into the desolate emptiness of cyberspace: I would like a mentor! I want to make films, and I need an enabler! I’m sure Spielberg would be an awesome one, but he’s probably already got a protege, and so I’d settle for someone else. Jared Gerbrandt, down there in Burbank, you gotta know some people, right? Hook me up, man! (Remember when we were at Universal and you saw Mr. Spielberg and I didn’t because I was buying a t-shirt?) Scott Derrickson, I know everyone from 10 years of graduates classes from the Biola Film program are looking for handouts now that you directed The Day The Earth Stood Still, but it’s me, Tim Oberg, from your European Cinema class. Fellow Reedleyite Leland Garton, you were in the process of getting funding a Zorro-like film not too long ago about local historical Joaquin Murrieta: can I help out in any way at all?

I’m on the verge of begging, but not for instant success or any kind of freebie. I want the whole process, starting where I am right here in Reedley. I want to learn. Like an addict desperately searching for a dealer, I just want to be enabled.

And Steven, in case you’re reading, I think we have a mutal acquiantance in Fresno Film Commissioner Ray Arthur, and I would, under no circumstances, turn down the chance to become you’re Enablee, if you’re looking for one.

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot going on at Reedley Creative. We have some bang-up contributors and a few new one lined up for the next few months. We’ll also be announcing our first offline Reedley Creative-sponsored event in downtown Reedley soon (think poetry and art), so stay tuned for details!

I went to a live performance of G. F. Handel’s Messiah recently. It was amazing, despite the fact that out of everyone in the choir and orchestra, nobody was being paid to perform. That could go to show just how greatly inspired Handel was when he wrote it. But I think it also says something about the performers’ dedication to good art.

I remember hearing the history of the word “Amateur” at some point this last year. (It could have been on NPR. It would be pretty easy to look up again.) But what stood out to me was that an amateur was originally someone who had such a love for a particular field that he or she ended up being practically an expert, albeit an unpaid one. A few centuries ago, it would have been the amateur botanists who would make the most groundbreaking discoveries about what herbs do what, and they would be the ones you’d go ask when you had a migrane. Or to call the town troubadour who would play his music at everyone’s wedding and everyone’s funeral, out of sheer love of creating music, an amateur would have been an accurate and honorable title. Amateurs, at one time, were the best at what they did.

It wasn’t until recently that the word has taken on a negative connotation. You call the contractor an amateur when he puts your window in crooked. Arrogant professionals call others amateurs when they don’t make as much or aren’t as successful as they are. Maybe that’s the nature of language, to morph and evolve over time. But what if it wasn’t so shameful to be known as your town’s most talented, yet unprofessional, artist/writer/painter/mechanic/opera composer?

Wall Street may be in a panic, but my time here on main street in Reedley gives me a different story to tell.  Everywhere I turn I run into someone starting a business or looking for a new idea.  It seems that faith in the kind of jobs available from big companies is inversely proportionate to the excitement I see on the faces of would-be entrepreneurs.

Surely our economy has fundamental underpinnings, and people starting new businesses during an economic slowdown carry overused cliches like ‘cautiously optomistic’ on the inside of their jacket pockets.  But for every societal shift or market change, new ideas and new service potential follow close behind.  When people cut back on driving because of higher gas prices, bicycle shops and shoe stores do well.  When mothers stop buying disposable diapers, diaper services and specialty retailers step in to fill the need.

Starting a business is hard, but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.  And I suspect that there are some fundamental flaws with the assumption that most new businesses don’t survive.  (Chief among those flaws is that it’s never been academically studied and proven.)  Business is another opportunity for exercising creativity.  And here in Reedley, new and creative services and niches will be popping up for the next several years.  The choice is yours: will you watch and see, or jump in and try?