The Long Schoolroom is a creative community for writers, artists, and makers committed to personal & professional growth.
The Long Schoolroom s01e03
The Art of ReinventionWhile watching the new Morgan Neville documentary about Steve Martin ("Steve!," Apple+), I was reminded, and continuously moved by, the ominipresent nature of this person and persona—this face, this voice, this attitude—across 45 years of my life. Of course this is a crucial element to the phenomenon of celebrity, that perception that we know someone, despite not knowing them at all. And when Martin walked away from stand-up in 1980, his film era came to define several of our eras, as well. An average American like me is impressed (mortified?) by how omnipresent and living his characters are in the house of my imagination. A hardly exhaustive list:
In other iterations of himself, Martin has been a magician, a novelist, an art collector, a playwright, a cartoonist, and beyond his indelible work on Saturday Night Live over the years, is now a television star with Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building. The most affecting part of the whole thing, however, is his emotional journey from the son of a distant and abusive father, to a workaholic actor and confirmed Lonely Guy, to finding deep happiness in his later years as a friend, husband, and father. I find myself (too often) quoting Yeats' claim that one must choose between perfecting the work or the life, but watching this, and considering this man whose work and life I now feel even more connected to, I think I'll stand corrected. What's better than one newsletter? Two is a dubious answer, but here's to seeing. Please consider subscribing to this other thing, over on Substack, (paid subscriptions available) called Heretical Wisdom (Subtitle: Notes along the left hand path). The first essay is currently posted, and takes a stab at saying...something. At the risk of distracting from any Real Work, I felt, after starting this one, an impulse to pose another experiment, less as teacher than writer, to host other conversations, to embody different parts. No one thing can contain all the multitudes, or play every stop. This model forces us to consider what values and experience we are willing to pay for. What is a certain quality of human connection worth? What information is so crucial we will pay for it? What will we support with money because we are glad it exists? Creative RecoveryStarting next Wednesday afternoon (3:30 p.m. Central, USA), I will host a new kind of support meeting, called Creative Recovery, on The Long Schoolroom platform. Doing your best work is not just about the work. It happens in the midst of creating a higher version of yourself while living life, the best we can, every day. This meeting will support the ongoing mental and emotional recovery work necessary for reinventing ourselves, with the specific aim of helping and nurturing creative people. If this sounds of interest and you aren't yet part of the community, just write me back and I'll send you an invite. May Book Club: The Stories of Lydia DavisThis month we discussed The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin, and certainly an hour is not enough. For those unable to attend, we will have one more go at it, on Monday May 6 at 3:30 p.m. (Central, USA). For next month, rather than read about making amazing art, we will read some amazing art. If you've never read Lydia Davis, or short short fiction, you are in for a special kind of literary pleasure. The Mother The girl wrote a story. “But how much better it would be if you wrote a novel,” said her mother. The girl built a dollhouse. “But how much better if it were a real house,” her mother said. The girl made a small pillow for her father. “But wouldn’t a quilt be more practical,” said her mother. The girl dug a small hole in the garden. “But how much better if you dug a large hole,” said her mother. The girl dug a large hole and went to sleep in it. “But how much better if you slept forever,” said her mother. Stranger Than Fiction
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The Long Schoolroom is an experimental community of practice for writers and makers seeking creative growth in art, love, spirit, work, and the world. The Long Schoolroom Bookshop at bookshop.orgA curated shop of books for creative, curious, and fascinating people (small kickback if purchased through these links) at bookshop.org. See it here. |
The Long Schoolroom
The Long Schoolroom is a creative community for writers, artists, and makers committed to personal & professional growth.
The Long Schoolroom, Public Beta About a year ago, I had an idea to build an online "third place," a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg to describe places neither home nor work (the first and second places) that cultivate community and foster a sense of belonging. I wanted this for myself. A learning community for writers and creatives, yes, but also a place one would find kindred spirits, inspiring conversations, and be supported to grow as artists and human beings. Things we cannot do...
The Next Thing When asked why he made "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David answered this not-very-interesting question with what is a not-very-interesting but reasonable answer: We made this special, people seemed to like it, so why not? (Ted Danson, who became a regular on the show, famously did NOT think much of that special/pilot) That empty feeling one has after finishing a thing I once heard called (but cannot attribute) "the empty attic of achievement." Many artists never recover from...
On Getting Started One of my favorite lines I picked up from Henry David Thoreau, either from his journal or his letters. “The poet is one who, having nothing to do, finds something to do.” When we finally get around to a long overdue task, it is a fair question to ask, why now? The answer is, usually: this is the last (best) possible moment. Or maybe there are taxes to avoid. An acquaintance was asking about the difference between learning and researching, having an itch to do more of the...