Passionate Living

LIFE is about stories. It’s about sharing the experience we experience, spreading the love we feel, and enduring the dynamics of the drama. The human heart is inherently fascinated by stories, and how we can learn from the morals and apply the principles and values in our lives.

THE BIBLE is said to be the Greatest Story Ever Told. True, religion gains widespread acceptance through relating stories of the prophets and their miracles, and the outcome that happened to all previous advanced cultures. From these stories in the holy scriptures, each succeeding generation of believers continue their practice in their faith and try to spread the message to those who are willing to listen.

A GREAT STORY is a great story, and with today’s technology the way with which we conduct storytelling is much more advanced than before – as can be seen from the latest major blockbuster success: James Cameron’s Avatar. When before we only relied on drawings, then parchments and open air plays, then evolved to recorded music and pictures, now we can take advantage of moving images and even augmented reality to help us tell our stories. The boundaries in which we can share our experiences are being broken down part by part, day by day.

Low technology high value

However, the greatest stories remain great centuries and even millennia after their release. Much of popular culture products today are based on and inspired by works of great art by great artists in the past. Many movies are remakes of previous classics, or are the modern interpretation of a thousand year old folklore, and much music are cover versions of previous great hits.

One of my favorite stories is Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. This seminal work and masterpiece by the Italian poet is considered to be the foundation with which the modern Italian dialect is built upon. Today, The Divine Comedy has been infused in many popular culture products, such as in the film “Hannibal” and even made into a video game with the title “Dante’s Inferno“.

Dante and His Poem by Michelino

At the time of release, many artists made paintings that illustrate Dante’s journey into the three circles of Hellfire, Purgatory, and Paradise. When I look at these paintings, they still fascinate me and still inspire as much imagination, plot-line, and lessons, perhaps even more than a modern, 3-Dimensional documentary would. The animation captured in these images, and the words in the text, remain of high value even though low technology.

The authenticity of the experience

Other great works include Homer’s “Iliad“, or Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” if you prefer something more “modern”. Even with today’s technology, these classics are much more enjoyable in their original form than when I see them in a modern form, such as movies or animation. It makes me think about the value of a story, since by being a songwriter, I become a story teller by default.

The essence of a great story is what makes it great. It’s not the software we use to create, it’s not the platforms we sign up to for publishing, and it’s not the technology that helps us distribute the work around the world. It’s about the fundamental human experience that shapes our character, and the authenticity of the experience and the desire to share.

I like seeing great works, and I would like to say I appreciate the art in them (although this is an art-form in itself, and may take years to develop a sensitive taste in these great stories). Understanding the essence of a great story can help us to create better stories we want to share in our lives, so we can spread the principles and the values we believe in. This is also called the message.

So, what’s your favorite story? Let us know about it in the comments

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I’m writing this at 3.30 A.M on a Friday morning after coming home from the studio about an hour ago. It’s been like this for two nights in a row now – it doesn’t happen every night but it does happen occasionally. When it does, I realize some things concerning having a semi-day job that I wasn’t aware of when I was mostly a freelance music teacher.

timepiece prime time clock closeup watch by zoutedrop

One of those things is how the value of time is not equal for all parts of the day. Most of us who have day jobs barter our time in exchange for income, and mostly that income is a flat sum that’s not related to the qualitative value of time; only the quantitative value of it. We are paid to work 8 hours a day (assuming a 9 to 5 responsibility) and over time when we have to work extra (but limited to a maximum of 3 hours over time, as some offices do here in Jakarta).

For me though, there is no overtime. True, I start in the studio most days around 1 or 2 P.M, and since it’s a highly client-based business, the time I finish could range from 6 P.M to 2 P.M like today. And when I work into the midnight shift, I keep thinking that my time should be worth more if I have to work at midnight then when I work in the afternoon.

Depending on what we do when, we create a different amount of value

Charlie Gilkey creates a Productivity Heatmap; the idea in the chart is that we map out our creative hours during the day in order to take full advantage of it. Because, let’s admit it, even geniuses aren’t geniuses most of the time; there are specific times of day when the genius has a higher probability of striking us. The Productivity Heatmap aims to help us identify our creative moments and learn which hours are more precious and which ones are more free to use for administrative matters.

I like to think about the difference of the qualitative value of time this way: suppose you and a friend from the office are leaving the office, yet your friend can leave at 3 P.M, while you can only leave at 5 P.M after finishing some extra paperwork. The difference doesn’t feel significant, right? But, if we change that and say your friend can leave at 8 P.M, while you can only leave at 10 P.M, would you still have the same response? I think that 2 hours difference in the afternoon is more forgivable than 2 hours difference into the night (in fact, the 2 hours difference in the afternoon might feel more about 45 minutes, while the 2 hours difference in the night feels about 3 and a half hours).

The value of time is different for us; depending on what we do when, we create a different amount of value. Yet, most day jobs only reward us on a lump-sum basis; like manufactured products coming out an assembly line that are considered to have low individual values to justify a uniform compensation system. 2 hours on a Friday evening may be considered time to relax for most office workers, but for a musician it could mean time to go out and perform on stage and build relationships with new fans to grow his business.

Grace has a lot to do with how we live our time-styles

This is a challenge for me as I try to determine what’s worth doing and what’s not worth doing with my time. Because even though I’m still working within the music industry – which is my passion – I sometimes still feel under-appreciated and under-compensated; that I can achieve more if I could concentrate more on my personal projects. Yet, these personal projects take time before they show results, and there is always another eager young person willing to fill up the spot should I want to give it up.

That’s why Grace has a lot to do with how we live our time-styles (as opposed to life-styles). How can we use our time with the most efficient output? How can we prepare in advance for moments where down time in the office could mean serious creative uptime in our personal projects – the projects that give more rewards in the long run?

As a creative person, it’s our prerogative to determine which is worth doing more – yet the huge rock that makes many an aspiring artist stumble and fall is the obligation to put food on the table. We can all understand that, and surely we can all sympathize with that; but we should still have the mentality and the dream that one day, we can support ourselves and our family from the income we receive as direct results from transactions of our own art that we create in our own time and place. Surely I hope this isn’t just the romanticism, idealism, or naivete of an artist, but a tangible, real condition we can all strive to reach.

Can you fellow artists confirm this?

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*Photograph by zoutedrop

Working a semi-day job as a studio engineer, there are some points I learn about the natural rhythm of creativity. I’m also learning about this rhythm from my personal project to write 26 songs during this one year [1]. The lesson I’m learning these past few weeks is about how we can’t push creativity.

The creative process is one of the most liberating and intrinsically rewarding processes a person can experience. It’s a privilege – but not an exclusivity – that not everybody chooses. And having a profession that is creativity based, is the best way to combine your passion with earning a living.

One of the aspects about the creative process that often flies under the radar of people who aren’t creative – and even people who are – is the fact that creativity is as much about hard work as is … hard work. It has very little to do with genius lighting-strikes of inspiration as we toil in our studios, laboratories, or notepads, and much to do with seeking out the sources, absorbing as much as we can, and learning to rest when we feel we’ve pushed enough. The creative process – though some artists would disagree – is more about the subtle growth and sometimes administrative work that needs to be done in order to hit the target.

5% of our effort creates 95% of results

I once watched a TED video of Taryn Simon, a renowned journalist-photographer, who said that 95% of her time is spent NOT on the actual photography itself, but in finding the phone numbers of the right people to call, calling them, doing interviews, taking care of administrative papers (since she visits dangerous politically unstable areas or visiting nuclear-powered sites), and other things. Only 5% of her time is used for the actual point and shoot. That makes me think about how I approach my own creative process.

I’ve read before that creative people tend to find the solutions they are seeking when they aren’t actively seeking it out. After the intensive studio session, the creative mind needs to rest; and while it’s resting, the subconscious part of the brain continues the work while the active part takes some time off. It’s important to keep recharging the creative juice, because it’s very possible to run out of it in the middle of the road – that’s why one of the most famous studios in the world has a dedicated terrace garden cafe where musicians can “recharge their creative batteries” [2].

However, working as a studio engineer sometimes I feel like the clients don’t understand about the natural rhythm of the creative process – and they demand quality results in budget time. Given, as clients they do have the right to request this, but it makes me think about the mental health of the creative team. As a result, true quality is often compromised in favor of the preferred quality the client approves of.

Giving creativity some R&R

If you’re a creative person, you’d understand that being creative is a fickle process. Some days you’re hot, some days you’re not. Putting in the hard work doesn’t make you more of a natural genius than the other person, but it does increase your chances of finding inspiration without having to resort to life-altering experiences or medication.

Understanding that creativity also has an administrative side to it can help us in responding to the moments when we don’t feel hot. We can increase our output when we don’t always wait for genius inspiration to strike. Or as Andrew Dubber says it (especially in this internet age of ephemeral products): “Ready. FIRE. Aim”.

Combining these two understandings with the third understanding that creativity also needs to rest, can help us to produce more consistent results as we fluctuate towards creating our master piece. If you feel like you’re being burned out or just plain drained, then maybe it’s time to give creativity some rest and relaxation. After you do, you can be sure that you’ll come back fresh and recharged to tackle the next project you have in your mind!

Are you a creative person? What’s preventing you from being creative? Do you sometimes feel like your pushing it too much?

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[1] Here is a link to my songwriting project, if you’re interested
[2] Abbey Road studio website