The Edinburgh Cycle
When you look at your own life, oh my gosh, so much stuff has happened. Almost every day, you experience something that you carry with you forever. Sometimes it's a boon, sometimes it's a limp.
And these incidents often occur in clusters, bunched together by time and place and effect. These are the things you look back on and say, "That was a life changing event."
Marriage, kids, those are biggies. And almost so important you can't separate them from the timeline – they aren't things that you experience, they're things that you become.
And then there are the major events. Things that are so clustered and/or so deep that they swing the needle way out on the seismograph chart of your life.
Creatively, I've had a few of those. Most, if not all, of what I've written in this newsletter and elsewhere were learned from three literally life-changing events.
Lately, I've been thinking of one in particular – that time me and some friends managed to get into the world's largest performance arts festival, and jumped around in front of an international audience for a week. As I described it later:
It was a transcendent experience. And it nearly killed me.
Like many transcendent/near fatal experiences, I learned a lot from it. But what?
Well, I have a list. Let's talk about it after the news.
What’s going on?
I want this newsletter to be a place of rest, renewal, and hopefully a call to optimistic creation. So I try not to lean into news & politics. But there's some crazy stuff going on right now. So let me just mention this from the resist.bot website:
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I don't care what "side" you're on. You need to be heard, because I have faith in your true, fearless heart.
Now back to making weird stuff.
"Edinbruh" not "Edinberg"
So "the world's largest performance arts festival" I just mentioned is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (see pronunciation guide in title). It was started in 1947 by bunch of performers who weren't allowed in to the Edinburgh International Festival, and thought, "well screw that, we're going to perform anyway."
It's an "open access" event, no jury, no auditions. If you hire a venue and pay the fee, you are in. And a lot of folks don't even let the "hire a venue" part stop them, and just set up on the streets. Artists come from all over the world to perform theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, circus, cabaret, children's shows, musicals, opera, music, spoken word, exhibitions, and other events. There are even whiskey tastings. After all, it's in Scotland – I think there's a law or something.
I've been fascinated by the idea of performing there for years.
So finally, just in time for my 60th birthday, I got a show on its feet with a group of co-conspirators, and we all trundled off to Scotland for a one-week run. And it was the best present my family and friends could have given me. And it has kept on giving.
Because the experience taught me a group of useful interlocking creative approaches. They are all named after a specific aspect of my Fringe experience:
- Finesse Dunning-Kruger
- Gather restrictions
- Embrace the Good Bad idea
- Nurture your shoulder devils
- Commit to the bit
Yeah, those are kind of cryptic, aren't they? Still, each one of these was a part of the success of our Fringe run. And I have used them on every project since – even this very newsletter.
So in the each of the coming weeks, we'll cozy up with one of these guys. I'll explain what they mean, where they come from, and how they continue to help me in my projects today. Collectively, I'm calling these upcoming newsletters The Edinburgh Cycle, because as an English Literature major, sometimes I get all fancypants (and I still get the occasional Melville flashback).
Fun facts to know and share
For this week's Fun Facts, let's start with a little musical journey...
First listen to this. A classic from an iconic heavy metal band. You don't have to sit through the whole thing, just listen through a couple lines of the vocals so you can get the feel.
Then listen to this. I wouldn't have believed it existed if I hadn't heard it myself. Although, I'll be honest, I didn't make it all the way through. Seriously swingin' band, though!
Palette cleanser! Here's the proper way to "lounge up" a heavy metal classic, as sung by a master (and one of the inspirations for Danny O'Hare).
Speaking things that can be described as "metal," this is how you throw a festival. (Link sent by Mari.)
From heavy metal to heavy carpentry. I completely loved this, and even burst out in delighted laughter at one key moment. You'll know when. (Caution: puppet violence throughout. So much sawdust...)
Over to you
In the next newsletter, we'll start The Edinburgh Cycle (so pretentious, I love it) with the first action, "Finesse Dunning-Kruger." It's about using your imagination to help you pretend that you are the specific person you need to be at each stage of the project. It's not self delusion, it's strategic denial. And it lets parts of you rest while your needed parts do the heavy lifting.
Until we talk again, I remain,
Your pal,
Jamie