Along Came a Spider

GOOOOOOL!!!!!!

2010-06-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

The World Cup's here and in full swing, and I'm mighty proud that it's held in South Africa. I'm a big soccer fan, and even though I'm pretty busy and miss most of the live matches, I still save every match I can to watch later (God bless whoever invented DVR).
If you got any favorites, please share; as much as I'd like South Africa to win - or anyone from Africa, really - I'll settle for a more realistic choice in Mexico and the Netherlands; they're both really good teams, and both deserve at least one win. I'd like the US to get high, if only so that soccer might become more popular here.

Math and Beauty - Part 2: Brevity

2010-05-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Many many moons ago, I had the idea of writing a series of blogs documenting how I defined beauty by recourse to mathematics...and have since, apparently, forgotten all about it. I won't bore any viewers with half-hearted excuses on why I've been gone for nearly a year, but needless to say, I'm back, and I hope to continue the series with some regularity. So, with that out of the way...

Most of us know the standard definition of brevity; it means, in short, to be brief, or concise. Brevity is considered "the soul of wit", since its qualities are deemed pleasing to the ear when expressed in a short, biting apothegm. However, brevity doesn't belong to wit's domain alone; I hope to show that brevity is also the fountainhead of artistic beauty, and an important consideration in the creative process. How, you may ask? I'll try to be brief...

Now, take a look at the following:

E^i*pi+1=0

This equation - known as Euler's Identity - is regarded by mathematicians the world over as arguably the most beautiful ever produced. The reasons are manifold, but there's no doubt that it's short form and simplicity play a big part in it; accustomed as we are to the idea that mathematicians love large tracks of arcane equations, in reality they prefer short statement like the above. It's not hard to guess why; something like Euler's Identity is much easier to remember and communicate to others, which was really the point of creating the thing in the first place (well, not really, but let's roll with that for now).

You see, many people - including artists themselves, unfortunately - seem to forget that art is useless if it fails to communicate something - that "something" being all the dreams, ideals, and definitions of beauty which fog the creative mind on a daily basis. Brevity is, in essence, good, concise communication; no matter how long the novel or sonata movement, or how vast the mural, such expressions are but the end product of a vast and murky process of the creative spirit.

Hm... on reflection, this post can hardly be called "brief"; still, I hope it opens a door into thinking about all these little faucets of artistic expression and beauty. Next topic will be a bit more abstract, but don't worry - I'll try to be bri-

...Oh, never mind.

Math and Beauty - Part 1

2009-07-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

A while back, I had briefly stopped at the age-old question of beauty's place in art - and, just as quickly, walked past without so much as a backward glance. However, I have now regained my bearings, and feel that I am ready to tackle this juicy question full on. So, I will make a fool-hardy attempt to construct a composite view of beauty by breaking it down and applying it to one art form in particular - mathematics.

Okay, so now you're probably wondering "Why math"?

Well, no...more likely, you're probably wondering "Holy crap! Since when is math an art!?"

Yes, dear reader, it is true, though it may not be recognized as such due to its long-time association with science - not to mention failed tests, bad report card marks, and skinny nerds in coke bottles and suspenders. However, to mathematicians, schools have been going about things the wrong way; no one who really enjoys math pursues it because it's useful - they pursue it for its own sake, because it brings beauty and pleasure to their lives. True, math has nudged its way deep into the sciences, economics, and other applied fields, but just because it can be useful in a few applications doesn't mean that's all it's good for. Take graphic design, for instance; its use is primarily practical, but beneath its polished, Type-A pedigree lies a shared lineage with the great works of Dali, Picasso, and other titans of creativity.

However, that said, math is distinct among the other arts in one crucial manner - it is, in essence, a "discovered art", as opposed to a "created art". Mathematicians will say that they are deducing art from the natural (or imaginary) world via the rules of mathematical logic. It's all very left-brained, to be sure, but theirs is an approach that suites nicely our purposes for defining beauty; since mathematicians "discover" their art, it's much easier to peg down rules for identifying beauty as it manifests, as opposed to - say - a painter, who creates and redefines art and beauty with every passing style and generation.

The above should not be taken as a formal defense of math as an art, nor as a complete explications of its methodological differences with the other creative arts - those would require far more space than I'm willing to allocate here. Still, from there we can move ahead to consider beauty's role in art since, believe it or not, mathematicians are obsessed with beauty. We won't tackle all this in one go, but rather distribute our thoughts over four posts, each centered around what I believe to be the primary components of mathematical beauty: brevity, symmetry, profundity, and truth. The question of why these four will, hopefully, be answered over the course of the discussion, starting with brevity and ending with the familiar (and tantalizing) junction of truth and beauty.

Any artists/writers/mathematicians/musicians - feel free to dive in with your own ideas on what beauty is and how it relates to art. So until next time...

Quatrain II - "Autumn to Winter"

2009-06-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

Do dead leaves rail when our sharp, mashing soles
Weld dust to vein, and stop earth in their holes?
What good is protest when voices are cut,
And Life's Long-shadow ensures they stay shut?
___________________________________

This little thing actually gave me more trouble than I had expected, but no matter - what do you think? The title gives a hint as to what I'm saying.

Quatrain

2009-06-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

Yo. I've decided to alternate between sonnets and short-line poems; I'm doing quatrains
(four line ) for now, and maybe a couplet here and there. There's always been a strange law of inverses at work when it comes to writing; the shorter and more restricted the medium, the harder it is to make something that sounds halfway coherent, let alone pleasing. And, true to form, quatrains can be a pain since every word and punctuation needs to contribute to the total effect. I'll probably post a couplet and/or sonnet later this week, but for now, enjoy this little tid bit:

Candle Dance

But wonder! Does a burning flame
Know that its dance is one of pain?
But dance! You wrest from sunset's keep
Your joy in pain - sans silent sleep.
----------------------------------
This was actually the last four lines of a longer poem, of which this - it shames me to say - was the absolute best part. Let me know what you think!

Scored a freelance gig!

2009-05-29T18:00:00.001-07:00

I just found out yesterday I landed a not-for-profit freelance writing job at my local chamber of commerce! It's once a month - which will leave me(I hope) plenty of free time to finish up school and continue with my current writing projects - and provides a much-needed stepping stone to other freelance possibilities. I hope I can balance it with everything else I'm working on, so wish me luck!

On perceptions of beauty - or, how the ugly truth ain't so ugly, after all!

2009-05-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

What is your approach to "art"? How do you go about the creative process? What do you put into your work? What kind of responses are you hoping to get? Will this string of rhetorical questions ever end? Maybe? If they don't, would you leave? Okay, I'll stop now...but seriously, I do wonder how all of you artists out there (and I use that term very broadly as applied to artists, musician, writers, and mathematicians) view your works, particularly on that often-nebulous concept of beauty.

I won't go into all the philosophical hoopla that's been swatted back and forth about beauty for the past three thousand years; however, I think most of us agree that beauty is a prime directive for any artist hoping to live up to the moniker. Beauty is that wisp of emotion, that faint spark igniting the rush - however great or subtle - that eventually leads to fountains of praise, exaltation, or even a fair but glowing review. However you see beauty, however it's defined, it's always there, and it's respects must be paid for you to get noticed.

But hark! so goes a voice in the crowd. Surely, beauty isn't the force behind all art! Where lies the beauty of a war photograph, or the frantic, twisting bodies of the dead? Beauty has no place there - truth is their one true guide!

Hm...well, aside from flair for the dramatic (who uses "hark" these days?), our friend from the crowd does bring up an interesting point - what place does beauty have in a work clearly trying to tell a truth - one of either our violent natures, or our own mortality? For that matter, are the two mutually exclusive?

Way back in the year dot, it didn't matter - truth and beauty were wrapped into one seamless whole; the best storyteller was the one who relayed the "truths" of the tribe's history in the most pleasing and entertaining manner. Likewise, the visual arts have never been far from depictions of gods, great mortals, and other beings that peppered the thoughts of the ancient world. However, the past few centuries have seen great strides made for the sake of distinguishing "true" art (or art for art's sake) from "functional" art. Poetry, for one, is said to have fallen into two camps following the time of Shakespeare - one group lyrical, melodious, and beauty-focused; the other, intellectual, argumentative, and geared towards making a point.

Still, is it fair to draw such a sharp distinction? Can't art be both beautiful and truthful? Are the very distinctions themselves false, a dim reflection from binary minds obsessed with categorizations? After all, it's wise to make a distinction between the ugly and the grotesque - can't the truth, however ugly, still strive to beauty by another name?

Maybe. *shrug*. Hell, I don't know.

I'll probably go into much greater depth at a later date with what I believe is the connection between truth and beauty, but for now, it stands that I've always felt that the best artists are the ones who incorporated both ideals into their work. As a poet by inclination, this has lead me to believe that good poetry should be one part Ralph W Emerson, and one part Oscar Wilde. Emerson was a serious, instrumental philosopher whose works - while lacking anything resembling grace - got his point across loud and clear. Wilde, on the other hand, was the poster child of "good art is useless", and as such created works of great beauty and flow without saying anything remotely close to an argument. I've always been weary of either extreme, and sought a synthesis of the two in my own works.

Maybe later, I'll share my thoughts on how that went :). But for now, I would like your opinions: how do you approach art? Is any particular ideal in focus, or do you just move with the flow and not worry about those things?

Sonnet #2

2009-05-19T17:13:00.001-07:00

Here's another poem for ya. I'd appreciate any words - an analysis, if you think it's pretty, if you'd rather endure a root canal during a prostate exam...you know, the usual.
................
A dew, a drop, a feathered angel's hair
From morning mist, is all, I should declare,
My fallow life is worth when I compare
To your great age, your sundry limbs laid bare.

Your patchy skin, so full to burst the seeds
Of woven life held fast by godly creed,
Do show the scars of fine and noble deeds
From decades gone, when ferals sought to cede

Your stately moors. But here I stand - beseech
Your case no more; your turn has passed - your reach
Has made its shore, and with my metal teeth
I'll reach your core - your center soon to breach.

For though you are a kind and lovely tree,
You block my way, so you will cease to be.
......

You may notice it's in the same style as the "Embark young man" poem - a style I like to think is all my own (knock on wood). It's a sonnet of three stanzas (four rhyming lines each) and a couplet; however, while most sonnets present a problem, seek resolution, and then create a synthesis of the two, mine reads a little bit like a monologue with a twist ending.

In this case, the "twist" is how someone praising a tree in a tongue-in-cheek manner reveals his/her/its plan to cut it down. If you can kinda see that, or if you can't, then please let me know; I'm already thinking about making a "crash course" post about how to read a poem and the process I go through while making one, so this can open a window.

As far this one's concerned, it's okay; I mean I like it, but I one of these days I will post a poem of my usualstyle (off/irregular rhyming, weird meter, thick words). So please comment, and any questions will be gladly answered.

(P.S. I made some changes that, some reason, didn't I goofed on when translating from the page to screen. It should make more sense now).

On Collaboration - or, stepping out of the f&#%ing cave

2009-05-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

Being a writer is an often lonely, isolated endeavor; barring the hectic world of screenwriting and the other performing arts it's usually just you in your den or the school computer lab, huddled around an old notebook with dog-eared pages (or your two-year-old laptop with the funny "R" key that sticks when you press it), trying to drain your mind of the thoughts that, in all likelihood, have been slowly driving you insane since you were 10. Yeah, good times...

But every once in awhile, someone might come and waive a carrot big enough to entice us from our hermit caves, put on clean clothes for a change, shower and shave, and do something many of us aren't prepared to - work in a collaborative, equal venture with another writer. Now, this is different from just working with anyone on something like - say - a multi medium project; I myself have been locked in a very fruitful relationship with an artist on a graphic novel for the past few years. But working together is easy when you can immediately set out your respective roles, and decide who's leading the charge; however, two writers may need to undergo some serious adjustments to come to an understanding. Therefore, it helps if you have a good, thorough guideline to walk you through the delicate act of working together.

Unfortunately, I am nowhere-near qualified to give such a guideline.

But I can at least give some advice from my own experience on how to get off to a good start with what's probably the most important first step (cue random angel chorus): Understanding fully what makes you and your new partner different, and learning to respect and integrate those differences.

I doubt this'll surprise anyone, but you'd be amazed at how many take it for granted that the real fruits of a collaboration spring from how different you are from the other guy, and what those differences mean.

Take my case - a few months ago, I left my comfortable cave behind and ventured out into the open with another writer to finally get cracking on a graphic novel idea he had been flirting with for a while. At first, I was skeptical; I didn't want to leave my cave. I think most writers jealously guard our particular styles and feel we're giving up something about ourselves when we're forced to make changes that affect the way we write. Still, he is an old friend (and the carrot he held looked pretty damn tasty), so I gave it a chance, and immediately discovered two things: 1) We are very different in our approach to writing, and 2) that's actually okay. Most collaborators can expect some differences to pop up, but he and I are like night and day in so many ways - he's dynamic, intuitive, and very prolific; I'm more academic, and thoughtful of all my words and phrases. He sees the page as a wide-open canvas, and words as paint to splash and spread with all manner of colors, filling in the edges until it's time to move on to the next piece. I see the page as more of a blank word problem, with words serving as the right numbers, symbols, and equations to plug in and create the desired effect.

However, just as both a painting and a concise equation can mean "beauty" to the right crowd, our styles each have their own appeals, and by combining them we can spread a far wider net to our readers than either one of us can alone. Of course, there's going to be some initial grumbling as toes are stepped on and egos clash in the bid for who's style will predominate; however, those are no more permanent or damaging than that first annoying glint of the sunlight following years of hiding in a cave, and when all your rumples are smoothed out, you'll be amazed at how easy you fall into the rhythm, and how what you learn from your partner easily outweighs any initial problems you have. I can't speak for my friend, but I know I've become a little less structured and more intuitive in some of my projects, and I'm actually happy with that.

This isn't going to solve all problems, of course; you may not be compatible, or there are just too many differences to reconcile, or your partner is a complete and total jackass who isn't worth the time to spit on. The point, though, is to not avoid taking that chance in the first place - with very few exceptions, you stand to gain far more by saying yes than no.

So step out of that cave for a minute and take a stroll through the wilderness with a friend, even if only for a little while; because, just as there is more out there than the shadows on the wall you've been staring at all this time, you'll find that there are more ways than just yours to write a good story.

Please comment, if you like, and I'm curious as to whether artists go through the same thing when collaborating.

An old poem

2009-05-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is an older poem I had done a while back when I was in an experimental "let's-randomly-splice-together-different-styles" phase; it also follows a brief obsession with Dante's Inferno, which I absolutely ADORE like nothing else :). As it is, I'm not particularly displeased with how it turned out, but the style shifts are a little jarring, and I could have made the transitions smoother(and seriously, I'm not sure WHAT I was trying to do with that middle part) but let me know what you think:

9th Gate

Your words whisper like wisps of rain

-Speech deemed divine by Lord above-

Upon my ears, sweet child of Cain,

Exclaiming your fraternal love.

Your wond'rous words I held as true

(Why not? Your sweet smile shone so bright

And soothed the stern and motley crew

Of fears that dread approaching spite).

To my heart, I will not waiver

-For you, with bold and smiling eyes-

Grant to me the futile favor

To see your words...a pack of lies.

So what's it like

To smile with poisoned lips to

Take my trust like shit to

Spread across a field to

Stab my soul with tainted

Tongue and breath to

Spark my hate for you and

All your kind to

Grant my wish to see

You burn in hell to

See-

...I see how I have taken too far

My feelings of anger and hate.

I feel my heart has come too far

Too loathe what you left in your wake.

I hear you yearn for freedom unearned,

Yet I'll take the hand of my guide.

So count yourself as a lesson learned

And stay in the dirt where you lie.

....

...I was in an unhappy place :P.

A sonnet

2009-05-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a sonnet I made last night:

Embark, young man, upon your new-found road
Arm-linked with men from jackeroo abodes
And tell me, true, if what you seek is load
To funnel full the static of your tomes

For you have all the vector, it would seem,
Of a whirligig stomping through a dream
And, time and time, you fake and force a wean
From teacher's teats, his white and foamy stream.

And right you are - I never knew a book,
Nor read a rune unfettered from a rook.
But you - a dandy, learned down to the hook,
Had left of sense before its ground had took.

To shame, but last - my head grows dim to think,
So you? Upend, and let me down my drink.
. . .

I guess this is what you'd call a verbal "quick sketch" - a simple poem that's not bad, but mainly instrumental; it only took me about 40 minutes, and it's just practice for working within a format that demands selective vocabulary and structure. Most of my major works are of a very different style, but if any of these catch my fancy...who knows. I'll try to post one once a week, and maybe more as I get more time to practice. I'm open to thoughts/interpretations.

Welcome

2009-05-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all comers.

There is no doubt in my mind that as soon as humans learned to croak out that garbled, abstract, often cacophonous stream of noise we call "speech", they immediately set out to invent the enlightened pastime of storytelling. Through the ages and various mediums - the spoken word, verse, and prose - storytelling has been a prime vehicle through which we have shaped our world, and has show itself to combine successfully the instructed values of a philosophical discourse with an aesthetic embodiment shared only with the great works draped across the hallowed, dusty halls of the finest museums.

As for me, I'm still a relative newcomer to this - a writer for years, but just now getting my feet wet in the often-confusing world of book publishers, copyright laws, and literary agents. Here you'll get a window into my life as I stumble through all this, peppered with poems, thoughtful musings, book critiques, and maybe the random bs blurb, least the mood get too heavy.

If this appeals, then by all means, sit down a spell, and allow my to sit beside you. I promise not to frighten you too much.

Maybe.