Author Archives: Cynthia Closkey
“What if you could start over whenever you wanted?”
What if you could start over whenever you wanted? What if you could begin again? What if you could begin again again? What would you do differently if you could do it differently? When do you have the chance to do THAT? Hm? Well, you can each time you step on a stage, sit before a blank …
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Peacock out for a walk
This evening I babysat my niece for a couple of hours. We used the time profitably, going for a short walk to a playground and figuring out how to use Vine, the twitter-centric video app. My niece is a budding videographer at her young age, and she loves every kind of video tool, but most …
River view
Here’s my view this weekend. I’m at the MIT reunion — the 25th year reunion for the Class of 1988 — and I’m staying in a graduate student dorm. Yesterday poured rain for most of my drive here, and this morning started gray and damp. But this afternoon is the kind of afternoon that makes …
“Are you guys the only white rappers?”
I’ve been digging Blank on Blank, an animated videos series from PBS where they take interviews of artists and interesting people from a range of sources — you can send one in — and animate them in a rough and charming style. Here’s an early interview with the Beastie Boys from 1985, when they were …
Ambition vs. learning
David Foster Wallace on Ambition (animated interview from PBS Digital Studios) There are lots of things that interest me about doing improv, but one of the top is that there’s no time when you’re performing improv that you can perfect anything. The scene you are making exists, and then it’s gone — it exists perhaps …
If I had a tale that I could tell you, I’d tell a tale sure to make you smile
Last Saturday night, I sang the opening lines of John Denver’s 1974 hit “Sunshine on My Shoulders” to an imaginary patch of petunias. I sang it solo and a capella, in front of a packed audience. I am not a great singer, but it was a great moment. It was the end of a scene …
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Art | Commerce | Risk | Trust
Amanda Palmer gives a TED talk: The art of asking. Don’t make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer: Let them. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she examines the new relationship between artist and fan. Alt-rock icon …
Are you awesome?
Are you awesome? Find out here: amiawesome.com Via the QI Elves.