Creative response to Hurricane Katrina

Before I blog on how creativity works I wanted to share something really creative and inspiring, Reaction Housing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_QEdoCSGho

#2a Creativity with John Cleese

Here is an abbreviated explanation of the 5 ingredients for creativity mentioned in the previous post.

John Cleese - a lecture on Creativity #2

In this clip Mr. Cleese explains 5 things you need to arrive at what he calls the "open mode." Space, time, time (again, a different kind), confidence and humor. The open mode, he explains is where you mentally need to be in order to "play" which leads to ideas. He also explains to not settle for the first solution you come to, press on to explore other ideas until the absolute deadline. According to  John Cleese this method yields a more creative answer, "Creativity is not a talent, it is a way of operating."

Video Arts presents John Cleese on creativity, this is a clip posted by Novel Haven Pte Ltd. and acknowledges all rights to owner.

John Cleese On Creativity #1

The first video by "quantumsingularityup"of Mr. Cleese addressing the time and space you need to create. He ends up explaining why serious, pompous, snap decision makers are not creative and do not think the world needs it/creativity. They don't have a clue and don't know that they don't have a clue.

At this point I should point out that "creativity" is inventing something that has not existed before, I would this this would apply to a writer like Mr. Cleese. Innovation is taking something that exists and changing it.

How to Make a Hat or Look What These Girls are Doing!

This is a great video and the ladies from Paul's Hat Works are wonderful. It is on the site "Science in the City - Exploratorium TV."

As someone trying to make "Hat Making" into a living, I am so very proud of these women.

Excellent work!

Oh, and Mr. Penguin too.

The Chicken or the Hat? Artist Judith M. Lindenfelser

There are a couple of things that I have loved all my life, hats and chickens being on that top 10 list.  Lindenfelser allows me to post both on the same page. She is a Milliner that keeps chickens in Alaska, okay that is 3 things, chickens, hat making, and Alaska.  My father was stationed there in WWII and though I have never been there I have always dreamed of the Alaska my father knew and loved.

"Tales From the Coop - Breakfast Reading is a collection of essays that revolve around Lindenfelser's experience raising chickens and selling eggs in Alaska. She has kept Outside Birds for nearly thirty years and sold their eggs. When her egg customers became curious about the chickens, ducks and geese whose eggs they were eating, Lindenfelser began including a 'Tale from the Coop' with their egg deliveries."

But wait! That is not all. She makes hats!

Judith Lindenfelser knits hats out of Lopi, a long-fiber sheep's wool from Iceland, at her home in Chugiak. Hat styles range from modern, including several with dreadlocks, to vintage, with many reminiscent of the early 1920s. Photos by Joshua Borough

Lindenfelser’s hats all have names. There is a small black cowboy hat named after Dale Evans, the famous cowboy queen of the ’40s. Next to it sits Clara Bow, a cloche, or flapper-style hat, named after the silent films actress. The Lucille Ball hat has antique curlers attached. (So cool!)