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I'm a writer and creative director. I make things, collect books, write fiction and don't understand Zen. I'm Vegan.

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The Commodification of Yoga

Is yoga becoming just another consumption machine?

It’s a booming business to be sure as new brands pop up at an amazing rate. So what does this mean for yoga?

Will it get usurped by consumerism and lose it’s way in the process?

Or, is the commodification a good thing—a way to widen the audience, increase awareness and grow? Certainly the mainstreaming of yoga can lead to awareness as Oprah and other national sources have put an important light on the health and well-being benefits of yoga.

Others have suggested that the growth will lead to a watering down or stripping away of essential elements that make yoga what it is. At some point is yoga nothing more than another form of exercise akin to Pilates or Kickboxing? That remains to be seen.

Read the post I wrote for Elephant Journal about this topic. Below is an excerpt:

manifesto

A New Post on the Merits of Having Your Very Own Manifesto

Very fantastic envato productivity site workawesome.com just published a new post I wrote on why everyone needs a manifesto. Give it a read and then write yourself one.

pollock

In Pursuit of Elegance

There is an elegant solution for everything. Matthew E. May makes this very argument in his fantastic book The Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing.

According to May, elegant solutions share four common characteristics:

  1. Symmetry
  2. Seduction
  3. Subtraction
  4. Sustainability

I loved this book. As it applies to aesthetics, we have a lot to learn in this cluttered world in which we now live. Elegance is an art. Knowing what not to say is as vital as what we say.

This is also about space: white space, the space between the notes and carving out a clean, clear space from which great ideas and manifest.

Awesome New Post On The Merits of Staring

I just published a piece over at the very cool productivity site, WorkAwsome. Here is an excerpt:

Imagine stopping in the middle of a busy work day, kicking up your feet on your desk, sitting back, arms cradling the back of the head in daydream mode. Now imagine that this is one of the best things you could do in the course of a busy work day.
It’s okay, let them stare. Because the truth is that your blank stare at the wall is just what the mind needs to slow down, clear out some of the clutter and give the creative brain the opportunity to open up to better thinking, greater creativity and maybe even the next big idea.

Stop by the site and give the post a read. Give the rest of the site a read, too. You’ll find Work Awesome to be full of great work productivity tips. Plus, it’s a fun read.

The Luster of Lack

Check out this article I wrote for Elephant Journal on the Buddhist notion of dukkha, the sense of lack and our collective obsession with buying and having stuff.

Here’s an excerpt:

With all due respect to René Descartes, I think a more accurate characterization of the modern human condition is not his famous, “I think therefore I am,” but rather “I lack therefore I am.” Who we are, or who we think we are, has become inextricably linked to the things we buy and the brands we affiliate with as what we project outward into society is reflected back to us as a form of self validation. This is how we really know who we are.

As a result, we’ve become a society obsessed with stuff. We buy stuff, we buy more stuff and then when we run out of room for the stuff we have, we rent space so we can store the extra stuff. As a result, Self Storage has become one of the fastest growing industries in the United States.

Happy reading.

Whitman’s Words To Live By

This is a beautiful quote by Walt Whitman, one of my favorite mystical poets.

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward toward the people…re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your very soul, and your very flesh shall become a great poem.

Whitman’s writing is timeless and profound. If you haven’t read any of this writings, start with Song of Myself from his collection Leaves of Grass. The entire collection is brilliant, earthy, spiritual, visual, sensual and very moving.

marty_brand

You Too Can Be An Innovator

I’ve always loved the way Marty Neumeier thinks. ZAG is still my favorite book on brands. Now, Marty has a DVD available with his famous Innovation Workshop on it. This should be fantastic.

Plus, the Tool Kit includes a copy of his most recent book, The Designful Company which is also a really good read.

Music & Musings

Dan Wallace, a recording artists, songwriter, producer, composer, writer and all around super smart guy has a somewhat-new blog that he’s using as a sounding board for a range of philosophical discussion, criticism, commentary and storytelling. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Dan is best known for his music – putting out 7 CDs both as a solo artist and with his previous bands IZIS and the Pindrops (both of which he founded and fronted) – and developing a sizable following as an indie artist who has successfully bucked convention and eschewed the mainstream, while still drawing rave reviews and critical success for his innovative sound and adventurous recordings (I’d argue he’s one of the best under-the-radar artists in the world).

Dan’s a really smart guy with interesting ideas on pretty much everything. It comes out in his music and now it comes out in his blog which covers music, the music industry, composers, philosphy, writing, pop culture and more.

Give it a read. Leave a comment. Engage in the discussions over there.

And, if you haven’t listened to Dan’s music. I’d recommend that too. It’s fantastic.

It’s NaNoWriMo Time

November is National Novel Writing Month and to celebrate there is a yearly event affectionately called NaNoWriMo where writers from all over world participate in a mad dash toward writing a novel.

The idea is simple: starting November 1st, you write like a maniac for 30 days and before you know it you have a novel, or at least a draft, or at the very least a ton of words on paper from which to craft the shell of a novel, hopefully. But hope is critical in such endeavors.

Because the truth is writing a novel is damn tricky stuff. Completing one has eluded me and I’ve been writing for all of my adult life. I’ve written professionally for a long time, covered bands, written for music videos, TV shows, documentaries, advertising and I’ve even completed a pretty decent screenplay, but the novel. Ah, yes, the novel. Creatively speaking, this has been the one that has gotten away.

So maybe this year I’ll dive in, using November as the catalyst for finally pulling it off. I have ideas. A folder’s worth of them. I have the desire. But, it’s sticking it out when you hit that wall, that place where the story sputters or the plot gets thin, that is the part that gets most writers. You gotta see it through, hit it head first. You gotta be willing to be okay with the “shitty first draft” Hemingway wrote about. But most of all, you’ve got to have conviction that you will not stop. Reach the end. Tell a story.

Any takers? If so, today is the day to start. And what about me? Should I head once more into the breach? Who is with me?

This Whole New Mind of Mine

I just read A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink and recommend it to anyone wanting to be grasp the emerging new realities of marketing and communications. His premise is simple: Gone are the days of left-brain dominance. In the age of Asia, Abundance and Automation, we are no longer able to compete as we once did. In fact, if someone overseas can do it more cheaply or if a computer can do it faster, then what you are doing is soon to go away.

But that’s okay. Especially if you’re more right-brained. For these high concept, high touch folks that future is very bright indeed.As for the book, Pink lays out a compelling argument and suggests 6 aptitudes critical for the future: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning.

As a writer, director and brand strategist, this book put some additional shape on much of what I’ve been thinking and feeling over the past 5 years. Meaning is essential to people and the various conceptual aptitudes get to the heart of what motivates consumers and what should drive companies into the future.