A Short Journal Entry on Quarantine, Creativity, and Being Human When the World Seems Inhumane

by Michael LaPenna

Like many of you, I’ve spent the past several contemplating my next move… I’m going through the roller coaster of emotional consequences caused by COVID-19. I spent the first week contemplating my own mortality: if I died, if either or both of my parents died, if my wife died. Couple that with the prospect of dying alone and you get a cocktail for crying myself to sleep and telling myself to seek immediate talk therapy. I took myself up on the offer and therapy put everything in perspective: the relative unlikelihood of death, the realization of what I had instead of what I didn’t. I spent a lot of time thinking about what getting the most out of life means for me while coming face-to-face with this insipid invisible air monster that can kill me, make me sick, or give me no symptoms all that, as of this writing, has no cure and no universally defined treatment. I thought about unfinished creative projects that I would be sad about not being able to do or complete before I died—and so, I thought I could do all that during the quarantine, but the natural depression of the news (COVID-19, economic recession, civil unrest, and the coming election here in the US) and the simple lack of the usual events that consume my life on a regular basis. (Even with my wife being an introvert by nature, we do a lot of going out and spending time with others). We couldn’t go to farmers’ markets, to our friends parties, their weddings, their baby showers—nor could we go out to eat to support our favorite local restaurants or find and explore new ones. Still, weirdest of all, with the sports world on hold for an indefinite amount of nebulous time until earlier this summer, the only sports available for moths were South Korean baseball and the Twilight Zone that is professional wrestling with no audience. (For those that don’t know, I grew up loving the mixture of sports, soap opera, circus, and magic show that is professional wrestling. There’s no other genre like it in the world, and like most things, when it’s bad it’s the worst bad movie no Razzie can encapsulate, but when it’s good and when the crowd is invested, it’s like watching your favorite action movie with a live audience of 20,000 people witnessing live theater of the absurd joys and tragedies of life—but I digress.

As we look upon or collective human condition in this moment, I cannot help but realize that this experience is forcing us to stop and be still in world usually so comfortable to be busy, hustling, distracted, and disquieted. It is wresting us down to think of what’s important and at best has and likely will necessitate that we innovate new ways of being human beings in our level of patience, kindness, and learning what to when people and and situations aren’t either of those ( in times of tension or protest). For creatives that could mean so many things, but most of all, it might give us more time to think and to be in solitude with what our art is. After all, drawing, painting, writing, or sculpting can be done in solitude and much of it can be done in quarantine. (Most of us are not Shakespeare or Galileo calculating and crafting our respective calculuses or King Lears in the self-reflective solitary confinement of quarantine). We do know; however, that we don’t like to be too stagnant for too long. As the late Bruce Lee might remind us, humans at our creative best like to flow like water down a teaming stream filled with life and vitality. Lee famously implored us to, “Be water, my friend.” I endorse the flow.

For months now around the world, we homebound humans have been being asked to stay in with friends, with family—or by ourselves with suddenly enough time to stop, breathe; read the books we’ve been meaning to read, watch all the movies we’ve been meaning to watch, initiate all the exercise we’ve been meaning to take new levels of fitness, or make all the art we’ve neglected to prioritize as soul food (including my own creative writing).

So as you come out of your funk, your depression, your fears, consider that though the world may be in one of its darkest hours in the past hundred years—being forced apart by quarantine or by unfortunate departure from this planet—the living and moving majority of us have a call to be ourselves in the best ways we know possible and to show the world what is possible through tragedy and tears while on the way to possibility and triumph..

I'm writing about the current situation and will post once I'm done....

#racism #blacklivesstillmatter

Create With Us!

Business is expanding more quickly than I could’ve imagined, and for the better. The blog posts may continue to be a bit more curated or sporadic in the near term. Of course, if you would like to blog with us, more specifically, with me Mikey, Fill out your information at the “Work with us!” section at the contact page here and I’ll get back to you usually within 48 hours. 

Keep creating,
Michael LaPenna

Coming This Fall to FreelanceMikey.com!

I’m back with a quick update about this blog. Hello, ladies, gentlemen, and non-binary patrons and readers!

Life is getting busy as I get ready to ebmark on several new endeavors, and with all this, I’m going to be transforming this blog into an information and interview portal into the hearts and minds of creative professionals from every walk of life from America to Indonesia and any and all points in between. (I’d go into space if I could). My goal is to take you on as many fun journeys into the worlds of creative business art and the art of creative business In ways that are at once focused and fun, comprehensive yet conversational.

Interviews and features will include any of the following:

• Entrepreneurs

• Educators

• Business leaders

• Visual artists

• Musicians

• Actors

• Comedians

• Novelists

• Screenwriters

• Playwrights

• Graphic designers

• Home stagers

• Multimedia artists

• Psychologists

• Sociologists

• Biographers/historians

Join me this fall as we take a journey into all this and more!

#MondayMotivation: The Domino Effect and the Inspirational Story of Thaddeus Bullard

This is the inspirational story of Thaddeus Bullard…

More on Thaddeus Bullard at thaddeusbullard.com

Thaddeus Bullard was born to a preteen mother under horrible circumstances but was never given up on despite it all. This is that story.

So many times in life, we are given a choice to treat people a particular way. From our loved ones to our bosses, to the random person who asks for our help, we all have choices to make. This is the story of what happens when we choose kindness over indifference and the particular domino effect that can follow.

The following TEDx Talk by philanthropist, entrepreneur, and performer Thaddeus Bullard (who performs and wrestles as WWE Superstar Titus O’Neil) tells the tale himself in the TEDxUCLA video below.

Key points:

- Watch what happens when one man shows kindness to someone who is racist against him.

- Hear the inspirational story of the homeless couple Mr. Bullard invited to a restaurant for a meal and the “domino effect” and powerful catalyst it inspired.

Thaddeus (as Titus O’Neil) wears the WWE Tag Team championship with teammate Darren Young. (WWE.com)

TED Talks (short for Technology, Education, and Design Talks) have been known to inspire millions of people and to move arts, culture, and technology forward by new and interesting means, but this TED Talk is bit of an outlier just meant to inspire simple kindness, I suppose.

Just a little dose of Monday Motivation to make you smile a little brighter!

Every day, things we do knowingly or unknowingly, affect others. Sometimes it's a small effect, and sometimes it's profound and causes a chain reaction. If you're going to have an effect, why not make it a good one.

Updates on Business and Life Transitions

Hi All,

I just wanted to touch base with anybody who might be coming by the blog. Life transitions are moving things around a bit and I’ve also been focusing on my health as of late. I still would like to get more projects profiled on here at FreelanceMikey, so feel free to hit me back. I’m excited about some new projects in the pipeline along with planning my wedding for next year! More good to come! Be good!

Perez Hilton loves to 'Taste and Toast' with Ashanti Middleton!

I'm so happy for my friend and colleague Ashanti Middleton!  It turns out that Hollywood gossip columnist and entertainment blogger mogul Perez Hilton really digs Ashanti's food vlog and restaurant review show Taste and Toast! I worked on T and T with Ashanti early on in its first season and I’m so glad to see it flourishing in its second season! After starting its journey in the foodie hubs and pubs of Brooklyn, New York, Taste and Toast with Ashanti Middleton has made waves in the Hollywood blogosphere all the way to Perez Hilton's home and heart. What a difference a year makes! Thank you, Perez Hilton! Taste and Toast and Ashanti Middleton are a culinary hit in high places these days! Follow the link for more deliciousness!

Click the link here to find out more, where you can watch the show, and find out how get your restaurant reviewed on the show. https://ashantimiddleton.com/optin-22445718

Bookmark this blog for more updates, conversations, and talks about creating here at FreelanceMikey.com.

 

12 Things Successful People Do Differently

There you are sitting at your desk, mulling over your bills, tired from a day at work filled with aching shoulders and employees who seem much more concerned with their time off than that end-of-day deadline for that latest campaign for that Bakery outside Boston.

You want more! You want greater heights to explore who you are as a business, as a boss, and as a creative being! 

So how can you do all this without killing your time or your energy and maximizing effectiveness in all areas?

Here are 12 things successful people do differently to achieve maximum results in their businesses and lives without going over their limits.
 

Updated 5/23/18: New Blog Interview Series Coming! Conversations About Creating with Michael LaPenna

(We are slightly delayed due to the tornado-like weather that hit the New York area last week. Thanks for being awesome and patient).

Do you like art at 45 degree angles? Do you like people who paint spaceships and sing jazz? Do you like yoga AND psychology? So often, creativity is thought of as a static thing like painting, theatre, music, writing, and the like—but what about what's between those nooks and crannies, between the cracks, the twilight between all these?

I'm interested in the inspiration behind creative work and the lives inspired by that spark.

New things are coming your way and evolving starting with a new blog interview series called Conversations About Creating. Conversations About Creating will explore everything from creative yoga for for healing mental trauma, to neo jazz funk music artists to make you love life just that much more! Join me, Michael LaPenna, for free-wheeling, art-loving, music-jamming, sculpture-making, groundbreaking conversations With creative people from a wide range of fields and feels In the world of art, science, craft, writing, music—and a whole lot of good feelings! It’ll be good times with some good minds, and I can’t wait!

Don't miss Conversations About Creating coming in the coming weeks to FreelanceMikey.com!

New Goodness Coming Up!

 

Well, it’s been wild one—between unique screenplay projects and personal delays due to a death in the family—but have no fear, I’ll be back next week with greatness, (or at least a really fun, passable facsimile). Be good and do some good!

P.S. I might even do a post about visiting the David Bowie exhibit in New York City, or I could talk about my alma mater SUNY New Paltz’s production of Avenue Q that I’m seeing over the weekend. We shall see. :)

#MondayMotivation: Each Day Brings a New Opportunity To Create Something

Each day brings a new opportunity to create something...

I just want to drop you a line and remind you about your creative opportunities. Every day brings a new opportunity to create something: a moment, a dance, a friendship,  a blog post, a song, a project, a job, a work of art, a work of craft. You can do ANYTHING THAT MOMENT GIVES YOU! Just play around, and see what you can come up with, and  follow your bliss!

Why the Creative Thinking of Your Childhood Is the Basis for All Real Learning

The following is a revamp of a blog I wrote a decade ago that strangely but propitiously fits in our current creative culture in America.

Elementary art teacher Ms. Escobal documents one child's moment of innovation with certain found objects.

“I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground

Think back to your childhood. Did you play? Did you run around your house in your underpants pretending to be your favorite hero or heroin trying to save the world from an evil scientist? Did you ever build anything: a house of cards, a tower of crackers, maybe a simple fort? Did you ever play cop and fight imaginary villains and try to thwart a robbery? Maybe you were the one who pretended to have a family of five, a beachfront vacation home, and an office in the city. Even if you did none of these, back when you were six, nine, eleven years old, your mind wandered if your normal day-to-day got too boring.

Now contrast your play life with that of school. First, the adults made you go. There was no compromise, no voting and no writing to your local senator or the ACLU about how you feel your parents may have violated your constitutional right to stay home and eat Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake all day (or maybe, it was Count Chocula… whatever). You had to go to school. No amount of negotiating would change that. You rode your school bus, arrived at school, and soon thereafter would learn whatever the day had in store: spelling, grammar, math and history for which you had no point of reference. Flashcards were equally monotonous—you sat in your chair memorizing each card to the point your brain would just shut off and proceed to rattle off answers like a Pavlovian pup waiting to be rewarded with that peanut butter and jelly masterpiece your mother prepared while you were negotiating the Fudgie the Whale particulars.

Then, it was lunchtime! Lunch was great because you could always compare the other kids’ food with yours. Even if yours was crappy, the kid at the end of the table who ate crayons for money would devour your cafeteria meatloaf like a vulture on a deer carcass! Lunch was a time to talk about your favorite pastimes. Baseball was popular with the boys and for some unknown reason, fortune telling was the girls’ thing with little paper-folded demon machines which always said something like “You smell like pee and have a hairy butt!” Recess would follow and someone would always get maimed by a dodgeball or innocently and precociously chased by a member of the opposite sex (usually) and another kid would get inadvertently beaten with the double dutch ropes.

Next, you’d have more science work to do, memorizing ten categories of plant life or you’d learn how to type like a speed endurance champion, or maybe go to a gym class, art class, music class (These all varied depending on your school’s budget). But these were the times that seemed most free. In art class you could paint the sky purple and no one could tell you it was wrong. Music class had all those silly 1920s “flappertastic” classics that you by all accounts hated—but at least it didn’t have any long division or decimals! On the days you had gym, you ran in a circle for ten minutes and then perfected your volleyball serve to a tee while you gave your best Olympic-style grunt. Ah, those were the days, heh?

It is, without question, sadly prophetic that I should speak in the past tense about your and my collective school experience because right now as I speak to you, even in 2018,  there are serious numbers of K-12 aged students who do not receive regular physical education—and art classes, while the highlight of many a child’s day are now a luxury. This is largely due to the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act which brought about stricter and more streamlined testing standards for schools nationwide that focus primarily on math and literacy skills. Kids are tested three times a year and thus have to spend a considerable amount of time preparing for tests. But the evidence suggests that without the arts and exercise, U.S. Children may be actually losing their ability to process, analyze and dissect information in ways that are essential for innovation in business, science, engineering, and medicine.  Centers for Disease Control data has long suggested that children who get at least 60 minutes of physical play or exercise per day do better in all general aspects of learning and cognitive function (Read here). The arts have been shown to be even more paramount to healthy brain function. Playing music, for instance, requires vigorous processing on both sides of the brain (Read about music and the brain here.) while creative expressions in writing and visual arts require critical thinking and an ability to view the world and its problems in new and uncharted ways for the fact that art is not usually restricted to 2 + 2 = 4 (More here). This was probably best expressed in the words of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his existential classic Notes from the Underground when he opined, “I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.”

What No Child Left Behind (and rigorous core testing in general) robs from children’s education is the imagination of childhood and also fails to cultivate that all important physical instinct to run, jump, climb, push, and explore which physical exercise provides. Children have an uncanny and innate ability to conquer their world just by looking around it, exploring, digging, running or playing make-believe. It is just that simple. In this way, children who make art are the future architects and engineers. The most curious minds are often among those who cure diseases or build spaceships and the best actors are often the best undercover investigators on the face of the earth! Then there are the entertainers who make you and me smile at the end of a bad day, artists who allow us to look at our lives with newborn eyes, or athletes who make us realize that our human bodies have oh, so much untapped potential! It is, my friends, these elements which compose the human being in all his/her/their glory and you and I have known this ever since we first began to play. So I say to you: Play on, create, and imagine. Imagination is after all, your most sacred tool with which to discover the Universe of possibility which lies before you!

 

Buy Books and Donate Books at betterworldbooks.com!

Buy Books and Donate Books at betterworldbooks.com!

Hey guys, this is a great cause that I really love! Check it out:

You can support reading and literacy in underserved communities with a great company called Better World Books. Literacy charities are a big cause for me, and I'd like to share this video with you to encourage you to help give a book to someone in need by going to Better World Books' website here or at the link above. For every book sold, the company gives a book away to someone who needs a book to read in literacy programs all over the world. I love this cause, and I encourage you to use the site to buy your books or go to their Better World Books Amazon storefront and give there. All books get FREE STANDARD SHIPPING as well!

I just bought a book I can't wait to read called The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One by Margaret Lobenstine. I'll let you guys know how it is when I'm done reading it. :)

Thanks in advance and happy reading!

Expect to Succeed—Even If You Don't

Expect to succeed—even if you don't.

So often as a creative consultant, I'm asked what my advice is for basic success in anything and everything from creative project planning for your boss' all-inclusive, multi-cultural holiday party featuring a traditional Nigerian Christmas, to writing a confident letter to HR so that you can create your own job title as Director of Photography for the new website for that antique shop in Topeka. My answer is almost always the same: "See the success as if it's already there, and then, take that feeling, and let it fuel all the excitement and ideas it can!" Some ideas will be great and some horrendous, but the whole point is in the doing. In coaching and in cognitive behavioral therapy, this is often called "acting as if." It's a practice that primes the thinker to feel what it's like to be where he or she wants to be. More to this point, the science has shown that, very often, our emotions and biological systems can't tell much of a difference between the feelings of our imaginations and the arrival and actualizations of our goals.  (Read a full text on how acting, and imagination create experience, empathy, and more here.) The more you do this, the more practiced and proficient you'll be come. Try it now. I'd like you to picture yourself in your ideal job. You're in a chair you like. You're talking with people you enjoy working with. Janet just had a great idea for that new project way before the deadline! You smile and feel excitement in your belly!

Now, look at the above scenario and notice how you feel when you're thinking about whatever relatable scenario you have for your own life: planning a trip with your partner, starting that new business you've been putting off. Take that exact thing, that exact wonderful feeling, and feel it as if it's right there in front of you! Notice how you can't stop smiling! Notice how many multitudes of ideas pop into your head! Notice how "in the zone" you feel or  how going "with the flow" becomes your natural state. (Read more on flow psychology here.)  You see yourself succeeding, getting that promotion you've known is coming, and that relationship you're picturing seems so good! You sit better. You stand better. You speak clearly. You're willing to take chances. Go right ahead! Try that new cardio salsa class; take that trip to Indonesia; write that book based on that epiphany you had in tenth grade. When you act from that joy and that right feeling, you don't rush from a place of fear and make rash leaps into a void of no return; rather, you act with a level head and being willing to fail a bunch and figure it out as you go. In this much, practice doesn't make perfect as much as it just makes learning and grows a belief that your goal is possible.

All successes start with an idea of what's possible. A thousand years ago, could anyone have predicted the iPhone? Think even farther back to the wonders of the ancient world. Could the rulers of the Egyptian dynasties—in all their belief in the bedazzling power of the Pyramids of Giza and the Egyptian people's unwavering confidence in the most advanced knowledge entrusted to the great Library of Alexandria—have conceived of some of the poorest people on our planet now having access to the ubiquitous LIBRARY OF EVERYTHING that we call Google? Nope. All these miracles or creativity first had to be imagined and believed possible by their inventors. It's the faith in what could be possible, (what psychologists refer to as growth mindset. Read here.) that creates ideas, technology, etc. It's this growth mindset that I really believe fosters a willingness to experiment and make mistakes that lead to eventual success. I can attest to this in my own work. Some of the best music mixes I've made have been by accident, and I sometimes write scripts and stories after a mishap like falling down in my kitchen while saving a chocolate cake from splattering onto my kitchen floor. This kind of "pro-mishappenstance" mentality is even more useful and even fun when one considers, that, to paraphrase Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, art and the arts—on even the broadest of spectrums—are not, nor have they ever been fatal to a well-lived life. There are no botched surgeries caused by a smudged painting, no loss of life from a flubbed lyric at a Kanye West concert, and neither your health nor your finances will likely ever be compromised by your hatred for Salvador Dali's Mae West lips couch, (despite your mother's thinking to the contrary). Your creativity can afford mistakes.

Last, but never least, I want to leave you with the notion that you should find joy in the steps: the journey, the air you breathe, the path you travel. Life doesn't wait for you to be happy when it's over. Choose to be happy now! Choose to expect to be happy with all that life gives you. You will fail, and you will succeed. You may have to change plans and mix it up, but staying expectant of good things will make you enjoy and see all the good that is, and seeing this positive growth will most likely encourage exploration in you. You'll find yourself getting more done and being happier: happily failing and succeeding, and dreaming maybe a little bigger and a little more boldly each time. So, take chances, fall down, get up, make mistakes, innovate, invent, and reinvent—and expect to succeed even when you don't—and in the words of the late Joseph Campbell, follow your bliss! 

New Coolness in the Coming Weeks!

Hey guys,

I want to take a moment to update you on what's going on at FreelanceMikey. Things are getting busier here, and I have to say that I'm so thankful! Right now, I'm working on some edits and some manuscripts for quite a few clients and the new podcast experiment that is the "Plogcast." Thanks, folks! Stick around and keep on rocking' in the free world!

 

Be well,

Michael "FreelanceMikey" LaPenna

How to Build Your Confidence 101 With Thomas Edison

I feel like flow and intuition—with also a willingness to believe great things are possible—are the keys to pretty much every success. When your mind, body, spirit, and actions, don't conflict, WATCH what happens! Inventors such as Edison have always seemed to know this. There is power in this kind of knowing. 

Mikey out!

A New 'Plogcast' to Fuel Your Creative Fire!

This audio  is totally unedited, The ambient sound you hear the mic picking up is my mischievous ceiling fan whooshing....

Mikey here!

Do you have a compelling story about your business or creative passion that's uniquely interesting that you want to share?

Do you have a job or a hobby or side hustle that's uniquely suited to who  you are that you've mastered and want to share with the world?

Are you fueled by your passions and your desire to create something great?

Do you believe limits are only things to be overcome or to be used as tools to make us better at what we do?

Well, my fire-fueled friend, I'm exceedingly excited to announce something I've been thinking about for a long time now: FreelanceMikey Creative Consulting is happy to announce the Fueling Your Creative Fire Plogcast here on the FreelanceMikey blog! Each episode will delve into the deep of what it means to be creative and what it means to be a creative in a world filled with inspirations from any and all walks of life and influences. I'll be getting extremely real with you and my guests to find what makes them light up with that create fire that fuels their every passion and proclivity in business, art, design, performance, tech—and all points in between!

If you would like to be on the show, contact me by any of the methods listed here on the site and bring your best creative story along with your most profound, personal insights to share on the show!

After all, you only get one life to be awesome, so you might as well share your passion with the world!

Mikey out!

9-11 Tribute (Readapted Prose Poem): "We Are Lower Manhattan"

Today is September 11. Before 2001, It was always just a day like any other:  someone's  birthday, someone's wedding  anniversary, or the day of any number of random occurrences throughout time but has now seemingly forever become the day we all became somber and deeply mournful at once in America and much of the world. There has been so much said about why it happened, how it happened, outside jobs, inside jobs, Yet, on that day, I felt most of us were incontrovertibly unified.  My particular story involves family and friends, but I don't—in any way—wish to make my personal story bigger than the day.

The first draft and iteration of the following prose poem was written in 2006 and re-edited in 2007, and I've finally decided to permanently change the timeline to "so many years since" where it will stay. It is a response to health concerns post 9-11. I wrote it as an advocacy piece in defense of those affected most severely. Since that writing, there has been hope, yet the poem still stand as a worthy testament to those lost and those still dealing with health concerns.

"We Are Lower Manhattan"

It’s been so many years since those towers fell and we still smell the bodies, the ash, the twisted steel, florescent lights and computer screens, the fiberglass, and broken windows turning to broken hearts—and those hearts are heard beating less and less, becoming fewer and fewer—burdened by their having to support collapsing lungs and silenced tongues covered in chemical compounds of asbestos and fingers. Athletic children with asthma just can’t stand the strain of baseball anymore. A formerly happy teenaged girl is now horrified by the smell of the perfume her grandmother gave her at her sweet sixteen. She is green and vomiting from tiny molecules. She lay sick in her bed for days on end. Our pastor can’t speak as vigorously as he used to. He has to leave little pregnant pauses where his fire used to be. The blue collars in town are a little grayish- blue now and the woman next door may have Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

And we want to run away, but some of us don’t have any breath left to run, to scream! I remember they said it was safe, “Go shopping...” and whatnot.” Breathe the air...." We asked for masks but they never came. My daughter is getting sick of her school because she is sick of hearing stories of people being sick. The neighborhood doesn’t feel right and we want to. We want the doctors to have answers to our cancers and failing lungs and ash filled throats as many of us wait to join our bothers and sisters in that ash. We are tired of government assurance. We need insurance to pay bills for the right pills to ease our sorrows. Faith just isn’t enough anymore. Why do we feel this way? Most of us weren’t even there that day! They said it was safe and most of us knew better, but we trusted them. We don’t want the terrorists to win but they are! And here we are living here to die, dying here to live with the aftermath as it keeps calling us everyday.

Author's note: This piece was written as my response to health problems arisen out of the aftermath of the events of 9-11; however,  today some hope and help has come about through both government intervention and legal action through the years and also now has given way to an irrepressible and stirring memorial at its site.