Alpha Asian

Sometimes people ask me, "How do you find the time to do all the things that you do?" I have a job that's a little more demanding and stressful than the usual 9 to 5. My wife and I have a daughter who's quite a handful at the moment. In my spare time, I run 2 blogs, write for various exercise magazines and websites and I’ve authored a number of books. And I still find time to workout. People have dreams to accomplish something, but very few people accomplish what they dream of doing.  For example, a lot of people want to write a book, but most of these people never write one.  People use the excuse that they don’t have time. This is bullshit.  Everybody has the same 24 hours in a day.  You cannot save time.  You can only spend it.  But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.  You just have to get into a habit of taking action, of taking the first steps. Here are some my mindset tips on what Guy Kawasaki calls the “art of the start.”...

Hey guys, sorry if I'm what I'm writing is really vague but it's kind of hard to think straight after 7 months of averaging about 4 hours of sleep a day. Anyways, here's a short cheesy list that I came up with while relearning the basics with my new art teacher.   1. Everything has its place in the world, relative to other things: No matter how insignificant you feel sometimes, you're a part of this god forsaken planet. You just have to figure out where, and whether or not you'll be happy where you end up. 2. Some things are more important than others. Some things will naturally take up more time, energy and space in the picture that is your life, but just because it takes up so much of your life doesn't necessarily mean that it's something you care much about. If you're not happy with it, try to focus more on that little thing you enjoy and add more detail so that no matter how much space other things take up, you'll especially enjoy that...

I've written here before about art and creative endeavors and this post will follow in the same vein. I believe I'm older than most people here, so my cultural frames of reference are much different. Alex Chilton, an American singer/songwriter guitarist and influential performer, died last Wednesday before his reunited band Big Star could perform tonite at this year's SXSW. He was a child star, having a hit single at the age of 16 with The Box Tops' "The Letter" in the late 60's. Forming Big Star in the early 70's, Chilton exhibited an incredible sense of melody and power pop sensibilities. He had a huge influence on bands like REM, Wilco, The Bangles, and my favorite artist, Paul Westerberg. The theme song to TV's "That 70's Show" was a Chilton and Big Star song. Even though Chilton recorded just three albums with Big Star back in the early 70's. Still, he managed to develop a cult following with poignant and power pop songs l...

In a previous post I commented on how the Internet gives us the power to control our reality. The opportunity is always there, you just have to seize it. If you have the time and money to create the images you want to make, then do it like Jennifer Thym, director and producer of the web series Lumina : She makes a valid point which I've always advocated: find a way to get your movie out there or make one. Screw asking for permission from a studio or asking for validation from a film festival. People have been brainwashed into thinking that qualities movies can only be produced by Hollywood studios or that books should be published by Simon and Schuster or that only newspapers and TV and radio news shows can provide legitimate news stories and opinions. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit! Look at the heaping pile of racist garbage that Hollywood has produced over the years. Look at all the books that espouse the same fucking viewpoints over and over. Look at how journalism has de...

When Belgian filmmaker, Lars Von Trier, began the production of his prized film, Dancer In The Dark , he did something no other filmmaker in history had ever done before. He positioned one-hundred Sony 3CCD cameras at strategic locations on the set of each shoot and then later took that footage to create what he had hoped to be The Perfect Shot for each scene. After the production was in the can, he explained in a later interview that he had failed and that to truly capture the perfect shot he would need several thousand cameras, possibly tens of thousands positioned all over the set in every nook and cranny. This of course was not financially sound for such an experimental project so he moved on to other projects. I remember at the time thinking how ballsy this was of him. With the superstar musician and elusive actress, Björk in the starring role, and a million dollars of other peoples' money to play with, he was still bold enough to experiment in the midst of it all. Surpr...

Here are some more ruminations on the nature of art. I'm sure there will be others who disagree with my viewpoints but I'm throwing this out there for discussion. In our last discussion, we talked about defining art and what role the artist has. My last post was my groundwork and a frame of reference for this one in regards to using an art form as entertainment as opposed to creating a tangible piece of work designed to stir the human soul. Moreover, I wanted to pick up on the train of thought Alpha Asian raised about staying true to one’s work and not worrying so much about popularity or acceptance. All art forms don’t have to achieve a high level of art. It’s great when it does, but these art forms don’t necessarily have to have that purpose. As previously stated, the art forms can be used merely for entertainment and that is fine. Life would be boring if we didn't have some form of entertainment. But even within that purpose of entertainment, you can still attai...

Alpha Asian was nice enough to invite me to be a guest contributor to his blog. After mulling it over, I thought, what the heck? Alpha had some interesting posts on writing and on the integrity of one’s work. I thought I’d delve deeper into the topic and share some of my own thoughts on creativity and art. So, how would you define art? What makes one project art and the other just a project? There are various definitions, but for our sake, let’s keep our focus to the readily accessible things the average person would say is art: visual arts, literature, music. A conventional definition is that art is a reflection of society. Artistic works are supposed to tell us something about our lives, to enhance it with beauty, to make us think. It is an expression of human creativity and imagination, its purpose to bring us into harmony or balance with the world around us. Or, you could take a more cynical approach and define it the way Andy Warhol did when he said, “Art is anything you can ge...

A lot of people say they should write a book or screenplay, but really, who among us ever follows through? Everybody’s got some lofty dreams of getting a book deal or movie deal, but very few of us actually write and write consistently. Take a look at the blogosphere, and you will see countless blogs that have been abandoned. Writing is a lot harder than it looks. I do freelance work for bodybuilding magazines, and I’ve self-published a few books that you can find on Amazon. I only write part-time, however, because I have a full-time job and a personal life. So how do I find the time to write? When it comes down to it, everybody is busy. If you only have a half hour to an hour to write everyday, then that’s all the time you’ve got. The key is to use that time as efficiently as possible. Here are some tips to help you overcome writer’s block and consistently create material: 1) Use a stream of consciousness approach. This is one I learned in high school expository w...