Collaboration

Quote for Today: Tina Fey

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The first rule of improvisation is AGREE. Always agree and SAY YES. When you’re improvising, this means you are required to agree with whatever your partner has created. So if we’re improvising and I say, ‘Freeze, I have a gun,’ and you say, ‘That’s not a gun. It’s your finger. You’re pointing your finger at me,’ our improvised scene has ground to a halt. But if I say, ‘Freeze, I have a gun!’ and you say, ‘The gun I gave you for Christmas! You bastard!’ then we have started a scene because we have AGREED that my finger is in fact a Christmas gun.
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

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Quote for Today: Ethan Hawke

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If you can channel the best part of you that is bigger than yourself, where it’s not about your ego and not about getting ahead, then you can have fun and you aren’t jealous of others. You see other people’s talent as another branch of your own. You can keep it rooted in joy. Life is long and there are plenty of opportunities to make mistakes. The point of it all is to learn.

―Ethan Hawke

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Quote for Today: Kemi Sogunle

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Take a look at the plants. They come together and thrive peacefully in the garden or park. They lean on each other without trying to outdo one another. They serve as a sign that we can see beyond our differences and embrace each other in love while allowing our uniqueness to add color to our world. If plants can live in harmony and show their beauty to the world, we as humans can do much more.
―Kemi Sogunle

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Quote for Today: Cornel West

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The interplay of individuality and unity is not one of uniformity and unanimity imposed from above but rather of conflict among diverse groupings that reach a dynamic consensus subject to questioning and criticism. As with a soloist in a jazz quartet, quintet or band, individuality is promoted in order to sustain and increase the creative tension with the group–a tension that yields higher levels of performance to achieve the aim of the collective project.
―Cornel West, Race Matters 

Image: Unity in Diversity © Fady Habib with CCLicense

Quote for Today: Wynton Marsalis

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Today you go into make a modern recording with all this technology. The bass plays first, then the drums come in later, then they track the trumpet and the singer comes in and they ship the tape somewhere. Well, none of the musicians have played together. You can’t play jazz music that way. In order for you to play jazz, you’ve got to listen to them. The music forces you at all times to address what other people are thinking and for you to interact with them with empathy and to deal with the process of working things out. And that’s how our music really could teach what the meaning of American democracy is.

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Most Popular Original Works of 2015

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Synkroniciti is all about making things. These ten posts feature the most viewed pieces of art that were produced by synkroniciti in 2015. Click on the title to view the post.

2015 featured our first online collaboration, Trash Talking, coupling my poetry  with intriguing photographs by Michael Bogdanffy-Kriegh. Photography and poetry were big this year. My serialized novel, Beloved’s Journey, which began with a bit of a following, had to go on hiatus as my schedule and circumstances didn’t allow it to move forward. Sorry for all the delays; I have plans to revive it in 2016.

Let’s look at the pieces that moved you!

10. Purple to Gold Manipulations: Sunrise over Lake Scott, Set 6img_3484

9. Lake Scott Sunrise, Set 1: Cloudy Dawn Over Lake Scott

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8. Trash Talking: Letters From Discarded Paper, Second Set

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7. Mysteries, First Set: Views of Seminary Hall, Northeastern State University

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6. Mysteries, Second Set: Views of the Philbrook Villa

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5. Beloved’s Journey: Chapter 2, Sable and Veracity

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4. The Tragedy of Roots: To a Dancer 

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3. Trash Talking: Letters From Discarded Paper, Introduction and First Set

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2. The Journey Within: Expectation

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1.The Importance of Creative Darkness: Exposed Roots

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Thank you for looking and experiencing our work! Synkroniciti is very grateful.

On Unlocking Creativity, Ideas as Viruses: Robin Young Interviews Elizabeth Gilbert

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Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert

The way that I’ve always thought about creativity is that ideas are these disembodied life forms, they don’t have a form but they have a will, and all they want is to be made manifest and they circle the world looking for human collaborators to work with.

I’m feeling poorly today due to Celiac Disease and my brain fog is keeping me from stringing ideas together. Instead, I’d like to share this interview by Robin Young with Elizabeth Gilbert about creativity, inspiration and a kiss shared with Ann Patchett. It’s magical! Click the link below and look for the audio file at the top of the article.

On Unlocking Creativity, Ideas as Viruses

We live in a society that fetishizes passion, that talks a lot about vocation. These are very intimidating ideas that, I think, leave people out and I think if you can just sort of forget about passion and forget about vocation and focus on the tiny friendly impulse of curiosity which is within all of us, that is the way.