Today is the last day of our private SIMPLICITY event on Cape Cod held for sponsors, faculty, and students. The weather is beautiful, and yesterday was an intense session of creativity ranging from thinking about the oceans of Europa (one of Jupiter's moons), to the complex telecommunication infrastructure issues of BT, to the future of web-enabled devices. I must say that it was better than any TED or any other mind-blowing conference I've been to.
Our day capped off with two wonderful things. We saw the master film director Topper Carew present his recent documentary entitled "The Fine Art of Frying Chicken" about an 87-year old woman named Maurice and her life of cooking, friends, and incredible inner-strength. I was simply blown away with the intense and colorful portraiture of such an amazing woman.
We also experienced the first live performance of one of Noah Vawter's new primitive electronic music performances. He was jamming on a homebrewed musical instrument that was literally built into a VHS cassette tape box. As he began to riff, and howl through some unidentifiable weee and wooo sounds, I saw a young creative man at the height of his game. Simply powerful, with the empowerment of his own artistic vision. I think he helped me to remember how important the element of creativity in one's life really is, and that it is the lifeblood to a deeper existence. All the iPods in the world could not outjam Noah, and you know that Noah was in a world where conventional digital audio could not touch him.
Just before the performance and the movie screening, I had an unforgettable discussion with Topper on the topic of life and creativity. Topper said it succinctly, "My art is my mistress." He said that his wife never had to worry about him cheating on her because of that fact. Not only did I discover beauty in thought on the Cape last night, but I also discovered beauty in life. Today is a brighter day.
Posted by maeda at March 25, 2005 07:03 AM