Home Again...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Back at the Kompound again, after a fantastic week in Kauai. The only bad thing about the trip was the crying babies on the plane (both ways, natch) and that wasn’t even that bad, honestly.
Since I didn’t take a laptop, and we didn’t actually do very much besides lay on the beach and stuff food in our face-holes, I had a lot of time to just soak up ambience. This turned out to be remarkably refreshing, creatively-speaking. I haven’t taken a vacation like this before, the sole purpose of which was to relax, so I didn’t really have a good idea of how it would affect my general workaday experience. I think the fact that I spent most of the plane ride home thinking about user interfaces and music and the interaction thereof, via some new ideas I had while laying in the sun speaks to the generally effective nature of vacationing.
I’ve developed–or more to the point Elle has developed–methods for managing my creativity over the years. She knows far better than I when I’m in a slump, and she knows what to get me to do to un-slump things. But I have to admit that I’ve never really done a cold reboot like this before, and I’m somewhat amazed at the floodgates opening like this. Do you find that taking some serious Time Away (no work, no creative endeavors, actual vacation time) does this for you as well? I’d like to think this is a tool I can use to stoke the engines repeatedly in the future.
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I'm seriously considering weekends away once a quarter or so. Just pick a direction and find a location a few hours from the house. Time away from the everyday noise has been very therapeutic for me.
Figuring out a way to do this with like-minded souls would be interesting. No one can bring real work; we're all only allowed to speculate on new projects.
welcome back. glad you had a good trip. sounds awesome. nice pics on twitter too.
and yes.. time away doing nothing music related is always helpful to me.. changing environments.. long bike rides.. help a lot as well.. and those are things i can do w/o having to go on vacation. cycling has been great for blowing off the cobwebs in a regular way.. and also is meditative.. being in the moment.. since you snowboard or have done so.. it's like that.. nothing to think about except "oh shit that lady is in my way.. can't she see me.. oh, i should carve left here.. look at the sky.. wow.." etc..
Take advantage of your mental state, that Aloha only lasts a month or so.
Cycling doesn't do it for me at all. I don't really understand the fascination some people have for biking, in the same way I don't really understand the fascination some people have for guns. Both are just tools, like hammers or a Sawz-All, a means to an end, for me. (In the former case, getting from A to B in an expeditious fashion, and in the latter, compensating for a small dick or living out your post-apocalyptic "kill all the brown people" fantasies or something. Although your average pistol makes a pretty good hammer, it should be noted.)
I take your point with the snowboarding, anyhow. Never really thought about it like that, but I believe you're absolutely right. A couple times while I was snorkeling this week, I got in situations where I was walking, or swimming as the case may be, a very fine line between "wow, cool" and "oh, shit, I think I might die." That sort of thing puts you very much in the Here, the Now, the Holy Fucking Tide In The Affairs Of Man, etc.
Quite refreshing, at any rate. I can't say whether it is the inherent danger or the interim relaxation, but I generally take both in measured doses, and they run in parallel, so I guess it's the mix that works for me.
-CR
@synthetic: I think, by any measure one would care to use, I am a fairly productive person. I don't really see any particular need to take advantage of my current mindset, except to enjoy its existence.
It goes back to the age old point: I live to work instead of working to live.
-CR
Most definitely. The only thing is to have the discipline to do it on a regular basis and not just once in a blue moon, and not worrying about just abandoning things for a while. Which I believe is very hard for workaholics. I also don't think the effect is much diminished if you don't travel that far, or even for that long, with the key element being different surroundings and no work/pressure, at all. Furthermore, I think not doing this regularly enough could cost some in terms of total output, and the quality thereof, whether it be collections of music or other creative endeavors.
I find bike riding clears the mind, in that I am not worried about "what is the best combination of parameters for this plugin" "or "allpass allpass allpass" so much as "oh shit, I'm about to die." Seattle is nothing but rain, crazy drivers and hills, so going for a longer ride makes it impossible for my mind to travel along the well-worn ruts it has created. After a few days of hard bike riding, my mind is effectively reset, and new ideas have room to emerge.
IIRC, Chris was a bike messenger in NYC, so the "fear of death" part of his brain that is associated with bike riding might have been permanently burned out. It sounds like "fear of drowning" or "fear of hurtling into trees or off cliff while going downhill very fast in snow" still works to reset his brain.
Yeah, I think you're right about that, Sean. A couple years as a NYC bike messenger (5 in all) will pretty much cure anyone of being impressed by bicycling. At all. Ever. Want to love SUVs? Spend a winter slogging model portfolios around TriBeCa in the freezing slush. An SUV begins to seem like a pretty fucking good idea.
It will, however, give one an intense and only moderately irrational desire to clothesline hipsters on fixies.
-CR
I'm with boobs.
After a 10 year courier career in Boston I can understand why the bicycle time has little appeal for you CR. Personally I enjoy it for the prolonged exertion and meditative like state it produces. Runners high and whatnot. Weather isn't too much a concern as I like buying gear and with bicycles that is just as endless as studio equipment or software. Also being in great shape is awesome.
I'm glad you have found your version of bike time! We will all benefit from it creatively for certain. Thanks in advance!
Fixies, hipsters, clotheslines, correct.
Irrational, not really.
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