MUSE FOOD

Writings to inspire your creativity and the hustle behind it

Muse Food: Bio

Stories in Words

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The original title of the famous story. But why doesn’t this title suck me in like the cleanly stated Alice in Wonderland? It’s more concise, and that’s a nice touch... but that’s not the bacon in my blt. The latter title implies we need to start using our imagination right now. It’s clever in how it does this, and how much else it does with so few words. That's the bacon.

Alice in…cue pondering is a story about Alice and she’s somewhere... or maybe Alice is in trouble. The title leans forward a bit, and the most interesting word in it releases the suspense. Wonderland. I prefer this to the ride that the previous title takes me on; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I know Alice is the character and that she’s having an adventure... and it’s in a place called Wonderland, so basically a place for Adventures. My imagination stays dormant when reading it.

There’s another reason the shorter title works so well. There’s a dichotomy in the title that stares you in the face. The plainly named Alice... in the mysterious Wonderland. The two names stand out like the title of a boxing fight. That the word between them is only 2 letters is just gravy, and I'd wager that's why a boxing fight usually uses a shortened 'vs' as opposed to spelling it out. It makes the contrast between the nouns even more glaring. With the story of Alice in Wonderland, that contrast is what we are really there for in the first place, so why not highlight it as much as possible? Alice’s relatability will be what connects us to the mysterious world of Wonderland, and we basically know that just from reading a 3 word title.

This is a common theme across all mediums of art. Something relatable tied to something new. Alice in Wonderland is about as exaggerated an example of this as you will ever see, which makes me think that’s part of the reason it’s stayed well-known for so long. It helps to have something we can grab onto before the ride picks up speed. When there’s an aspect of a story we can tie back to our own life, it helps us draw an unbroken line to the new ideas in front of us. Somehow the stuff we can’t relate to gains a way to influence us. My favorite art usually gives me this feeling. I'm drawn towards it right away, but I get the sense that I’m going down a deeper rabbit hole than I realize. I think I’m looking at the familiar, but then I realize I’m in a new place.

-The Electric Canvas

Muse Food: Text

Waves

Hearing an artist talk about their creative process can be interesting regardless of whether or not you like their work. Even in different mediums and styles it can be revealing of what happens under the hood to make things tick. There's one particular concept that seems to pop up frequently. An image came to me… An hour later it was just done… I kinda spaced out... I don’t think I could do it again. It’s a feeling with varying ways to express it, but it’s the one where everything just works.

In my own words this describes the moment you get a download. It comes from the unconscious mind that you aren’t granted free access to. The word download is a bit mechanical for such a concept, but I like it because it feels as though what you received was already done. As if someone more talented than you wrote it, dropped it off, and said “you’re welcome” before disappearing. Often people refer to this kind of effortless creation as being in the flow-state, which frequently goes hand in hand with these moments. However, the flow-state on its own misses that it doesn't feel as though you created what just came out. Every choice was somehow obvious, and luck shadows pride. A download doesn’t care what you just discovered that’s been rocking your world lately. It’s just there. It comes from a different place. Usually when you go back the next day after a moment like this, it holds up. Often you can spot the exact moment where your brain turned back on and you weren’t funneling ideas anymore.

Creative outputs usually have the opposite flavor. You are familiar with the details because they all took you a while. So if you’re lucky enough to catch a wave don’t hop off too early. What hopping off early looks like is turning on your critical mind or letting it be the loudest voice in your head. Download incomplete. Here’s your ticket out of the flow state and back to neutral waters most of us swim in.

You need to be a little lucky, and you need to be present to receive it. Spend your energy being present so you can have these moments. Don’t spend your energy worrying about how your art comes out. Some of your best creations will barely feel like they came from you.

-The Electric Canvas

Muse Food: Text

Something New

If I had a dollar every time I thought an idea for a song needed another part, then realized the next morning on a relisten that it was unnecessary... I’d be on my way to tossing saffron in my next smoothie. Our brains always seek new stimulation. They are like toddlers yelling ‘show me something new’ after they get bored. If you succumb to this your art will suffer for it. When there are other people around it's like there's a safety net against this; the yelling toddler needs to convince everyone. When you're working alone, you need to have a good idea of what your perspective brings to the process, and how and when to use it. It is your most valuable tool against going in circles.

Consider showing anything creative to a person who doesn't have the same creative interest as you. Somehow, they can usually offer good advice on something they understand much less about. It’s brand new to them, and that alone can outweigh all your experience. If perspective weren't important that would not be the case. It would also not be the case that it's beneficial to go back in the morning after some rest. You haven’t gotten more experience while sleeping. Yet after a break (amplified with sleep) the right decisions seem much more obvious. Sometimes so obvious it’s strange you missed it before. This is something fascinating about being creative. 10 minutes of clarity can be more beneficial than 8 hours with a stale perspective. In all crafts it’s a battle of hours, but time works differently in art.

I bet plenty of people have figured out how to get around this, but not me. I instead choose to be aware of it and work it into the process. On the set of making a song, writing and performing get their own dresser room. They think they're hot shit and they have no interest in interacting with anyone else on the set. Meanwhile the editing trailer does most of the hard work. Keeping them separated is very important because editing and performing are not friends, and it’s best that way. Performing is like standing on a balance beam where you are pushing yourself to do something outside of your comfort zone, but not pushing so far that your expectations exceed your abilities and you fall off. This kind of balance is wrecked by trying to simultaneously edit what you’re doing or by thinking at all. Performing is an extraction of ideas, ripe for editing later when you’re in a different headspace.

When perspective and experience are both on your side, that's when you have the most potential. Because of this the very first response you have to an idea is valuable. Especially if you weren’t really thinking when you made it. Your normal perspective gets to hear it for the first time, and your response here is more trustworthy than any, so try not to forget it. Recalling that feeling will be useful in carrying you through all the hours where you aren’t sure due to overexposure. When you have your first thought don’t let it away. Soon it will leave, and then you'll be changed.

-The Electric Canvas

Muse Food: Text

Thoughts Brewing

I have a cup of tea almost every day, and I'm still kind of a rookie. There’s countless varieties, each cultivator has their own style and craftsmanship, each region has its own climate and soil, and each brew method brings out a different profile. It’s humbling knowing I will always have something new to learn.

There are rewards for spending ample time with a craft like this. You become the minority that notices the details. In the craft of making tea, 5,000ish years have sculpted some seriously deep details. This kind of depth changes the way you approach something. It becomes open ended. Less about mastering and more about discovering. You aren’t so much starting a voyage to complete and then ponder upon, you’re learning a new language that lets you understand the creators before you. Like many great crafts, it is as deep as your capacity to understand it. When you start learning about anything, you start a journey that's uniquely yours. You begin scraping away the unknown in much the same way as those before you, but not exactly the same. Perhaps a favorite will be discovered; An oolong discovered from a lucky fermentation mistake which made it milky and sweet. Maybe you make an incorrect assumption; Duck shit tea doesn’t actually taste bad, the locals just want to keep it away from uninformed tourists. Realizations will happen that are so specific you think for a second no one has had them yet. Which isn’t true, of course. But there's a sense of community and humility when you realize that. Discovering these new details is a cumulative process. As your understanding grows you are able to recognize new details, and they’re more meaningful because of the time spent observing the stepping stones before them. Your appreciation intensifies. When you become aware of the details, you also become aware when someone has taken the time to give attention to all of them. Once you arrive there, or anywhere close to it, you know you’ve found your cup of tea.

-The Electric Canvas

Muse Food: Text

Candy and nourishment

How to make decisions gets a lot of well deserved attention.

What gets a lot less is why we make them in the first place. There’s a pretty simple dichotomy between the two sides that guide our decisions, and it particularly applies to those decisions we make that directly affect ourselves and not others. There are a number of ways to describe each side; each expressing the same idea, and having its own array of vocabulary behind it. Short term and long term. Comfort and growth. Id and Ego. Candy and nourishment.

The candy side is fun, easy, relaxing, and gets worse over time. The nourishment side is challenging, rewarding, stimulating, and gets better over time. They are both at our disposal, and as is often the case… balance is key. I don’t think I’m alone in saying it’s hard to do this. There’s piles of candy everywhere, waiting to steal our precious hours. And often they aren’t waiting idly, they are dynamic and becoming stronger and more tuned to our weaknesses. Depending on how you’re wired, being aware of why you make a decision could be a necessary step in getting to a better balance. And for anyone, if you don’t understand what’s happening, it’s harder to form a clear path to changing it.

Another way to think of the nourishment side is that it’s the side that changes. It’s your long term self. It’s the conscious part of you that changes in response to what you learn and how you feel. One of the problems with letting the short term side of your mind drive is that it never does this. It always makes the same decisions regardless of how they affect you over time. It wants a tasty meal regardless of nutrition every single time. These kinds of decisions and the resulting action are usually only satisfying for one moment; the one we’re living in right then and there. Actions that support the long term self are satisfying for every other moment forward. It’s a move towards happiness instead of satisfaction. It’s a $5 bond instead of a $1 bill.

Everyone has time where their balance is off. When this was the case for me I was totally unaware of it. I was stuck in the mental equivalent of sitting down and eating candy, and wondering why I wasn’t feeling good. When this kind of decision making becomes habitual, the difficulty and importance of avoiding it are both magnified. It’s a bummer that it works this way, since I imagine everyone spends time binded by this hurdle . But you can take comfort in knowing it’s not a battle to give up indulgence entirely. Candy should be about enjoying life, but it’s easy to fall into a place where life is about enjoying candy. If you’ve ever lived off a barrage of short term satisfactions you already know it doesn’t work. Run. When your brain fights back tell it to shut the fuck up because your soul needs a vegetable. If you’ve ever tried living without them for a while, you know that one indulgence can be equally as satisfying as all the times you missed.

If this seems interesting but without direction, then a dopamine detox may be a place to start. If you make short term decisions for too long, then your brain is in control of your self, and not the other way around. This won’t be a fun detox, but hopefully at the end you will look at something that used to tempt you into wasting your time, and wonder why it suddenly looks so much less appealing than just a few hours or days before. A little goes a long way. And a lot will be even better if you can stomach it.

I can’t say I’ve ever once had a conversation about this topic. The decision to choose short term or long term, comfort or growth, candy or nourishment, seems to often be left to chance, to fall where it may. But that’s life's job, and it does it without asking. Our job is to add intention to our decisions. When we remove all the aspects of our life we don’t have control over, what’s left is our decisions. Finding a balance is worth the effort.

-The Electric Canvas

Muse Food: Text

The Creative Circuit

All she wants is to reach ground. She is full of resolve, and she is very persistent. She favors the path of least resistance, but will traverse any obstacle she's capable of. She doesn't consider the outcome of reaching her goal, how it will affect her peers, or what the air will smell like on the other side. She is wild and unpredictable. She is cool and collected.

Hardworking, mysterious, full of potential. The electron is what makes modern music possible. Each song, a manufactured obstacle course for the electron to complete. With every fruitful accident and conscious revision laying the framework of her journey. If the electron completes this journey she is rewarded for it. Ground is finally close. The last obstacle in her way?.. A coil of wire affixed to a speaker cone. As the electron reaches her desired state so does the artist. The speaker vibrates and a song plays for the first time. It bounces around the room, then fades away. The song may never resonate again, and yet the artist is full of resolve. They don't consider the outcome of reaching their goals, how it will affect their peers, or what the air will smell like on the other side. They traverse their obstacles in praise or silence, if only to say, because anything is better than an empty canvas.

-The Electric Canvas

Muse Food: Text