A Bowl of Creativity

Time to write about creative stuff again.  As I was firing up the computer to do this I remembered that I took a creative writing class as UC Riverside during my ill fated attempt at college.  It was probably the best class I took during my one year stint next to the physics class.  Loved that one!

Anyway, I remember that in the search for something to write about I came to rest on doing a fleshed out story built around Rush's Red Barchetta.  It was great fun.  Here's a story about a young man that gets to drive an amazing car in a dystopian future where gas powered cars have been outlawed.  Of course he almost gets caught by the cops in their air cars.  Only skill and daring keep him from getting caught.  Man, I love that song.

The story was well received by the class.  A few fellow students even figured out the provenance of it.  And now here I sit without a Red Barchetta to inspire me for today's installment.  Which is only four days late.  So I guess I'll just try to clear my mind and see what floats up...

A theme has emerged in my life lately around the idea of grounding.  Trying to find a solid foundation from which to move through my days and nights from a place of centered peace.

I have found an aid to this end.  It's a bowl.

Yep, a Tibetan singing bowl.  A huge deep Tibetan singing bowl.  I found it on the interwebs.  There are several sellers that put audio clips of them up for potential customers to listen to.  I have always been interested in singing bowls and my girlfriend even bought me one as a gift last year.  Somehow I got interested in them more deeply and found a particular bowl that just really grabbed me.

Here it is:

The guitar is there for scale.  It's BIG!  It has an amazingly powerful and profoundly deep complex sound.  It can be struck with a padded mallet or rubbed around the edge with a large felt covered stick.  Struck, it has more upper harmonic content than if it's played with the stick.  The low bass frequencies that come off it are amazing.  And one definitely has to calm down and open up to really perceive all the complex lowness.

The effects are almost instantly calming for me.  And others seem to respond the same.  I made a clip and put it on sound cloud.  It sucked.  The lows didn't come through at all.  I used the little Marantz recorder and I don't think it goes very low.  I'll have to try again with a real mic and ProTools.  I'll be sure to mention it here when I do.

In the mean time, I will link to the seller - Bodhisattva.  Their clips are very well done.  Obviously.  They got me to buy a bowl.  A BOWL!

What does this have to do with Creativity?  Once again, I will put forth the idea that creative solutions are not readily found when one is stressed out and not grounded or at peace.  So this bowl, by virtue of it's meditational and calming effects, will help me be more creative.

See.  It's already working - it helped me make a post on my blog...

:-)