Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s no particular virtue in doing things the way they always have been done.” – Rudolph Flesch, educational reformer, (1911 – 1986) The modern world’s tech-giddy control and facilitation makes us stupid. Awareness atrophies. Dumb gets dumber. Lists are everywhere — the five things you need to […]

You can hope the value of a stock will rise, but when you invest money in that stock, your hope becomes faith. Did you make a foolish commitment? Time will tell. We believe the sun will rise because we’ve seen it rise day after day. It is a repeatable observation. We believe what we have […]

When you see too much, the magic is gone. Compare this video to the one on the previous page.

Captain Hook has Tinkerbell trapped in a matchbox. Peter is going to save her. The magic of frameline magnetism – the attraction of the imagination to fill in what’s missing – is created by what you leave outside the framelines. It’s true in painting, illustration, photography and videography. And it’s true in writing.

“Columbus’s real achievement was managing to cross the ocean successfully in both directions. Though an accomplished enough mariner, he was not terribly good at a great deal else, especially geography, the skill that would seem most vital in an explorer. It would be hard to name any figure in history who has achieved more lasting […]

 

I can’t be certain, but I think this passage from Bryson might have had something to do with the wizard’s rant last week about how education is too often “a deepening of the status quo.” James Lind clearly discovered the cure for scurvy, but refused to accept it, clinging instead to the traditional wisdom of […]

It was quite busy. In the front entrance, two friendly ladies were seated at a table handing out free visitor’s packs – big, bright yellow plastic bags – and these were accepted with expressions of gratitude and rapture by everyone who passed. ‘Care for a visitors’ pack, sir?’ called one of the ladies to me. […]

Happy New Year! Do you remember this Christmas card the wizard and I made for you on December 15th? Well, the original painting was expected to bring $30,000 to $40,000 at auction. But they were wrong. It brought $95,000 plus a 25% buyer’s premium, which means that someone wanted it enought to fling $118,750 at it. […]

Go ahead and start the MP3 before you continue reading. Go to the Kickstarter page by clicking any of the images of musicians below. FUN FACT: The brief noise you hear at the opening of the song and again at 3:20 isn’t brushes on symbols. It’s a rattlesnake. A real one. 35 seconds in, listen […]

If you’ve studied Da Vinci and The 40 Answers with Mark Fox at Wizard Academy, you know that TRIZ Principle 5 is “Merging.” Now before you click ahead to the next page, you need to listen to the first 60 seconds of this song, a gigantic hit by Neil Young.

And now let’s look in another directon at a spot that’s 13 billion years away, traveling at the speed of light.

Douglas Arthur Teed was born in 1863, the first year of the Civil War, and he died in 1929, the year the stock market spanked our financial bottom. He painted this in 1926. I like it. It’s quiet in here. The color palette of red, green, blue and yellow in hazy tones makes this vision of pottery a […]

Doubt. What is it? And where does it come from? Methinks Doubt sometimes wears the hat of weariness as it wanders in from the land of Too-Much-to-do-and-Too-Little-Time. Other times Doubt wears the hat of wisdom as it taps you on the shoulder like an angel that would whisper in your ear. But when Doubt is […]

This is a 20-minute speech and worth every second of it. Give it just 2 minutes – like I did – and I’ll bet you stick with it all the way to the end like I did. Neil Gaiman is an extremely successful author.  I’ll see you next week.  – Indy

Three Wise Men, Five Not So Wise, Two Monkeys and One Beagle. Pavel Filonov (1914) The original painting hangs in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Wizzo and I made this for you from a detail within a famous 1950 oil painting by George Hinke called “The Day After Christmas.” The original painting is going to be auctioned on December 19th. The opening bid is $30,000. Take a look. MYSTERY: Can a song be piercingly beautiful and utterly terrifying in the same […]

I wonder if there has ever been another Spanish writer who could compress into so few words the agony of life, as when in Blood Wedding the bridegroom’s mother confesses: ‘Always in my breast there’s a shriek standing tiptoe that I have to fight back and keep hidden under my shawls.’“ – James Michener, speaking […]

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else. – Gloria Steinem

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” – Thomas Mann   “There is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.” – H.L. Mencken   “There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” – Somerset Maugham

I like myself better when I’m writing regularly. – Willie Nelson

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. – Somerset Maugham

There is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident. – H.L. Mencken

Don’t wait. Writers are the only artists I know who expect to get somewhere by waiting. Writing is what teaches you. Writing is what leads to inspiration. Writing is what generates ideas. Nothing else-and nothing less. – Daniel Quinn

Easy reading is damned hard writing.” – Nigel Hawthorne   “I like myself better when I’m writing regularly.” – Willie Nelson   “Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Writing is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public. […]

Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood. – Friedrich Nietzsche

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. – Mark Twain

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe. – Gustave Flaubert

Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures […]

What I had to face, the very bitter lesson that everyone who wants to write has got to learn, was that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript one hopes to publish. – Thomas Wolfe

The trouble with poetry ‘is that it encourages the writing of more poetry. …And along with that, the longing to steal, to break into the poems of others with a flashlight and a ski mask. And what an unmerry band of thieves we are, cut-purses, common shoplifters, I thought to myself as a cold wave […]

No matter what brings someone into a poetry workshop class, any kind of writing that they do thereafter is going to be improved by the discipline in poetry and the price that poetry exacts from the poet and the increase in his word-sense and his intuition for verbally-dramatic situations and the rest of the things […]

It is as though the words were not only indelible but that they spread out like dye in water and color everything around them. A strange and mystic business, writing. – John Steinbeck, Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters

Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; flashes of wit pop up like sharpshooters; forms and […]

The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe.” – David Hare   “I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh   “One day I started writing, not knowing that I had […]

I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living. – Anne Morrow Lindbergh The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe. – David Hare

The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe. – David Hare

I feel almost a blood relationship with all the artists in all the mediums, for I find that we face the same problems but solve them in our own ways. When young people in my writing classes, for example, ask what subjects they should study to become writers, I surprise them by replying: ‘Ceramics and […]

Don’t read not so that you might contradict and argue. And don’t believe everything you read. And don’t read just to have something to talk about. You should read so that you might weigh and consider. Reading makes a full man; conferring with others makes a ready man; and writing makes an exact man. If […]

Write Simply. I took a two-day class in business writing that taught me how to write direct sentences and to avoid extra words. Simplicity makes ideas powerful. Want examples? Read anything by Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett.” – Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert

Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups…. So I ask, in my writing, What is real? Because unceasingly we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not […]

Those who read, those who tell us what they read, Those who noisily turn the pages of their books, Those who have power over red and black ink, and over pictures, Those are the ones who lead us, guide us, show us the way.” – Aztec Codex from 1524, Vatican Archives

When Bobby Hebb toured with The Beatles in 1966 his song “Sunny” was, at the time of the tour, ranked higher than any Beatles song then on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It’s one of the great feel-good songs of all time.

A Nocturnal Village Scene on the Oude Delft, with Numerous Figures Gathered Around a Burning Tar-Barrel, painted by Egbert Lievensz van der Poel (1621-1664). I’m hiding under the table to avoid the falling ash but you just can’t get away from the stink. Whose idea was it to burn tar? Sheesh. Oude means “old” and Delft originally meant […]

Baldomero Romero Ressendi (1922 – 1977) About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.” – Rita Mae Brown   MYSTERY: Can a song be piercingly beautiful […]

About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.” – Rita Mae Brown   Can a song be piercingly beautiful and utterly terrifying in the same moment? […]

Last week I mentioned to you that the wizard and the Princess and Brittington and Rex and me went to lunch at Cafe Malta – one of the little bistros hidden in Austin exclusively for the locals – and had an amazing meal with 2 bottles of obscure wine. This is the second bottle. It […]

Okay, here’s the deal: The Wizard and the Princess and I took Brittington and Rex to Cafe Malta on Friday. This is the first of two different bottles of obscure wine that were ordered. (Cafe Malta is a VERY sophisticated, quietly hidden little Mediterranean bistro in South Austin that serves extremely very good things; appetizer things, […]

It’s as if Shakespeare had met Ernest Hemingway. Ernie was all those things.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a game based on the “six degrees of separation” concept, which posits that any two people on Earth are six or fewer acquaintance links apart. The game challenges teams of movie buffs to connect an arbitrary actor to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links […]

I want you to come to Wizard Academy to experience 2 principles of TRIZ intersecting with Third Gravitating Bodies in a massive experiment. We’re going to have an epic concert with you in the middle. There will also be a 1-hour WEBINAR on Third Gravitating Bodies. How to Become One of Indy’s Angels You’re going to buy a concert ticket OR webinar access […]

“In every dissenting opinion lies an assumption of superior wisdom.” – Ambrose Bierce

The Seven Ages of Man from As You Like It A contemporary of Sir Francis Bacon, these words were written by William Shakespeare All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven […]

What woke me up and set me afire was the realization that if I died at that moment, my tombstone would read, ‘He Had Potential.’” – Steve Sorenson, a Wizard of Ads partner

David isn’t the only person to ponder the nature of man. In his Pensées, Blaise Pascal deftly observes, What a Chimera* is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, and imbecile norm of the earth; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory […]

This is another shed load of data. It was favorite reading spot of H.P. Lovecraft and his greatest source of inspiration, Edgar Allen Poe. It is located in Providence, Rhode Island. The photo is recent. “…our old Athenaeum, where Poe spent many an hour, and wrote his name at the bottom of one of his unsigned poems […]

You’ll be happy to know that Princess Pennie was able to give Husni everything she needed.

In my little town I grew up believing God keeps his eye on us all, And He used to lean upon me As I pledged allegiance to the wall. Lord, I recall My little town. Coming home after school Flying my bike past the gates Of the factories. My mom doing the laundry, Hanging our […]

“It is more shameful to distrust one’s friends than to be deceived by them.” – Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680)

Quixote looked at a windmill and saw a giant to be defeated and thus an adventure begins. Ferdinand Cheval tripped on a stone and saw a glorious palace. What do you see that others do not? What is your ridiculous dream? On what will you spend your life? If you’re willing to share your answers to those 3 questions, send them to […]

I freely admit I bought it for the label. “The little wine of April” or “Little April Wine” is a blend and I usually avoid blends because, well, they’re blends. But the packager of this wine is to be applauded because the label and the name fit the flavor perfectly. Musically, the wine tastes like this:

Wise-ards – Wise Men – followed a star until, beneath it, they found the source of the light. This is the Christmas Story and my favorite painting from the wizard’s collection of Wise Men. It is currently en route to Austin.

    Hmmm. Is that what I think it is?

You gotta love this weasel. Seriously, you go, boy! Indy paintings by Thomas Quinn The cognoscenti know that storytelling is greatly enhanced by the use of Portals, Frame Shifting, Perspective Change and Alternate Dimensions. This homage to Ferdinand Cheval has it all. It is the work of Bernard Pras of Paris.

The wizard spoke in the PS of today’s Monday Morning Memo about the Pendulum of society and how we swing from one extreme to the other overy 40 years. We’ve been quoting G.K. Chesterton a lot today. Here’s what the G.K. had to say about the swing of the pendulum in 1910, 104 years ago. The […]

“What life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business.” – G.K. Chesterton, “Christmas,” All Things Considered Yours Truly, Indiana Beagle, did get himself some most excellent turkey last Thursday as he discussed the meaning of Christmas with Norman […]

This is my quest: to follow that star No matter how hopeless No matter how far. To fight for the right Without question or pause, To be willing to march Into hell for a heavenly cause. And I know if I’ll only be true To this glorious quest That my heart will lie peaceful and […]

“The more we are proud that the Bethlehem story is plain enough to be understood by the shepherds, and almost by the sheep, the more do we let ourselves go, in dark and gorgeous imaginative frescoes or pageants about the mystery and majesty of the Three Magian Kings.” – G.K. Chesterton, Christendom in Dublin, Ch.3 […]

“The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.” – G.K. Chesterton, “On Christmas,” Generally Speaking

“If a man called Christmas Day a mere hypocritical excuse for drunkeness and gluttony, that would be false, but it would have a fact hidden in it somewhere. But when Bernard Shaw says that Christmas Day is only a conspiracy kept up by Poulterers and wine merchants from strictly business motives, then he says something […]

This rarely happens. Tasting this Texas Tempranillo for the first time, I heard two songs. The common denominators are (1.) an uncomplicated melody with (2.) a rich masculine voice beneath, and (3.) a highflying musicality above. The highflying musicality in this first song begins immediately and continues as a feminine voice when the male starts singing. The high-flying musicality in […]

I’m getting a little worried about the BritWhit. Ever since he and the wizard started working on their upcoming presentation of Rapid Distraction, Theoretical Physics Applied to Hit Songs, he’s been a bit loopy. The wizard told me this would probably happen and not to worry about it. He said the Whitmeister would recover after the […]

Seal decided to sample the backup singers from Steve Miller’s original song, a worthy nod, especially since that 1976 album was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA. Uh-huh, that’s right, uh-huh. Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future. Word.

This epic image is an original 1947 street poster that never got pasted onto a building in Spain. It’s probably the only one like it in the world. Although Manolete was to be the headline attraction at this event, he did not appear. Four days earlier is when the bull survived, and Manolete did not. Fortunately, everyone was gazing out […]

Regarded as the greatest bullfighter in the history of that sport, Manuel Laureano Rodriguez Sanchez was known as “Manolete”. Elegant and elusive, Manolete was able to stand very still while passing the bull close to his body. He would remain in that one spot, linking four or five consecutive passes together without ever stepping aside. Then […]