"It's Just Another Day, Nothing in My Way..."
A week ago on Thursday, when I was in Houston, I admit that I wasn't in the best mood. I had expected to do some things on this trip that I wasn't able to do. When I woke up in the hotel, I thought that I wanted to feel like I'd done something that day, but I wasn't sure what. I did a few things, and about halfway through it all, I realized that it was turning into an Artist Date.

If you've read and completed The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, you know what I mean. The point of the book is to complete a set of activities that encourage one's creativity. One of the main components of the routine is the weekly artist date, a time when one goes out alone for a creativity experience, a museum visit or movie or sketching the park or writing in a coffee shop. The point is to relax, find inspiration, and refuel our personal energy. And that's what I did.

I started at The Menil Collection. When I was in undergrad, I spent my last year living just a couple of blocks from this museum, and I walked by it everyday between work at the gallery and home. The museum is known for its collections of Classical and African art as well as surrealism. I hadn't been there in years, and while much of it was rearranged, a lot of the familiar pieces were still there. I love Magritte and have always, always been a huge fan of DiChirico. I felt better wandering around there, and even developed a couple of ideas for future essays (which is when I started thinking of this as an artist's date, because thoughts began to flow).

After that, I went to see The Night Listener. The commercials didn't look that interesting, but then I read a review that actually said what it was about, how it was based on an experience Armistead Maupin had when he "met" an adolescent boy he only talked to on the phone. Then, things became suspicious, and it was difficult to prove the boy existed. The film makes a really eerie story out of it. I don't get why the reviews have been average because Robin Williams is great, and Toni Collette is amazing as always. It has a lot to say about authorship, authenticity, and truth. I think I'll be referencing it in some of my work this coming year.

After lunch at Cafe Express, I decided to go to Borders, get a chai, find a seat, and continue reading Stiff. I'm not sure I'll write more about it later since I'm not sure I'll finish it. It starts out really great. Did you know that there's a facility in Tennessee where they place dead bodies on the ground and just watch them decompose? The point is to study what happens over time so that when bodies are discovered, the time of death can be determined more easily. Later on, though, the book went in directions I didn't find as interesting. Or maybe I was just getting creeped out by all the talk about dead bodies. I've got about a hundred pages left, so I should finish it. But last Thursday, I was in some good stuff and just wanted to read for a while. They have a balcony there that overlooks Kirby and Alabama. It's not scenic, but it was home for a long time, so fun to gaze over for a while.

I ended up on the phone with a friend from college and then Da Man while rain poured down. After talking for a couple of hours, I went to the music section and listened to random CDs, something I love to do. I realized then that I wanted to cap the day off with a CD for the car, something to remind me of the trip. I ended up with Keane's Under the Iron Sea (where you will find the title of this entry in song three). I loved the song they had out last year, and the tone of the music on this new one fit my moodiness. And it was good for the car ride back to the hotel.

I realized that I need to do this more often, if not for the entire day, then at least a couple of hours. I've now been ere three years, but I've never been to some of the museums here. That kind of refueling is really vital.

And it's just plain fun.

- posted by Nels @ 11:15 PM | | | Link |