Followers

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Just Close Your Eyes.

I listen to podcasts and music while I'm working in the studio. When I'm really tired I blast old Foo Fighters or Pixies. (Dave still makes my heart thump...I'm old, not dead.)

FOO FIGHTERS


Wake me up, make me work music...


PIXIES

Shout and sing all the wrong words loudly...


When I'm feeling contemplative I enjoy Patty Griffin or Lucinda or or Nanci Griffith or Avett Brothers, and so many others. Music makes my work almost effortless, and I honestly think it helps me to engage with the material I'm working with on some kind of deeper level. 

My favorite podcasts are still This American Life and Radiolab. I can work away, and still concentrate on making jewelry while absorbing the story. But there are other kinds of storytelling that I love that I cannot listen to while working. I've tried, but these stories are so transcendent--so hypnotic--that I am transported by them, and simply cannot focus on the work. Truthfully, I feel a whole body response to a good story--a body buzz so-to-speak. And I've discovered that I enjoy the feeling of being swept away so much that I am making special time for them each week. I am now saving them for the pure pleasure that a story well-told can provide. In fact, I recommend that we all take this solitary time for ourselves--perhaps the closest opportunity to experience that meditative feeling we knew as children when someone told us a great story. That ability to feel mesmerized. There are many good story podcasts out there, but this is a favorite. And this story...well--you decide.

Ahhh. Sit back. Close your eyes. Listen.