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It has been a long while since I sat down to type. Busy with life’s tragedies and triumphs I suppose. Also I have been busy searching for a way to plug an analog body of work into a digital frame of mind. As I do that I find that I have some Basic Rules of Thumb (BROT) and Rules of Life (BROL) that help me. Kind of a shorthand for accessing information and situations. Every rule has exceptions, and therefore, no rule is an absolute. Still they are good to know. A starting point to a version of understanding and an informant to the process of making a choice. I use this blog as a way to introduce and share these rules.
Today’s rule: If you can’t use it for evil…it is not a superpower, it’s just something nice you are doing.
Looking back at this year at SXSW I realized that yes, it appears, that SXSW is indeed a superpower. I was here 25 years ago at the start of SXSW and at the time the mission was too front loaded in the concern for the unsigned, mostly local, musician having a place to be heard to ever be a superpower. All that it could lead to was having fun and moving music forward. And we all had fun. No place for evil there. Over the years the search for evil has been heroic and steadfast. It’s not just a party many would say, it’s business! Ahh, now that has to be a place where evil can grow, but how? Alas, not to be in the Austin version of music business. We never did the work it takes to dig down and find the evil counterpart. The Armadillo World Headquarters,for example, could not be used for evil. Unfortunately there was no demon seed in that group of people to rise up and say,” hey, if we screwed the artist AND the audience just a little we could take over the world”. Nope. Dang. AWH always had shades of superpower but was never to be one. SXSW, as did many wonderful projects, grew out of the gentle giant shadows of AWH. But growing up and finding the possibility of evil are not necessarily hand in glove. Eve was certainly open to the conversation but it took a snake in an apple tree to really shake things up. I can’t say for sure who was the snake and who was Eve here but somebody found the way. My only hope is that the snake and Eve are one in the same. That it is not some outside influence that will pick our garden clean and leave a wasteland in their path. All we are really looking for to become a superpower is the possibility that it can be used for evil, that’s the power. Using it for evil takes that power. SXSW has the power to choose to do something good now. Time will tell what that choice is and what that choice brings. Hero or Villain, we are out of the land of in between.
If you have a possible superpower I’d suggest you study SXSW. It behooves you to dig down and find that evil possibility in yourself by yourself, know it and make choices with that knowledge. Doing good is the pursuit of evil and the choice of good.That’s a superpower.
Suggested listening for this BROL:
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My friend, mentor and hero, Mark Hagan has left the building. Or as I say, he’s had a change of venue. I bring Mark to attention because we all need to know some of what he did for the planet so we can all chip in to cover. In the early days of a former life (the SIMS Foundation days) I found myself in over my head. I was starting to get calls from people dealing with addiction and I did not have much experience in that field. Mark was then the intake coordinator at the Austin Recovery Center, more importantly Mark was in that position based on his understanding of the sprite of the law, not so much the letter of the law. That was a critical distinction. Mark had the respect and flexibility to work with a population that most often felt that they had taken their addiction to the level of art form. Mark was available, day and night, weekends and anything in between to show up when and where he was needed. A very compatible stance for working with me as well. I cannot express enough what Marks life meant to me or the many other people he touched. Life in Austin for those in the music community would not be the same.
A favorite story was in 1999. Willie Nelson and his blues band, with Derek O’brian, Riley Osborn, Jon Blondel and George Rains with special guest Eric Johnson and Jimmy Vaughan, were playing a benefit show for The SIMS Foundation. There we many others on the bill and perhaps they should remain nameless. Anyway, the backstage area was out of control and I asked if Mark would mind being the bouncer/door man for the Green Room for the artist. He said, sure, not a problem. I came back a few hours later to check in on him and asked how it was going. At this time there was smoke billowing out of the room. Mark said,” everything has been going well but I think I will have to adjust my sobriety date.”
Mark did what it took to help. He asked for very little in general and, in fact, ask for nothing in return for the extras that he gave. It was a gift he was able to give. The world is a better place for his life. I will miss him on the planet. I love you Mark, travel well.
Currently AAMP has not only the warehouse space we operate but also the 7000 sq. ft. of space next door. That space is being subleased but it looks like it may be coming available this summer. I though I’d put it out there that if anyone would like to have an amazing space in a great location this would be it. Projects and businesses that work with and/or for the creative community will be given preference.
Here’s one of the two keds designs from the AAMP crowd. Lucy and Wendy did these. This one has the word Faith in many languages.
We’re coming into the last days of the Keds How Do You Do tour in support of AAMP. Until 11:59 March 23 all tweets that contain the hash tag #kedshdydaustin will generate a dollar of support from Keds to AAMP. If you have the chance come out and visit the exhibit at 25th and Guadalupe tomorrow 3/23, design you own Keds and help AAMP help you.
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It’s about time to kick it off by kicking on your shoes, KEDS that is. Go to their site at http://hdyd.keds.com for a full run of details and a nice spotlight on AAMP. Here’s a bit from their page:
If you use twitter, on Friday or Saturday tweet with the hashtag #KedsHDYDAustin, answer “How do you do Austin?” or “How do you do inspiration?” For every tweet Keds will be donating $1 to the organization.
The Keds area in Style X will have something for everyone. There will be two artists from Austin Art + Music Partnership that will be designing and painting an 8’x8’ mural inspired by your “How do you do Austin?” tweets, along with Emili Adame, a member of the Keds Collective, creating her own designs on Keds white Champion shoes. Does this peak your interest or sound like something fun? We will have (2) kiosks where you can design your own style and enter to win $1,000, plus even more moolah donated to an arts organization. If you are reading this and can’t make it out, you can always enter the Design Your Own Keds contest online at www.keds.com/hdyd. Since this will be a fashion showcase, runway shows will not be left out. Twice during the day on Friday and Saturday there will be models showcasing 2011 Keds, in addition to shoe giveaways.
The local arts organization featured this week with Keds at SXSW is the Austin Art + Music Partnership. They provide support for local artists by giving them warehouse space and resources to develop their projects and ideas. If you use twitter, on Friday or Saturday tweet with the hashtag #KedsHDYDAustin, answer “How do you do Austin?” or “How do you do inspiration?” For every tweet Keds will be donating $1 to the organization.
Come support creativity, inspiration, and FASHION with Keds at this year’s Style X during SXSW.
KEDS is coming to SXSW today in the Style X tradeshow and they have made AAMP a big part of their show. They will donate a dollar for every tweet that tells of inspiration! Come on by.
Check it out:http://bit.ly/gZI6PC
More info to come soon.
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Tonight and tomorrow night at the AAMP 411 Monroe we are once again hosting the ‘No Idea Festival’. I would like to encourage everyone to hike or bike in to enjoy jazz at its best. The show last year was on my top 5 list of live music shows in Austin. Unbelievable.
For more information click on http://noideafestival.com/
See you hear!
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“Ah, I would, but you know…the economy and all.” That is the latest Emperor’s New Clothes that would have us all believe that the world should come to a screeching halt because of a tough financial economy. True enough, everything cost. But not true that there is only one economy at play here. As far as an economy where we can buy, trade, barter and budget there are at least 3 distinct economies in play at all times. Those are: Time, Energy and Money. And while our culture is hyper focused on the money side of things, money is not power. Money is a symbolic representation of power, creativity on the other hand is power. Creativiy gives us the ability to ask, “what can we do with what we have here.” It offers the chance to look at challenges and solutions in a new light. Our task in hard economic times is to shift this dominate mind set and restructure the economy to better utilize the ‘creative capital’ of Time and Energy.
For example if you want to bring a new product to market. Think of it as coming down a a river, the product or idea is coming down the river to a spot where the people are waiting. At that point they can embrace the idea. If you’re lucky and timing is on your side this process goes quickly and easily. Think pet rock. Right idea at the right time. Not a great idea, just great timing. But what do we do if the timings is not that perfect. First we determine as best we can what is the gap to be made up and then we apply our three elements. In America, where patience is not a national value we tend to spend dollars on marketing to bring the product down the river to the waiting masses. However, that is not the only option. We could wait. Spending our time to allow the collective mindset to stumble onto the inkling of the idea and then launch. Or we spend our creative energy in our art, in our lifestyle and in our conversations to gently guide that collective mindset.
In reality we use all three. While it is true that we have developed an over reliance on the cash side of things, we use creativity in our advertising and timing in our release date.
The greatest gift that money has to offer is that it gives us a tangible and concrete model to use in relation to time and energy. We must work within our means no matter what we are spending, whether it is time, energy or money. That means we can budget, control, manipulate and increase return on each. In fact, whether we are conscious of it or not, how we treat one is indicative of how we treat each. Do we spend wisely? Or do we take this spending of power for granted until we run out?
At the beginning of my nonprofit, The Austin Art and Music Partnership, I knew that was not going to have access to much money for the start up period. In fact the classic set up of nonprofit funding I consider to be somewhat dangerous to establishment of a new idea or model. Traditional funders have a tendency to want the money (power) they give to be spent in a way they can easily see and understand. This works great for an established program but not for a program that combines old resources in a new way. The gravity of the norm, of what has been done before, is too great for the young idea to withstand. Therefore the new idea must be protected and nurtured and allowed to grow. Austin AMP is based on this concept and, in fact, is this concept in action. We set out to mine the creative communit for nontraditional sources of power, collect that power and then point it with a laser like focus onto social need. The how of how we did this is a study in responsible spending of Creative Capital. The budget we built at the beginning was stacked evenly between our three resource areas. Any dollar we spent had to be paired with at least two units of time, energy or one of each. This offers a stable triangulation of strengths on which to build. The first money spent went into acquiring a space to hold such a large idea. We found a warehouse located in a part of town that has a high residency of the creative class in Austin. Then the task became to collect the creative capital we needed to bring the effort to fruitition. We did this by offering creative’s a space grant in the warehouse to bring a project or idea to a mature state. In other words, by offering a safe and nurturing environment for an artist to bring a unique work forward the artist is able to step out of a process of commoditization with their art and step fully into the creative process regardless of where it may lead. In fact the economy has been shifted entirely. The artist is being offered a place to create in exchange not for cash but for the application of their creativity. The final piece of the exchange then goes to the spending of this creative capital. In our model the art created is a vibrant byproduct of the process. This art is, in essence, the symbolic representation of the power we are collecting in much the same way cash money represents power in a traditional business model. So, how do we spend this creative capital? In return for the space grant the creative’s then come together and address social needs by creating new and innovative programs for the greater community. Because these programs are based on at least a two to one ratio of time and energy to money, they are financially cost efficient and sustainable.
The beauty of this concept is that it can be applied to any facet of life. When faced with a lack of money needed to easily address an obstacle or task we should restructure our vision of the solution to include time and energy as commodities. How can I structure a solution so that I can more easily spend the resource I have most at hand right now? should be a common question we ask ourselves.
We live in a culture where those with money have consistently and steadily pushed the concept that power is money and that if you don’ t have money then you have no power. That is simply not true. Futhermore, it will lead to an oppressive state. This current economic crisis is playing right into the hands of the creative community. This creative class has the real power and projects such as Austin AMP offer a way to collect and wisely spend that capital. And, at the same time, offers those in the financial world a place to invest that will pay dividends.
When your mission is to nurture and protect the creative process the fruits of labor are not always easy to see and measure. However, occasionally, you get a perk. This week I had drop in visits from two past AAMP Grantees that were amazing visits. Neither person planned to stop in and neither knew that Aaron had “changed venues” (as I say these days).
The first visit was from an Artist we had granted space and support to earlier this spring during the SXSW Rejuvenation Station. She worked on a mural during that time and more importantly she began to experience herself again as an artist. She was just stopping by to share what she has done since then and it is amazing. To offer her support to AAMP and to thank us. She is the perfect example of a grantee coming in clutching tightly to her creativity, borrowing authority from the next great idea and actively in the process of becoming more and more isolated. She then took full advantage of AAMP’s request of,” now that you are safe…do something dangerous”. Her dangerous act was to shift from a consumer of resources to feed her art to moving through her authority as an artist to become a provider of creative energy for herself and others. Subtle change and a world of difference. That is the core mission of the Austin Art and Music Partnership. To offer a space to creatives to enter as consumers and leave/stay as providers. That’s where the magic is.
The second visit was from a young man who first visited us also earlier this year. At the time he was basically homeless and in a bit of a misunderstanding mess. He was afraid to go home and had no idea how to go forward. He asked if there was something he could do to help out here and Aaron kinda took him under his wing. By the end of his stay here Aaron and worked out a life plan, spoken with the people he was in trouble with and gave him a small “Rockloan” to get him back home. He too just stopped in to thank Aaron and AAMP for the only support he had ever really know and to show what he had done with his gift. Amazing. Under Aaron’s direction he found a school, enrolled and received a scholarship. He is studying at NASCARS training program and can take an engine apart AND put it back together. His day job is working with a Chinese company in the international relations department. While I don’t know what all of that really means, he is not homeless, has a real marketable skill and speaks a pretty good Chinese. All in about 8 months. Just because someone believed in him and AAMP was there to offer a path from needy consumer to healthy provider. He will never be the same and we all win. Thank you Aaron. A nice legacy to leave behind.
These visits came at a very difficult time for me here at AAMP. With Aaron gone our funding model changed dramatically. Or, I should say, began a process of change. We need the community support to make this transition and the I need internal drive to make it happen. After the visits I still don’t know if we will be able to make the goal of keeping the program going in the short term as we prepare for the long term but I do know why we are trying. Thanks to the visitors/AAMP Partners.
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