Creativity in little things

Socialmention is a new search engine tool. Frankly, it does little for me beyond what Google and Twittersearch already do better. However, when you load up a new page, you will see some of the messages shown here. I love that kind of creativity!

Creativity, in an unlikely place

One of the places I occasionally see live music at displays these stickers - above the paper towel bin in the rest room. Actually, stickers are all over that room.

I enjoy looking at them, just to stretch my boundaries a little. The artists are pretty much restricted to the palette of black and white. They are required to use the band's name. And yet a few gems pop to the surface, every now and then.

What unlikely place have you found creativity recently?

The evil pink Shrek - or Yoda?

Yes, I spotted the evil pink Shrek/Yoda on our way down to Texas for Christmas. Out in the middle of nowhere.

I was amazed to find graffiti on nearly every car of a very long freight train. It was exciting to see that kind of human creativity in the desolate windswept plains of west Texas.

It was also interesting to see other trains with every car looking factory fresh.

Graffiti is at its heart rebellious; most artists break the law when they whip out that spray can - particularly in the case of train car art. So I find it ironic that there is such conformity in the style of graffiti artists' work. The font selection is limited. The colors are of course limited to the palette available from the shelves of Home Depot's spray can section.

That same rebellion/conformity contrast can be seen in the Army. Many young people who enlist in the Service are some of the most rebellious people I have ever met. Yet they somehow long for the rules being ordered around provides.

By the way, happy new year! I'll be taking tomorrow off of blogging... so I'll see you next year!

ps I am back to Colorado now. I'm just sharing some of my non-Colorado time with you. (More stories to come.)

The impossible dream

My friend Eddie tagged me.

What's the impossible dream I have? Well, I do have lofty dreams like no world hunger, etc. But my life tends to be filled with much more mundane things. So my impossible dream would have to be smaller than that.

I'd love to see the band Little Feat in 1977. I am not one for seeing old bands today. They are nothing like what they would have been in their heydays.

In high school, I used to go down to hi-fi stores in Harvard Square (near Boston) and listen to music on high-end stereos. One time they played "The Last Record Album", and I got hooked. Incredible sounds. That sonic creativity is beyond most of what is recorded today.

I tag Bob and Jenny.

The hilarious things in everyday life

MacDonald's wants you. They probably can't have you (if you're the sort of person who reads this blog).

Anyhow, I was highly amused that one of the benefits is free uniforms. I thought that reflected a great lack of creativity by featuring that particular benefit. I would replace it with "Learn Spanish" - that's a useful skill in the USA, these days.

(I found that on the piece of paper they put on my tray for our dining-in experience.)