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Conjuring Up Art  I'll be wearing this shirt on the regular Hey there, my rock n' roll wonderland friend, Life doesn’t always go to plan, kinda like the rough draft for this newsletter. My evening plans changed and I was going to incorporate that evening adventure into this essay and well, it through off the whole “vibe”. So here I am. Starting over. Humming and hawing over my computer. Typing. Deleting and deleting some more throughout the majority of the day. My dog looks at me with a deep sigh and wanders into the next room. Clearly, he’s over it. Like so many, I am a very concerned citizen about the current state of our country. As stressful as it is, I want to remain engaged yet keep my nervous system in balance. So I went for a "movie walk." Also known as taking a walk while listening to music. It’s how I conjure up ideas for my art. Lately, it feels like spring here in the Midwest and all I want to do is go on movie walks. When I lived in Chicago, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs 2001 EP had constant rotation on my CD Walkman. I revisited the album during my "movie walk" and these lyrics have been echoing in my head ever since. "It's our time, sweet babe To break on through It's our time, our time, our time" As an artist, I cannot just "sit back". As the lyrics above read, It’s Our Time. Time to create, make and collaborate for the sake of community. I made the video below. A perfect example of a Movie Walk Women in Music I was asked to collaborate with two other fellow Radio DJs on ElectroMagnetic Radio for a special episode in honor of Women’s History Month by creating a back-to-back playlist of nothing but women artists. Tonight, Monday, March 3rd on ElectroMagnetic Radio, me and the rest of the Monday night crew will be playing a SIX HOUR BLOCK of awesome female-fronted bands, artists and musicians in several genres. Here is the schedule Monday, March 3rd from 5 pm - 11 pm CST on www.em-radio.com 5 pm CST - Radio Hitch
 Reach Out, Touch Faith At the beginning of the year, I submitted a short experimental film to a local film festival. I really love how it turned out and I can’t wait to share. This year, I was asked to be on the film committee to view other festival contenders. It was a real honor that the festival organizers asked me to be part of the film selection process. It was great to be on the critiquing side of things as I’m usually always the one being critiqued. Music is the inspiration for my video art. Come to think of it, music is more like the director, it guides my mind with visuals that I want to incorporate in the work. The song picks me and when I find “the one” I have to act on the inspiration fast! I’m pretty sure I told you this story. I found a song online for project, ya know “the song”. I needed this song for the video. All the elements were coming together in my head but there was no info on the band. I wanted to be professional and ask permission to use their material. With luck, the band still had a Facebook page. I DM them thinking I’ll never hear back. To my surprise, I received a friendly note of approval to use their song. Kismet! Thank goodness for email forwarding. I worked again with the same musician on the experimental film for this year. In the lyrical rhythms of Depeche Mode, might I suggest to “Reach Out Touch Faith”? It may seem daunting to randomly reach out to a stranger when we see more and more AI users and questionable profiles. This artistic happenstance regained my faith that collaboration can occur without meeting. All I gotta say is trust. Just trust that the universe will bring more creative stars into your orbit.  film still from my latest video I, Robot I’m a fashion designer at heart and while I buy less and less fast fashion, I still love great design. So I need my yearly fix for Red Carpet runway moments during Award Season. And of course, I wanna know the top films and performances of the year. I watched the award-nominated animation, The Wild Robot. In short, it’s about a robot that raises a baby goose. There’s a point to this I swear. The goose grows up to think like a robot. The goose is engrained with certain beliefs and it doesn’t believe the goose can be…well a goose. When it meets other geese, it really wants to be with the rest of the flock but is held back by its robotic upbringing. I relate. For years, I had certain beliefs installed in my brain that I couldn’t be an artist. I can’t be me. Time to grow up. Art is not a “real” job. What artist hasn’t been told that? After all, most of society is still programmed with that belief. Art is not a real profession. But eating spicy noodles and reviewing vegan cheese brands on YouTube is? C’mon. Every day, I still have to work on uninstalling those beliefs. I have to “install” magical thinking into my brain every damn day and recite my artistic affirmations. Much like the phrase spoken by one of my favorite toys I had as a kid, the incomparable She-Ra. I too have the power. So, naturally, I made a playlist about dismantling those negative blocks, removing yourself from the “robots” of your life and finding your flock. Featuring tracks by The Faint, Johnny Thunders, Black Star, Bjork, fellow Substack musician, Venus Aphrodite, Jessica Pratt, flipturn and more. If you prefer to listen to episodes in video format, paid subscribers get access to the replay of the LIVE broadcast along with the episode playlist. I’m starting to include my video art during the broadcast….once I figure out all the technical difficulties, it’ll be occurring more often during the livestreams. You can listen to the “Wild Robot” episode here.  Hope you go on a movie walk sometime soon and get inspired to create on your canvas of choice. Let the lead out through your pen, your microphone or your paintbrush and create some art. Even if it’s just for you. Stay inspired, Joi  Comments are closed.
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