The Myth of Progress: Finding a Treasure

My great grandfather Greacen Black was a “collector” around the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

His collection seemed to have no rhyme or reason; he just collected anything that took his fancy. Many of the artifacts later went to the Gisborne, Napier and Christchurch Museums but his book collection stayed in our family. Read more

Pump Out Tunes Faster: 6 Easy Ways to Do It

Over the past year I’ve practiced and refined the technique behind my tuneback concept. If you don’t know what a tuneback is, it’s a song that is written, recorded and published online - all in under an hour. Read more

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Ten - Being a professional artist puts you in the position of being in business

NDK Creative Artist continues the Points of the Creative Artist’s Code with a lesson about the responsibility of knowing your business. - Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief
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NDK Poetry Collection: In an Articulate Way: Chains of Commitment

Of my own free will
I give you these chains to lay on me
They’re mine to give
to the one who’ll set me free
They’re my chains of commitment
Forged in the fires of heartbreak
Smelted from my Honor
Bonded by my word
betrayed too many times
Every link is a lesson
I’ve beaten from my life
So rust won’t mar my trust

Erosion cannot touch these chains
for they’re cast in esteem
of my own mettle
They are not heavy to carry
For they’re cast upon my Honor
So tether me to you with these sweet bonds
Life’s rough weather will not waste them
For to you
Do they belong

Blowing the Myths of Sexuality - Making Headway in the Gender Wars - The Intimate History of the Orgasm

I managed to read a lot of books in 2007 despite a pretty hectic schedule, though not as many as I would have liked to read. However, the pile on the shelf that is yet to be finished and reviewed is diminishing, and I am very pleased that I have managed to erode it.

One of the books that had the most profound impact on me -and each has in different ways - is one that is related, at least for me, to the Gender Wars that are the subject of discussion and articles at Engender Truth. O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm by James Margolis helped to shred the vestiges of ideas that wouldn’t die, values from an age that would have us consider sex as dirty, unwholesome, and unnatural while at the other end of the scale desiring women to be baby factories to increase the ranks of the faithful.

This book was a gift from another and I had had it for several years before I began to read it and I thought it may take some time to get through it, but once I started reading I found it compelling in terms of style, wit and sincerity.

It was fascinating (and serendipitous) to be reading this at a time when Emmah Williams was having “a discussion” (flame war) with ‘a man’ who insisted that female orgasm is a myth. Here today in the 21st Century I find it astounding that such an idea should still exist in the minds of some men. A man like that needs to read a book like ‘O.‘ Though it is perhaps doubtful that a man with such prejudicial and selfish views of women would ever manage to open his mind enough to let some truth in, let alone the pages of a book, and a nonfiction one at that. No, such a man is probably dedicated to comic strips and action movies and gets a hard on watching pistons move in engine blocks.

I didn’t know what to expect of Jonathan Margolis’s book. It could have been prurient; it wasn’t. It could have been dry and dull, filled with this and that scientific study and figures. It wasn’t. It was frank, honest, humorous and entertaining. It laid the history of orgasm at my feet and went as far back in history as could be reasonably expected, while crossing cultural boundaries and making comparisons that taught me lessons that we in the West would do well to learn. It opened my eyes to the different ways in which the human race and its many cultures have dealt with sexuality and gender relationships and that was both fascinating and intriguing. I laughed as different fallacies were exposed and rejected. The insights it gave into these cultures made me realize the source of different oppressions and liberated my thinking from ideas that don’t belong in 21st Century living.

Quite simply O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm changed my outlook on sexual mores and history, gave me insight into the vast array of human sexuality, and how it has changed and developed through time. This is important for me, because as a fantasy author, one is working with metaphor, and as Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the Eathsea Series said:

“The fantasist…may be talking as seriously as any sociologist about human life as it is lived, and as it might be lived, and as it ought to be lived. For as great scientists have said, and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.”

I’m nearly finished reading Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, after which I’ll be reading the sequel Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. These are books I have read or am reading to help me understand and define the world I’ve been creating for The Helm and the Horde. They have broadened my understanding about how our world works, and offered alternatives for a fertile imagination, and aid the building of a world and the defining of 14 different cultures that are part of a story I’ve been working on for what seems like an age, but I haven’t spent as long at it as JK Rowling’s 17 years yet.

The Secret of Happiness, the Awesome Power of Memes and Toxic Ideas

A little while ago, I discovered a site called TED. On that site I discovered a remarkable set of video speeches. One by Lawrence Lessig finally clarified why the man who created the Creative Commons License did so. Now I grok, where before I only supported.

Interestingly enough this lead me back to a memory of my studies of licensing, copyright, and other intellectual property issues that I carried out in the early Nineties, and which have never really stopped since then, though they have quieted down a bit now.

In one of these video speeches a philosopher called Dan Bennett offers The secret of happiness:

Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.

That’s what happened to me. I found something more important than I am, an idea, and I dedicated my life to it. That dedication is beginning to pay off, even as I write this. My dedication to that idea has kept me sane, happy and alive.

What’s a meme? “A meme,” as described by Dan Bennett in the video linked below is “an information package with attitude.”

He goes on to talk about memes in the course of talking about the replication of ideas and this has some relevance to being a Creative Artist. So I would like to recommend to you all that you take a few moments to watch his video because it is about as he puts it “[safeguarding] the benign and useful variants of our ideas as they continue to spread” and this is something important to Creative Artists as I have noted in many different areas and articles of the Free Articulator.

The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Nine - The power of an aesthetic work of art is the power to change…

In NDK’s latest article on the points of the Code, he describes the importance of ideas to the development of society and how to avoid the destructive effect that can occur when one points out unworkable ideas without providing solutions. - Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief
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The Creative Artist as Global Activist — Applauding Trent Reznor’s Example

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a creative activist. When it comes to being a Creative Artist, I think it’s vital to be informed about the world, and to have a well-developed sense of social, political and cultural justice that has a global perspective and not just a national one loyal only to one’s country, for as Creative Artists we serve our country best by embracing the world and serving it through the creation, development and publication of our works, and while these benefit our national economies for the long-term in ways we will be looking at in later articles, they serve humanity first.

As a Creative Artist I embrace without reservation the ideas of Lennon’s Imagine and support nationalism only to the degree that my country, of which I am justifiably proud (most of the time), acts in a socially global sense that has the interests of humanity and nothing else at heart. John Lennon’s website is beautiful, and I wholeheartedly recommend a visit.

Once informed, we utilize our ability to communicate to:

1. Increase awareness and attention about issues that affect humanity - this is non-partisan, apolitical, pro-survival and has the aspect of a care-taking custodial role.
2. Protect communication lines and channels that carry information and the quality of content on those channels.
3. Place constructive ideas into society.
4. Use this information to craft works of art & entertainment that while entertaining, also inform lives and make them worth living.

Why is this important to the definition and role of a Creative Artist?

Because, it is the people who lift us up on their shoulders when they support the publication of our creative works as we develop them, and help us attain positions of influence, that well-managed and from a traditional perspective, help us to balance the books of success when it is attained.

It is not a company or a corporation that Creative Artists owe our allegiance and loyalty to, rather it is the people of the world who support our works that we represent, and whose trust we must not abuse.

So, when I find out from Danny Schecter’s Media Channel that Trent Reznor is involved in tackling the media, I get excited!

Video: The Warning
ArtofMentalWarfare.com presents The Warning, a politically powerful new music video featuring Grammy Award-winning artist Trent Reznor. The Warning takes on the covert interests behind the war and our media saturated society. From war crimes to the destruction of the environment and a celebrity-obsessed culture, The Warning is a clarion call to action for an apathetic nation.

Opening Statement: Let The Media War Begin
The mainstream media is an elaborate and sophisticated propaganda apparatus that is designed and utilized to deceive, manipulate, dumb down, distract and marginalize the American public.

No, not only the American public. But also the rest of the world, who buy into and are subjected to the American mythology through works of culture that America exports all over the world.

Code Point 6 of the Code of a Creative Artist covers these aspects of being a Creative Artist. But many other points of the code are as relevant. This is not some arbitrary code created out of thin air, or vague imaginings, it defines and describes exactly how Creative Artists operate in the world, and by doing so, serve the world. It is our job to do so by imagining.

So I applaud, what Trent Reznor is doing as a Creative Artist. David Vincent? I’m not so sure about his grasp on the reality of blogging, probably he has not read the Free Articulator yet (chuckle), but I do agree with what he is saying and promoting with regard to big media and wish him every success.

The Editor and the Medium: How to Ensure your Success

Editing and proofing any work of art & entertainment is the final part of the production process before the work is delivered to the intended public. It is the most important phase in the ending of the work, and it is a demanding process requiring a great deal of knowledge and experience that can only be truly gained by doing it.

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The Points of the Creative Artists’ Code: Eight - Your work is your responsibility

In this article explaining the eighth point of the Code of a Creative Artist, NDK Creative Artist discusses the responsibility artists have to protect the integrity of their art. — Joel Falconer, Editor-in-Chief

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