This is great. Aldous Huxley narrates his book A Brave New World as actors perform sections from the book to the music of Bernard Herrmann, the great composer who worked extensively with Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Scorsese and other great diretors.

This is a digital conversion of the original LP so there is a lot of noise, hisses, pops and scratches, but this is brilliant to listen to nonetheless.

Find the MP3s here.

The most important thing to know as a writer is that you have to write, a lot. Write every day, every morning, write when you’re on a break at work, write before bed, write at lunch. Scribble the words on napkins, in journals and into your writing program of choice.

The one resource that I really love is The Lie That Tells A Truth by John Dufresne. No other books has had the impact this book has had on how I approach the craft of writing fiction. His book is full of great information, first-hand examples of how he tackles tough writing challenges and best of all the book makes for a great read. Dufresne’s style is funny and personal. He writes like he gives a damn. And, he knows what hell he’s talking about.

If you write, read this book. Of course, do it while writing. Read it in the nooks and crannies between putting ink to paper (or font to form?) and I think you’ll find that the insights will give you fuel, help you find certainty and just enough hubris to do the unthinkable: write a novel.

That’s my plan. I will write a novel this year. I’d hate to let John down.

The idea is simple: starting November 1st, you write like a maniac for 30 days and before you know it you have a novel, or at least a draft, or at the very least a ton of words on paper from which to craft the shell of a novel, hopefully. But hope is critical in such endeavors. 

Because the truth is writing a novel is damn tricky stuff. Completing one has eluded me and I’ve been writing for all of my adult life. I’ve written professionally for a long time, covered bands, written for music videos, TV shows, documentaries, advertising and I’ve even completed a pretty decent screenplay, but the novel. Ah, yes, the novel. Creatively speaking, this has been the one that has gotten away. 

So maybe this year I’ll dive in, using November as the catalyst for finally pulling it off. I have ideas. A folder’s worth of them. I have the desire. But, it’s sticking it out when you hit that wall, that place where the story sputters or the plot gets thin, that is the part that gets most writers. You gotta see it through, hit it head first. You gotta be willing to be okay with the “shitty first draft” Hemingway wrote about. But most of all, you’ve got to have conviction that you will not stop. Reach the end. Tell a story. 

Any takers? If so, today is the day to start. And what about me? Should I head once more into the breach? Who is with me?

Here are some of those books.

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Zinsser’s book is an absolute classic. No other book has better insight into writing clear, concise, fluid and forceful prose. Perhaps it’s best advice however is the section on the true secret of really great writing: self-editing.

A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

This amazing book by Daniel Pink is about ideas, creativity and the symphony of fusing design thinking, story and the over-arching notion of aesthetics to create a new model for collaboration. Great stuff.

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White

Strunk & White’s ubiquitous book is one of the true grammarian classics. A writer’s bookshelf seems unbalanced without a copy resting somewhere among the books and issues of Print and Creativity. Plus, it’ll help you write more precisely and can answer those pesky little grammar questions we all have from time to time.

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets. Her style and command of language will dig deep into your soul. Give her a read and you’ll see. This book is just what it claims to be, but on a deeper level her deconstruction of great poems, her attention to the nuances of language and sound and the shape of words as they roll off the tongue will help any writer craft more impactful copy. Thing about the meter and rhythm of language. Thing about how this impacts a headline, tagline or any piece of copy and you’ll be all the better for it.

The Lie That Tells a Truth by John Dufresne

A great book on writing fiction by novelist and teacher John Dufresne. What really makes this book great is that it’s one of those writing books that doesn’t feel like a writing. The essays read more like inspirational mantras on the ins and outs, dos and don’ts of the craft of writing. Chapters are filled with great insights, wonderful quotes and tremendous tools for creating great prose. For the copywriters out there read this book for the perspective, the style and because it’s a really fun read.

So that’s my top 5. Ask any other writer and they’ll likely have five different choices as their favorites. The truth is, you can’t go wrong as long as you remain curious and never stop trying to be better at what you do.

And that’s just aesthetics. The recipes themselves are amazing. This book, along with Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet provide an incredible Vegan one-two punch of delicious, natural, earth and animal friendly cooking with flair, flavor and tons of taste.

In The Conscious Cook, we get to see what the new face of Vegan cuisine looks and tastes like. There are no bland, boring or dull dishes here, only rich, savory and satisfying dishes.

Before I became a vegetarian I had this fear that I’d get easily bored with the cuisine. I also had a sense that the faux meats where horrible. I was wrong on both. Granted, the psuedo-saugage, veggie burgers and other veg-meats have made great strides. So much so that I’ve dined at veggie restaurants where you’d never know you were eating chicken or beef if you weren’t paying attention.

This is a great cookbook. It’s full of photos, information and dynamic recipes. The layout is clean and fresh. Designwise, this is one of my favorite cookbooks ever.

Anyone seen this movie? I knew it was coming out but I hadn’t had a chance to check it out yet. However, my friend and favorite musician Dan Wallace has two songs in the film – this alone is worth the rental. Dan blogs a bit more about this over at his excellent site.

A recent story in the New York Times discusses the release of a long-await and very mysterious book by the great psychonaut Carl Jung. The Red Book, set to be released October 7th of this year promises to blow minds while delving deeply into the psyche, dreams and thoughts of one of the world’s greatest minds.

The book has been shrouded in mystery for almost 100 years and still creates a bit of unease even to this day. According to the Times article,

Some people feel that nobody should read the book, and some feel that everybody should read it. The truth is, nobody really knows. Most of what has been said about the book — what it is, what it means — is the product of guesswork, because from the time it was begun in 1914 in a smallish town in Switzerland, it seems that only about two dozen people have managed to read or even have much of a look at it.

So, what is the book about? Well, in essence it’s the search for the Holy Grail. In other words, the primal and very essential search for Soul. Or, as the article puts it, the story is one of the classic hero’s journey where ”Man skids into midlife and loses his soul. Man goes looking for soul. After a lot of instructive hardship and adventure — taking place entirely in his head — he finds it again.”

What did the author find as she read the book? She summarized her reeading of it like this:

The book is bombastic, baroque and like so much else about Carl Jung, a willful oddity, synched with an antediluvian and mystical reality. The text is dense, often poetic, always strange. The art is arresting and also strange. Even today, its publication feels risky, like an exposure. But then again, it is possible Jung intended it as such. In 1959, after having left the book more or less untouched for 30 or so years, he penned a brief epilogue, acknowledging the central dilemma in considering the book’s fate. “To the superficial observer,” he wrote, “it will appear like madness.”

I can’t wait to read it.

I can not wait to see this movie. It’s frightening how much faith we put in the industrial food system. If we are in fact what we eat, then my question is: What are we allowing ourselves as a society to become?

Indeed it is. So, then how do we eat responsibly?

1. Participate in food production to the extent that you can. If you have a yard or even just a porch box or a pot in a sunny window, grow something to eat in it. Make a little compost of your kitchen scraps and use it for fertilizer, Only by growing some food for yourself can you become acquainted with the beautiful energy cycle that revolves from soil to seed to flower to fruit to food to offal to decay, and around again. You will he fully responsible for any food that you grow for yourself, and you will know all about it. You will appreciate it fully, having known it all its life.
2. Prepare your own food. This means reviving in your own mind and life the arts of kitchen and household. This should enable you to eat more cheaply, and it will give you a measure of “quality control”: you will have some reliable knowledge of what has been added to the food you eat.
3. Learn the origins of the food you buy, and buy the food that is produced closest to your home. The idea that every locality should be, as much as possible, the source of its own food makes several kinds of sense. The locally produced food supply is the most secure, the freshest, and the easiest for local consumers to know about and to influence,
4. Whenever possible, deal directly with a local farmer, gardener, or orchardist. All the reasons listed for the previous suggestion apply here. In addition, by such dealing you eliminate the whole pack of merchants, transporters, processors, packagers. and advertisers who thrive at the expense of both producers and consumers.
5. Learn, in self-defense, as much as you can of the economy and technology of industrial food production. What is added to food that is not food, and what do you pay for these additions?
6. Learn what is involved in the best farming and gardening.
7. Learn as much as you can, by direct observation and experience if possible, of the life histories of the food species.

I find Berry’s writings and ideas to be for the most part beautiful. His thoughts on food and the merits of local, sustainable agriculture rings true with me. And while to follow these suggestions is a challenge in our convenience obsessed society, making the effort is well worth the price of participation.

The Self is everywhere. Bright is the self,

Indivisible, untouched by sin, wise,

Immanent and transcendent. He it is

Who holds the cosmos together. [Isha, 8]

This is about our non-locality, our pervasiveness throughout the All and our role in the creation of the All. Or, as it has also been written: Tat Tvam Asi.