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If my memory serves me correctly, and it rarely does these days (what am I even paying you for you stupid brain?!), graduation ceremonies for the younglings are currently in progress across the country. Which makes me wonder how well our future leaders and followers are being educated for the real world. Which in turn leads me to this segue to an excellent video from the annual creative idea conference, TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design). In February of 2006, Sir Ken Robinson went on to explain how creativity is not necessarily nurtured in our educational systems but rather brushed aside in favor of conventional thinking. Needless to say, this strikes a chord with me as I’ve always been an ardent supporter of logic but in my old age I’ve come to realize that being overly analytical may deprive oneself of being freely creative. This English chappy “makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.” It’s a must see for all you creative types, as well as for anyone with a brain. Especially those new brains just graduating from high school. But not for me, my brain and I are still fighting.

Thanks to Denny “Cool Breeze” Devries for dropping the science.

Extra credit! Sir Ken’s definition of “creativity” so you don’t need to watch it over and over like I did:

Creativity-Process of having original ideas that have value, more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.

Last month I took the time to chuckle at our lovable mums for Mother’s Day. This Sunday, the 15th is Father’s Day so I thought why not honor them in the same way? By laughing at them. Now I don’t intend this to come off as mean spirited or hurtful in any way, but more as an alternative to the greeting card/gift giving mentality most of us are accustomed to. So take a look at some funny pictures (see above) at a site called manbabies where fathers and sons heads are chopped off and affixed to the latters bodies and maybe you’ll be inspired to do the same for your pops. Sure it sounds a bit morbid but hey, it’s Friday the 13th after all!

Additional video added!

(from left to right: Harmony Korine, Mark Gonzalez, and Carlo McCormick)

On Sunday May 18th, my first full day back stateside, I was treated to a special “conversation” between filmmaker Harmony Korine and artist/skateboarder Mark Gonzalez which was later moderated by magazine editor Carlo McCormick at Tokion’s Creativity Now conference at Cooper Union in Manhattan. The two playfully started off their discussion by going through their list of “Name Poems” which are names of celebrity types dissected and reshaped to form whole new names. This exercise in adolescence started in Harmony’s Prince street apartment at the start of their long standing friendship and through the years has grown into a list of hundreds. Starting with their first foray into their new art form, Harmony recited the original name poem “Emily dicked her son” (Emily Dickinson). And from there, back and forth they went laughing with childlike pride at some of their crudest and funniest inventions which included; “Dick rides around in a van looking for dykes” (Dick Van Dyke), “Is it a kite? Harvey can’t tell” (Harvey Keitel), “Burt Reynolds wrap”, “What’s Stephen Hawking?”, and “Kirstie was raped in an alley” (Kirstie Alley) to which Mark replied, “That’s just mean.” Mean indeed, amusing yes, and the audience of students and young and old people enjoyed it all. Here’s a bit of video of the tail end of the name poetry segment:

From there Carlo McCormick joined the brouhaha and attempted to turn the conversation into a more insightful one with sincere answers. This was not easily done with the Harmony and Mark revelling in being the jokesters they are. At one point Mark completely interrupts Harmony mid-answer when he started playing his harmonica on his mic:

But not all of it was fun and games as Mark gave one of the best answers of the day when Carlo asked him how his process when making art involves leaving his errors in finished pieces, to which Mark responded (in so many words), “the mistake is part of the make.” A lesson I’ve been slow to adhere to being a perfectionist for most of my life, but a lesson I now live by as I understand the beauty in drawing outside the lines. As these two creators have been doing for most of theirs.

Thanks to the lovely Heather Seccia of Tokion for getting me and my brother in.

Living in Los Feliz, I tend to focus more on happenings in or around LA. Not to leave my NY brethren out of the loop, here’s a look at a selection of the featured artists for the upcoming Tokion Creativity Now event this May 17th and 18th at Cooper Union in Manhattan and a blurb from the Tokion tokers:

Maria Bamford (”Comedians of Comedy”)

David Cross (”Mr. Show,” “Arrested Development”)

Zach Galifianakis (”Comedians of Comedy”)

Massimiliano Gioni (Curator, New Museum)

Mark Gonzales (Artist/Poet/Professional Skateboarder)

Kathy Grayson (Curator, Deitch Projects)

Harmony Korine (Mister Lonely, Julien Donkey-Boy)

Lucky Dragons (Artists/Musicians)

Carlo McCormick (Senior Editor, Paper)

Gary Panter (Artist, PictureBox, Inc.)

David Shrigley (Artist, Anton Kern Gallery)

“Held annually in New York City, Tokion’s Creativity Now Conference assembles the top names in art, design, music, filmmaking, fashion and photography to speak about their work and respective industries before an audience of 2,000. The international scope and diversity of the conference has made it a unique and important gathering for young individuals whose culture and interests span the globe. For the past four years, members of the international creative community including industry professionals, students and pop culture enthusiasts have had the opportunity to listen and pose questions to the definitive creative talents of this generation.

Doors open at 11AM each day, Conference begins at noon and finishes at 6:30PM.

Additional speakers to be announced. Please check back for regular updates.”

And speaking of Zach Galiflanakis check out the bearded ones latest finger flicking film, Visioneers: