We’re continuing our discussion of The Crowd, The Critic, and The Muse by Michael Gungor. I hope to make this accessible to everyone, whether you’ve read the book or not, but you should definitely read the book. ++++++ Two weeks ago, we talked about two more roots that affect our creative process, those being capitalism and celebrity. This week, we'll be looking at the final root (religion) and some thoughts about what we do with all of these roots. Chapter 9 - Religion: Sexily Shaped Mannequins Michael admits up front that this particular topic is of great importance to him as a person of faith and that this particular root is one that has "always had an overt and direct influence" on his music. He discusses how growing up, art had no intrinsic value, but could only be a … [Read more...]

We’re continuing our discussion of The Crowd, The Critic, and The Muse by Michael Gungor. I hope to make this accessible to everyone, whether you’ve read the book or not, but you should definitely read the book. ++++++++ Last week we talked about three of the roots that affect how we created art. Today we'll look at the next two roots discussed in the book. These chapters were two of my favorites because these are aspects of creating where I have a hard time sorting out my feelings. Chapter 7 - Capitalism: Paying the Pear-Shaped Superman This chapter starts off with a story of a girl being rescued from certain death and when the mother thanks the hero and asks if there's anything she can do, he asks for money. Not much, but you, something for his trouble. And while it's … [Read more...]

  We’re continuing our discussion of The Crowd, The Critic, and The Muse by Michael Gungor. I hope to make this accessible to everyone, whether you’ve read the book or not, but you should definitely read the book. ++++++++ Last week we talked about ways to feed creativity, how the critic can stop our creativity, and how our art will be based in the culture. Be sure to stop by and add your thoughts to that conversation. This week we're going to begin the process of talking about those roots more in-depth. Chapter 4 - Noise: Fat Kids and Piano Concertos This chapter starts with Michael describing a Rachmaninoff concerto and how this particular piece of music stirs an emotional response in him. Any time someone talks about music stirring something spiritual in them, … [Read more...]

We're continuing our discussion of The Crowd, The Critic, and The Muse by Michael Gungor. I hope to make this accessible to everyone, whether you’ve read the book or not, but you should definitely read the book. ++++++++ Last week we discussed what it's like to be stuck in the valley, the ways we make practical art, and how to be intentional. Today we're going to talk about the next two chapters. Chapter 2 - Art Like Fruit: Creative Awareness The music theory geek in me loved this chapter. Gungor suggests that we can tell a good bit about a society based on the art that it produces. He begins by talking about the various musical styles that we find in the Middle East and contrasts that with the music of China. They have two very different scales and that difference … [Read more...]

Today we begin our discussion of The Crowd, The Critic, and The Muse by Michael Gungor. I hope to make this accessible to everyone, whether you've read the book or not, but you should definitely read the book. ++++++ This came at a really great time for me. I read it just a few weeks after returning from Story and I was kind of amped up about creativity and beauty and what have you. So a book from one of my favorite creatives sounded right up my alley. So let's dive right into this. Introduction (Breath) I was struck by the very opening scene. A few months ago, I felt empty, mostly like I was going through the motions on the blog. It can be really easy to get mired in the daily grind of our creative process. Don't get me wrong. We have to do the grind. We can't just wait for … [Read more...]

I love reading. And I love doing book reviews on my blog (even though it's been a while since I've done one here - look for a few in the coming weeks). But it's been a long time since I've read a book that moved me the way that Michael Gungor's "The Crowd, The Critic, and The Muse: A Book for Creators" has. If you follow me on Twitter, you've been seeing a lot of quotes from this book over the past few days. And if you were to look at my Kindle, you would see massive passages highlighted. I tossed out a question about people joining along and maybe book clubbing this for a little while. I got a positive response, so that's what we're going to do. In the next couple of days, get yourself a copy of the book and next Monday, we'll start going through it together, a few chapters at a … [Read more...]