Sometimes we find ourselves searching in and from a “don’t know” space that is filled with echoes, reflections, and glimpses of children’s games. 
It is un-nerving. 
I think of the term “playwright.” Why don’t we spell it “play-write”? 
Because we need our hands not just our heads to shape the new. 
"Playwright" comes from the archaic English term, wright. We are like wheelwrights, cartwrights - ready not only with ears and eyes, but with hands trained to shape and craft play. 
We are fishing in the land of paradox to catch edges, moments unseen, and words un-whispered. 
I want my intuitive leaps to lead to something timeless and hypnotic – creating a space to pause and re-figure.

Let’s hope that we can mix vulnerability with skill, to keep things as raw and fresh as possible - to fill a bottle with light and more that just one P.O.V, perhaps some Beckett, Brecht, and a little Shakespeare. 

Tonight, Wednesday 9th November, like many I don't feel like I understand anything. 

So I reach back into my mind to a book I read many years ago by Jonathan Raban called "Bad Land." 
The critically acclaimed book takes the rarely told story of the journey of European immigrants that were sold the enterprising idea of rich farming lands in the state of Montana. The story is of dreams, homesteaders, railroads, promises, false propaganda, drought, and desperation of people misled and abandoned. 
Tonight as the world faces a new chapter, it is a book that sticks in my minds as strongly as images like Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother", Grant Wood's "American Gothic", "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper, or even more viscerally the iconic "Christina’s World" by Andrew Newell Wyeth.

I'm reaching for a horizontal but like for the people in Raban's "Bad Land" there is no horizon just a dizzying empty sky line. 
​
As quoted in a Guardian article about his book set in Alaska, "Passage to Juneau", “Journeys,” says Raban, somewhere towards the end of Passage to Juneau, “hardly ever disclose their true meaning until after – and sometimes years after – they’re over.” 

This journey is going to take a lot of time to understand. Turning to art is perhaps our best resource in times like these as Sigmund Frued said, “Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.” 
​
In this case Jonathan Raban in 1997 told stories than we need to go back towards and revisit just as he did, in which case the Los Angeles Times prediction will be true when they said; "Championship prose. . . . In fifty years don't be surprised if Bad Land is a landmark." 
​
I certainly think so. 

• "No one has evoked with greater power the marriage of land and sky that gives this country both its beauty and its terror." Washington Post Book World 
• "Bad Land should be recognized as a blazing classic." - Sunday Telegraph
• "Raban's journey, made through empty landscaped that once brimmed with optimism, reveals what happened when American innocence begins to curdle. The tale, borne along by its superlative writing, is a riveting one." - Observer

Answer - the art of copywriting.

You know when you stumble across something that is really basic but makes perfect sense. I figured out a while ago about the importance of re-looking at communicating on the arts from getting really bored by the copywriting sent out by much of the classical music industry and un-subscribing from an emailing list. Alongside this, my fascination with how to attract audiences to "new" work or "contemporary" material when these have become dirty words makes me super keen to learn more about the art and craft of writing that moves. 

Long time back I discovered Seth Godin's inspiring thoughts on how to create ideas that circulate, and he continues to be one of the most important voices in the field whose daily email I relish. 

But this week I made another unexpected leap forward by receiving information from writer's coach Shelley Hitz about an online copywriting summit with some of the best of the best. I love to hear it from the horses mouth so I was thrilled.

The summit is led by Ray Edwards who is most famous for being able to combine faith and ethics in writing sales copy that is authentic and isn't too pushy or salesy. He is known as the man who has created money-getting copy for business leaders like Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Jeff Walker, and Stu McLaren. Plus he has a really impressive list of New York Times best-selling authors, entrepreneurs, and achievers. What's more, he is a really enthusiastic and generous guy who has gathered 30 of the best copywriters on the planet to teach you their freshest insights, tools, and techniques… All at no charge.

What is also wonderful is that the interviews are are not “pitch interviews” – far from it! It is all really valuable material and great conversations that take advantage of Ray Edwards years in radio. 

• Click here to Register For the FREE Copywriting Virtual Summit:

Having listened to the first six days of the summit I've just added a book to my reading list after hearing the talk by the author and star of copywriting and marketing, Jay Abraham.

Having listened to the first six days of the summit I've just added a book to my reading list after hearing the talk by the author and star of copywriting and marketing, Jay Abraham. 

Abraham's book is called The CEO Who Sees Around Corners. It is all about hindsight, insight and foresight - my cup of tea!


​The blurb on Amazon says;

"Jay Abraham and Carlos Dias wrote this book for CEOs and senior executives who want to lead their organizations onto a better path for success in a fast-moving, turbulent world. The CEO Who Sees Around Corners introduces the powerful theories, mental models, and proven processes you need to reset your business to succeed in non-linear times."
​
Abraham talks in the interview with Ray Edwards about how to be pre-eminent in your field by finding out what's driving your heart and soul, and of the power of making small progressive movements.

Ray Edwards has given a huge gift with these interviews that are so packed with insights so it is well worth jumping in immediately. 

If you know very little about copywriting - like I did - but love writing, and know how powerful a skill it is to be able to reach new audiences, and bring big crowds to your events and your business, then I strongly recommend this as both a starting point / crash course. 

Just by listening, I feel that I have upped my game as a communicator - in fact I feel a bit more nervous writing today because I recognise even more the power and the beauty of words. 

How else would I have heard about names like Ben Settle, David Garfinkel, John Carlton, Kevin Rogers, Brian Kurtz, Bond Halbert, Pauline Longdon and many many more.

In the arts there can sometimes be a suspicion that advertising smacks of manipulation. However when it means reaching out to one more person who can benefit from access to the arts, then I feel it is an essential skill to develop and develop and develop and develop....

About the Author: Procter is an independent artist and thinker working in the area of production, strategy, and development in the arts and culture sector. She is a multimedia artist and has worked for companies like Theatre Alibi and Centre for Performance Research. With over 30 years of experience in the arts, spanning four continents, she founded her own production company, Clear Insight Productions which makes theatre, opera, film, music and dance productions that represent the opportunity to find wider perspectives and new ways of seeing the world. The company has a growing team of collaborators throughout the world who are interested in the role of the arts in creating change. Procter mentors other transformational and creative businesses, as well as continuing a career as a singer, and spending time growing a balcony garden in Buenos Aires where she splits her time with Aberystwyth. 

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There is much to say about the latest news in Britain that is is impossible to know where to start. 

I'm at a loss, I think we all are so today I was digging through old notes and randomly found this great set of tips from determined British film-maker Terry Gilliam who has seen his fair share of up and downs, and the twists of outrageous fortune.

Read it to take your mind of the current whirl wind, and as we search for a horizontal which is going to take us quite a lot of time to re-find. 

Whole article: Ten Lessons on Filmmaking From Terry Gilliam

It's a rainy Saturday in Buenos Aires and Oscar Edelstein just shared a homage to the late Muhammad Ali on his Facebook page.

​Maybe it's strange that an avant-garde composer would be moved to post about the passing of a boxer, especially with so many perceived divisions between high and low culture. Yet perhaps what Edelstein noticed with the nose of a life-long experimenter was Ali's spirit as a searcher speaking out, and looking for meaning and new perspectives.  

So it seems a moment to follow Edelstein's lead, and share the historic interview with Sir Michael Parkinson, who said today that Muhammad Ali "was the biggest star they've ever had boxing, and maybe ever will have."

The interview is the famous speech where Ali asks why are all the cultural images - from angels to Tarzan in the jungle - are of white people. 

Asked about the first time he met him backstage, Parkinson said: "It's not often, given the job I had, that I was allowed to be gob-smacked, but he did gob-smack me as he walked across the floor. I'd never seen a more graceful and beautiful man. He was extraordinary."

As Edelstein wrote, "This man was the greatest boxer that I have seen but someone who also thought, and this is what they never forgave. See the interview, it is really not to be missed." 

The interview is from 1981, an incredible 35 years ago, when this kind of discourse around race was not so mainstream. So it seems that Ali's bravery in the ring was really therefore nothing compared to his fight to speak out.

Ali died the same day that in her final commencement address as first lady, to graduates of City College in New York, Michelle Obama talked about diversity; free speech; the achievements of United States such as Google, eBay, the artificial heart, the telephone, blue jeans, Russian-born Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," the Brooklyn Bridge and the White House; and she even acknowledged that she wakes up every day in a house built by slaves. 

She remembered "the son of Polish immigrants named Jonas Salk who toiled for years in a lab until he discovered a vaccine that saved countless lives" and "the story of the son of Jamaican immigrants named Colin Powell who became a four-star general, secretary of state, and a role model for young people across the country."

Michelle Obama spoke about the danger of building walls. 

Of course we all know that walls can be physical but also intellectual and emotional, they can be of class as well as of race or religion. My naive hope is for a future where the only walls we will need are those to put bookcases against. 

In remembering the brave voice of Muhammad Ali, I hope that we also take a moment to remember to include in that list of achievements of the US many more figures such as (to name a few) John Coltrane, Spike Lee, Prince, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Josephine Baker, and of course next on the list, let us now hope, that Muhammed Ali will be there. 

Thank you for provoking us to see the world from a different angle, Muhammed Ali. When you get to heaven may you float like a butterfly, and please let us know that the angels really are from all walks of life. 

RIP Muhammad Ali. 

"In a move designed to remind young people that culture can enrich one’s life and bring people together, Italian citizens are to get a €500 (£430) ‘culture bonus’ on their 18th birthday." Christopher Hooton, The Guardian

​http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-italian-government-is-giving-teens-500-on-their-18th-birthday-to-spend-on-books-a7205366.html

In my monthly email news round-up for May 2016, I shared a link to a video about Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

Today I thought I’d also share it in a post for those who don’t see my emails. 

In looking for an image to share with the post I found the most famous one from “Throne of Blood” (1957). At the same time I discovered something I hadn’t previously realised about Kurosawa (March 23rd, 1910 – September 6th, 1998) in that he has a total of three films based on plays by William Shakespeare; “Throne of Blood” (1957) based on “The Scottish Play” (the title of the play about a king in Scotland for any superstitious theatre types!); “The Bad Sleep Well” (1960) based on Hamlet; and  “Ran” (1985) based on King Lear. 

It is always humbling when a great artist pays tribute to another - somehow it makes us feel a line of time and a thread of connection across continents. Time and space shrink.

In this case my respect must also go to the owner of the Youtube channel "Every Frame A Painting”, the editor Tony Zhou, for this wonderful documentary where he shares insight into what he calls Kurosawa’s “innate understanding of movement and how to capture it onscreen.” Being an editor himself Zhou analyses the “movement of objects in the frame.” 

Recently I shared on the Clear Insight Productions facebook page the image above. Then this week I was amused when a colleague in the USA, a writing coach called Elaine Bennett, picked it up and wrote about it in her blog (see here). She took my impulse to share it (which I did partly just because for me the words fuzzy felt just make me feel warm and cosy), and wrote about it in a way that wouldn't have occurred to me in a blog post entitled "You don't think like us". Apparently Phil Lucas is a British comedian - a fact that I hadn't even looked into. What had struck me was the way the image humourously captures that certain kind of determination to adapt to the circumstances come what may - something with which all "creatives" can identify. Elaine Bennett wrote about another aspect, that of how her corporate clients say, "We love talking to you... Because you don't think like us and you don't talk like us" - sometimes it is good to be reminded that being absorbed in culture gives access to ways of thinking that are vitally needed in the world. Hats off to creativity and to Phil Lucas who made a great piece of viral marketing. ​