Writer and artist Austin Kleon giving a talk on the genealogy of creative ideas and his creative process.

Paulo Coehlo, one of my favorite authors, riffing on writing and publishing with Nick Bilton, of The New York Times. Documented@Davos: Paulo Coehlo, Author from Michelle Laird on Vimeo. Tweet

A friend turned me on this artist. He is singing the soul in a way that takes me back to the blues, field hollers, and the use of the voice as a means of healing. And – it’s a cappella: “ORIGIN Italian, literally ‘in chapel style’” which ties it to the spirit in another way. [...]

Galeano’s comments about being fully present in love and life blew me away. I agree, “What future can we have if we do not inhabit the present in a way that embodies a more creative, loving, cooperative tomorrow?” Tweet

My friend hipped me to these videos of singer Darlene Love performing at the Hollywood Bowl and on Letterman. She tears it up both times. Enjoy. Tweet

Cory Doctorow has a bunch of interesting things to say about e-book readers and content control as well as the opportunities and challenges of the current book publishing environment. Seth Godin and Cory Doctorow are thought provoking thinkers and writers when I’m contemplating writing, storytelling, and getting my work into the world. This video interview [...]

Some folks I know had this video on their Facebook pages. The Roots are funky and the aesthetic of the video reminded me of the style of jazz artists like Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and the way they were photographed in their day. Tweet

DJ Spooky at Google riffing on creativity. DJ Spooky or is it Paul Miller is a phenom: he’s a hip-hop head and sound artist with a degree in French Lit and Philosophy whose intellectual interests are as varied as his projects. I like his approach to creativity and the fact that he has figured out [...]

Jason Fried’s TED talk dovetails with my last post about creative people needing to understand ourselves well enough to know what environments encourage our creativity. Fried has some interesting ideas about how to get work done in an office environment. I agree that employees should be allowed to manage their workflow but doubt that managers [...]

Selected Clips from the Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project is a treasure trove of interviews with various jazz musicians. DocBop hipped me to this one. Makes me want to take a trip to New York to see the other full length interviews. click here to see Selected Clips from the Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral [...]