arts talk and other stuff too.
Really happy with the way this episode came out! Come join me as I ruminate on making do with the time we have and the adjustments I am hoping to make to my schedule. It’s all about staying creative! Shoutout to my pal Dust Jones for his mic contribution to the show!
-J. Alejandro
My 2019 days have been filled with upward stumbles in the creative department and good cheer. I hope the rest of the year follows this trend!
I had the pleasure of revamping my tentative podcast experiment known as Creative Drive into a proper podcast production with the help of my awesome wife, Maddie! It’s so nice to be able to find something that we can do together that’s not only fun to do, but a good opportunity to learn as we go. So far, we have two episodes to our credit and it feels right. Creative Drive started to sate the need to document and produce content on the regular. As we come upon the one year anniversary of this podcast experiment, I wanted to start investing more time and energy into something that I know will yield a positive message for us, and for anyone listening. In a nutshell, this iteration of the show will still cover my trial and error process of maintaining a decent work/life/creativity balance, as well as a brief conversation with Maddie on book and other content recommendations. I’ll still be doing some mini pep talks for working class creatives as well, all packaged in a short pod under thirty minutes. we have a lot to learn, but I couldn’t be more pleased with the first two episodes.
Coming from the exhausting nature of wedding videography, I am cautiously building new routines and I don’t want to overwork myself. It’s not about that right now. I don’t want to bite more than I can chew, I want this new goal to grow organically. It’s taken us so long to get into a comfortable work/life balance, the last thing I want to do is have the podcast or any new project upset the order of things. Let’s ease the creativity into the mix and we’ll go from there.
There’s never been a better time to do this. So here I am, trying to make this shit work. It’s not much, but the little increments inspire me to do more. I am free but overwhelmed, tired but leaping with joy, longing and aiming. Most of all, I’m desperately trying to be here, in the present, loving every goddamn second. It’s late and I have to get up early.
Don’t forget to get started on your happiness. We got this.
Much love,
j
Listen to Creative Drive on iTunes
Listen to Creative Drive on Google Podcasts
Listen to Creative Drive on Spotify
For all other options, check out our page on Anchor!
Momentum swells and recedes at a moment’s notice. So much has changed in the last month that I’ve had to recalibrate my commitment to the blog and the Idlewind collective endeavors. Today I started a full time position working as an office assistant– It’s a really wonderful thing for my family and I, and you know what? It’s also a wonderful thing for my creativity:
If I really want to stay creative, I will make it happen. If I don’t care for it, something else will take its place. But I can’t let that happen, I consider this a great challenge. The time is now to put my beliefs about creativity and storytelling and willpower to the test. And I couldn’t be more excited!
As you know we have the Addendum podcast, now streaming everywhere! I find this super exciting because I’m lining up some great interviews with great friends who are working class creatives striving to make great work. And of course, contact me if you’re a creative with a day job making art!
I’ll be sharing some daily commentary on my Anchor account as well, which will be more on the fly recordings about my creative progress to complement the Addendum interviews.
Oh, and there will be more bite sized content coming your way. Stay tuned, and if you have any tips on how I’m gonna get through it, please pass them on. The next chapter begins now…
Make art. Make haste.
-Jaime Alejandro
I sort of blinked and realized The Addendum Podcast is ten episodes in. The first five episodes are absolute garbage, but the more recent ones clearly sound like me getting my act together! I really do love this. It’s like my own method of immediate introspection. It allows me to form some thoughts about my day, my craft, and being able to manage a world that is telling you to stop being creative. That is the answer I want to get to: how to find room in life for the storytelling? The fun part right now is not giving up, and fall in love with fumbling through this exploration. It suits me much better than any of the other social networks.
The Addendum Podcast is now on iTunes and all over the place, so I really need to up my game. But hey, it’s cool, all of this is a learning process. Hopefully by the time people start listening, it will be a much more polished project.
Make art. Make haste.
-Jaime Alejandro.
Hello Scribes,
I give you “Addendum: An Idlewind Podcast.” This is my side project to prepare myself to actually podcast like a real person, and I’m starting to feel good about it. Just disregard the first two episodes, but check out the third one (link below). I’m very excited to continue this development. It’s like getting your thought process back.
I’m so thrilled to get this going and along with the Talking Text podcast! I intend to use those two projects to complement whatever writing routines or process you already have set, and offer great ways to jumpstart your next creative project.
If you’d like me to recite/record your work, don’t hesitate to reach out! Poetry, flash fiction and short stories would be great at this time!
Much love,
Jaime
https://anchor.fm/addendum/episodes/150c28c/embed?at=2390536
I’m mulling over the tracks to use for the theme of the show. I’ve been recording music since I was a kid, so I have a few recordings lying around that I could use. This one is quite old, but I like the noise it brings. There’s a few more, we’ll see what happens. Two days left to make up my damn mind. Step two.
In my haste to lay the groundwork for the podcast as the year comes to an end, I have been recording tests to see if it would be possible to do a video podcast version of Talking Text simultaneously. Video has been a big part of my life, and since I was an actor in college who craved the spotlight once upon a time, I figured, what the hell? I’ll try the full camera setup to see if there’s a bit of that yearning for that sweet limelight.
It felt awful. I’ve been out of the acting game far too long.
In many ways, most of that stage-domineering persona has atrophied. It’s still in there somewhere, but at this time, I guess there’s other areas I’m looking to beef up on. Focus on the voice, Jaime. That eagerness to get the ball rolling. The thing you really want to get to know about yourself: The jumpstart. Re-learn how to reach out to fellow creatives to spark story, discovery and possibility. The audio version of Talking Text will do that just fine.
I have always been much more comfortable behind the camera (or the pen), and since Talking Text is supposed to be a jolly old time I will keep it low-key for now, so NO concurrent video podcasts will be produced at this time. Sounds good to me! I know absolutely nobody cares about these dilemmas, and that’s cool, but I find that if I’m going to be honest with myself about my process, as well as being open about starting something from scratch and following through, it will be best if I jot down the journey for self-evaluation later. It’s all about getting better.
So here it is. Step one.
It was my goal this year to start a podcast for writers. It would be easy to say it hasn’t happened because of work, family, procrastination, etc. There’s no excuse. I am sorry to say it has not happened because of my inability to time manage. I acknowledge this and now that it’s out there I can remedy it by getting my ass in gear.
This is a great example of not following through with the things that you want to achieve. There’s a good chance I’m afraid of the whole endeavor. But I think about this podcast once a day, and it is constantly on my mind, so there is no lack of passion and excitement for the project. Just excuses.
Instead of thinking about it, writing about it, being afraid of it: I need to execute it. Enough is enough.
I will release the first episode before the year is out. From this moment, that is my goal to myself to make sure the podcast leaves 2017 on a good note.
Stay tuned.
-Jaime Alejandro
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