Let's dive into expanding our learning networks, setting up a daily routine, paying our respects to poets, and wondering how a drone speaker will work with a Roland keyboard.  A new Book Report section will give you highlights, tips from books we are reading, and music to round out your newsletter.  Welcome to your 5-minutes of creativity prompts and fascinating story highlights!

In the old days, the office was your primary problem-solving network.  If you were young and bubbling full of initiative, you sought out mentors and maybe even a networking group focused on your business.  When I started my first couple of companies, I reached out to many people and asked them if they would meet me for coffee.  99% of them agreed, and the advice and information were priceless.  When setting up your problem-solving team, keep the following in mind:

We are adding a new section to the newsletter to help our Indie Community and keep the Inspirational Fires burning.  A space to provide insight and tips from the books we are reading.  The benefits: we hope to highlight great writers and ideas.  And spark our readers with helpful ideas and creative prompts.  Finally, it helps us read, highlight and write out the best ideas in the books we read.  In the future, we will take recommendations and book report highlights from our community.

Austin Kleon is a writer and artist we discovered last summer in Austin, TX.  He gave a talk at the 2022 DIY Musicians Conference produced by CD Baby.  We have highlighted Kleon many times in this newsletter, including the below recommendation for his Substack Newsletter.  Today we are highlighting one of his best-selling books, Keep Going 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad.  Austin does a great job writing in a brief but intelligent tone, and his books are filled with some of his art, breaking up the text and his lessons. 

In the first chapter, Kleon talks about Establishing a Daily Routine.  Some of us creatives resist routine; the challenge we face by not establishing and sticking with a pattern is the quality of the art.  If writing and creating are part of our jobs, even after hours, part-time jobs, or side hustles, that work has to have a sacred place.  Without the commitment to that routine, the backfill of administrative tasks, or worse yet, distracted scrolling, will push the creative work further and further away. 

Don’t worry what the Againsters (haters) say about you; most of them are just Boshers (rubbish talkers); why would anyone listen to a Jake (idiot)?  These and a few other sayings were popular more than 100 years ago.  A story we pictured came out of a "throwing darts" at random stories meeting – Mental Floss gives us 20 Chucklesome Slang Terms From the 1910s.  The next time you go out and get Peloothered (drunk), this list of terms will keep you chuckling from Uber ride to the bed.

Damon Krukowski writes about a member of his Problem-Solving Network in his newsletter.  He gives us a unique post about Charles Simic, who recently passed away.  Simic was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, writer, and college professor.  In Krukowski's article, he talks about attending a single class at the University of New Hampshire while he was attending Harvard.  He also talks about a lovely friendship he had over the years with Simic.  There will be plenty of worthy memorials.  Simic influenced many artists, but Krukowski's story is different; it's about how Simic influenced him and how his initiative to learn from Simic turned him into a mentor and friend.

The visual for a sculptural piano with floating drone speakers is outstanding.  Another question is how the drone speakers work and how the noise from the drone propellers will affect the music.  The article mentions it but needs to detail how it's addressed.  For now, it's a one-of-a-kind design.

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Vista.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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