Author Archives: oinsketta

Communist

Back before free markets ruled the world, before freedom was on the march everywhere, before we all enjoyed the true, universal democratic freedom afoot in the world today, there was a serious debate over the most just way to organize societies.   This debate goes back centuries, to the earliest times.  It was formally ended  by Ronald Reagan, already possibly demented, when he caused the Russian Communists to tear down the Berlin Wall, ending the Cold War between Capitalism (freedom) and Communism (repression).

During what’s known as the Enlightenment in Europe, after dim centuries of monkish superstition and misery, the lives of human individuals were put at the center of the debate.  For the first time inalienable natural rights were discussed– the rights to life, liberty and, in Jefferson’s felicitous phrase– the pursuit of happiness.  

Rhetorical phrases are just that, and how ironic or accurately descriptive they are depends on experience down here on the ground where most of us are compelled to live.  “Freedom on the March” means something different to those stirred by their president declaring it and those who find themselves homeless and orphaned, lives trampled by the boots of their liberators as freedom, not always graceful, marches in.  

But I am hopped up, trying to motivate myself somehow to get on with my day.  A thought, then, and into my work:

My grandmother grew up in a town in the Ukraine where Jews were treated harshly for centuries.   Two decades after she left all the Jews in her town were murdered, some slowly, the rest shot and left in a ravine in the summer of 1943.  When she was a teenager in Vishnevitz, for a brief period, the Russian Revolution brought the promise of freedom, equality and inalienable rights in the form of Communists on horseback, with machine guns mounted on carts, with books and organizers and the burning idea of shaking off centuries of murderous repression.  A bright girl, she seized on this hopeful dream and was, for the rest of her life, in spirit if not in actual party membership, a Communist.

Your grandma was a fucking Commie, you will say.  Yes, I will reply, and she was not wrong.  There was once a debate about the most just way to organize human affairs.  Karl Marx, whatever virtues and flaws were in his idealistic system, underestimated one thing: the fatal resolve of Capitalism.   Regarding the famous apocryphal Lenin quote that capitalists will sell you the rope to hang them with, they will.  Right after they’ve poisoned the last drop of water you will drink to wet your whistle after doing the sweaty deed.

The Wages of Futility

The contacts list on my smartphone has bloomed like an eruption of brilliantly colored flowers after a long early spring rain.  Color and shadow all over.  Childish designs in thumbnail, the grey and white face of Baron von Doghead, snips of my own drawings, the brilliant pattern of my favorite Origami paper.  

Wherefore do you cause your phone to be so beautiful, sirrah?  

It can’t be helped.  The minimum and maximum wage of futility are the same.  ‘Tis like the breath of an unfeed lawyer, as the Fool told Lear.  I’m preparing to exhale some of that breath in the Bronx Civil Court, alternating that prep with research on pink mucus in stools.  

Please, what are you on about?  

Creativity, man, for its own sake and for the sake of the joy it brings, cannot help but bring.  Drawing cannot be helped, for example.  In a grey, futile and slightly queasy day there is also this: invention, beauty, mastery.   These things are excellent in and of themselves.  

Package and sell them and they are even more excellent, if you can find a way not to make dainty little trollops out of them.

Screenshot_2015-04-21-14-50-27

“No worries of anyone making a dainty trollop out of me, boss”

We take our laughs where we can get them

There was a woman, a very good looking young woman, actually, who had a small business running after-school programs and seemed to grasp the educational and group dynamics potential of the student-run animation workshop.   When I increased the price to about double what the first after-school program was paying, she barely hesitated before agreeing to pay it.   Her assistant was a great and supportive fan of the workshop, she urged me to organize the little mini-animation festival I put on for the kids and their parents.  One day a week or so before the festival the usually cheerful assistant came in and told me her boss had died the previous day.  Cancer she never revealed to anyone she worked with had ended her life at 34.  Her business winked out of existence a few months later.

Fast forward a few challenging months and, temporarily (or permanently) out of public school programming, I am conducting a four session workshop for women with chronic serious diseases.  Some are in recovery from cancer, others show up straight from chemo, some show up once and not again, others make half the sessions.  A core of four is there every week.  These first time animators all produced very cool animation, worked beautifully together, got more and more demanding about seeing the day’s rough cut before they left, high fived each other at the end.   One woman in particular, Liz, was a great innovator.  She came in with brilliant and ingeniously different ideas week after week.  Her animation for the four sessions is here. 

She was excited about assisting at the recent Stevenson workshop, the first I’ve done since last summer.  The day before the workshop she was hit by the flu and couldn’t make it, she expressed her sincere regrets.  I assured her there’d be more sessions, promised she’d be at the next one, whenever I could arrange it.  A few days later I sent her the clip from the Stevenson session, telling her how difficult it had been and that she hadn’t missed much fun.  I didn’t hear back.  I wrote again a few days later, telling her I hoped she was up and around and that I’d be sending her the new website soon.

When the website was done I sent her the link, since she had grasped the idea so well and run with the ball so enthusiastically, once she’d had her head down on the table for the first forty minutes or so of each session.  I emailed her once more after not hearing back, and was beginning to fear the worst for this talented woman I barely know.  I have gleaned that she is living with cancer, and that it is not easy living.

When I got a smart phone I texted her that I’d joined the 21st century, hoped she was over the flu and feeling better and added this picture.

Are You OK ?

Several days passed, and hearing nothing from her, I imagined the worst.  A gloomy thought twisted its way into my head: this workshop is the accursed kiss of death to the rare women who really get its potential and find it compelling.  

Then tonight, at 1:35 a.m. a tiny bell in my pocket sounds, and she’s texted:

Congratulations!  Sorry for the delayed reply.  I’m so so happy flowers are growing (emoticon of red flower) Rain makes it happen (yellow umbrella) Happy Spring!

I wrote back:

Thanks.  Good to hear from you — and happy Spring to you, too!

I hope you don’t have any objection to this wonderful bit of work being here (and I sent her the link)

3:42 a.m.  I’m glad you sent this.  I’m very upset and can’t sleep.  Seeing this animation was uplifting.  Thank you . … (emoticon of girl holding up hand)

3:45 a.m.  I’d share this on my Facebook (emoticon of two people holding hands) except one thing.  If it’s not too much bother, I’d like an edit…

Here I had an actual laugh.  A small one, yes, but genuine (nobody here to impress with a fake laugh) and, like I said up top, I’ll take me larfs where I can get ’em.

3:49  the part with the butterflies has the cat jumping in. (Cat head emoticon)  At one point its head changes to a dog.  That’s not my taste (slightly disgusted looking emoticon)

3:52  I’d post your page without hesitation if that part were eliminated (a series of emoticons animating a round yellow face bursting into a laugh)

3:55  Thanks for replacing maddening thoughts with delightful ones.

She made my day with that one.

4:08  I enjoyed Jesse’s project!  (gold star emoticon)  The patterns in the beginning are well done.  The tumbling guy has fun hair.  (emoticon of a thumb up)

4:14   I will try to sleep and think of (emoticon of rowboat, I think) being inside (angel fish emoticon) animation (some kind of water emoticon).  Thank you. (emoticon of little angel head with halo).

Honor Anemia

The man who made the case that many in our society suffer from Honor Anemia was himself a highly respected member of our civic society.   He was treated with deference in restaurants he frequented and he always handled this attention with smiling graciousness.   It seemed strange that the theory about people craving respect was his, but here it is:

We live in a society where many people feel disrespected.  They crave the honor of being treated fairly, recognized for their efforts, they suffer greatly from the lack of it.  If you give somebody a title, special recognition, it goes a long way.   Honor anemia can only be palliated by giving honor of some kind.

Dale Carnegie noted the same thing a century earlier, if you want to make friends and influence people, and sell things to them or get them to do you favors, you need to make them feel appreciated and important.   Carnegie, and my friend decades later, noted it and it will be noted again, as the lack of respect many people feel is a major cause of anger, depression and violence.   Anger, depression and violence– aren’t those really phases of the same thing?  

We live in a culture where the bottom line more and more requires the individual to be placed on hold, thanked for patience he doesn’t have, forced to talk to robots, get calls from recordings asking him to press numbers so he can get in line to speak to a human who will give him shit about something, usually a bill.   We live in a culture organized on the myth of the free individual and his inalienable rights, yet very few get to be treated as unique individuals.   Much suffering flows from this anonymizing of most of us.

“You think too much, you write too much and you’re giving me a head ache.  Would you do me the honor of shutting the fuck up, please, at least while I bolt this crappy, high-fat, low-nutrition fast food dinner I’m trying to get down?”

“Of course, sir, my bad.”

Embedded?

Need to trim this down and send it to a friend I’ve been out of touch with.  Following up on yesterday’s energizing meeting, the guy turned out to be engaged and engaging and had a lot of helpful information, I need to continue the networking.    This cat knows two well-known animators he’s offered to introduce me to.   Let’s see if this embed works.

The Point of Today’s Business Meeting

I have the product, the original and compelling prototype built and ready to be put in a package and sold.  Now I need to develop skill and confidence in the packaging and selling.   Today I have a meeting with a man who runs a well-funded nonprofit that uses the discipline of 3-D animation as a therapeutic tool for “at risk” and court-involved teenagers.   His organization has an office, where I will meet him, and a staff, including a Director of Programming, the job I had been mainly focused on for the first couple of years of my adventure in becoming the change I want to see in the world.  Maybe I will be introduced to his Director of Development, which is what fundraising is called in the corporate world.  I need to start meeting these money people and asking a lot of questions of them.

His organization is supported by grants from foundations and sponsored by several corporations.  It seems to have been remembered by wealthy people in their estate plans.  By all appearances it looks like it’s thriving.

What do I want from today’s meeting?  Mostly to get insight into how to raise money, and get the name of a grant-writer to talk to.  I plan to ask directly, at the proper moment, and for the rest of the meeting, actively listen.  It is the minimum I’d like to take from today’s meeting and I must be sure to get it.  Repeat: get contact info for his Director of Development and any grant-writers he knows.

Here are things I will keep in mind.

To speak little of my own program, answering only as much as asked for about it.  To draw him out on how he went about building his unique inspiration into a working expression of his idea that is helping many and allowing them to express themselves, learn skills, work as teammates and better their lives.  How he got it up and running– how he was inspired to turn his dream into reality and what steps he took.  What advice he might have for someone in the beginning of a similar project.

I know the short answer is that it’s possible to build charitable organizations, even those driven by vague or ass backwards missions (as with several I’ve seen), with sufficient funding.  If you start with enough money you can hire the people you need to take the organization pro in short order.  How to get funding is the million dollar question. 

The point of today’s meeting is to listen to this guy, draw him out, hear his ideas. Ideally end with him sympathetic enough to my goals to offer to be a mentor, talk on the phone, bounce ideas off of.  That he seems to be a man of few words indicates to me that I should not ramble on either.  I should pay attention to what he’s saying, be thoughtful, find areas of shared interest, ask engaging follow-ups.  

He e-mailed back quickly to invite me to meet, and though he didn’t mention having clicked on my website, he’s no different from several of my friends in that regard.  Even if I were inclined to hold that against him, it would blunt the point of today’s meeting if I had it anywhere in mind.  It is, truly, meaningless whether he finds my program cool or not, although hopefully he does.

Today I’d like to take the tour of his facility, if possible, hear the full explanation, see more work by his students.  The sale at this meeting is as subtle as the abuse many experience as kids and tricky to put into words.  But it is a sale.  The point of today’s meeting is to sell.

The person who made the introduction wrote “don’t let him get you to volunteer for him.”  I am forewarned.   The only other thing I know about the guy, really, is that he chooses to run a program to help “inner city” youth in trouble.  

That he chose to do this with his life and creative energy speaks very well of him.  I will applaud his mission and ask him how he got the drive to help these kids, tell him, if he asks, about going into that tenement in West Harlem that was right out of Bigger Thomas-world, the brutality and lowered expectations I witnessed there and at the Hugo Newman College Preparatory School there in Morningside Depths, the tremendous creativity I saw in the kids whenever they were given the chance to express it.

And remind myself to stay away from politics.  Keep my end upbeat and open. I’m there to listen and drink in advice and wisdom.  He’s the customer, and he’s by definition always right.  Going there today to exercise the patience I’ve developed in other areas, see what, if anything, this fine man has to offer that could help my organization. 

One thing I need to remember, this man was driven to be an artist before he started this organization, which. like mine, is  based on creativity.  He is among that small slice of people who are excited by creation, know the thrill of timelessness that comes upon a person when he or she is painting, drawing, layering parts on top of musical parts, composing, editing.  I need to go there and see where he’s at.  That connection to creativity could be the key to the whole meeting.

“Who’s in charge here?” the moments-before-angry faced teacher’s aid asked me in the workshop the day she filled in there for my absent assistant.   It was a rhetorical question, I could see by her smile that she got it.  The process was in charge, the organized chaos of creativity.  She was amazed that no adult seemed to be directing it.  There is no point to mention that to this fellow, he is a director in his program and imparting discipline is as important to his stated mission as freedom is to mine, maybe more so.  But the impulse to create, this is a key.

Got to trim my beard, get in some of my least shabby clothes, and head down there, with these thoughts in mind:

creativity

identifying with kids in trouble

turning ideals to action

grant-writer and Director of Development  

how did you find good people?

Mission Impossible

Breaking the impossible mission into small bites, each broken down into a yes/no question and working through an exercise based on the CBT thought record, with evidence for each answer.    

Is the idea or premise of the project sound?

Yes.  The premise that children thrive and are eager learners and peer-teachers when they are listened to and encouraged to be autonomous has been shown many times.  I have demonstrated this in dozens of sessions in public school after-school programs.  Take a look at Sugata Mitra’s great work for an engaging and much more scientific demonstration.  Teaching others yields the highest learning retention (90% vs. 30% for demonstration) of any teaching method.  (While this seems intuitively true, see this)

cone of learning

The organizing principle of the program is  basic and almost too simple to need much explanation.  People like to be listened to, children, in particular, need to be heard, have their competence acknowledged.   The role of adults at the workshop is primarily to listen to and encourage children’s ideas.  In a room where teamwork proves to be the most effective way to work, and is also much more fun than working solo, cooperation takes place naturally.  Where there is excitement to do something, and a working method in place, the thing will get done.

Does this translate to the educational and social development gains you tout for this program?

The evidence here is incomplete but results in the rooms where workshops have been held strongly suggest that it leads to these gains.  The potential of the program is great, and student enjoyment of it, and engagement with it,  almost universal, so far.

How is this program different than other programs that use animation with children?  

Those programs offer structured lessons taught by adult teaching artists who guide the children step by step through a given technique. They function in the traditional teacher imparts knowledge to student model where the student then demonstrates what they have learned by carrying out the instructions.  

In my program the children are the artists, with access to an array of materials and media, and they learn by observation, discovery and invention.  They quickly become the teaching artists themselves when they solve problems and help another student with something they’ve mastered.

Have you made progress marketing?

Yes.  I have redesigned the website which has been universally regarded as an excellent improvement over the old one and something that shows the program in action, expresses its essence colorfully and explains it, within ten seconds or so.  Czech it.

I am producing postcards, a brochure and a short, beautiful book in children’s book format showing the program in action.    I overcame many technical hurdles to design the website and get it on-line and, seeing the concept and shape of each of the other marketing materials I need to make, I am confident that they too will be beautiful and engaging.

Hate to ask a mean question, but have you had business cards made yet?

No.  While they are cheap to produce, and any card is better than none and I can always have a better set done later, I have been stymied by design challenges.  A pathetic excuse, I am well aware.  They are at the top of my list of marketing things I need to design, even though I did not include them on my list above.

Any luck going down your checklist of things you need to do to advance your mission today?  

No, none so far outside of this exercise.

Is it possible to sustain a strong belief, even with something that works exactly as you envisioned and designed it, and has the potential everyone you’ve been able to show it to has grasped at once, in the absence of another person who believes in it too?

No.  In the long run, no.  And this is a long run.  That’s why my next task is reaching out to several strangers to see what I can do in that crucial department of meeting people who will be engaged by the program and what it can do.   Truly, that is the most important single task ahead of me right now.

Will you get on it right now?

Yes, of course.

Rob:

I got your name from (  ) who met you at ( ).  ( ) thought you might be a valuable person to speak with about my program, an educational nonprofit I am in the process of launching.

Based on the principle that adults listening to children is a powerful motivation, the wehearyou.net student-run animation workshop has been embraced by children (and in one case adults with chronic disease) in the dozens of workshops we’ve done. You can see some of their work here (link)

I am in the process of recruiting adult facilitators and collaborators.  I believe that Social Workers and Art Therapists have a skill set that would make them ideal in this role, and that they would also derive a lot from participation in the program.

If you’d be willing to talk to me, I’d be much obliged.  Email me here or call ( ) at any time.   

format for contacting organizations:
 
Discovered your program recently and admire the work you’re doing.  It’s amazing to me that [insert particular amazing thing here]  more people don’t see the connection between collaborative creativity and improved social and life skills.   Congratulations on your great work.
 
I’m in the pre-launch stage of a nonprofit program with a mission similar to yours, a stop-motion animation workshop for public school kids ages 7-11.   The kids collaborate, like a [compare to their actual work], and do all aspects of production, using computers to create what are essentially digital flip books.   You can see some of their work here:   http://wehearyou.net/
Of course, the animation is in a way a bi-product and organizing principle.  The real deal is the kids working as teams, teaching each other, spending a couple of hours in a​n encouraging​, creative space where imagination and technical precision are two interlocked aspects of good work.
 
If you have some time to speak with me, I’d be grateful to hear more about how you developed your program from the initial inspiration and first steps to a sustainable program.  
 
​wehearyou.net works exactly as designed, kids take to it immediately wherever we’ve done it, but I could use some ideas and guidance about how to get it up and running on a wider scale.
 
If you’d be willing to talk, email me back or call me any time ​
at (  ), whatever’s easier for you. 
 
In any event, know that your success is an inspiration to my fledgling organization.

Book plate1-FINAL flat

For Your Consideration

Madness is all around.  You can be shat on by people who will insist that you managed to shit on the front of your own shirt, while wearing it.  They’ll be adamant about it, angry when you try to point out it would have been impossible, demonstrate the angle of the sphincter relative to the landing zone, show the limited throw range of the asshole itself.  Proof?  
“There you go, again…” as Reagan, probably already senile, kept chuckling at his debate opponent every time the guy made a good point.