Yesterday I heard a quote from Carrie Fisher, who was once Princess Leia. She said , "Resentment is a poison that you drink and wait for the other person to die." It seemed so true and wise. I knew I had to write this in my notebook, but I could not find it, so I chose to remember it instead. Notebooks to me are remembering devices and mine tend to be as patchy and disorganized as my aging memory. When Amy asked me to post on this blog I decided to find the oldest notebooks I could find and see what was in there and why.
This is a bit like mining the past for flashes of inspiration and insight.
Note: my notebooks come in all sizes, but my favorite ones are often the big 8.5" x 11" blank sketchbooks.
Below is an old photo of me at 19 getting bit in the nose by a pet raccoon named Flem.
Behind me is the blue tent I lived in during that summer of 1974 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This was the first time I had ever traveled away from home with no money or safety net. If it were a song it would be Free Fallin'......
20 years ago I wrote, What can I say about that young man who knew so little and knew so much... Hmmm...maybe today at 57 I could write a poem about the forgotten wisdom of youth......
I clipped this newspaper headline in 1985. You can't possibly make this stuff up. I would make this into a cartoon where a bearded man in long caftan is orbiting the earth as astronauts attempt to shoot him down. I don't know why I collect these silly things.
I love to collect quotes from famous people and Woody Allen is one of my favorite people to quote. Lines like "I'm not afraid to die but I don't want to be there when it happens." is just so much more than a one-liner. The punchline is an opener not a closer. It makes you think more. I am not as pessimistic as Allen, and I see his humor as signs of great optimism.
"What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists. In this case I definitely overpaid for my carpet. " I love how Allen moves from the abstract to the banal so effortlessly. He loves the word carpet because of the explosive syllables like chicken and hockey puck, the all time best punchline word (comedy craft).
Cartoon Ideas. I love this one. because it is a sort of an oddball pun. It is something that only I might find funny and that is fine with me and my notebook. This is the first time it has been made public.
Here is a rough for a cartoon I would like to finished. Complete this sentence, Testing companies see children's brains as.... A B C D E. 'Glad I looked in this 20 year old journal. I found something very relevant for today's testing infected schools. Truth telling cartoon to come.
I use my notebook to take notes and I love to cartoon quotes I hear. This is a quote from Abdul Baha about how to live. Seeing my sketch brings the quote to life.
My new superhero, Joy Boy. 'Not sure how he will stack up against Spiderman.
First article that proves that Neanderthals were not modern humans. They were an alien culture. I love the lead which talks of the mars rover and then says that the real alien life was on earth itself. There is something about this lost race of man that inspires me. What if one guy survived. What would he think of us?
Here is something I clipped from Newsweek: Barbie at 50. That is a poem I must write. What happened to those thighs? But wait a minute, why isn't Newsweek talking about Ken at 50???
After a visit to Lincoln's cabin in Hodgkinsville, Kentucky I stuck this postcard in my notebook and wrote about it. Lincoln's greatness grew from his suffering. He is an example of how nobility of character can defeat even the worst pain. I love Abraham Lincoln and should write about that. He was the best of America.
Here is an early draft of a finished song about my fourth grade teacher, Miss Foley. I see that I tried to use more real details about her that fell out of later drafts. I wrote a story about a gorilla in her class. It is great to look back on where a song started. My friend Carl Anderson is a Beatles nut and shared with me some early Beatle sessions recordings. Some of their best songs started as the tiniest fragments. An idea is a seed. A notebook is a seedbed.
Here is the finished song.
My YouTube channel barrylane55 is a notebook of sorts, with over 200 movies that have chronicled people I have met in the last few years on the road. Here is a video of Tom Newkirk explaining what Donald Graves took from Donald Murray: to see children as writers. When we teach with notebooks we create real writers. If you are a writing teacher, the best thing you can do is create a class of writers and the best way to start is by giving them a notebook.
Tom Newkirk Talks about What Donald Graves Learned from Donald Murray. If you are a teacher, the best thing you can do is create.
Here is one of my finished cartoons.
Here's something to try... Write from the point of view of an alien writing a letter home, and describe normal human activities like watching TV, reading, doing dishes, eating. Remember that aliens see things totally differently and would have different words for the things we take for granted. A TV might be a light box. "The humanoids sat in chairs absorbing blue rays from the light boxes." A toaster might be a Slice popper. A house could be a human cage. You can even tackle issues like global warming and war. I love this exercise because it allows us to stand back and see the humor and irony in the everyday.
The book EARTHLETS: AS EXPLAINED BY PROFESSOR XARGLE, by Jeanne Willis, could be a mentor text.
Barry Lane's first album of children's songs was BARRY LANE'S RECYCLED FAIRY TALES. He has authored many books for teachers and students, including 51 WACKY WE-SEARCH REPORTS and BUT HOW DO YOU TEACH WRITING. He currently presents workshops on writing for teachers and assemblies for students nationwide. For more information about his FORCE FIELD FOR GOOD concert/assembly, visit www.barrylane.com.
Barry has generously offered a wonderful prize package including the two books and CD you see below! Please leave a comment on this post to be entered into the drawing; a winner will be chosen and announced here and on The Poem Farm Facebook Page on Sunday, September 30. Please check back!
