Michael J McDowell at William Stafford Birthday Celebration at Linfield College

Michael J McDowell

Michael J McDowell was one of the featured poets at the 2012 William Stafford Birthday Celebration in Nicholson Library at Linfield College.

In 2002 along with Bill Siverly, McDowell co-founded and co-edits Windfall A Journal of Poetry of Place.  Windfall is published twice a year.  In 2012 it will be ten years old.

Current Issue

He has published fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in such publications as Penny Dreadful, the Pawn Review, the South Carolina Review , and Confluences.  His poetry is mostly about “a sense of place.” and can be found in Windfall.   He writes nature and landscape prose and his prose has appeared in the anthologies The Ecocriticism Reader (Univ. of Georgia Press, 1996), Reading the Earth (Univ. of Idaho Press, 1998), and Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment (Routledge 2001). He teaches poetry writing, creative writing and nonfiction writing at Portland Community College

His most recent book is The Hundred-Year House available from Windfall Press .

                                                      8 minutes
Michael McDowell talks about Stafford, reads a Stafford poem, then reads his own poems. The one hour Meadowlake Studios Encounter of the 2012 William Stafford Birthday Celebration at Linfield College will air on McMinnville Community Media. 

Bill Siverly at 2012 William Stafford Birthday Celebration Linfield College

Bill Siverly was one of the featured poets at the 2012 William Stafford Birthday Celebration in the Nicholson Library at Linfield College.

Latest Issue

Bill is Co-Editor along with Michael J. McDowell of Windfall A Journal of Poetry of Place  A journal began in 2002, publishing twice a year.  In 2012 Windfall will ten.  

Clearwater Way

He has published three books of poetry: Parzival, (1981), a journey from Lewiston, Idaho to San Francisco, Ireland, and Portland; Phoenix Fire (1987) consisting mostly of anti-nuclear political poems; and  The Turn  (2000), which tells of travels in Europe, mostly in Germany, before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. His book Clearwater Way  from Traprock Books (2009).  The Turn and Clearwater Way are available through Windfall Press.

                                               9 minutes, 30 seconds
In keeping with the Stafford Celebration tradition Bill talks about Stafford, reads a Stafford poem and then on of his own.   The one hour Meadowlake Studios Encounter show of the Stafford Celebration will air on McMinnville Community Media.

Challenges of field videography

The last song in the Dante Zapata Trio's set is Broken written by Dante.  Three of us on the video crew, two cameras, two mics.  Audio through Sony 170 is not what it is best at.  The speakers were on opposite sides of the stage and there was no audio board we could plug into.  We put the two mics in the center by the center camera.  The B-Roll camera got switched off a couple of times, easy to do, when moving around.  Editing was a struggle.  The blow out on the right we could not fix.  
It is the uniqueness and challenge each field session presents which keeps me trying and working to get better.  I keep going back to Videomaker to take advantage of their terrific site.

Dante Zapata Trio "Your Little Spell"

Another song from the Dante Zapata Trio "Your little spell" written by Dante Zapata.  This was a live performance. 

The 30 minute video of all the tunes the Trio did is showing on McMinnville Community Media  Sunday 5:30pm; Monday 8:00pm;
Tuesday 10:30am, and Friday 6:30 pm.

This is a young group. I'm looking forward to their writing more songs

Barbara Drake at William Stafford Poetry reading

Barbara Drake, poet and Linfield College professor emeritus, hosts the William Stafford Birthday Celebration.   She talks about Stafford, reads one of his poems and reads one of her own.  Our Meadowlake Studios Encounter of the event will be on McMinnville Community Media.   

In 2010 when Barbara Drake book Driving One Hundred, Part 1 came out, we filmed her reading.  Driving One Hundred, Part 2  We have to do part 1 and 2 due to Youtube 15 minute limit.

William Stafford Birthday Celebration

Bill Stafford

    Every year for the past several years in January all across Oregon Friends of William Stafford hold poetry readings.  We filmed our third Stafford poetry event at Nicholson Library on the Linfield College Campus.  A one hour TV show we will take to McMinnville Community Media tomorrow.  I like the Stafford Celebration readings because I get to hear different folks read Stafford's poems and their own work. 

    Here in Yamhill County the Arts Alliance of Yamhill County has sponsored the Paper Gardens Writing Contest for children and adults.  This is its 19th year.  William Stafford was the first judge of Paper Gardens.

    Next I'll edit the individual poet readings.  A one hour show is okay for Community Media TV, they are desperate for local content, and we are happy to be able to provide it.  But shorter individual poet readings is much better for the internet.

Music Video inspiration

Sar Gorh the Owl

I've been editing and posting our music video of Dante Zapata Trio.  Today I found inspiration to do better.   Final Cut Producer, Andy Coon's blog is a find for the struggling videographer.  The music video that Coon's worked on Tom Maxwell & the Minor Drag "Jacob Marley" is wonderful.  I would upload a clip of the video, but it is on vimeo which does not want to load to this blog.

Meadowlake Studios Encounter Kylee Fernandez

      Meadowlake Studios produces a TV show Meadowlake Studios Encounter.  Recently we filmed the Dante Zapata Trio.  One of the trio Kylee Fernandez did a nice rendition of "Spelunking", a song written by her friend Laura Veirs.

       The Encounter shows are aired on McMinnville Community Media.  Editing shows into a TV 30 minute or 1 hour format for Community TV has helped us think about shows with a beginning, middle and end. 

Art Cart - archiving, ageing creatively

Yesterday Maureen at Writing without Paper on her Saturday Sharing made me curious about  Art Cart - Saving the Legacy  The 11 minute video about the program is on vimeo.

John the Monk

Art Cart is a program at Columbia University in NYC that has graduate students cataloging and archiving the work of elderly (68 plus) artists.  Being an artist geezer myself I think it is a great project.

 I agree with one artist who said artists are not necessarily old, they are active doing art or they are not.  Another idea mentioned in the video is the accumulation of art over the years can be a problem and burden when it is left behind, which will happen.  A third concept is continuing to work as an artist and creating is a way to stay active and engaged in life as the years grow shorter.

Video Editing challenge: Meadowlake Studios Encounter: Dante Zapata

     Dante Zapata's "She's not going to change your mind" has feeling and depth.  The up tempo Reggie gives it movement. 

      We had a great time filming at Double D Music.  They were gracious in letting us move around and take over their limited space. 
      We put together a 30 minute Meadowlake Studios Encounter show of the Dante Zapata Trio.   The show should air on McMinnville Community Media soon. 

       Directing (and editing) a two camera shoot when the camera operators are not in audio contact and the cameras are not going through a switcher is not the best of situations.  Getting them to in sinc at the beginning is easy.  Then one of the cameras get snapped off for a few seconds, it happens so easy, then the editing is a nightmare. 

Writing Blogs and Poetry video editing

Curiosity is the essence

    Looking for a list of writing blogs I found Writing and Literary Blogs which has a great list of blogs from writers and others in the publishing business about the business. 
     Sniffing out different blogs is a great way to encounter that special idea.  The one that makes the nose inhale deep with the scent of possibilities.  Then I read Heather Webb article on Kris Brady's blog about sticking to writing goals and how easy it is to surf around reading blogs and not doing the work.
     In my defense I'm taking a break from editing the Meadowlake Studios Encounter video we did of the William Stafford Poetry Celebration last week.  I've been listening closely most of the day to poets reading Stafford and their own poems.

Dante Zapata Trio performing Our Love

Meadowlake Studios filmed the Dante Zapata Trio at Double D Music on 3rd Street in McMinnville, Oregon.  We used two cameras, Sony 170 and then edited the two tapes.  We have put together a 30 minute Meadowlake Studios Encounter TV show of their performance which will air on McMinnville Community Media soon.

              "Our Love" written by Dante Zapata and Kylee Fernandez is the first of 5 songs from their performance.  It is also on our YouTube channel with our name Meadowlake Studios

Sculpture, clay working

Lum Tue Mar

   Got out in the studio today.  Not with all the kids watching, that was from the Art Harvest Studio Tour past.  No today it was raining, dark, quiet perfect for sculpture making.  I've been away from the clay for days.
   Although I am not in the Oregon Potters Association Showcase this spring I'm looking forward to going.  The Showcase always gets me excited about doing clay.  There are so many fantastic clay workers.  May 4, 5, and 6 this year at the Portland Convention Center.

My booth at Showcase last year 2011.  We stayed in Portland for the weekend.  Went out to dinner and listened to some music.  I was happy many people liked my tea bowls.

Blog favorite Writing Without Paper

Maureen who provides the blog Writing Without Paper is the best.  I am new at this and her blog is an inspiration and a resource.  Her posts are titled by the day Wednesday Wonder, Monday Muse and my favorite Saturday Sharing.   She does a wonderful job of curating information.  I love following in her click-steps and enjoy the places she leads me to.
My intention for blogging is very different from her blog, but I appreciate the work.

writer author blog research

Research takes time.  Even with the fantastic search tools available.  The SEOmos blog entry today about ways to increase blog traffic was helpful in the extreme.  Google search like writer blog inurl: lists takes me to Donna McDine blog, which give me a wonderful list of author blogs. There are a lot of blogs which list other blogs.  It's great.   I'm looking at blogspot blogs to see how they look so I can settle on a look. 

If a site is stale, it is done.  Six month blanks, gone.  And that tells me something.

Must reads for thinking, writing and blogging

    Jane Friedman's blog article 12 must read Articles from 2011 are true must reads.  The first article on her list is Accessibility vs. access  by Maria Popova in Nieman's Journalism Lab.  Blogger or as Popova calls them "information curator" can be seen as information cross pollinator who reaches to collect information then carries it back out to the hive.
    She says it beautifully "Knowledge is not a lean-back process; it’s a lean-forward activity. Just because public domain content is online and indexed, doesn’t mean that those outside the small self-selected group of scholars already interested in it will ever discover it and engage in it." and  "Information curators are that necessary cross-pollinator between accessibility and access, between availability and actionability, guiding people to smart, interesting, culturally relevant content that “rots away” in some digital archive, just like its analog versions used to in basement of some library or museum or university"  
    The difference today is there are a lot of folks out scrounging around in those dark corners and dusty boxes full of odds and ends.   But I have agree with Popova that with all the information available there may be a barrier of motivation.
     She puts in nicely, "The relationship between ease of access and motivation seems to be inversely proportional because, as the sheer volume of information that becomes available and accessible to us increases, we become increasingly paralyzed to actually access all but the most prominent of it — prominent by way of media coverage, prominent by way of peer recommendation, prominent by way of alignment with our existing interests. This is why information that isn’t rare in technical terms, in terms of being free and open to anyone willing to and knowledgeable about how to access it, may still remain rare in practical terms, accessed by only a handful of motivated scholars." 
    I had not thought of blogger as "editor" before.  Popova's interview in Brain Pickings with Eli Pariser about his book "The Filter Bubble", he makes a interesting point.  "The primary purpose of an editor [is] to extend the horizon of what people are interested in and what people know. Giving people what they think they want is easy, but it’s also not very satisfying: the same stuff, over and over again. Great editors are like great matchmakers: they introduce people to whole new ways of thinking, and they fall in love.” 
    Pariser conclusion as a way to overcome the herding of what we learn by the filters of search sites like Google is to behave randomly, follow whims and tangents, "roads less traveled".   The filter algorithms are forced to expand.  It is the roll of us and the roll of editors to help.

Story telling

Reading Jeff Baker's article Talented fiction writer displayes his talent for non-fiction about William Gibson in today's Oregonian.  I love the Gibson quote  "This newfound state of No Future is, in my opinion, a very good thing. It indicates a kind of maturity, an understanding that every future is someone else's past, every present someone else's future. Upon arriving in the capital-F Future, we discover it, invariably, to be the lower-case now." 
To me it is one of the essences of story telling "every future is someone else's past. every present someone else's future."

Reading and writing

Setting in front of a warm fire, big oak logs rumbling with a lazy rhythm.  Reading Boarderliners by Peter Hoag.  It is dim from rain clouds moving in.  Maybe snow tomorrow.   A good time to write.
Surfing I ran across a free e-book list at www.freelancewriting.com.  Some good titles.  The HP Lovecraft book on writing weird fiction from 1933.

Creativity and the individual

I completely agree with Susan Cain "The Rise Of The New Groupthink" in the New York Times Sunday Review.  A group does not think.  A group gravitates to the power of the person who leads or who will not adjust to any other view but their own.  They wear a group down.  And as Cain indicates.  Groups are easy to hide in.  The best creative work is done by a person working, doing the heavy lifting, on their own.
Pep talks and encouragement is always great.  It helps.  A good group can give that to a person.  The work itself takes persistence, dedication and devotion to what they are doing.  That comes from the person's ethic.

Poetry Reading, Writing, Blood Orange Review

The filming of the Stafford poetry reading went well.  New folks reading and new poems read. Fewer students.  Mostly us grey headed folks.  Finished reading Red to Black.  Lots of narrative, that seemed to struggle to close in and get to near the story.

The Blood Orange Review is bright with colorful home page, it hurts the eyes.  But the creative writing, the fiction and the poems are much calmer.  CI Bledsoe's poem "starting a garden" is wonderful.

William Stafford Memorial Poetry reading

Getting cameras and everything ready for the Annual William Stafford Memorial Poetry Reading at Linfield's Nicholson Library. 

 The reading is hosted by Barbara Drake whose most recent book of poetry is "Driving One Hundred".  This will be the third time we have filmed Barbara and the Stafford event.  I like it because they invite anyone to come up and read a favorite Stafford poem and then one of their own poems.  It makes for a great evening.