The Tahora Diaries - Wayne Gillespie

Wayne Gillespie wins awards for the songs he writes.

You can read all about that on his web site. http://www.waynegillespie.com/.

It had been 23 years since Wayne had been to Tahora.

It was great to have him back.

In between times he also did a psych degree research project on the personality of rock musicians. Seems like they do have them!

I went to his song-writing workshop.

Here are some snippets of wisdom from a very fine singer song writer.

"A major writing block for singer songwriters is happiness."

"Songwriters start asking if it is good way too soon."

"2 traps for songwriters - thinking everything you write is great and accepting that a song is good enough even when something is not working."

"I can't write a song if I'm not moved."

"No-one can write a song if you don't make time for it."

"Separate the creator from the editor."

"Get used to brainstorming and make a dick of yourself!!"

And the best thing - I got to play with him!! Talk about mixing with the rich and famous - well famous anyway!

That's me on the 'crate' [ a busking type drum kit] and Brendan Power [more about him in later blog] on harmonica.

The Tahora Diaries - Kath Tait

London based Kath Tait writes songs - funny songs, poignant songs, great songs - and she performed a bunch of them at Tahora - now that's a long way from London.

In Kath's words she is 'a highly ambitious singer/songwriter, desperately trying to get to the bottom of her profession.'

That's Kath's sense of humour. You can hear it in her songs.

You can listen to her and others sing her songs at http://www.kathtait.com/.

If you like what you hear you can buy her Cd's through her web site.

The Tahora Diaries 2009 - 2010 - Creativity in Action

Tahora has a population of around 10 - maybe less.

The shop closed many years ago.

The school closed a couple of years ago.

It is in the back blocks of Taranaki - that's in New Zealand - not far from Whangamomona. That's where the nearest pub is - on the Lost Highway.

There's not much at Tahora except for lots of memories.

For more than two decades I, and my family, have gone to a festival on Kerry Turner's sheep farm at Tahora.

After 30 years of festivals they stopped but this year we decided to have a reunion and what a reunion it was!

Creativity in action!
The next few blogs are going to feature the creative goings on at Tahora.

That's Kerry with the guitar.

Can comedy and rock'n'roll help business?

This from the BBC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8414929.stm

Riffs, Myths and Creativity

Peter Cook. author of 'Sex, Leadership and Rock'n'Roll mixes ideas about business creativity and innovation with music. In this brief clip he discusses musical scales and their relationship with creativity at work.
http://www.youtube.com/academyofrock#p/a/DB73A1A7A782ACCF/0/BnFkXX5dVYs

John Kao and the Innovation Agenda

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/science/24prof.html?_r=1&ref=science

Sidewalk Menagerie

Joshua Allen Harris's recycled sidewalk menagerie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH6xCT2aTSo

Imagination

From my friend Joe Miguez - the Labyrinth man.

What is imagination?.....

" The faculty of imagination," wrote Dugald Stewart," is the principal source of human improvement."..... THE MINDS' EYE.--- Human imagination enables us to transcend mortal limitations of space and time, to experience what was, what can be , what can never be; It opens vistas that are not available to the senses."

By his imagination," writes Frank Barron, "man makes new universes which are never to the hearts desire."

The sorcery and charm of imagination and the power it gives to the individual to transform his world into a new world of order and delight makes it one of the most treasures of all human capacities.....

This is from the 2nd edition - Experiences in Visual Thinking by Robert H Mckim.

Music for Change

Music for change - check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xjPODksI08

Eureka Moments

A dream about Bartôk brought Malcolm Gillies his conceptual breakthrough, although it would take him another five years to finish writing it down.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=409185