Billy Collins: Get influenced by people who make you jealous

Poet Billy Collins on finding your voice:

Your voice has an external source. It is not lying within you. It is lying in other people’s poetry. It is lying on the shelves of the library. To find your voice, you need to read deeply. You need to look inside yourself, of course, for material, because poetry is something that honors subjectivity. It honors your interiority. It honors what’s inside. But to find a way to express that, you have to look outside yourself.

Read widely, read all the poetry you can get your hands on. And in your reading, you’re searching for something. Not so much your voice. You’re searching for poets that make you jealous. Professors of writing call this “literary influence.” It’s jealousy. And it’s with every art, whether you play the saxophone, or do charcoal drawings. You’re looking to get influenced by people who make you furiously jealous.

Read widely. Find poets that make you envious. And then copy them. Try to get like them.

You know, you read a great poem in a magazine somewhere, and you just can’t stand the fact that you didn’t write it. What do you do? Well, you can’t get whiteout, and blank out the poet’s name and write yours in — that’s not fair. But you can say, “Okay, I didn’t write that poem, let me write a poem like that, that’s sort of my version of that.” And that’s basically the way you grow.

Read the full quote here.

Negotiating with The Marx Brothers

Jim Carrey takes over the room

Phew.

David Bowie and authenticity

Maybe being authentic is overrated?

David Bowie as antidote to our over-zealous belief in "authenticity." Bravo @willwilkinson: https://t.co/vaGe6RTKuU pic.twitter.com/lzUY0i7T0b

— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) January 19, 2016

The lesson David Bowie taught a young Luther Vandross: "Their reaction isn't the point. What you do is the point."

How David Bowie influenced a young Luther Vandross:

Bowie’s ‘plastic soul’ phase saw him embracing a young singer and songwriter, Luther Vandross, with whom he co-wrote Young Americans. Vandross became a key part of Bowie’s vocal arrangements, and benefited from the star’s career advice. Vandross once told me that on tour, “Bowie told me to go out there and sing five original songs every night with the band before he went on, and for 45 minutes each night I'd hear, ‘Bowie!’”.

“I said to him, ‘Listen, man, if you want to kill me, just use cyanide, but don't send me out there again.’ And Bowie just said, ‘Hey, I'm giving you a chance to get in touch with who you are. Their reaction isn't the point. What you do is the point.’”

Experimenting and bombing as a means to growing, innovating, and connecting.

Inspiration for comedy pilot scripts and some of the best ones written previously

Some good info on comedy pilot scripts and some of the best that've been done. (Interesting note: Paul Simms wrote the pilot for both News Radio and The Larry Sanders Show. Pretty impressive.)

8 Most Wanted Comedy Pilot Scripts Get the Brooklyn Nine-Nine pilot script, The Mindy Project pilot script, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt pilot script and 5 more as PDFs you can download. GOODINAROOM.COM The Best Comedy Pilots of All Time (Check out the drama list here.) Most sitcoms grow into themselves over a few episodes. PAJIBA.COM The Ten Best Comedy Pilots in TV History More so than drama or sci-fi pilots, which get a full hour (minus commercials) to establish a premise and introduce all their characters, sitcom pilots… SPLITSIDER.COM

Why the mob loved to watch The Sopranos

Showtime is taking its new show Billions to the bankers and financiers on Wall Street and beyond.

"People love to see themselves, good or bad, depicted in popular entertainment," said Showtime's evp and CMO Don Buckley. "I remember reading quotes years ago about how the mob loved to watch The Sopranos."

I've noticed this with Vooza too. Sometimes people will ask, "Don't people in the tech world get mad at you for making fun of them?" And I've never actually experienced this. If anything, it's the opposite. People who work in the tech world day to day respond to it the most. They never go "You're making fun of me." They go "I know someone like that."

It's an interesting phenomenon to me. We all relate to the same issues and see people doing bad things but rarely do we look in the mirror and say, "I am the problem."

We live different lives

These two posts were next to each other in my Facebook feed this morning.

Posted by Matt Ruby on Monday, January 4, 2016

The power of silence, eye contact, and slowing down

7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips From One of the Most-Watched TED Talks Speakers:

1. Don’t talk right away.
Sinek says you should never talk as you walk out on stage. “A lot of people start talking right away, and it’s out of nerves,” Sinek says. “That communicates a little bit of insecurity and fear.”

Instead, quietly walk out on stage. Then take a deep breath, find your place, wait a few seconds and begin. “I know it sounds long and tedious and it feels excruciatingly awkward when you do it,” Sinek says, “but it shows the audience you’re totally confident and in charge of the situation.”

...

3. Make eye contact with audience members one by one.
Scanning and panning is your worst enemy, says Sinek. “While it looks like you’re looking at everyone, it actually disconnects you from your audience.”

It’s much easier and effective, he says, if you directly look at specific audience members throughout your speech. If you can, give each person that you intently look at an entire sentence or thought, without breaking your gaze. When you finish a sentence, move on to another person and keep connecting with individual people until you’re done speaking.

“It’s like you’re having a conversation with your audience," says Sinek. "You’re not speaking at them, you’re speaking with them."

This tactic not only creates a deeper connection with individuals but the entire audience can feel it.

Also liked the tip about focusing on folks who are digging you. It's way too easy to focus on the one guy who ain't into it.