Craig Constantine

Scenes →

Published April 13, 2021 · All posts on Apr 13 · Apogee

Because they can only show scenes, …
~ Ryan Holiday from, Sorry, An Epiphany Isn’t What’s Going To Change Your Life

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Check the following against your experience: Except for sleep, or fits of unconsciousness, my life is a perfectly seamless and continuous experience. It has no montages, elisions of time, “jump cuts,” nor cross fades. I’ve never experienced a rerun of any moment; every moment is the next moment found directly after that moment that was now, but is now just past.

From my point of view, every other person… every book… every movie… every image painting film story… I experience those in one, compressed form or another. I catch up with a friend over lunch; I get two weeks of their experience compressed into a thirty-second story. Rocky goes from zero to hero in a two-minute (I’m guessing) montage. That person experiences an entire year; I experience their birthday dinner.

Everything out there is a small scene from some real experience. Is it any wonder it’s difficult to understand?

Narrative →

Published April 11, 2021 · All posts on Apr 11 · Conversation

Cinematic Portraiture … I try to make a picture that draws elements of a larger scene happening. For me it’s always that challenge of how do you come up with a picture that gets the essence of the person, but also does a little more.

It’s different depending on the medium, but there are some things that are the same throughout. One of them is, you have to know or define your narrative because you’re always telling a story whether it’s in a single frame or in a two hour documentary. The first thing for me is to know what story I’m telling. With photographs it’s often, I read about the person, I start sketching ideas, and hopefully I can make up a story that I can tell that is true with that person. If it’s a music video, I’ll try to get what I want to say about the song; Whether it’s trying to be very literal or trying to be very opposite, I still have to know the story I want to tell. With doing Off Camera, it really is— You could talk to anyone for 100 hours and not get even close to their whole deal, so the idea is to try to pick the things you really want to look into and develop a little narrative.
~ Sam Jones starting around 44:50, from How to Cultivate Your Authentic Voice

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Sam Jones is well-known for his Off-Camera project. Each “episode” is a photoshoot, documentary video, podcast and print magazine. This interview from 2015 on Rich Roll’s podcast covers a wide range of things related to being creative. This podcast episode is a true gem.

A right to know what? →

Published April 10, 2021 · All posts on Apr 10 · Apogee

It’s hard to quarrel with that ancient justification of the free press: “America’s right to know.” It seems almost cruel to ask, ingenuously, “America’s right to know what, please? Science? Mathematics? Economics? Foreign languages?” None of those things, of course. In fact, one might well suppose that the popular feeling is that Americans are a lot better off without any of that tripe.
~ Isaac Asimov from, (Newsweek Jan 21, 1980) A Cult of Ignorance

tripe n. 2: something poor, worthless, or offensive

That’s the second definition, and is clearly the one Asimov was using. For some reason, I believe I would have said that the first definition had something to do with fish. (It does not.)

In addition, suspecting that Asimov knew a thing or three more than me, had not made a capitalization error in writing “mandarin minority”—you’ll have to click now, won’t you?—I spent several minutes in my Dictionary and learned a second thing.

And finally a third thing: 1980. 2021. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Wrangling life’s admin tasks →

Published April 8, 2021 · All posts on Apr 8

Just as with job-related admin, “life admin” represents some of our least favorite, and most procrastinated on, to-dos. And yet completing them is essential to keeping our lives organized, functioning, and moving ahead.
~ Brett McKay from How to Better Manage Your Life Admin

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A couple years ago I simply threw my hands up in the air and picked one day of the week which I’ve literally labeled as my “admin” day. On that day each week, I tackle everything related to life admin. It’s awesome; Stuff gets done.

But even better than that: It frees me on the other six days of the week. During the other six days each week, whole swaths of things are trivially lobbed onto the pile for the next admin day.

Try this: Pick a day of the week to be admin day, and start lobbing stuff to that day. Laundry, housecleaning… hell, I don’t even open postal mail until admin day. Pay bills, schedule things, shopping, errands…

The guilty, crazy secret →

Published April 7, 2021 · All posts on Apr 7

The bullshit— …well, it disappears for a fleeting second.
~ Ryan Holiday from, The Guilty, Crazy Secret That Helps Me Write

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I have playlists for this exact thing. Hundreds of individual songs selected and shuffled, for very specific purposes.

Sometimes I go “hunting” to find new tracks for these lists; My Mac says my music library has 9,121 items, 26.5 days, 77.96 GB, and I have a “smart” playlist which grabs 250 least-recently played. It avoids some genres (like “Spoken Word” so it doesn’t pick out French lessons, etc) and it avoids any track I’ve one-starred (my way of saying omg no)… It’s basically an endless series of, “I forgot about that!” I often flip over to the original album, start from the front, and sometimes I add a track to one of my play lists.

What? Why? …best of both worlds. I have playlists that do what I need—hide the world, hide everything. And I’m continuously startled with delight by my tiny music collection.

Nostalgic →

Published April 5, 2021 · All posts on Apr 5

All people have a “tact filter”, which applies tact in one direction to everything that passes through it.
~ Jeff Bigler from, Tact Filters

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A short and startlingly insightful idea about— …well, no. I’m going to make you click.

Also: Cue my misty-eyed nostalgia. That’s what the web looked like in ’96. Back when I proudly wielded the self-selected job title of “spyder.” (Do I have to explain that? Please tell me I don’t have to explain that.)

How to save the world →

Published April 4, 2021 · All posts on Apr 4

As we leave childhood, we unwittingly dial down our imagination and our ambition, because an ancient and out-of-touch part of our minds tells us they are dangerous. Creativity suffers, and so do our prospects for personal greatness and happiness. […] The purpose of this book is to illustrate this great discrepancy — between what is normal and what is possible — and give you some stepping stones to begin crossing the rift.
~ David Cain from, On Becoming an Individual

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Ignore me. Click the link.

…you’re still here, why? Seriously the entire point of this post is simply so I can link to Cain’s post, and the sublime 46 page PDF attached to it.

Go. Go now!

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Not so little anymore →

Published April 2, 2021 · All posts on Apr 2

Recently my “little” box of quotes outgrew its original little box. The collection now exceeds 600 cards and continues to grow at an accelerating pace.

…and it has expanded conceptually far beyond simply being a box on my desk. The Little Box of Quotes podcast has surpassed a year of daily episodes. A precious 10 or so of the quotes were the original seeds for what became my personal sequence of daily reminders for reflection. My personal sequence then inspired my series on Practicing Reflection which ran during the opening days of 2021.

I’m curious to see where I’ll be with this in another 5 years.

Seriously →

Published April 1, 2021 · All posts on Apr 1

I know I’ve been off on two long tangents recently: The long series of posts about practicing self reflection kept this blog busy for two months, and before-and-after that I’ve been doing a deep rabbit hole exploration of Slipboxes. I’m still yappin’ about Slipboxes, but I think we’ll be seeing more random things here in April.

But before that happens here’s another thing related to the Slipbox: I found this really detailed summary of Ahrens’s, How to Take Smart Notes. I’ve been reading and studying these notes, as I’m reading and studying the book. Take a look at this post, How to Take… —the site is literally named The Rabbit Hole. You’ve been warned.

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Craig Constantine: Experience, pruning, and benefit →

Published March 31, 2021 · All posts on Mar 31 · Movers Mindset

Craig Constantine: Experience, pruning, and benefit

What motivates and defines meaningful conversations in podcasting, and how does preparation and intentionality shape these interactions?

Doing the ‘same’ thing over 100 times seems like a lot, but feels like much less when each time is a unique and valuable experience. Craig discusses the process he uses to create space and have authentic conversations with each guest. He unpacks the idea of ‘pruning’ your projects and how reflection is integral to the process. Craig shares his personal reasons for creating the podcast, why video is not on the agenda, and changes we may see moving forward.

If you think about how… This is actually really hard to do, I think. If you think: ‘I am going to go over to my friend’s house at three o’clock on Tuesday, and I’m going to have a good conversation!’ With that, I mean, that’s basically what we’re trying to do.
~ Craig Constantine (14:17)

This conversation navigates the dynamics of podcasting, emphasizing the intentional shift from traditional interviews to organic conversations. Key points include the importance of preparation, balancing listener needs with authentic dialogue, and creating a space where guests feel seen and heard. Insights into reflective practices reveal how curiosity and follow-through shape meaningful exchanges.

The discussion also touches on challenges in managing creative projects, with pruning as a metaphor for intentional decision-making. The process of saying no to certain projects to create room for impactful endeavors highlights the speaker’s philosophy. Other topics explored include the importance of diversity in guest selection and the iterative process of refining the podcast’s mission.

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