We’re on!

APRIL 28-29
SLINKYFEST SPRING 2007

*To find out more, visit the new Slinky website here.

Okay!

So we’re done with all that change goodness and moving on… and you know what that means! As the rains come and go and Spring begins to unfold, the creative elves are coming out of hibernation!

(Wait — you say — I didn’t know elves hibernate.) But they do! And they’re dusting the sleep-dust out of their eyes and working overtime to get ready for:

THE SPRING 2007 SLINKY FEST!
Happening this April! [Date TBD]

So get your crayola caps on, start revving those creative engines, and start your projects!

Details forthcoming on the Offical Slinky Webpage.

(BELATED) SUMMER VACATION SLINKYFEST
No pressure. All fun.

WHO: You! And whomever you like.
WHAT: Slinky Collective (“SlinkyFest 2: Young at Heart”)
WHERE: Mission Dolores Park, San Francisco – map
WHEN: October 1, 2006; 1pm – 5pm
WHY: Being creative rocks!
BRING: Bring a Project (finished, unfinished, or just for fun), your lunch-pail (food), and drink of choice (some beer and wine provided… one perk of being an adult!)

More info at www.GoSlinkyGo.com 

*************
In case you’re confused: What is SlinkyFest?
SlinkyFest is an event intended to get your creative juices flowing, and to celebrate – period. Bring a project to inspire others (a piece of art, design, an idea, a sewing project, a porqupine made from a grapefruit, a poem, a funky outfit, anything you want!) and be prepared to be inspired.

This is the honest-to-goodness, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die, real-live Official Slinky Collective Website. Promise.

For those of you interested in learning more about Project Slinky and the assocaited collective, please take a gander at the About page. Little by little, it will be populated with the creative endeavors of the collective’s participants, creative inspiration a-plenty, as well as future Slinky events.

…in San Francisco: even more showers, apparently. But with those showers, there are great changes afoot.

1. It’s a new month with a new theme (April = Travel!)
2. We’re working on a new look for NKS (spring fashion, people!)
3. There are new projects coming down the line (including In Rod We Trust, The Drunk Radio Shack™ Experiment, and Ahoy, Hanoi! )
4. We’re launching (hold on to your hats, now) a new website!

Whoa, whoa, whoa: not so fast. I know what you’re thinking: this is all moving a little too quickly…this is a lot of change…you need time to process…I mean, we’ve only just met…and already I’m demanding some kind of commitment from you? Commitment to a new theme, new projects and another website?!

Yes. And you’ll be fine. It’s called “growth.”

April’s not getting any younger, so let’s get down to work:
Project Slinky has wrapped up:

[Commence Debriefing Session]
So how went Project Slinky, that wacky gathering that took place on March 25th in the interest of generating creative enthusiasm? Greatly. So greatly, in fact, we’re creating an independent Project Slinky website.

(->Yes, you heard right: A Homepage. Project Slinky. Slinky-homepage. Aren’t you excited? I know you are. You’re so excited you wanted that last sentence to have included a link. But it didn’t. You’re hovering your mouse over and over the words, searching for some kind of active redirect, but there is none. This is intentional. You’ll have to read on further. I’m such a tease.

{->->Please note, for just a moment, how wonderful the fact that we live in an age where such a thing as a “link-tease” might exist.

[->->->Speaking of links, I’m a little embarassed on the Project Slinky status. See: I wanted to present an official-like, post-slinky wrap-up that included a proper unveiling of the new Official Project Slinky Homepage. But: I haven’t gotten around to setting up the site. So just be patient. And when I provide you a link, and it doesn’t work, trust that it will…soon.] } )

But I digress! And now I’m back! And it’s true! The first meeting of Project Slinky was a success:

Paintings, sketches, music, script, photography, architecture, baking and cake decoration, cooking and the art of mass feeding / crowd-pleasing, radio broadcasting, mobile game engineering, “performance art” (you know who you are), installation piece, short story fiction, found writing, found art, needlepoint, musical composition, flower arrangement, and a hedgehog (blowfish?) made out of a grapefruit and toothpicks. Awesome.

On a personal note,
I got so much out of knowing people got so much out of it. The crowning moment was bearing witness to the spectacular juxtapositions: computer engineer reads fiction, street-art photographer connects with radio-broadcaster, video game critic writes movie script, Jack-N-the-Box dinner eaten next to freshly prepared psole, urban hipster mixes live clarinet samples, South African rockstar-brander chats with my best friend’s mother, my own mother drinks wine while friends from high school tape 40s to their hands — I mean, come on: discords of people gathering to form harmony where cacophony would be expected. Now that’s art.

Hell, getting people who have known me anywhere from 20 minutes to 25 years to drive anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours to come to an unknown, off-the-wall, idea-of-an-event was what inspired me.

And so, in speaking of inspiration, it’s enough to say the momentum was sparked. It was determined that Project Slinky (to be renamed The Slinky Collective?) will be continued. But, like a mother bird whose baby chick has grown strong wings, NotKeepingScore must now kick Project Slinky out of the website nest. Without further ado — for those who participated in, are interested in learning more about, or would like to join up with, I will now redirect to the Official Project Slinky Website. UPDATE 11/1/07: This is really is now, no joking, cross-my heart and hope to die: a genuine link with the NEW website. Promise.

* * *
SCENE: A San Francisco studio. It is raining outside. A twenty-four-five-year-old woman stands in the middle of the room.

Shannon: [Wiping brow] Shit. That link is going to be broken. I knew I shouldn’t have posted until I got that damn Slinky page set up. I hope people understand that I WILL get around to it. I just haven’t… yet.

[Shannon looks across the Internet horizon and sees the landscape much the same as the aftermath of a party: its hollow emptiness still vibrates with a lingering but quickly fading energy. Anything said is spoken to an audience of one. There are a few empty beer cans]

Shannon: Okay. Back to NotKeepingScore. [She looks around] Hunh. No one still reading. All redirected. Probably got mad at the broken link. Vowed never to visit again. Oh well. [She flops down in her favorite blue and green armchair by the window] Phew. I’m exhausted.

[Recognizing again that she is, actually, alone, Shannon proceeds to talk to herself]

Shannon: Project Slinky — it wasn’t about a birthday celebration. People came to the creative event thinking I was also celebrating my birthday. But fuck being 25. I mean — sure. Sure. It was gggrrreeeaaattt having such a nice ring-in. But secretly, it was about the letting go, too. People don’t know it, but I didn’t have them come to celebrate my birthday. It was a trick. They were there to complete a circle, begin a new one. That house — that house where we gathered — it was about possibility. [Mumbling] The potential for the creation of great things. And faith. It’s about faith. The belief in the possibility for greatness. The belief in the possibility of possibilities. Or, having faith in the belief in the potential for possible greatness to be created, and having belief in the faith that the creation of that belief is possible –

[Shannon catches her reflection in the mirror. She squints her eyes, cocks her head]

Shannon: Huh? What the fuck are you saying, Shannon? [mumbling:] belief in faith…creation of possibility… greatness, potential… [closes eyes and shakes head] You’re losin’ it. You’re nuts. Totally nuts.

[She shrugs her shoulders and stands. She looks out the window, puts her palms, fingers downward, to her lower back and arches. She raises arms overhead and lets out a deep, satisfying sigh. She notices across the street a svelte, olive-skinned woman sauntering in heels, her skirt dangerously close to revealing the truth of her gender. Shannon smiles.]

Shannon: Goodnight, Candy.

[Shannon penguin-walks to the light switch, her hand hovering over the plastic toggle. She surveys the San Francisco studio apartment, now aglow with the streetlight from outside, orange and sultry. She furrows her brow, then softens.]

Shannon: What’s the freakin’ score? Hell if I know [smiles]

[She flips the switch. Light goes out.]

[Cue violin strings]

As I say good-bye to the first half of my twenties, I find myself reflecting on what I’ve done with my life for this first quarter of a century [lolling trumpet]. Have I accomplished all I said I would by this age? What will I set out to do in years to come? I think of all the amazing folks that have graced my days, some still part of my present, some only as part of my past [symphony swells], and others I see gliding into my future. I think about the meaning of life [trilling peaks], and how that meaning has changed as the years rolled by and experiences left me bruised or stronger or more confused or more content.

And the most valuable nugget of wisdom [piano chord] I’ve been able to capture has been that life is a hell of a lot like a rabbit: it looks awfully cute and cuddly, but that fucker has sharp-ass claws [cymbal].

That’s why you throw a slinky into the mix — to render the whole thing beautifully absurd, wonderfully ridiculous, and therefore much, much easier to tolerate [enter clown on unicycle playing slide whistle].

(Don’t forget to slinky!)

[Special thanks to R.T. for the image]

Get motivated!

That’s right! We’re embarking upon our next project — I said March was going to be all business, didn’t I? Well, consider this month ripe with the business of fun, creative energy — or something like that.

Not much more time to explain. But I’ve updated the Project page, where you’ll find more on the current project. Or, you can click read the entire Slinky Manifesto, if you so desire.

Happy Monday!

And March is the destination.

Speaking of journey-destinations and such, imagine my surprise when — after not thinking of it for close to, say, 15 years? — the movie “Flight of the Navigator” popped into my head. (No, really, it did — just like that).

Perfect! I thought out loud, this is a perfect segway into March!

In case you’re wondering how “Flight of the Navigator” is related to the third month of the calendar year, let me make the connection for you: Flight of the Navigator was created in the 80’s. I was created in the 80’s. I was created in March. Ahhhhh! Getting the gist, now? (Sorry, it’s a lame “gist”).

I had given myself a deadline many years ago by which I had to, er, accomplish something. That thing, so far as I can remember, was to finish a piece of writing of some (some) level of quality, ready to be sent out into the world, for adequate failure. But at least it would be finished! And that deadline? The quarter-of-a-century-age, that significant un car de ciecle: The Big 2-5. Well, it’s here. Nearly.

So, I’m attempting to create something of my own this March to help me along: A Project. What else?

And you? You — you fabulous reader, you? You’re part of it.

Stay tuned.