Creative Monster

CHALLENGES

Posts in Travel
Day Skipper

Sometime after moving to Spain, my good mate Evgeny and I hatched a plan to learn how to sail, earn ourselves watercraft licenses, buy, fix up, customize and berth an old sloop, then set sail for adventures upon the seas. Now, in 2022, that dream is becoming a reality.

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España and beyond

During the pandemic in late 2020, I received an offer to join a design team in Spain… and in March 2021, my partner and I moved from Berlin to Barcelona. That role didn’t exactly work out, but a referral did. Now, 1.5 years later, 38 has been my favourite year of life thus far, and as my old friend Jenn put it, I’ve “reached another form - not a new one, but the realization of one that was always there.”

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L'INGORDIGIA

Wandering through a random ancient alleyway in Florence in 2015, I discovered a very large piece of street art. After five years, I finally uncovered the original artist(s) and collaborated with them to digitize this black and white paste-up and turn it into a massive chenille back-patch.

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The Creative Monster: A Memoir (Preparation)

For almost twenty years, I have been compiling thoughts, entries, doodles, photos, art, conversations, stories, dreams, rants, events, travels, anecdotes, advice, observations and commentary about everything in my life. After transcribing more than 1000 pages, I’m now shaping this work into a formative memoir, separated into four (or five?) books.

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WEDDING OFFICIATE

If any couple ever asks you to marry them, 

DO IT. 

 

Shed whatever stage fright you might have, ignore the paranoia that you'll somehow ruin the day, find your cadence, have a shot, speak clearly and own that shit. It's worth spending the money, taking the time, traveling half way across the world and realizing, because hey -- how many times does that kind of opportunity arise? 

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DEUTSCHE

Between finding and furnishing a flat, landing a creative leadership position, navigating the transit system, exploring the city and networking, I will have to make a serious effort to dedicate time to language studies. Though part of the challenge of moving to Berlin, learning German is, in itself, an adventure. I have no idea how long it will take, but I'm gonna guess that it'll be something of an extended effort.

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BERLIN

It is interesting to compare Canada's biggest city to somewhere like, say, Berlin. Though both share a familiar presence of creative culture, Berlin's creative class has emerged and permeated the city as a result of a more liberal European sensibility, inexpensive living costs, an extensive transit infrastructure, and a strange series of societal circumstances. Forced to (literally and figuratively) rebuild three times over the last one hundred years, Berliners are resilient, determined, diverse and resourceful people.

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