The Bridge #92
in which we keep it snappy
Hello
& Welcome ! The Bridge is a newsletter connecting the professional and the personal creatively across cultures and a diversity of topics, until we are not only full of ideas but also ready to take action. Thanks for joining in the conversation.
A Thing to Get Us Thinking
Recently I learned about a man who was the 5th president of the Singer Manufacturing Company, one of the first multinational businesses ever created and one of the most successful as well. This man F.G. Bourne commissioned the construction of a skyscraper (the tallest building in the world at the time it was finished) and also had the architect Ernest Flagg (an American educated in France) build for him (Bourne) on a small island a 28-room private castle with secret passages and a dungeon. Bourne raised 12 children, had multiple boats, and sang in a glee club.
There are so many ways to live a good life.
Why hold back?
Something to Spark Conversation
Maybe start from minute 10, listen to how Maddy Clifford describes the stories we’re told about money and creativity… told that to be successful as a music artist we need to work really really hard.
Stories like that turn things cutthroat, and we can hurt one another in our thirst to succeed. When the actual truth is that many successful artists come from wealthy families or have already accumulated a certain wealth. If we aren’t shown this truth, then we can punish ourselves for “not working hard enough” if we don’t succeed. What if we pulled back the curtain on the injustices and unfairnesses, not so we would become disillusioned but so that we could understand the reality. With that understanding, we could begin to imagine a better way.
And then listen to the one-minute-long song “Solidarity Economy” that MADLines created. With a beat that gets you moving, and lyrics that educate. It’s bringing the future within reach.
Something to Enjoy
The SHOWER SONG by Tierra Whack is from her 2024 album. Previously (six years ago) she had created an album of 15 one-minute hits called Whack World, and it had these incredibly inventive music videos to go with it. Sometimes she talks about some dark stuff, but the music videos are always the full color spectrum.
Inspired by Dr Seuss, her absurd nursery-rhyme-like lyrics pack such a playfulness behind them, you don’t quite realize what’s the medicine (authenticity) to go with the sugar, until it’s already wormed its way down inside your head.
Philadelphia native (!) Tierra Whack knows when her flows grow funky, and she’s gonna have fun with it.
I sound great
When I’m singin’ in the shower
Soap and water give me powers
When I’m singin’ in the shower
Something to Practice
Take one minute to dance around the room, and see what your mind comes up with when your body does the talking. (I just tried it myself and at first I was a bit sore from sitting at the computer writing you this long message, but then as I kept dancing I remembered how easy it is to compose a poem when we don’t put rules on it.)
Thanks for reading.
(Who is leading?)
Let’s agree
To take turns.
Seriously though,
(life isn’t scripted, so)
Let’s share
The power
Of making it up
As we go.
JPC 😎