Jumpin’ for Joy
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog
Hey team!
Happy holidays! I hope everyone is enjoying the contemplative reflection of this year the same way I am… I have been taking more time than ever before in my life to sit and think about where, who and why I am… I find that I am constantly surrounded by people of such extreme creativity and vision. It is astoundingly inspiring.
Here is a link to an amazing blog by a masters student in Washington DC. http://jumpinginartmuseums.blogspot.com/
I think she feels the same way about art that I do! Check out her site and participate in what she is up to… She “jumps for joy” when she is around art she loves! I love that!
What makes you jump for joy?
I know for me, art definitely does, so does fantastic food and wine, and people with fantastic ideas.
good plays, good films, are things that move me to jump… propelling myself of the ground in celebration for life. It is amazin’. My dog, my cat, my family, My boyfriends creative mind. My best friends compassion and wackiness. Again, what makes you jump for joy!?
xo
a
Light
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog, Musings, poetry
“A candle doesn’t lose any of its light by lighting another.”
-anonymous
good night all!
xo
allison
Tags: nablopomo day 1, quote
Community
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog
What does it mean to be a part of something? What is community.
I see how I seek to create it everywhere. I am naturally inclined to bring people together and share and express the things I love and the things that interest and excite me.
Every person in a community is valuable, I truly believe this in my core. And yet I know each of us have felt somewhat disposable at some point in our lives. So what’s with that? Why is it so much easier to look at someone else’s value and asses and recognize it and it is so easy to forget our own.
I believe in the power of media and I believe in the power of the Internet. I believe it is a place we can connect with each other.
The little experiment I was conducting with posting everyday and looking to get more peeps involved was really an exploration of this community building process for me.
And I loved it. But now the big ticket question, the question that is the next step for the evolution of my journey… wow… that sounds so epic… WHY?
Build a community… beautiful, fun, cool… Let’s do it. But what if there is more to it than that? What if a community with a potent purpose or goal is possible? A community with an intention. Not a church or religion, not a political party, but an intention to elevate all of humanity… equally, compassionately and wholly?
Cool!
Let’s do it…………………………………………………………………………….
Got any ideas?
xo
allison
PS: The video is something rad one of my many partners in crime sent me! Thought it was fitting given my post… Connect why?
“Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?”
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog, Fun, Musings
Hello fabulous internet community! After a very very very long dry spell due to a hard drive crash and a dash of laziness, I am back blogging and better than ever.
So to start out, something simple considering the 5:30 am wake up tomorrow morning and the impending lack of sleep I am pre-suffering about.
A lovely treat of a short film, from Miranda July to me to you!
Enjoy!
xo
allison
Tags: blogging, miranda july
Bravery in Art
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog, Musings
Last night I saw such a beautiful exemplification of bravery that I had not ever recognized before.
I was in the audience of a play comprised of 3 one-person shows. The courage one must have to believe they can tell a story, honestly, for 20 minutes to a group of strangers is so honorable and beautiful.
I am so moved by people expressing. To me there is something so extraordinary about our capacity as human beings to translate experience and emotion.
I feel like it is one of the major things that sets us apart from animals: Our capacity, and reason for creating simply to create. To communicate with something other than a conversation, or to communicate something so potent it inspires depth and introspection which than effects all conversation.
Amazing.
So here is a nice little philosophical question for you:
What is art?
xo
allison
Tags: Acting, art, conversation, expression, inspiration, introspection, play
Why all this?
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog, Musings, Projects, community
I have been reading all the “A bit about you” posts and I must say that I am so excited by your posts. I set a goal for myself to increase the amount of daily hits by 50% in 3 months… I set this goal in August, so it is up in October and I’m now halfway through.
As I began posting every day, I saw, thanks to the handy google analytics, that the amount of people coming through daily increased steadily as I increased my blog postings. This was super cool! Then they started to level off. So I thought to myself “ok, what now?”
This is when I decided that maybe making a poll and seeing more details about the people that come to my site might help. This would give me the information I need to see what direction people are coming from so I can see which way best to go. Ultimately, I am striving to create a community of diverse people who come together to express themselves. To explore, ask why, and share the conclusions they come to.
My interest in expanding the group is simply to create more diversity, more opinions, go deeper and seek farther. I recognize that I have an advantage when it comes to gathering people in one place and I want to take advantage of that advantage.
I want to encourage myself to sit daily and contemplate and share.
I want to encourage myself to appreciate small things, to make art out of every day, and I hope that the ripple of me doing this in a more public and community oriented forum will do this.
I feel as though I have something started, but now I want to go to the next step.
The Internet is a beautiful tool of globalization. It is an amazing invention we as people have designed and expanded upon, and rather than use this as a weapon to destroy and separate I would like to use it as a tool build and evolve. So this is why the interest in expanding and branching out. This is why the desire to reach more.
Not because I want to be rid of the intimacy, but simply because I want to extend the intimacy; ultimately see what sort of emergent property can come of this experiment.
I have loads of ideas of off shoots of something like this community and all my time off I spend building communities of people who want to build and create together.
So there it is. Why I am doing this.
Every morning I feel a questioning sense of panic, “What is the point?” I ask myself. “Why am I doing this?”
Usually I glaze over these questions, busying myself with the day to day so as not to focus on thinking and finding answers, until today.
So thank you all for the replies, and thanks to those who questioned why I am doing what I am doing. Funny thing is the questions are never really answered, and the thoughts I put out there are never fully solved.
I find panic in this because answers feel so good, but really, the curiosity of life is what I seek to uphold. A reminder of this is so important.
I feel like a big fat tattoo of CURIOSITY might be helpful… ha… too bad I am an actress and this would certainly type cast me. 
Thanks for the interest.
Why do you do what you do? Do you spend most of your time distracting yourself from answering this question? Tell me? Why are you doing the things you are doing in your life?
It’s a really interesting question to ponder… sort of one step further from the “beliefs” post we have been doing.
Ciao for now.
xo
allison
Tags: art, community, passion, Polls, stats
Give a little whistle
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog
Gnome Says:
August 26th, 2008 at 10:22 amI agree with you Grace……
Guilt is the way our consciousness found to stop us from doing something that we shouldn’t.
Although the feeling sucks, is still a good thing we have it.
I would hate end up as a psycopath…
I was reading all the posts and then I came across Grace and “Gnome’s” entry and I started thinking… What is this “consciousness” that we speak of? Is this in fact that “Jiminy Cricket” conscience that speaks up when we are making a mistake? Or doing something bad? Where does this “cricket” come from and does everyone have one? And if everyone does have one, how come what is ok for some people isn’t ok for others? Is it different than me? Is it something other than me that controls me in some way?
I feel like this is just a deeper look at our discussions we were having on free will and beliefs, what do you guys think?
It’s funny, because I blame a lot on my conscience, as though it’s this annoying thing that controls me, or parents me in some way. Like it’s something outside of me that I am forced to listen to if I want to be good.
I went and saw The Dark Knight last night and it brought to light so many questions that I can’t wait to share with you all, but really, one of the major topics that stuck out for me was the whole concept that someone like the Joker exists. Someone who’s sole purpose is destruction. What happened to his conscience?
Tell me what you think?!
xo
allison
Me Time!
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog
Aysha Says:
August 24th, 2008 at 9:44 pmI always teeter and totter on the edge of either feeling that I give myself too much “me time” or the contrary in which I give too much “others time.” I never find that balance, and I struggle with that.
I still feel like I am selfish sometimes. I hate that feeling. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I feel if I treat myself too much, I am doing something wrong?
Aysha… I too struggle massively with the whole “guilt” complex of taking time to sit with myself, take a bath, or go home early. I have spent hours upon hours flogging myself for these discussions. So much so that I just stopped doing it all together.
It is interesting though, for someone raised on solid guilt, and I love and adore my family, but we definitely made it a hobby out of “Hail Mary’s.” I still make the decisions I want to make, and then almost for show, I will punish myself for that choice. It’s almost like it is a way for me to have my cake and eat it too; I get to hold my image in place. The image that I am someone who would not want to say no, or who would never put herself first, and yet, I get to do what I want.
Why I don’t simply cut the middle step and just be who I am, claim what I want; own my decisions and be real with myself and the people around me. How much more energy would I have? Jesus! It seems a bit endless.
So I guess to me, “guilt” is a wicked scapegoat that ultimately acts as a waste of time and energy, and “selfish” is an awesome manipulative term to get people to give you time and do what they want!
Guilt?
Definition?
Anyone? Anyone?
xo
allison
Free Will
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog
The Greenest Person in the World!!!
Posted by Allison Mack | Filed under Blog
You know how you have those people in your life that inspire you to do more? To be a better you? To take more time to pay attention to the life you are living and the way you are living it? Those people who don’t ever lecture or tell you what you are doing wrong, they simply live in a way the is graceful and honorable.
Well Emily Jubenvill is one of these people. She is an amazing 22 year old friend of mine who is such an awesome inspiration and she is nominated for the greenest peep in the world! Go to http://www.3rdwhale.com and vote for her!
She gets a pod of whales named after her if she wins! It is really an awesome thing that she does!
xoxo
Allison
Tags: Emily Jubenvill, Friends, green
