My Brilliant Mistakes (Blog Posts Only)

The beginner conundrum

Cynthia Closkey — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 05:46:11 +0000

Truth from Ira Glass — on storytelling, but also on every creative discipline, and maybe on life itself. I learn this again every day, on every skill or practice area that I embark to learn and practice. Please, join me in the awful feeling that we don’t meet up to own our aesthetic. Eventually, we …

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You think we need one more? You think we need one more. OK, we’ll get one more.

Cynthia Closkey — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 03:33:00 +0000

The 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven is one of my guilty pleasure movies — pretty to look at, full of quotable lines, underpinned by a plot that, though full of holes, is witty and twisty. Plus the clothes! George Clooney’s suits, Brad Pitt’s pointed collars, Elliot Gould’s blinged out chains and florid, floral shirts…. Delightful. …

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Tucked away

Cynthia Closkey — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 06:27:00 +0000

By my bedroom door, there’s a big porcelain cat that my parents gave me years ago. I’ve blogged about it before. Next to it, there’s a stack of framed diplomas. They’re my diplomas. I’m quite proud of the degrees they represent. It was hard to get into MIT and into the graduate school program I attended, …

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Michael Sheen on Speakeasy

Cynthia Closkey — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 02:01:19 +0000

I watch a select few series on YouTube: There’s a world of interesting stuff, but only so many hours in a lifetime, and one must choose carefully. One series that I adore and watch without fail as soon as each new episode is posted is Speakeasy with Paul F. Tompkins. These are interviews, over drinks, …

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Writing (or Any Creative Activity) and the Fear of Being Less Than Amazing

Cynthia Closkey — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 21:50:09 +0000

If you’ve spent most of your life cruising ahead on natural ability, doing what came easily and quickly, every word you write becomes a test of just how much ability you have, every article a referendum on how good a writer you are. As long as you have not written that article, that speech, that …

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Detente

Cynthia Closkey — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 17:48:33 +0000

The tufts of hair scattered about tell me that the cats’ spread out locations on the bed are the result of an uneasy truce.

Bad Dancer

Cynthia Closkey — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 23:39:53 +0000

This is so fun!

Networking in style

Cynthia Closkey — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 04:10:25 +0000

Lately it’s seemed that I’ve never had business cards on hand when I wanted to hand some out. This is largely because I’m between houses right now* and most of my worldly possessions are packed and piled up, and so a number of things that I would ordinarily be able to find I’m now …

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Crazy cozy

Cynthia Closkey — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 14:24:29 +0000

Max is a cat of extremes. One minute he’s running around the room chasing a fly; the next he’s slinking under the bed, scared by the sight of someone outside the window. Some days he naps on the very top platform of the cat tree, but today he’s decided to curl up in a box …

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Little tramp, big city

Cynthia Closkey — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 02:20:04 +0000

Last night I attended the Butler County Symphony Orchestra‘s November concert, in which they performed the film score to Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights as the movie played. The symphony sounded amazing, well-timed to the film and perfectly attuned to the emotional ups and downs of the film. The film itself was a surprise to me. …

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