That early in the day, perhaps unrestrained by normal daily concerns, my mind takes off. Like an engine being over-revved, the thoughts, ideas, problems, and solutions come so rapidly you can almost hear the whine of an engine. In complete free association, even the categories they fall in are manifold. The problem is capturing them before they evaporate like the steam from the shower. I can't take an iPhone or a laptop in the shower with me, paper won't work, and I don't fancy writing on the shower walls with a grease pencil. So I just have to recite them to myself like a mantra, hoping to remember until I'm out and dry.
Sometimes my mind is ranging so far afield that, at several points, I have to stop and try to remember what's been washed and what's yet to be done. Don't worry if you have to sit next to me, I always err on the side of re-washing.
Today, a sampling of what crossed my mind:
How about a version of Cyrano de Bergerac wherein the communication aspect is via text-messages?
What would be an interesting study/essay would be to interview a current teenage couple, their parents, and their grandparents on dating practices, communication and interaction frequency and forum, and how it was done in each era - because the current generation's pervasive text-message communications are interesting.
Do Facebook and text messaging reduce teen pregnancy rates because teen couples spend time with each other electronically instead of physically?
The structure and corporate status for Common Street Arts moving ahead.
The Waterville Arts Collaborative acting as an agent or "pusher" to feed events to the MPBN Community Calendar instead of re-inventing a new calendar system on its own website. Maybe the MPBN calendar could be embedded in the WAC website.
Inviting area businesses to bring their employees to CSA for "art breaks" or retreats or lunches.
That one of the vast spaces in my Gymnopedie project could be a venue dedicated to hosting large art installations and performance artists - possibly one of the few venues around permanently focused on providing a forum for such?
Have downtown "malls" built on the idea of antique malls, but for different products, like local furniture/cabinet makers. Each would have their own booth, and would still work and sell out of their current facilities/homes, but would also have an unmanned display booth with examples of their product and the information to contact them. The overarching store space would be coordinated, negotiated, and all the headaches dealt with by WAC, or WMSt. or some such entity.
I should add more video content to this blog and KennebecTom could be something of an Arts Reporter, actually doing visits and interviews and such regarding arts related spaces and events. They may or may not be in the "wacky fun" motif, with faux accents and such.
Find an image of an underwater river observation station that could be installed at the fish elevator adjacent to the Hathaway Building (I have and it will be on "There Oughta Be" soon).
Holding open art critiques for artists who want honest, critical and challenging feedback (not just endless "wonderfuls" and pats on the back). The kind of critiques it is hard to find outside the academic arena. One critic could wear little red horns from a Halloween costume and be the designated "Devil's Advocate", intentionally focusing on challenging the artist to defend their work, and challenging the other critics present to argue against them in defense of the work or in defense of the issues raised or their interpretation of it.
And I'm pretty sure there were a few more that I did forget....