News for Houston Creatives

The future doesn't happen to us... we happen to it... Jamais Cascio at Lift

This is a wonderful inspiring presentation, very easy to follow despite Jamais' warning. I enjoy that he doesn't cover too much territory, but just makes one point very well.

Open the Future: My Talk at Lift10 : Wired for Tomorrow.

Video quality is iffy, and the audio isn't sync'd well, so be warned.

What works at conferences for creative types, from Frog Design

Lift Conference Design Research

View more presentations from frog design.

How New York is working to keep talent

NYTimes.com: In New York, a Business Course Geared to Artists, 2010-Jun-18, by Kate Taylor

It is harder than it used to be to live as an artist in New York City, given the cost of housing, studios and rehearsal space, and the Bloomberg administration does not want artists to leave the city. Culture is a magnet for tourism and a major reason why people in other professions (and often higher tax brackets) want to live here. Ergo, two city-financed courses devised to help artists help themselves. “It’s kind of the teach-a-person-to-fish school of cultural support,” Mr. Pinsky said. The group attending the five-week program includes painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, creative writers, actors, directors, dancers, singers, musicians...

Along with group sessions covering subjects like intellectual property and Internet marketing, each artist has a 20-minute meeting with a New York Foundation for the Arts staff member or an outside adviser to review his or her business plan. At the end of the course, the students can apply for subsidized studio or rehearsal space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, courtesy of Chashama, an organization that transforms vacant properties into art spaces.

Planning Meeting for Houston Summit for the Creative Economy on June 15 #hsce

The next planning meeting for the Houston Summit for the Creative Economy:

• Tuesday, June 15 from 6 to 8 pm
• Caroline Collective (www.CarolineCollective.cc)
• 4820 Caroline Houston 77004 in the Museum District

If you have never attended one of our meetings, please RSVP to Theresa, (281) 433-2302 or Theresa@QViews.com.

New artist community planned by Nestor Topchy, interview by David Theis at CultureMap

Excellent interview with pictures about an artists' community which could be built in Acres Homes.

CultureMap: A human Hive out of shipping containers ... just your ordinary (Topchy) construction project, 2010-Jun-6, by David Theis

“Hive addresses one of my least favorite things about Houston,” he says. “The lack of community.” He pauses then adds, “But one of my favorite things about Houston is the idea that, if you’re not satisfied with the city, or the neighborhood, you can do something about it.”

You know, How did all those fucked up people end up on the same plane? Awl on Lost

The Awl: 'Lost,' One Week Later, 2010-Jun-2, by Nicholas Jahr

How did all these fucked up people end up on the same plane?

I love this stuff! People kept treating Lost like a mystery. But it was more like a soap opera where the agony can only end when the characters die but the characters really don't die they just time-shop but then it had to end so they did. Nicholas Jahr continues...

The essential question the series asked in episode after episode was: you find yourself on a deserted island with a bunch of strangers. You can be anyone you want. Can you reinvent yourself? Can you leave your past behind? Again and again, the answer the show returned was a resounding: No. When a character made peace with their demons, his days were numbered. It was hard to tell if this was a matter of dramatic convenience or part of a grand design, but the body count rose at an impressive clip.

NY Times spotlights innovative medical practice in Houston

This story also featured physician Jerry Jones, taking care of a worker on an oil rig worker in Malaysia.

NYTimes.com: Healing by 2-Way Video - The Rise of Telemedicine, 2010-May-28, by Milt Freudenheim

Dr. Boultinghouse and two colleagues — Michael J. Davis and Glenn G. Hammack— run NuPhysicia, a start-up company they spun out from the University of Texas in 2007 that specializes in face-to-face telemedicine, connecting doctors and patients by two-way video. Spurred by health care trends and technological advances, telemedicine is growing into a mainstream industry.

Mauro Ferrari Featured in Sunday's Chronicle

Ferrari has good reason to believe that Houston may soon become a 'Silicon Valley' for high tech medicine.

Houston Chronicle: Big mission, big business: cancer care and research, 2010-May 22, by Jennifer Latson

And Houston is at the forefront of pioneering technology that may be the next big thing in attacking cancer: nanomedicine, which works on a molecular scale to target tumors specifically and to guide drugs to an exact location within the body.

"I can see in Houston the nanomedicine industry developing like Silicon Valley," said Mauro Ferrari, chairman of the Department of Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. "I think it’s a big opportunity for the city and the state, and it’s developing at a good pace." ...

Ferrari also heads a consortium of eight research hospitals and universities — including Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, the University of Houston and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center — that forms Houston’s Alliance for NanoHealth, which funds 170 faculty members among those institutions.

"If you put together the numbers for my department, plus these 170 faculty in the alliance, you have by far the largest collection in the world of nanomedicine expertise, and literally hundreds of millions of dollars in funding coming in," Ferrari said. "Nanomedicine is an area that has an unbelievable economic impact, and to be leaders in this high-growth field has a huge impact on Houston and on Texas."

The first (we know) artist-specific healthcare access initiative in the U.S.

Artist Access, from a NYC public hospital in Brooklyn:

Woodhull Medical Center recognizes that artists possess special talents that can lift spirits, bring hope, and provide a momentary break from one's concerns. Performances or artistic activity enjoyed by individuals or groups of hospitalized patients are desirable. For each hour of performance or artistic activity, 40 credits worth of health care services will be added to your personalized health care account. Credits may be exchanged for an equivalent value of health care services in dollars. When you need health care at Woodhull, the fee (your fee scale will be determined at your first visit with a Financial Counselor) will be charged to your health care account. For example, if you performed or provided artistic activity for one hour, your health care account would contain 40 credits. If your doctor visit costs $20 (as determined by your fee scale), 20 credits will be deducted from your health care account. The result? A free doctor visit plus enough credits left over for another free doctor visit or prescriptions! Interested? The financial counselor will help set you up for an interview with Woodhull staff to discuss your performance plan. Please see the application for the art exchange program attached, and please bring a completed application with you to your first meeting with the Woodhull Creative Art Therapy Department.

Fresh ideas for getting out of the city this summer, from CultureMap

Houston is perfect in every way, but sometimes you just need to go someplace a little less perfect and jolt your brain.

CultureMap: Texas' 10 best day trips, 2010-May-4, by Caroline Gallay:

As we explore way to enjoy the stifling Texas summer, we thought we'd compile a list of the best day trips you can make from H-town. For our purposes, a "day trip" means you can get there in two hours (ish) one-way. We got an authority on the subject — day trip expert (it's his job) Chet Garner, host of the local PBS show The Daytripper — to lend us his head.We put ours together for this list of Texas sights, no overnight bag required.

Now, I observe that these suggestions will NOT help you escape the heat. For that you'll have to go to Maine, like the Bush family does.

The CultureMap article is very good, but here's the 30-sec summary: Shiner (brewery), Brenham (ice cream), Galveston (parks and museums), Anahuac (zydeco), Orange (botanical gardens), College Station (??), Needville (star gazing), Vider (lake), Bragg Station (spooks), Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy (who knew?).