One of my favorite music discoveries over the last year is Disclosure, an English electronic music duo consisting of brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence. I attended their show in Atlanta at Terminal West last October. Their album (I can say "album" because it was issued on vinyl, as well as CD and digital formats) Settle, was nominated for Best Dance/Electronica Album at the 2014 Grammy Awards.
As a big music lover, I have previously used music for inspiration for blog posts and will continue to do so in the future when appropriate. Driving to work, The Mechanism shuffled it's way into my headset. It was released back in April and features producer Friend Within. It has a heavily produced deep house sound, with only vocal samples for lyrics. However those few words speak to my project, where I currently am, where I need to be, and encourages me to keep focused. Click on the video above to listen to and watch the video! You can also download the track on iTunes.
“So one of the things I need y’all to do for me is
You gotta know that it’s coming
And once you know it’s coming
Once you know it’s coming
Stay in the zone
Stay in your body
Increase your maximum level
It’s one simple reason
The mechanism of incessant,
incessant, habitual conceptualization
Creation of ideas, goals and frameworks
That are turned over
Completed
To the friend within”
Over the last year I have been compiling recipes and writing stories. I enlisted friends to assist with editing the various sections. My friend David Paine has reviewed and edited all sections as a whole. I guess you could say I have technically finished my book. That being said, until starting this website a few months ago, I was at a standstill. I was in fear in any type of movement or progression toward my final goal. I've imagined myself on a mountain cliff looking down below. My thought process has told me that once I move too far into this project, it will be like falling off the high point of that mountain and with no turning back. It's easy to see everything from a safe place. My journey into the unknown has paralyzed me from pursuing this further.
Two months ago, I decided to focus on writing a book version that would be electronic in nature versus a printed work. I began laying out the content using iBooks Author on my Mac computer. Work demands and time constraints inserted themselves into my work flow and thus, the application hasn't been opened in several weeks. Around the time of my renaissance of sorts, I got a call from a friend with an opportunity that I will share with you at a later date. That event is what prompted me to begin my website and this blog. Fortunately, I came across something called Cook Book Bootcamp. Below is copy from their website describing the event.
“Cookbook Boot Camp is a two-day intensive workshop for professional chefs and others eager to publish cookbooks of quality. In a series of six intensive seminars hosted by award-winning cookbook authors Matt Lee and Ted Lee,participants will shape a compelling kitchen vision—and learn practical methods for communicating that vision to others—so that they can achieve their personal and professional goals through cookbooks. Success in publishing requires different skill-sets from restaurant success, but what both share is a dependence on the chef’s core vision and his or her ability to express that vision to customers, viewers, readers, editors and agents. At Cookbook Boot Camp, Matt and Ted lead a select group of participants in seminars whose rigorous, workshop-style exercises will produce a compelling and unique vision, and a personalized action plan for each participant, including, in the final seminar, the foundation of a cookbook proposal. Seminars begin with the fundamentals of crafting a personalized story and progress to the nuts and bolts—topics like developing recipes, finding an agent, editing a manuscript and managing a successful photo shoot.”
I'm happy to share that I will be flying to New York in two weeks to attend Cookbook Boot Camp. This is the much-needed "kick in the butt" I've been desperate for. My expectation is that I will return home with many tools in my tool belt and further direction.