Art/Life No. 1: An Open Invitation To Dinner.

There’s no point in crying. On with it.

I was thinking about how to involve other people in the project but not really coming up with anything good enough. Sure, I could suggest people read along with me each month, or watch a few films done by the prescribed filmmaker, but then what? I don’t want to do this project in a vacuum and while emails are nice, will it be enough to send emailed replies about this or that person’s thoughts on Fassbinder? No, I need face time and warm bodies. Especially now.

All it took was one conversation with my brilliant younger sister, Ms. Bix, to solve this problem.

“You should have a dinner party at the end of every month,” she said. “People can read books by the author you’re reading, they can try wearing a week of the color you drew, they can watch the movies. All that. And then, at the end of the month, have a dinner party where people come wearing that month’s color. You can cook something with the fruit or vegetable you got, and not serve anything that was restricted. You can discuss life and art. That would be awesome.”

Eureka!

So this is the official open invitation to anyone out there who would like to explore this project along with me. Perhaps you’d like to try wearing all yellow for one week—or more. Perhaps you’d like to listen to some Maria Callas and read about her life. Have your own little Fassbinder film fest. Swear off caffeine and see what happens. No cheating. And then, if you’re either in the Chicagoland area or you’re going to be in town on, let’s see, Saturday, June 27th, then email me and let me know. The first 4 or 5 people I hear from will go on the list and we’ll take it from there. Expect to bring some kind of food item. Expect to enjoy a pleasant evening at Chez Fons-W. Expect to discuss life/art.

And, because I’ll have this confluence of interested, engaged people to whom this sort of project sounds like fun, I’m going to, um, plumb that resource a bit. Aside from interesting conversation and tasty supper, I’m inviting anyone who comes to dinner to be kind enough to bring me items they might have that will be involved in the next month of the project. For example, if you come to dinner on the 27th and happen to have Youssou N’Dour’s entire musical catalog or you’re a girl with lots of lovely blue clothing that you’d like to lend me, then you can bring it as “seed” for me to use when July 1st hits and everything changes.

Explore new ideas. Narrow your focus. Challenge yourself. Limit your options and see what freedom you find.

And Ms. Bix, you’re already on the list. Get to work!

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