Austin Kleon - Missing imagination

Hey y’all,

I’m plugged in. Amplified to rock. Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. How to talk to someone with a missing imagination.
    
2. This week I read the first 10 chapters of Blake Gopnik’s mammoth Warhol biography, but I put that down for a bit to dig into Olivia Laing’s new book of essays, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency. (I love her book The Lonely City, enjoyed this recent Q&A, and this completely charming video of her at home.) I’m also reading Anne Truitt’s Daybook at the kitchen table. (Glad I took her advice and let it “circle the airport.”) 
    
3. If you’re having trouble reading, here’s what’s working for me.
    
4. How to turn scraps into poetry. (A great line from collage artist Val Kilmer: “God wants you to walk, but the devil sends a limo.”)
    
5. Missed posting these before Mother’s Day, but here are five books I like about art and motherhood.
    
6. An oral history of Mad Max: Fury Road. (One of my black and white movie picks!)
    
7. Eye candy: Saul Steinberg’s “Country Noises.”
    
8. Ear and eye candy: Miss live music? This 1985 Prince concert from the Purple Rain tour is incredible, as is this 1986 birthday show in Detroit. And if that’s not enough, let’s throw in Stevie Wonder on German TV in 1974, Kraftwerk in Cleveland in 1975, Little Richard in Paris in 1966,  and people dancing to Kraftwerk in Detroit in 1990.
    
9. RIP Little Richard. RIP actor Jerry Stiller. RIP cartoonist Richard Sala. RIP to too many to list here.
    
10. Don’t forget to give yourself a little present.