If you didn’t read this week’s post “Creative Flight: A Guide for Art Aviators” I will read it to you now, below, in a dramatic and enthusiastic fashion. 👇
Reading commences as soon as you hit play. Enjoy! 🫡
Notes from the Captain
Crew, I’m not sure if this is an embarrassing confession or if this particular artist’s oeuvre just passed me by, but I never knew any Dave Matthews songs until I saw “America: A Tribute to Heroes” in 2001. (He played “Everyday”, which means I should update the video above to say “I know THREE Dave Matthews songs!”)
That’s a bit of a somber occasion to actually see what he looked like (“Who is this? Wait, that’s Dave Matthews?”), but he was just one of those artists I heard about and never looked into. Like Phish1. I still haven’t really. I don’t actively seek out Dave Matthews, but you do you.
Why am I talking about this? No idea, but I used a snippet of his song “Crash” in today’s Behind the Stream, and it just got me thinking about him, and how you can just miss things. It’s not the subject of this week’s post, but I may have to do something on that subject in the future. I may have already done something on it in the past two-and-a-half years of writing this newsletter actually. I don’t know—it’s all a blur!
What bands did you miss? What bands or artists just didn’t blip on your radar but were culturally, I dunno, big? In the Zeitgeist. There are some artists who I knowingly ignore—Dave, you weren’t one of them, I just was a bit “incurious”—is that a word?—about your work.) And while I do like the three songs I know—Ants Marching (acoustic) in particular—I fear I shall remain at that number.
This is neither here nor there because today’s post was about a dude who bought a second-hand aircraft and proceeded to crash it 7 times in 7 days. Crashing your creative planes—that’s what the Monday post was about (audio version above).
I may not know many Dave Matthews Band songs, but I do know this about this crew: we are professional Art Aviators!
And what is the superpower of an Art Aviator?
We know how to crash.
And survive.
And fix up the creative plane and hit the skies again and again and again.
Keep flying. Keep doing aerobatics. Keep buzzing towers.
Today, we are in the jetstream.
May we all find updrafts to carry us to the success and creative peace we seek.
Love what you love and I’ll see you out there, getting stuff off the ground.
Your Captain, Janeen 🫡
Thangs from this episode…
👩✈️ Pilot Crashes Plane 7 Times in 7 Days
Seven Accidents in Seven Days - this is the original story that promoted the post.
There are lots of articles about this incident, but they all rehash the same info so I’m not including them. That said, I am including this one. Hesitatingly. I am not entirely sure if the photos are from the pilot's recovery or not (before the plane sank) or a different incident. The posting date is the day after his final crash into Lake Michigan, so… 🤷♀️
Read the pilot statement he wrote for the NTSB investigation and the final report can be found at the bottom of the article above.
👩✈️ Is this “seven crashes” story true?
Some commenters in the news article seemed to doubt the veracity of the story, but I couldn’t find it on Snopes, so who knows? All the investigation stuff seems legit…
But hey, the story itself is not the point—it was the inspiration, not the subject. Here is a primer on the Seawind 3000 (the ones that actually don’t crash into Lake Michigan).
👩✈️ Dave Matthews Band tour bus takes a dump on Chicago
I mean, the story is pretty bad. And the timing. To be a tourist on that boat beneath that bridge—I don’t know what kind of sign that is, but what a shitty (sorry) day for sightseeing.
Here is a video made by the AV Club for the 18th anniversary of the incident which explains it in one minute so I don’t have to.
Some jokers even put a plaque on the bridge commemorating the anniversary of the event. I love people sometimes. We’re coming up to the 20th anniversary and I hope this becomes an actual thing, rather than just a zip-tied attachment that someone has probably already stolen. I hate people sometimes.
👩✈️ What’s wrong with the word Creo?
I mention the origin of the creative plane’s name—the Partum Artem 2B—at the end of today’s episode and make a face when I say the word for creative in Latin is Creo. Why did I make the face? Just a trigger response. I couldn’t stop it. I actually love the Creo bicycle and did a lot of field testing for it when I worked at Specialized. There is nothing wrong with the word Creo. I wish I owned a Creo, actually. A great tool for recovery days after big rides. But it was a conscious choice not to use the word creo, mostly because it just didn’t sound as cool as Partum Artem 2B. And that’s a fact.
In fact, one of my favorite things in my creative portfolio is an ad I came up with for the Creo bicycle. #notsohumblebrag Yeah, I used to fly advertising planes for money (adver-ticing!).
Thanks for listening/watching and sharing. If I missed anything you were curious about from the post—or just in general—feel free to leave a comment for the Captain.
On that note, do something great this weekend. Do something great for your whole life if you can.
Do. Make. Be.
🫡
Shameless Podcast Plug
Listen to audio versions of early issues of The Stream on my podcast, Field of Streams, available on 👉 all major podcasting platforms 👈
Here’s Apple
I have a closer connection to the Phish Food Ben and Jerry’s than I do to the band. I literally know NO Phish songs. I don’t think 🤔
Behind the Streams, Ep 26: "Creative Flight"