Bemis hosted the Creativity Festival, a series of awesome free events from Thursday through Saturday – music, exhibitions, panels, workshops, open studio tours – it was really fun, informative, and inspiring.

Much of the conference was devoted to talking about “creative communities” and how to foster, support and keep them alive and buzzing. It’s clear that the Bemis is dedicated to promoting and helping develop the arts in Omaha, a task that they see as vital to the health of a city or community. I wish all cities would be committed to that same purpose, even if it’s at the expense of business or economy at times.

Anyway, here are some photos from the festival:

bemis

I’m backtracking here, but last Wednesday Cody and I went to Lincoln to some free panels offered by the Lincoln Writer’s Conference. The first panel was on getting the inspiration to write, the second one was on pop culture and viral epidemics (or something). At night some talented writers gave readings (featured below): Curtis Sittenfeld (Prep), Sean Wilsey (Oh the Glory of it All and McSweeneys editor-at-large) and Meghan Daum (My Misspent Youth and Saturday columns in the L.A. Times).

It was really good to hear a bunch of people talk about writing. It got me re-inspired and re-energized to write.

We also visited some historical Lincoln sites.

Saturday’s activities included celebrating Amy’s (aka Plaiderpillar) birthday. We went to OJ’s for some Mexican food and then to her family’s cabin. It was a beautiful day. And I played shuffleboard for the first time. And took to the trails with Cody. Fun, fun!

Jasmine tree, originally uploaded by NotoriousLBT.

I like this house. And this tree. And the owner working in his garage-top garden. He was nice too.

So excited!

Almost there…

Catching his breath. Still one candle left!

This week’s “Meeting the Band” for City Weekly was Honeybee. Honeybee is a group of great people making great music. My friend Will wrote the article, and I took the photos. The scanning didn’t work out so well; the quality isn’t so great and the first page didn’t fit on the scanner. To read the whole interview in a possibly easier format, you can go here: Honeybee article.

The Beatles should have used this as an album cover. These are our “hidden” Easter baskets.

A-ha!

Tricky!

Dye-ing eggs is kind of a Zen art form, like fishing without the gross hook part.

Look how happy Kyle is. I must admit his eggs were quite eye-catching.

All of our creations together. My eggs are in the closest carton. Aren’t they beautiful?