Hidden Gems

Welcome to Hidden Gems' official blog! Here, you will find the latest pictures and updates on the project,as well as cool articles on intergeneration projects at McGill, in Montreal and worldwide. We are based out of the McGill SEDE Office. Click the "About Us" page below to learn more. For now we can tell you we work in collaboration with CKUT 90.3 fm, Yellow Door, as well as different McGill Offices and affiliates, including McGill Centre for Lifelong Learning. Show us some love :) Email us! [email protected] (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

[hiddengemsmcgill]

-Creativity reinforces essential connections between brain cells, including those responsible for memory. -Creativity strengthens morale. It alters the way we respond to problems and sometimes allows us to transcend them. Keeping a fresh perspective makes us emotionally resilient. -Challenging the brain can relieve sleep and mood disorders. -Reading, writing and word games increase one’s working vocabulary and help to fend off forgetfulness. -Capitalizing on creativity promotes a positive outlook and sense of well-being. That boosts the immune system, which fights disease. -Having an active, creative life makes it easier to face adversity-including the loss of a spouse.

(Cohen, Gene D., “Welcome to the Creative Age”, Bottom Line/Tomorrow Vol.9, #8 (Aug.2001)

[hiddengemsmcgill]

How creativity and activity promote longevity in seniors! 

[hiddengemsmcgill]

6 Family Stories You Should Tell Your Grandkids

Great questions to kick off any conversation with those who lived in a time very different from your own!!

[explore-blog]

Get comfortable with the idea that you won’t know what’s good until it’s already happened.

Jad Abumrad on the Radiolab origin story – a must-read – echoing the idea that intuition is integral to science. (via explore-blog)

[explore-blog]

Rule No. 2: Don’t go searching for a subject, let your subject find you. You can’t rush inspiration. How do you think Capote came to “In Cold Blood”? It was just an ordinary day when he picked up the paper to read his horoscope, and there it was — fate. Whether it’s a harrowing account of a multiple homicide, a botched Everest expedition or a colorful family of singers trying to escape from Austria when the Nazis invade, you can’t force it. Once your subject finds you, it’s like falling in love. It will be your constant companion. Shadowing you, peeping in your windows, calling you at all hours to leave messages like, “Only you understand me.” Your ideal subject should be like a stalker with limitless resources, living off the inheritance he received after the suspiciously sudden death of his father. He’s in your apartment pawing your stuff when you’re not around, using your toothbrush and cutting out all the really good synonyms from the thesaurus. Don’t be afraid: you have a best seller on your hands.

Colson Whitehead echoes the secret of creativity in science in his 11 rules for writing, a fine addition to our ongoing archive of writing advice. (via explore-blog)

[curiositycounts]

If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, no doubt you know the magic of the Monty Python misfits. If you didn’t or you don’t, here’s an excellent, enlightening bit of advice from one of the ringleaders, John Cleese, on creativity and how to cultivate it, recently given at the 2012 Cannes Festival of Creativity. 

(via)

[photojojo]

The folks who started the Disposable Memory Project have a new project! The 100 Project.

They’re giving 100 disposable cameras to 100 people between 1 and 100 years old. They’re looking for people to fill all age groups, so check out the 100 so far and apply!

Be a Part of The 100 Project — 100 Cameras & 100 People

[byoprojects]

I Have / I Need is a community engagement project created by graduate architects Charlotte Fliegner and Sarah Crowley. The project gives passersby the opportunity to jot down things they need and/or things they have — like a physical Craigslist post. Posters then coordinate with one another...

[hiddengemsmcgill]

If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten

Rudyard Kipling

[explore-blog]

Advanced Style – photographer Ari Seth Cohen captures the confidence, beauty, and elegance of the fashionable over-60 set.

An introduction by the inimitable Maira Kalman offers the ultimate cherry on top:

Albert Einstein sailed his boat wearing a ratty sweatshirt. Frumpy pants. His hair disheveled. He always looked incredible. Who else? Louise Bourgeois. Duke Ellington. Isak Dinesen. Picasso. Gandhi. Isadora Duncan. My neighbor Beth Levine, the shoe designer. She walked out of the elevator, at 92 years old in a pencil skirt and heels, into our lobby, the chicest person in town. So what is it about style. What makes someone beautiful, no matter what the age? No matter the wealth?

What makes you turn your head as you walk down the street and think, ‘There goes a great looking person’? It is easier to define when you are looking at someone young. But if someone is in their 70s or 80s or 90s, or 100s(!), it is more elusive. More challenging.

Ari Seth Cohen has done something very important. He has looked at our grand population and singled out the people that, in a way, are most invisible and have the most to offer.

[hiddengemsmcgill]

Visit Original Link

Anyka Davis wrote a captivating play that takes you back in time to WWII, to a story of one woman's courage and dedication to human dignity. Enjoy!

[explore-blog]

The interesting questions about stories, which have, as they say, excited the interests of readers for millennia, are not about what makes a taste for them “universal,” but what makes the good ones so different from the dull ones, and whether the good ones really make us better people, or just make us people who happen to have heard a good story.

On The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik critiques The Storytelling Animal. (via explore-blog)

[hiddengemsmcgill]

[explore-blog]

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 2. Never use a long word where a short one will do. 3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. 4. Never use the passive where you can use the active. 5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

After David Ogilvy’s now-infamous 10 tips on writing and Henry Miller’s 11 commandments of writing, here comes a list of rules for writers from George Orwell circa 1946. (via explore-blog)

[hiddengemsmcgill]

Visit Original Link

Kallee Lins takes us back to the Montreal of the 40's and 50's as see through the eyes of a young girl and her friends. Allow yourself a little bit of flirting with vintage and enjoy this fun radio play!

[hiddengemsmcgill]

Visit Original Link

Matt Garry tells a story of unbelievable energy, vigor and momentum. His play takes you everywhere, from far-away travels to orchestra seats, with a violin in hand. Enjoy!

[hiddengemsmcgill]

You realize Hidden Gems is airing the plays every Monday morning at 11 on CKUT 90.3fm...

At first you're like:

And then you're like:

And then you click here!