Experience more art

A joyful challenge to fill your year with writing, art, and new voices

Today I want to talk about intentionally filling your year with more art, more reading, more music, and more immersive creative experiences. Why? Some reasons:

• In our world of endless scrolling, art often has a physicality that reminds us that who we are doesn’t fit in an app, algorithm, or small flat screen.

• Experiencing art helps us understand others, the world, and ourselves in new ways.

• If you are someone who creates, I find that immersing yourself in a variety of art forms can inform that craft in unexpected and powerful directions.

I want to work through the practicalities of this in today’s post: how do you fill your life not with “more art” in terms of visiting a museum every so often, but how do you do so on a near daily basis? How do you find the time? How do you get the access? How do you find the motivation? Because I know that in all likelihood, you are maxed out with responsibilities that fill your days.

A significant part of this post will be a case study on my own “Experience More Art” challenge this year: to watch at least 200 movies. My intention in sharing that is to dig into the nitty gritty of what this can look like, regardless of your goal.

Find Your Deep “Why” in Filling Your Days With Art

Not long ago, I discovered something about myself, and it was kind of surprising: something that really relaxes me is watching movies. My days are spent running a business (which I love!) and raising our family with kids who are 8 and 15, which are amazing — but complicated — ages. Our family has actively been managing individual health needs and goals, and of course all the normal stuff: owning a home, and living in this complicated world.

When I take a break at the end of the day, sit down in a dark room, and turn on a movie, I find I am able to become totally immersed in a story, and completely relaxed. It’s been great for balancing my mental health. I’m listening to what my body is telling me, and making more space for that kind of experience in my life.

In considering this, I gave myself a challenge for this year: watch at least 200 films. Here are the other guidelines I put around the challenge:

• Focus more on watching films I’ve never seen before.

• Watch all (or nearly all) films on Blu-ray discs — not streaming apps.

• Find the highest quality version of the film available. Nowadays, there are so many labels remastering films to the highest quality possible.

• I’m allowing myself to focus more on genres and eras I love (primarily 1970s movies), but I’m encouraging myself to mix in movies from all eras.

The Results (So Far)

The results so far have surprised me. This month I have watched more than 25 movies, which works out to around one film per day. Here is the list:

A majority of the films I have never seen before, and so far, many of them have been free from the library. The ratings are not indicating how good the movie is, but rather, how likely I am to want to rewatch the movie in the future. This is my Rewatch Rating scale:

• 5 will watch again and again

• 4 would gladly rewatch occasionally

• 3 might rewatch every so often

• 2 will only rewatch if there is a reason to

• 1 will actively avoid rewatching this movie

I have been doing a ton of research to discover movies to view, and I can’t believe how many are highly regarded, but I’ve never even heard of before. Even films from eras and genres I really like.

There has been an unexpected sense of satisfaction in experiencing films and realizing I am becoming more literate in cinema.

Of course, I’m including my family when we are able, watching some movies with my wife, my 15yo, and my 8yo. Each likes different kinds of movies.

Tracking this actually aligns to something I teach in my Creative Shift Mastermind: that when you write down what you do, you realize how much you have done. It is common for a writer to say something like they didn’t think they did anything towards their creative goals in a specific week. But when I ask them to write it down what they actually did, they see how much effort they made — often surprising them in a positive way. It’s astounding to me to see this many movies written down that I watched this month.

Choose the Quality and Presence of Your Experience

You get to choose the quality of experience you want to pursue. Maybe you want to listen to more music on vinyl, or see more live shows, or experience more local artists, or read more books. Consider the quality of the experience you want to be a part of. There is a difference between being one of 1,000 people in a huge museum vs being one of three people at a local exhibit. Or the difference of seeing a local performance vs. a Broadway play.

I took this pretty seriously, optimizing my home theater so it was the best it could be. I spent weeks adjusting placement of speakers and the settings in my receiver and TV so they were just right. I lucked into an amazing deal on some incredible speakers that I couldn’t pass up, so part of the system received a massive upgrade.

All this tweaking feels like a craft, where I look at the nuances that optimize the experience. The effort genuinely helps me become more immersed in the story on the screen, and in audio all around me through 8 speakers. I am focused on the quality of being enveloped. My home theater room is small, but when you turn out the lights, it becomes a cozy movie theater.

For my decision to only watch movies on Blu-ray discs, part of that was because I realized how badly I felt when I went into a streaming app like Netflix, Apple TV, Max, Paramount+ or any of the others. The endless scroll, the previews that play automatically, and the sense that I would keep seeing the same movies promoted to me again and again. I wanted control and a sense of relaxation. Renting or buying discs does that for me.

I also began to realize the significant qualitative difference in audio and video on a disc compared to streaming. Even if both say 4k, the amount of data in the files is incredibly different. If you stream the movie Dune vs watch it on disc, you are receiving four times the information in video and audio quality on the disc.

I’ve also noticed that seeing old movies in the best quality changes them. We are used to seeing old versions of them that were scanned to digital decades ago, then played via broadcast TV or lower quality DVDs. They may be grainy, cropped, and the audio may be compromised. This is not how the filmmaker intended them to look or sound.

But nowadays, studios and boutique Blu-ray labels are going back to the original camera negatives or 35mm film prints, rescanning them, color grading them, remastering the video and audio. The result? They look nearly as good as the day they were first shown in a movie theater decades ago. As a viewer, it is a remarkable difference to see a 1971 film in the worst quality vs the best quality.

This is my current stack of movies I plan on watching, plus a long list of movies ordered from the library, or have on a wishlist:

The thick box with Italian title is the film Once Upon a Time in America. It was one of my father’s favorite films, and I wanted to rewatch it. Turns out, the director’s cut is difficult to find on Blu-ray. But then I discovered a label in Italy just remastered it in 4k. So I ordered it directly from Italy, spending way more than I ever spent for an individual film. It’s a way of honoring an experience my father appreciated, and also seeing the absolute best version of the film that anyone has seen since it was in theaters since 1984. Is it ridiculous for me to spend $100 on this? Maybe. But part of me is viewing it as going to the movies with my dad again. Maybe that’s ridiculous too, but this is who I am.

How to Find the Time

I can’t believe I watched nearly a film a day this month, because it feels as though 99.9% of my waking hours are spent focused on caring for my family, for the work I do with writers, attending to my health, and household chores.

What I’m realizing is how the 200 movies challenge has focused my attention. I’m doing less “mildly distracting” things to focus more on “deeply relaxing” movie watching.

If you feel you can’t fit in more art, I have found that a specific goal can help. That if you want to read more books, that you may be able to do so if you:

• Create a rule of no screens after 9pm, and put 3 books on your bedside table and install a good light.

• Read physical books (when you want), but also read digital books in a smaller reader that you can throw in your bag, and also listen to audiobooks when you are doing chores, exercising, or commuting.

• Become open to smaller reading sessions, even if your ideal is to have 2+ uninterrupted hours to read.

For my goal, I don’t watch movies on my phone or computer, and I never multitask while watching them. Fitting them in has entirely been about re-prioritizing and giving myself permission.

What helps is that my family are chronic under-schedulers in general. Our kids aren’t in 20 activities. We say no to most social obligations. Our house gets quiet early in the evening. We make polarizing choices of doing less.

Likewise, we have intentionally set up our lives to do less. I work a mile from my home. I naturally wake up very early, which means I am home early. All of this is personalized to me, and helps with my goal. Your life is different, and unique to you.

Doing less has opened up time for something like this. We aren’t maxing out, we have margin in our lives. That is often filled with art, conversation, music, reading, and now, movies.

For me, fitting in movies is not a “hack” of doing more. It is simply about being more mindful of where I put my focus.

In a practical sense, this is how I fit in a movie one day earlier this month. On Tuesday, January 20th, I watched the 1973 film The Friends of Eddie Coyle. This was my day:

• 4am wake up. At work by 5am. (Usually I wake up between 4 - 5am. I’ve always been this way, I love waking up. I was often one of the first kids to walk into my high school each day when I was young.)

• 4pm home.

• Dinner prep, conversations with my wife and kids, etc.

• 5pm eat dinner.

• 5:30 chat with my wife.

• 6pm watch 1/2 hour of the movie while my wife and son watched a TV show.

• 6:30 did dishes, helped our 8yo get ready for bed, and chatted with him. Checked in on our 15yo.

• 7pm watched 1/2 hour of the movie.

• 7:30 put our 8yo “to bed” (he stays up for another hour and a half, but does creative projects by himself in his room.) Talked with my wife for a bit.

• 7:45 - 8:30 watched the rest of the movie.

• 9pm in bed.

I break movies up into chunks. Ideally not less than 1/2 hour at a time. Always in a dark room, focused. So I don’t micro-watch them (5 mins at a time), but I also rarely have a full 2 hours uninterrupted because of family and home responsibilities.

So there is a part of me that is worried that writing this post will have someone think: “Dan, if you are watching a movie each night, or close to it, isn’t that time you can spend with your family?” But this is the familiar notion that creators are often saddled with. That any time they spend on their craft — even reading — is somehow selfish. It is not.

My schedule and priorities are unique to me. Your life will look completely different.

How to Find the Money and Access

So far, nearly all of the movies I have watched have been free. While my local library has a very limited selection of Blu-ray discs, across the county-wide system, there are so many! So I have been using the interlibrary exchange program to order tons of movies. I do this entirely online, and then stop by the library on my way home from work to pick them up.

This is where I feel limiting beliefs can come in, where our typical preferences begin limiting our experiences. For me, this process is about being more open to films I would previously have passed on. This can look like something different for your goals. Perhaps you want to see more live music shows, but justify, “It is so expensive to see a good show nowadays. Ticket prices are up, they sell out, and even getting a bottle of water at a good venue is pricey.” All of that is true.

So if you limit “I want to see more live music,” to “Oasis is on a reunion tour! I love them, but tickets are hard to get and expensive,” then it’s a recipe for seeing zero live music this year.

But if you want to see more live music, does it have to be a famous band you love? Can it be local musicians? I live in a small town in New Jersey, which is a unique situation to be in, but if “seeing more live music” was my goal, this would be on my list of ways to consider doing so:

• Most weeks of the year, we have a weekly farmers market downtown and there is always a musician playing.

• We have a restaurant/bar in town where jazz musicians play.

• There are several local bands that play at various community events, I could follow their social media to not just discover when I can see them, but discover other local bands that also play at these events.

• Neighboring towns may have small festivals and farmers markets too.

• Our county has performing arts organizations that set up events/shows throughout the year, I can follow them to find out more.

• We have three local universities just outside of town, each of which may offer concert series or related events.

• Some houses of worship offer musical programming.

• Nearby towns have bars and small venues that have live bands on weekend evenings.

• There are organizations for specific types of music that you can seek out. For instance, a bagpipe troupe plays every year in our local 4th of July parade, it makes me wonder where else they play and what other specialty music organizations there are.

• Our town has a large street fair every year with two stages of bands throughout the day. I can discover bands there, and also see what other towns have street fairs in a 10 mile radius that has live music.

• There are concerts and festivals, as expected, at larger venues that play plenty of artists that are not mega-celebrities, and will have reasonably priced tickets available even the day of show. For my local area, there is MPAC in Morristown. If I want to drive upwards of 1/2 hour away, there are countless venues.

I did zero research to come up with that list, I just thought about where I have heard music in my daily life in the past few years. Let’s do the same exercise for the goal of experiencing more visual art (paintings and sculpture.) Could I take a train or drive into New York City and go to the Met or MoMA? Sure. But it’s expensive, I have to deal with a lot of planning on how to get there, where to eat, etc. What if I just wanted to experience more art in general? Maybe I look into:

• Local smaller museums in my county.

• Look up local art galleries and even frame shops that have galleries that feature artists.

• I remember artist Megan Carty having art shows in a jewelry store local to her. Maybe there is art in unexpected places like that near me.

• A local college or other larger organization might have artwork on display in specific galleries, or throughout their facilities. Our town hall has art on display in their large public meeting room, and not long ago discovered that one of the sculptures in the corner was a lost Rodin sculpture.

• Seek out local artist organizations to find when they do shows or events.

• Look up local craft fairs that may feature artists.

• Again, houses of worship may offer art programming and displays. My synagogue has a gallery in their entryway that rotates art exhibits several times of year.

• There may be local art schools that offer events where you can see art.

But maybe you live far away from all of this, and you love classic works of art. You can still experience them in beautiful large books. If you are far away from art venues that inspire you, you can take out incredible books from the library (or purchase them yourself) that have beautiful photos of art in them, along with the stories behind them. Is it the same as flying to the Louvre in Paris? No. Does it fill your days with the experience of discovering art? Yes.

Much of what I outlined here is inexpensive, or possibly even free. That has been one of the ah-ha moments of my 200 movies challenge. It’s easy to complain that streaming services are getting so expensive, and their selection is limited. Which is why discovering how many amazing movies my library system has was sort of a shock, even though I have clearly used the library copiously throughout my life. I’m like, “Wait, they have all of these movies, and they are free? How is there not a line to get in here?!” Plus the librarians are so nice!

If I were to change the parameters for my goal, and allow regular DVDs, the overall cost of my challenge would go to near zero. The library system has most movies on DVD. For rare and hard to find movies, many have been transferred to Blu-ray, which means older DVD prices have plummeted to near zero.

For the movies I am buying, that is a conscious choice. I am aware that if I spend $20, $30, or $50 for a single movie on 4k Blu-ray, I am doing so to have the best experience.

For example, I bought the 1981 movie Outland on Blu-ray for $26.65. I don’t have high expectations of the movie, but I had never even heard of it before, and is generally well reviewed, and in a genre I tend to like. That’s a lot of money for one movie, right? But here is how I’m considering this: the best way to watch this film is in a movie theater, viewing a 35mm print. But no one is playing this movie that way anymore.

If I found a time machine, and went back in time with my wife to 1981 to see this film in the theater, calculating for inflation it would still cost us around $30 (in today’s dollars) for two tickets, a bucket of popcorn, and two drinks. This week I am able to watch a brand new 4k restoration of the film on Blu-ray, and it generally cost the same amount of money.

But these rules don’t have to be your rules. For instance, an area of my life where I have long since honed experiencing more art is with music. While I used to listen to music on vinyl and CD, now all of my listening is via Spotify. On the surface, this sounds horrible, right? Like I have given up the amazing nature of analog music, for the algorithm. However, this has been my experience:

• I listen to music nearly every day, often for 2 to 3 hours.

• 100% of the music I listen to is new to me. I am not listening to favorites from the past.

• Spotify’s algorithm does help me find amazing new music I love. Algorithms can work in a positive direction.

• Each season (winter, spring, summer, fall), I make a brand new playlist, and add songs to it that I discover on Spotify. Each season has a new soundtrack for me.

Spotify is inexpensive compared to how much I used to spend on music in my twenties and thirties. Back then, it wasn’t uncommon for me to spend $18 on an album that I ended up not really liking. That’s about what I spend on Spotify each month for access to all the music I listen to.

For your own goals of experiencing more art, I simply encourage you to focus on depth and presence of the experience. To be intentional in choosing that for yourself.

Find Inspiration for Filling Your Days with More Art

If you are unsure of where to begin, look for inspirational mentors who seem to embrace art every day. I loved this idea from Petya K. Grady on “reading as a default state.”

I often mention my friend Samantha Dion Baker who seems to fill her days with experiencing art wherever she goes.

There is an influencer who lives in our area, who constantly reads and reviews books, and it’s fascinating to see how she fits in so much reading.

I shared an entire case study on how Elise Blaha Cripe spends her days immersed in creative activities, even though her life is busy with other priorities right now.

Look for people you resonate with who shared their lived experience of infusing their days with art. Not where it is glamorous, but where it is a part of their otherwise normal (and often stressful) lives. Yet, they still fit it in.

If you considered creating a challenge for yourself this year to experience more art, what would that look like? Let me know in the comments.

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If you want to explore working with me, there are two ways I collaborate with writers and creators:

1. One-on-one consulting

2. My Creative Shift Mastermind. Learn about it here.

As always, thank you so much for being here with me.
-Dan

Kids of the Week: working on his next book on gems, minerals, and rocks: