GET OFF THE MERRY GO ROUND AND CREATE!
Some of my friends have called me
“a renaissance man” or “the quiet genius,”
but I assure you I am neither. If I have a gift it is the lack of fear that allows me to try anything and not quit.
Everyone has access to where creativity originates. If there were no fear of failure, everyone would be a creative genius and the world would be a much brighter place.
Merry Go Round--
Creativity is Free
Jim Gleeson decided very early on to channel his creativity into the area of architectural design, graduating from the University of Florida College of Architecture at the age of twenty-two. He was not yet aware one could be creative in more than one area. Yes, along the way he dabbled in graphic design, technical writing and for a brief time in Atlanta, he joined the Atlanta Songwriters Association and wrote some songs before returning to Charlotte to raise a family.
Home for Site on Mountain Island Lake
By 2003 he had become a leading proponent of the sustainable design trend, speaking around the country teaching architects and others how to cut their carbon footprint and do more with less. But then something changed. He became aware of what some were calling “post-normal science.” This was science plus an element of political agenda added to it make sure the public knew “what was good for them.” To Gleeson it was no longer science. He wrote a paper called “The Politics of Green”.
But, architecture remained his chief creative outlet. He started his own business designing custom, passive solar homes. Later in 2009 when the recession caused many businesses to go under, his fledgling architecture firm was part of the fall-out. While working at Dillard’s as the “men’s suit specialist,” Gleeson took the opportunity to write about the world around him.
This was followed over the next two years by what he called “The Matt Lacker Trilogy, about a seemingly evil CIA asset who rises through the ranks only to have an epiphany which causes all kinds of problems!
By this time Gleeson was ready to share his research and newfound spiritual leanings with the world in a non-fiction book addressing the connection of science to the unseen world. He called it Science, God and You The Ancient Theory of Everything. It explained in detail how man’s science, being decidedly without interest or understanding of what’s outside of our limited senses, could never produce a “theory of everything”.
Unbeknownst to scientists, the truth of everything has long since been articulated by the awake few, throughout the ages, whose minds were opened by the very thing that is eternally outside of worldly thoughts. It was that “thing,” that infinite realm that silently pervades EVERYTHING, that seemed to be leading Jim Gleeson to return to his first love, music—but why? All his songs were written thirty years ago! He found a box of his old song demos on cassette and put together a little studio with audio freeware and a hundred and fifty dollars’ worth of equipment. He started learning how to record on his new DAW (digital audio workstation) unsure what he would do with any of it. He had made a few videos in order to promote his books on social media, but video seemed much more relevant to music than to books! The video and the music could be integrated! At first, he was well aware of his limitations.
“I’m not a musician,” he thought. But he was reminded by a voice in his mind that told him, “There are only seven major notes.” His new DAW allowed him to create what would become music, by figuring out a few notes at a time on many separate tracks and then putting them together so they “sounded good.” He wasn’t a musician but he knew when something sounded good. He recorded his version of a favorite song of his from the 1980s by the Cars. called Drive. He loved it because it proved that a good song could be done in different styles. But one day as he listened to his version, a voice told him, “It needs a saxophone.” What!? He obeyed. He found Vocal Ink Production studios online and called the number. Tim Campbell, the owner, promised to call the man he had recently bought the studio from and get a recommendation. That man, the well-known composer, Fred Story, had just the guy—sax player, Tim Gordon.
The result is what eventually convinced Jim Gleeson that the reason he was learning to record was to make an album—a really good album-- highlighting the bountiful musical talent in Charlotte USA!
All the while he was perfecting his recording ability, Gleeson was also teaching himself how to make videos of his music. Not long after the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Greenway was extended south past Tyvola he became “friends” with a blue heron who also spent a lot of time in and around Little Sugar Creek stretch of the greenway. Gleeson waited patiently with his cellphone camera steadied on a railing and got what the Char/Meck Water department thought was a great video of the heron catching a fairly large fish in the creek just two hundred yard downstream from their sewer plant. Gleeson performed some computer magic on the four minute video and paired it with a song he wrote. He then invited Charlotte violinist, Glen Alexander to add his magic and the result is both a great example of the quality of the songs on CharlotteZown but also a mesmerizing video.
It Will Roll--Click link for Video
Some of Gleeson’s friends call him “the renaissance man” or “the quiet genius,” but he dismisses all that and says that everyone has access to where creativity originates. “If there were no fear of failure,” he says, “everyone would be a creative genius and the world would be a much brighter place."