Weird isn't Good.... Weird isn't Great... Weird is Mandatory!

In his speech that's captured on the DVD "Tom Peters Live: Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age", Tom is adamant that we need to surround ourselves with the lunatic fringe. 

Everything important comes from the edge... not the middle.

His comments reminded me... a couple months ago, in Pt. Reyes Station, I bought a book. The cover caught my eye - like seeing a familiar face in an airport. Not quite a friend, just something confusingly familiar. 

Oh, yeah... I remember you, I thought. It was the art of Lynda Barry. I remembered her art from 'underground' newspapers in the late 80's, early 90's - before I moved to Asia.

She was in the same papers that carried pre-Simpsons Matt Groening's strip "Life in Hell". I loved Life in Hell. Lynda's work however, freaked me out a little. Still, I found myself compelled to read it every week - like looking at a traffic accident.

Anyway, I bought the book. And guess what? It's incredible.
Did she change? Or did I change?

Maybe my years in Japan opened me to her approach?

Does it matter? I wonder...

Here are five lines from the book that particularly grabbed me:

• "The thing I call 'my mind' seems to be kind of like a landlord that doesn't really know its tenants"
• "What year is it in your imagination?"
• "Something can only become an illusion after disillusionment. Before that, it is something real."
• "What do drawing, singing, dancing, music making, handwriting, playing, story writing, acting, remembering, and even dreaming all have in common? They come about when a certain person in a certain place in a certain time arranges certain uncertainties into certain form."
• "I believe this happens to most of us. We are still singing, but secretly and all alone."

Buy this book for the art. Buy this book for the writing. 

Buy this book to free your mind. Buy this book because it frightens you. 

Frankly, I don't care why you buy this book.

But... buy this book...

• Lynda Barry's "What it Is"