Well hello there.

Long time no type! It amazes me to see that hundreds of people are still visiting Creative DC each month. Good old Google. Anyway, since enough people still visit these old stomping grounds of mine, I thought I’d drop in with a quick update on my whereabouts:

• You can currently find me blogging at the eponymous amandahirsch.com and sharing various insights and absurdities on Twitter at @amanda_hirsch.
• In other news, spurred on by the success of our SXSW improv workshops, Jordan and I recently launched THINK IMPROV, a company that offers workshops tying improv concepts to life and work. I hope you’ll check us out! (This being 2011, we’re also on Twitter and Facebook.)

If you’re looking for current resources on creative living in Washington, DC, you should definitely connect with self-described “creativity evangelist,” Philippa Hughes (her Salon Contra, which has launched since I left DC in 11/09, looks pretty interesting). I also encourage you to check out two hubs of my own creative community in the city, Washington Improv Theater and Tranquil Space. Finally, some of my favorite people in DC are involved with the Affinity Lab and Fabulous Women Business Owners. Check ‘em out!

And keep in touch :).

Photo by Colliding Light on Flickr

Here’s the thing: When I moved to New York last year, I missed blogging so much that I rushed to create a new blog, Tastee Pudding, within a few months (its tag line: “In the search for creative life, the proof is in the Pudding”). I wrote about creative people, habits, ideas and culture. It was basically Creative DC without the DC.

…and that was its fatal flaw. To succeed, a blog doesn’t just need to be interesting — it needs to serve a need. Creative DC showcased and inspired creative living for a city full of people searching for creative community and inspiration. Tastee Pudding never had that laser-like focus.

Also, I rushed to launch Tastee Pudding because I missed the fulfillment of writing a blog and connecting with its readers. But as with any artistic enterprise, desire alone isn’t enough to carry the day. Without a deep sense of conviction that what I was writing was useful, I felt rudderless. I tried a 30-day blogging challenge (writing every day for 30 days), hoping it would help me find the spark I sought, but it only served to convince me that Tastee Pudding was but a temporary stop on my blogging path.

I played around with a tumblr blog for a while, giving myself permission to do something unstructured as a way of figuring out what exactly I had to say. I even used a pseudonym, “Mandy Miracle,” hoping that straying as far as possible from my blogging history and persona would grant me the freedom to discover inspiration.

And then, a few weeks ago, I was walking my dog when inspiration struck: “ZENyc.” The name popped into my head, just as the name “Creative DC” had come to me back in 2006 (I was sitting in a hotel lobby in Orlando, Florida at the time, bored out of my gourd at a conference for work). Now, standing there on East 10th Street on this early summer morning, I felt a rush, a buzz, knowing I was onto something. The city of New York needed Zen, needed ways to find peace and quiet and sanity amid the noise, the clamor, the chaos; it needed these things in the same way DC had needed a showcase, back in 2006, for its underrepresented creative people and opportunities.

“We give what we most want to get, and we teach what we most want to learn,” Eve Ensler once said at a conference I attended. In DC, I needed creativity; here, in my new home, creativity abounded — but as I struggled with the city’s constant assault on my senses (the noisy neighbors, the smell of garbage on the street, the oven-like subway stops), I needed to find ways to stay centered amid the chaos. And so, ZENyc was born.

The response so far has been encouraging. I hope you’ll check it out, and share it with any friends in NYC who could use a little Zen in their lives. Even more, I hope the story of how I landed at this new blog offers some useful insights as you pursue your own creative projects — straining, experimenting, and allowing yourself to do something completely different on the path to inspiration.

Love,
Amanda

Yes, this woman's hat is a bowl of chocolate pudding.

Hello party people!

I’m happy to announce the launch of my brand spanking new blog, Tastee Pudding (tag line: “In the search for creative life, the proof is in the Pudding.“) There, you’ll find much of what you used to get from Creative DC, just minus any specific geographic focus; read my mission statement here. I hope you’ll join me there, and I’d love your feedback.

You can also K.I.T. (as the kids say) on Twitter.

Away we go!

(Image courtesy of Bad Housewife on Flickr)

Photo by New Yorkled on Flickr

Goodbye? No.

I’ll keep writing. But this is it for Creative DC. My boxes are packed; the movers are coming tomorrow. Tomorrow night, I’ll go to bed in the city that never sleeps. And then – ?

What’s next? Probably Creative NYC. I’ll be taking some time to figure that out, and once I do, I’ll post a link here. In the meantime, this site will exist as an archive, and I’ll be curating links and ideas about creative living 140 characters at a time, over on Twitter.

And you? What will you be doing? Keep in touch: write to me at amanda at creativedc dot org. Your stories inspire me. I’ll be traveling for much of November, so forgive me if I don’t respond right away… but know that you’re the reason I started this blog, and the reason I’ll start another one…

‘Later :)

Last night I attended Tranquil Space Yoga’s 10 year birthday party. I saw a lot of familiar faces, and said goodbye (or, “see ya later”) to a place that’s been a true oasis since I found it back in 2004. It got me thinking about all the people and places in DC that have helped make me who I am, these past 10 years. So with apologies in advance for a list that’s by no means comprehensive….thank you:

…Kimberly, for providing a tranquil space, and for showing me it’s possible to live your dream;
…WIT, for helping me find my tribe;
…Zack, for giving me a chance;
…JINX, for being family;
…Christina, for bringing cheer to every situation;
…Kate, Jess and Jen – for being in it with me, no matter how absurd things were around us;
…Cindy, for cheering me on – no matter what the endeavor;
…Trish, for telling me to chill out;
…Laura Z, for ‘getting’ the story I needed to tell, and helping me tell it better…and for telling me to ‘plant the seeds’;
…and, of course, Jordan, for keeping up with the changes in me, and for being my partner in this adventure we call life.

Sorry to get all sappy on you, but I’m about to start a whole new chapter, and a moment like this makes a person stop and reflect.

Tonight, we drink beer and give candy to trick-or-treaters. Tomorrow, final chores around the house; Monday, the movers come to pack us up; and Tuesday, we move to New York.

WOWZA.