The accompanying scene from *Six Degrees of Separation* is one in which Flan (Donald Sutherland) pontificates about Wassily Kandinsky's habit of painting two-sided works. (In fact, there are only a couple of Kandinsky's works about which that's known to be true: "Two Riders" and "Reclining Figure/Study for Improvisation V". [Starving artists of the '20s often painted on both sides of a fiber board, then split it to sell the pieces separately.] The two paintings shown in the film, however, are Kandinsky pieces created 13 years apart—"Black Lines" in 1913 and "Several Circles" in 1926. Tsk tsk.)

Fabrication aside, the play-turned-film touches throughout on the persistent tug-of-war between chaos and control. It's a thing. All day, e'ry day. Por ejemplo: I was tempted to skip recording this week's episode of the podcast (because of the essentially non-navigable disaster site that's been our studio, for the past three weeks, after a hot water pipe ruptured inside the back wall. Then I thought about the week's topic ("Happiness vs. Pleasure") and had a good laugh. Here was a perfect opportunity to practice what I preach, yes? So, in the latest installment of The Creation Files, listen as I scrap notes to speak extemporaneously, sans isolation, without our normal music beds and such, while workmen bang and drill and planes fly overhead—a ripped-from-real-life illustration of not relinquishing well-being to circumstances. Pleasures are transitory, friends, but happiness is sustainable. -Pm
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IN THIS FILE: update on Studio Babaloo; definitions of 'happiness' and 'pleasure'; the misreading of pleasure as happiness; happiness as choice; the danger of addiction to pleasure; "the hedonic treadmill (aka "hedonic adaptation") ›› scientific theory: "the theory that humans continually adapt to bad and good circumstances and return to relative neutrality"; the relationship between creativity and happiness; James Dyson (inventor/founder of Dyson Ltd., makers of the Dyson vacuum cleaner); allowing discomfort; discomfort as fodder for growth and creation
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Executive Producers: Mar Hobbs, Patsy Moore
Producer, Host: Patsy Moore

"The Creation Files" is a Papa Chuy Media production.