My good friend Carol Schillios is living on a roof for as long as it takes to raise $1 million to support women and their families in developing countries.

All she’s asking: That you donate $1 to the Fabric of Life Foundation, and accompany that donation with a small act of kindness.

Click here to read some of the amazing success stories from the work Carol and her foundation have already done.

If we work together, each using our own voice and personal network, we can help get her off the roof in a jiffy, before she catches a deatha-cold.

Here’s an idea to help:

1. We each donate a dollar (or more), and perform a small act of kindness.
2. Tweet or update your Facebook status with your one small act, along with this link to Carol’s site http://bit.ly/qQaec and the hashtag #imupontheroof.For example: “Complimented a stranger on the subway. http://bit.ly/qQaec #imupontheroof”
3. Bonus: Change your Twitter location to “Up on the roof with Carol.”

The hashtag #imupontheroof is a nice way for us all to remind Carol that, although not physically, we are up there with her in thought and spirit. It’ll also help us keep up as more people tell their stories. (Click here if you’re wondering “what the heck is a hashtag?”)

Finally, encourage everyone you can to do the same by emailing, tweeting, blogging, Facebook(ing), and on and on.

Most of us are unbelievably connected and use that power to share opinions, jokes, goofy youtube videos (here’s a good one), and so on. This is an opportunity to use it for something much bigger.

Follow along:

• Carol is on Twitter as @schillios.
• She’s also on Facebook.
• Her blog is upontheroofwithcarol.org.

Today my mom gave me some sass about the fact that I haven’t written on here in almost a month. First of all, I didn’t even realize she read this thing unless I sent her the links. High five to that.

A couple of weeks ago, Terrell (@texast) tweeted this:

I almost tweeted something that falls in the TMI category. Decided not to, but will blog about it later! I must share. what’s wrong w/me?

I feel the same way: I can’t shake the pull to document and share. This week’s break from Twitter helped ease that knee-jerk desire to post a thing when it happens. It makes it easier to be present and enjoy that thing in the moment without worrying about how to communicate it as a digestible snack.

This bit of text from the header of Ze Frank’s blog says it well:

This is my blog. Sometimes I don’t write for a while, that usually means I’m doing something else. I didn’t forget about you though. I like you.

I do like you. When I take breaks from sharing, I start to feel like a hyperactive little kid - wiggling in my seat, ansty to ask you things and tell you  what I learned today. I miss the conversation. We’ll talk soon.

Is your immediate reaction to interesting haps in your life to document and share them? If so: is that a new thing, or has it always been the case?

This week I asked my Twitter friends 1) Who their favorite jazz vocalists are and 2) What soul-crushingly beautiful music they’d recommend. Here’s what they, aka you, said:

Favorite Jazz Vocalists

• Lady Day • Nat King Cole • Frank Sinatra • Cab Calloway • Ella Fitzgerald • Louis Armstrong • Diana Krall • Mel Torme • Bill Weathers • Nina Simone • Billie Holiday • Sarah Vaughan • Bobbi Humphrey • Diana Krall • Betty Carter • Little Jimmy Scott • Madeleine Peyroux • Patricia Barber •

Soul-Crushingly Beautiful Music

• Sigur Ros • “Go Now” by the Moody Blues • “I Get Along Without You Very Well” by Carly Simon • Neko Case • Emmylou Harris • Riceboy Sleeps • “Possibly Maybe” by Björk •  Other Lives • Ray LaMontagne • Neil Young • Annuals • Jeff Buckley • “Oriental Melody” and “Cool New Way” by Joe Satriani • Kings of Convenience • The Sundays • Mazzy Star • The Cure (Disintigration-era) • Leonard Cohen • Sufjan Stevens • The Sublime Goodness Mixtape 2 • Patty Griffin •

My ears will be warm and full for weeks. Thanks to @jimmymarks, @allspeeds, @solis510, @ali_shafai, @vanessahenry, @morrischris, @jhoop98, @andrewshepherd, @lisarandolph, @bradywalen, @dericjones, @mmpartee, @nunispramp for that.

Update 7/1: I’ve added four jazz vocalists and a spelling change from @astigmatic, who let me know that, “It’s Krall, the singer, not Krull, the awesomely bad fantasy thriller from 1983.” Thanks, Aaron.

PS: Add to the list by posting your favorites in the comments.

This inspired speech from Charlie Chaplin was delivered sometime during WWII. Over fifty years later, it’s still as poignant and relevant as ever.

“We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.”

“Machinery that gives abundance leaves us in want.”

“We think too much but feel too little.”

“More than machinery, we need humanity.”

“More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.”

One commenter responded, “If only people would listen and do, instead of listen and forget.” That’s really the trick, isn’t it?

Last week while walking through the wilds of Williamsburg, I passed this.  Just like last time, it needs a caption. Bad. Please leave yours.

This round’s winning caption receives a copy of Marc Johns’ righteous book of illustrations, “Serious Drawings.”

As always, you are free to submit as many captions as your noodle can pop out. I’ll announce the winner Thursday, July, 2nd.

Update (7/2): This was a really hard decision, because there’s a ton of solid gold in the comments. Jeff Hardin takes the win with: “Prison dwarf tossing FAIL,” which actually made me spit coffee when I read it.

I wrote a song yesterday from my hotel room outside of Minneapolis. I think I’ll probably add to it, but here’s a quick-and-dirty little recording I made this morning of what it is right now. Hope you enjoy it:

Notes From a Hotel Room in Minnesota (MP3 download)

Lyrics:

For days upon days
I’ve been dreaming awake
of you calling me up,
and we know just what to say.

But doors have been shut
and the well has run dry
and my cast iron throat
it can’t ask for advice.

We say cheers to the present,
we empty out the glass,
talk about where we’re headed
as we drink down the past

Shawn sat on the plane
and drank ginger ale.
He told me the stories
of how he had failed.

His family was waiting
in Saskatchewan
to start their new lives
in the hot Florida sun.

“I spent years breaking things
that I love the most
and feel cheap when I pray:
‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost.’”

Sit down on the train
and they all look away -
staring down at their coffee
and the newspaper page.

We’re all packaged well
we’re all wrapped up and bound
we all practice distraction
and don’t make a sound

We have our smoke and mirrors
we have our one act plays
we’re all trying to scream
in the quietest way

Playing it cool is for the birds.

(via Ze Frank)

I know I’ll catch hell for this, but it’s hilarious. So sue me:

CUES published an article of mine yesterday on growing creativity through limitations. Here’s a dose, or you can click through to read the full article:

In 1995 a couple of miffed Danish filmmakers got together and said, “We’re tired of the effects and novelty and plastic pizzazz of Hollywood hijacking the most important thing about film: the story.”

And so they trimmed the fat.

The two Danes were Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, and in 45 minutes they wrote the Dogme 95 Vow of Chastity, a 10-point manifesto that rejected overproduced gimmicks in favor of pure storytelling. The rules include shooting only on location with no props or sets, avoiding added sound or music, using only hand-held cameras, and filming in color with no special lighting (read the whole thing here).

In other words, von Tirier and Vinterburg believed in placing certain limitations on their work and got great results. The first of the dogme films, aka Dogme #1, Vinterberg’s “The Celebration,” demonstrated the beauty of limitation and won the Jury Prize at Cannes, along with loads of other awards.

Like von Trier and Vinterberg, we all need to embrace—and even self-impose—limitations to achieve a deeper creative focus.

Unlike our Scandinavian friends, however, we don’t have to declare all-out stylistic chastity. We can begin sketching our boundaries with a few rough outlines.

» Inside Marketing: Drawing Lines to Color Inside

Thanks very much, Lisa & the CUESers, for the opportunity.