MLB player Sean Doolittle pitches for independent bookstores:

CBS News

September 21, 2019, 10:57 AM

For Sean Doolittle, a trip to the bookstore is a sensory experience. "There's something about holding [a book], it just smells cool."

And reading for Doolittle? "It's kind of evolved over time," he said. "I've had other hobbies, I have other things I tried: Video games, watching movies, you know? I love my job, but it can be a little stressful at times. And reading has become a really healthy escape."

His job is that of a major league pitcher for the Washington Nationals – a dream come true, but with it comes an inconsistent schedule and plenty of pressure.

"CBS This Morning: Saturday" co-host Dana Jacobson asked Doolittle, "Do you remember which came first – your love of books, or your love for baseball?"

"Baseball came before a lotta things in my life," he said. "I played all sports growing up. Baseball was always my favorite, though."

Books, he said, were just always there. With teachers in his family, an emphasis was put on the importance of education and reading. "I could never go to practice or to a game unless I'd finished my homework."

Jacobson asked, "Do you remember a first book as a kid where it just opened your eyes and your imagination and you remember thinking, 'I need more of this'?"

"'Goosebumps' and sportsbooks," he said. "I loved reading those kinds of books, but then there were books that I had to read for school that I wasn't super-excited about reading. Even still to this day, I'm still going back and reading some of the books I was probably supposed to have read in high school, you know? I just read 'Lord of the Flies.' I loved it. It was awesome. But when I was in tenth grade, I really wasn't that psyched about it."

Doolittle's reignited passion for books has enhanced more than just his own personal library; it's created a personal mission.

Back in April, he began posting on social media about what he was reading — and the independent bookstores he shopped in during each major league stop. He started with New York's McNally Jackson Bookstore in Soho.

"To me, it's just so cool the way that these bookstores create this inviting, inclusive space," Doolittle said.

"It's a community center, really?" Jacobson asked.

"Yeah, it really is. It's a lot more than a bookstore. And early on, I didn't think of it in my head as a way to save local bookstores. This was just, like, an adventure I was gonna go on."

Doolittle's adventure was a hit on social media. His passion and platform combined to raise the profile of not just the shops where he snapped pictures, but others like them across the country.

And that exposure is priceless, says Christine Onorati, owner of the independent WORD bookstores in Jersey City, New Jersey and Brooklyn.

Jacobson asked Onorati, "What is it like owning a local bookstore in the year 2019?"

"Online shopping has really sort of affected our entire world," she replied. "But I think that we serve a purpose in our communities that makes us a little different than a lot of other retail stores. That's why somebody like Sean, who's shining a spotlight on books and how important they are, will always be a great thing."

Mark Pearson agrees. He's co-founder and CEO of Libro.fm, an app which allows you to download an audiobook, then split the proceeds with a local bookstore of your choice. There are about 800 stores currently affiliated with Libro.fm.

"We are doubling every year," Pearson said. "And when Sean Doolittle sent his tweet out, you know, we had a record day. When he says that it's cool to buy audiobooks and books from your local bookstore, it sends the message that books and bookstores matter, and where you buy them makes a difference. By giving your money to them, you keep that going. You keep reading alive in the community."

And that is the real win.

Doolittle said, "There's a lot of really kind of alarming statistics when it comes to literacy rates in kids in the United States. Over half of kids who are in fourth grade read below basic level – that's a really crucial time for them because there's so many indicators about where they're at in fourth grade can determine where they go in their education level down the road."

"It's a little surreal," he said of his bookstore mission. "This started out as something that I was doing just 'cause it was a hobby that I enjoy. But it's been a really rewarding experience. If you can get kids excited about reading, maybe that can open up a whole other world for them."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/washington-nationals-star-sean-doolittle-pitches-for-independent-bookstores-mlb-2019-09-21/

A brush with madness:

"Self Portrait" (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

CBS News

Sunday Morning

March 18, 2018

The paintings and life story of Vincent Van Gogh would appear to make the case that there's a connection between great art and madness. But does that apparent link have any real basis in science? Rita Braver takes a closer look:
In the midst of his fierce and ultimately losing battle with madness, Vincent Van Gogh made some of the most beloved paintings in the world.
"They are highly expressive," said Mary Morton, curator of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C. "And they're certainly informed by what must have been his awful experiences of mental breakdowns."
Morton says his 1889 self-portrait was painted in a mental asylum after Van Gogh famously cut off a piece of his own ear.  But it's the other side of his head that he displays in this work.
Did he want to show the world the good side, that he was OK, asked Braver?
"No, not necessarily -- I mean, does he look OK to you?" Morton replied.
"He looks mysterious, and kind of tortured," Braver said.

Curator Mary Morton, with correspondent Rita Braver, at the National Gallery of Art.

CBS News

"Yeah, and a little bit sick. He's haunted, is what he is. He looks very haunted, and I think that he's expressing that in a very honest way."
Months later, Van Gogh is widely believed to have committed suicide.
He is just one of scores of visual artists, writers, musicians and other creative people (including Ludwig van Beethoven, Mark Rothko, Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, Irving Berlin, Virginia Woolf, and Ernest Hemingway) who are known or believed to have suffered from mental illness.
"Study after study after study has shown that there is a disproportionate rate of mood disorders, in particular, in highly-creative people," said Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and is considered a leading expert on mood disorders in artists.

Kay Redfield Jamison.

CBS News

Braver asked: "What is known about what goes on in the brain that might create a relationship between mania of some kind and creativity?"
"One of the things that has been observed since mania was first written about is that people have more energy, more drive, they take more risks," said Jamison. "It's the profound despair that comes from depression that gives them a very different kind of appreciation of the human condition."
Some preliminary studies also suggest a neurological explanation: the brain's frontal lobe seems to be activated in a similar way during mania, schizophrenia and creativity.
But whatever the reason, Jamison says artists who suffer from mental illness -- like Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell, whom she has studied extensively -- share an important trait: they can somehow muster the power to channel their suffering.
Lowell, Jamison said, "had one of the worst variations of bi-polar that I've seen, in terms of just severity. What it took was this iron will, this ability to get up the next morning and sit down and write."
Other artists who struggled with mental illness included Ernest Hemingway. "I think that Hemingway had a very complicated view of his own illness," Jamison said. "For example, when Scott Fitzgerald wrote his great essay about depression, 'The Crack-Up,', Hemingway was scathing in his criticism of Fitzgerald for having gone public about having been mentally ill."
Since then, dozens of artists, including performers like Kurt Cobain, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Janet Jackson, Carrie Fisher and Demi Lovato, have struggled publicly with their mental illness.
Michael Angelakos is founder of the indie band Passion Pit -- cool enough to land on Letterman.
He says some of his most popular songs reflect his ongoing battle with bipolar disorder.

Michael Angelakos, of the band Passion Pit.

CBS News

Braver asked, "People think, 'Oh well, somebody is in a manic state, they're so productive, they're so creative.' Do you think that was true for you?"
"Sometimes," Angelakos replied. "There's a double-edge sword here -- you may be productive, but not everything makes sense."
"Were there periods where you couldn't work at all, where you just felt despondent?"
"Oh, absolu -- yeah, I mean most of my 20s was taken over by depressive periods," he said. "I would have to literally fling myself up into a manic state to get things done. It pretty much ruined my life in my 20s, absolutely."
Today, at 30, Angelakos is taking medication and also undergoing electroconvulsive therapy -- options not available to many artists of the past. He says he is trying to keep himself on track, and also raise money and awareness. His hope: to help other artists understand they can cope with mental illness -- yet, like Vincent Van Gogh, still create visionary work:
Mary Norton said, "We don't want our artists to be like everybody else. We want them to provide the kinds of emotional experiences that are not mundane. And certainly Van Gogh does that for us."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-brush-with-madness-vincent-van-gogh/