My producing partner and I have just finished our final cut on my TV presentation of "RICH WHORES: A FAIRYTALE." I have referenced this show in previous blog posts and explained the ups and downs of the editing process, the sometimes painful moments of hearing negative opinions about the cuts.
Let me nutshell this. The first edit was 13 minutes. The second 8 minutes. Then 5. Now it is just about 3 minutes long. And it is amazing. It is funny and full and clear.
When we were in our first, 13 minute edit, I could not fathom changing anything. Could not fathom losing anything, any character or scene. So we screened it for people. Every single person had a very different opinion, but most everyone had one. So we listened. And we paused and discussed. And we sighed. And we were bummed. And then elated and then super bummed again. And we trudged forward to cut and cut and paste and cut right down to a slimmer, more concise, less packed 3 minutes. Had I known at that 13 minute edit to change all of things we changed and size it, then and there, to 3 minutes--i would have--but i would not have learned much.
Through this month of cutting I have learned that you must GO THRU TO COME OUT. You have take the hits, the punches, the opinions, the good and bad. Take them and sit with them and then go at it again. I remembered that no good movie is shot and edited and put into theaters. They screen each cut, often 3 or more cuts. They get feedback and then they go again. They go thru the process to land out with a satisfying product.
You can't say "I want to be skinny" and wake up thin. You have to stop eating pies and pizzas and candy. And you have to work out. And drink water. And do that again the next day and the day after that. Then you can be skinny.
Can't put a record out without writing the songs, recording it, mastering it, throwing out the bad songs and keeping the good.
Can't graduate college without the classroom credits.
Can't have a final edit without the first few. The first few that allowed you to see clearly, then more clearly the things to make it Better And Better.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
From Stacey In Brooklyn
DO I TALK FROM MY HEART OR MY HEAD….BOTH WELL, SIMUTANEOUSLY TENDS
TO OVERWHELM ME. TOO MANY THOUGHTS CAN TEND TO HURT MY HEART, SELF
DESTRUCT OR BE TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTED WITH WHO I AM ALL TOGETHER.
I LIKE TO CALL THIS ALL MY BEAUTIFUL “COMPARTMENTS”
I THINK SOMEWHERE I GOT LOST. I MEAN I THINK I RAN AWAY AS A LITTLE
GIRL AND POSSIBLY STILL WANDERING, DESPERATELY TRYING TO LOSE MY SHADOW
BUT KINDA TRYING TO FOLLOW IT TO LEARN THE REAL ME. I STARTED THIS
BOOK AFTER COLLEGE CALLED “WHAT SHE REALLY THINKS” IT’S A SPOKEN
WORD, NOT DIARY, OF WHAT GOES ON..IN THE HEAD AT TIMES SURFACELY OR THE
HEART, WHEN ITS REALLY RAW.
AS AN ARTIST I WONDERED WHAT MY PLACE IN THIS WORLD WOULD BE. I WAS
NEVER THE BEST IN MY CLASS, OR THE SMARTEST, OR MOST TALENTED. I
CERTAINLY DIDN’T BELIEVE IN MY ARTISTIC ABILITY. I WAS THE DAUGHTER
THAT PARENTS DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH, WELL I DIDN’T GET HIGH
SCORES ON MY SAT’S WE CAN SAY. I STRUGGLED A LOT, AND SOOOOO
INSECURE. SO “THEY” DECIDED TO SEND ME TO ART SCHOOL. I DID LIKE
TAKING ART CLASSES CAUSE IT WASN’T MATH OR SCIENCE AND I COULD BE
ME…COLOR AND DESIGN I THOGUHT EXPRESSED MY THOUGHTS. BUT TO SAY I
WAS GOOD, WELL….THATS A DIFFERENT STORY. I TRIED TO RIG THE
HIGHSCHOOL MOST TALENTED FOR ARTIST ABILITY. SHHHH, NO ONE KNOWS THAT,
CAUSE I KNEW I WOULDN’T WIN.
I MEAN THE ANXIETY I HAD BEFORE A PORTFOLIO REVIEW OR CRITIQUE, I WOULD
CRY FOR HOURS THINKING OF THE WAYS I WOULDN’T HAVE TO PRESENT. COULD
I B LAST, GO TO THE BATHROOM AT THE PERFECT TIME, MAYBE TEAR UP SO MY
PROFESSOR WOULD C I WAS DYING INSIDE. I WAS NEVER GOOD ENOUGH.
TIME SKIPPED:
I WAS GRADUATIING COLLEGE AND HAD NO CLUE WHAT TO DO OR WHERE TO GO. I
DID KNOW I WASN’T GOING TO LIVE IN MY PARENTS BASEMENT. THAT WOULD
BE THE DEATH OF ME. I APPLIED TO GRADUATE SCHOOL IN NYC. I COULD
LIVE WITH MY SISTER AND EXPERIENCE NYC. LITTLE DID I KNOW I WAS GOING
TO SHARE, LITERALLY, A BED WITH MY SISTER FOR 3 YEARS, WORK PART TIME
STOCKIN SOCKS IN MACYS AND STRUGGLING WITH MY INSECURITY WITH NEW
AMAZING NYU ARTISTS. WHY WOULD I EVER THINK I COULD FIT IN AT NYU ART
SCHOOL…I MUST HAVE BEEN CRAZY. I THOUGHT I WAS GROWING UP BUT I
WASN’T. I WAS EVEN MORE TRAPPED CASUE I WAS STARTING OVER AT THE AGE
OF 22. THIS IS WHEN I STARTED WRITING. IT WAS SOMETHING I KNEW I WAS
GOOD AT. I COULD EXPRESS MYSELF AND NO ONE HAD TO CRITIQUE IT. I
COULD BE ME WITH NO BOUNDRIES, JUST THOUGHTS PAPER AND INK. HOW COULD
THAT BE BAD? WELL, MY WORDS BECAME DISTURBING I WOULD NOTICE. I WAS
SUCH A SAD GIRL. WAITING TO BE LIFTED, FOUND, NURTURED…WHO WOULD DO
THIS FOR ME? WELL TIME CAME AND WENT, EXCEPT FOR ONE DAY I REMEMBER
EVER SO CLEAR THAT LOOKING BACK NOW WAS THE MOMENT THAT CHANGED ME.
I WAS IN MY EARLY CHILDHOOD PSYCHOLOGY CLASS, PASSING IN AN
ASSIGNMENT. IT WAS TITLED “STACEY.” MY PROFESSOR TOOK ALL THE
PAPERS LEFT AND WHEN WE WENT BACK THE FOR THE FOLLOWING CLASS, HE CALLED
ME UP TO HIS DESK AT THE END OF CLASS. GIL TRACHTMAN, PROBABALY IN HIS
60’S, SHORT, THIN SOMEWHAT FRAIL, GRAY HAIR, PRETTY LONG, LONG GRAY
BEARD, JEWISH FOR SURE. HE SAYS “STACEY I CANT GRADE THIS, THIS IS A
PAPER TOO DEEPLY ROOTED IN YOU THAT ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO GIVE A NUMBER OR
LETTER TO SIGNIFY THE EMOTION IN THE WORDS.”
I STARTED CRYING. AT THAT MOMENT I THINK I SAW MY SHADOW, NOT
REFLECTION, IT WAS JUST A SHADOW. I WROTE WORDS ON THAT PAPER THAT I
HAD NEVER SHARED WITH ANYONE. SO STRANGE BUT TRUE, I SHARED WITH A
STRANGER. I WANTED SOMEONE NEW TO GUIDE ME, FIND ME, AND SOMEWHAT,
LOVE ME.
THS MAN INVITED ME TO HIS OFFICE FOR TALKS, THE DINER FOR COFFEE AND
TALKS, EMAILS TO REMIND ME TO TALK…BEGGED ME TO SEE A SHRINK. I
DENIED THE THOUGHT OF SHRINKS FOR A VERY VERY LONG TIME. I WAS
ACTUALLY ANTI SHRINK. I THINK CAUSE PEOPLE MAKE THEM SOUND SCARY, OR
WOULD THINKOF ME AS SCARY. I SUFFERED FOR A LONG TIME BEFORE I
ACTUALLY GAVE INTO THERAPY. YEARS!
I WROTE TO GIL TRACHTMAN ASKING IF I COULD COME TO HIS OFFICE, THIS TIME
I WAS OUT OF GRAD SCHOOL, I BOUGHT HIM THE BOOK TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE.
I HANDED IT TO HIM, CRIED AND THANKED HIM. HE TEARED, KINDA SMIRKED AND
A LIL CHUCKLE, SAYING “I GET THIS BOOK ALL THE TIME.” WELL, FOR
ME….I WANT TO SAY I WAS DEVASTATED, BUT I WASN’T. I WAS SO HAPPY I
FOUND MY MORRIE, AND SO MANY OTHERS DID TOOJ
TO THIS DAY, I STILL GET BIRTHDAY EMAILS EVERY YEAR, CHECK INS TO SEE
HOW IM HOLDING UP, WHAT IM DOING, HOW MY FAMILY IS…AND REPORTS ON HIM,
HIS WIFE, SONS, GRANDCHILDREN.
THIS MAN, PROFESSOR GIL TRACHTMAN BROUGHT THE COURAGE TO BEGIN MY
STRUGGLE BETWEEN MY HEAD AND MY HEART.
AND SO MY LIFE BEGAN…..
~AT THE TOUCH OF LOVE, EVERYONE BECOMES A POET~
TO OVERWHELM ME. TOO MANY THOUGHTS CAN TEND TO HURT MY HEART, SELF
DESTRUCT OR BE TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTED WITH WHO I AM ALL TOGETHER.
I LIKE TO CALL THIS ALL MY BEAUTIFUL “COMPARTMENTS”
I THINK SOMEWHERE I GOT LOST. I MEAN I THINK I RAN AWAY AS A LITTLE
GIRL AND POSSIBLY STILL WANDERING, DESPERATELY TRYING TO LOSE MY SHADOW
BUT KINDA TRYING TO FOLLOW IT TO LEARN THE REAL ME. I STARTED THIS
BOOK AFTER COLLEGE CALLED “WHAT SHE REALLY THINKS” IT’S A SPOKEN
WORD, NOT DIARY, OF WHAT GOES ON..IN THE HEAD AT TIMES SURFACELY OR THE
HEART, WHEN ITS REALLY RAW.
AS AN ARTIST I WONDERED WHAT MY PLACE IN THIS WORLD WOULD BE. I WAS
NEVER THE BEST IN MY CLASS, OR THE SMARTEST, OR MOST TALENTED. I
CERTAINLY DIDN’T BELIEVE IN MY ARTISTIC ABILITY. I WAS THE DAUGHTER
THAT PARENTS DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH, WELL I DIDN’T GET HIGH
SCORES ON MY SAT’S WE CAN SAY. I STRUGGLED A LOT, AND SOOOOO
INSECURE. SO “THEY” DECIDED TO SEND ME TO ART SCHOOL. I DID LIKE
TAKING ART CLASSES CAUSE IT WASN’T MATH OR SCIENCE AND I COULD BE
ME…COLOR AND DESIGN I THOGUHT EXPRESSED MY THOUGHTS. BUT TO SAY I
WAS GOOD, WELL….THATS A DIFFERENT STORY. I TRIED TO RIG THE
HIGHSCHOOL MOST TALENTED FOR ARTIST ABILITY. SHHHH, NO ONE KNOWS THAT,
CAUSE I KNEW I WOULDN’T WIN.
I MEAN THE ANXIETY I HAD BEFORE A PORTFOLIO REVIEW OR CRITIQUE, I WOULD
CRY FOR HOURS THINKING OF THE WAYS I WOULDN’T HAVE TO PRESENT. COULD
I B LAST, GO TO THE BATHROOM AT THE PERFECT TIME, MAYBE TEAR UP SO MY
PROFESSOR WOULD C I WAS DYING INSIDE. I WAS NEVER GOOD ENOUGH.
TIME SKIPPED:
I WAS GRADUATIING COLLEGE AND HAD NO CLUE WHAT TO DO OR WHERE TO GO. I
DID KNOW I WASN’T GOING TO LIVE IN MY PARENTS BASEMENT. THAT WOULD
BE THE DEATH OF ME. I APPLIED TO GRADUATE SCHOOL IN NYC. I COULD
LIVE WITH MY SISTER AND EXPERIENCE NYC. LITTLE DID I KNOW I WAS GOING
TO SHARE, LITERALLY, A BED WITH MY SISTER FOR 3 YEARS, WORK PART TIME
STOCKIN SOCKS IN MACYS AND STRUGGLING WITH MY INSECURITY WITH NEW
AMAZING NYU ARTISTS. WHY WOULD I EVER THINK I COULD FIT IN AT NYU ART
SCHOOL…I MUST HAVE BEEN CRAZY. I THOUGHT I WAS GROWING UP BUT I
WASN’T. I WAS EVEN MORE TRAPPED CASUE I WAS STARTING OVER AT THE AGE
OF 22. THIS IS WHEN I STARTED WRITING. IT WAS SOMETHING I KNEW I WAS
GOOD AT. I COULD EXPRESS MYSELF AND NO ONE HAD TO CRITIQUE IT. I
COULD BE ME WITH NO BOUNDRIES, JUST THOUGHTS PAPER AND INK. HOW COULD
THAT BE BAD? WELL, MY WORDS BECAME DISTURBING I WOULD NOTICE. I WAS
SUCH A SAD GIRL. WAITING TO BE LIFTED, FOUND, NURTURED…WHO WOULD DO
THIS FOR ME? WELL TIME CAME AND WENT, EXCEPT FOR ONE DAY I REMEMBER
EVER SO CLEAR THAT LOOKING BACK NOW WAS THE MOMENT THAT CHANGED ME.
I WAS IN MY EARLY CHILDHOOD PSYCHOLOGY CLASS, PASSING IN AN
ASSIGNMENT. IT WAS TITLED “STACEY.” MY PROFESSOR TOOK ALL THE
PAPERS LEFT AND WHEN WE WENT BACK THE FOR THE FOLLOWING CLASS, HE CALLED
ME UP TO HIS DESK AT THE END OF CLASS. GIL TRACHTMAN, PROBABALY IN HIS
60’S, SHORT, THIN SOMEWHAT FRAIL, GRAY HAIR, PRETTY LONG, LONG GRAY
BEARD, JEWISH FOR SURE. HE SAYS “STACEY I CANT GRADE THIS, THIS IS A
PAPER TOO DEEPLY ROOTED IN YOU THAT ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO GIVE A NUMBER OR
LETTER TO SIGNIFY THE EMOTION IN THE WORDS.”
I STARTED CRYING. AT THAT MOMENT I THINK I SAW MY SHADOW, NOT
REFLECTION, IT WAS JUST A SHADOW. I WROTE WORDS ON THAT PAPER THAT I
HAD NEVER SHARED WITH ANYONE. SO STRANGE BUT TRUE, I SHARED WITH A
STRANGER. I WANTED SOMEONE NEW TO GUIDE ME, FIND ME, AND SOMEWHAT,
LOVE ME.
THS MAN INVITED ME TO HIS OFFICE FOR TALKS, THE DINER FOR COFFEE AND
TALKS, EMAILS TO REMIND ME TO TALK…BEGGED ME TO SEE A SHRINK. I
DENIED THE THOUGHT OF SHRINKS FOR A VERY VERY LONG TIME. I WAS
ACTUALLY ANTI SHRINK. I THINK CAUSE PEOPLE MAKE THEM SOUND SCARY, OR
WOULD THINKOF ME AS SCARY. I SUFFERED FOR A LONG TIME BEFORE I
ACTUALLY GAVE INTO THERAPY. YEARS!
I WROTE TO GIL TRACHTMAN ASKING IF I COULD COME TO HIS OFFICE, THIS TIME
I WAS OUT OF GRAD SCHOOL, I BOUGHT HIM THE BOOK TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE.
I HANDED IT TO HIM, CRIED AND THANKED HIM. HE TEARED, KINDA SMIRKED AND
A LIL CHUCKLE, SAYING “I GET THIS BOOK ALL THE TIME.” WELL, FOR
ME….I WANT TO SAY I WAS DEVASTATED, BUT I WASN’T. I WAS SO HAPPY I
FOUND MY MORRIE, AND SO MANY OTHERS DID TOOJ
TO THIS DAY, I STILL GET BIRTHDAY EMAILS EVERY YEAR, CHECK INS TO SEE
HOW IM HOLDING UP, WHAT IM DOING, HOW MY FAMILY IS…AND REPORTS ON HIM,
HIS WIFE, SONS, GRANDCHILDREN.
THIS MAN, PROFESSOR GIL TRACHTMAN BROUGHT THE COURAGE TO BEGIN MY
STRUGGLE BETWEEN MY HEAD AND MY HEART.
AND SO MY LIFE BEGAN…..
~AT THE TOUCH OF LOVE, EVERYONE BECOMES A POET~
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Meredith's Inspirational Song
Carole King - Beautiful-
You´ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You´re gonna find, yes you will
That you´re as beautiful as you feel.
Waiting at the station with a workday wind a-blowing
I´ve got nothing to do but watch the passers-by
Mirrored in their faces I see frustration growing
And they don´t see it showing, why do I?
You´ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You´re gonna find, yes you will
That you´re beautiful as you feel.
I have often asked myself the reason for the sadness
In a world where tears are just a lullabye
If there´s any answer, maybe love can end the madness
Maybe not, oh but we can only try.
You´ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You´re gonna find, yes you will
That you´re beautiful as you feel.
You´ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You´re gonna find, yes you will
That you´re as beautiful as you feel.
Waiting at the station with a workday wind a-blowing
I´ve got nothing to do but watch the passers-by
Mirrored in their faces I see frustration growing
And they don´t see it showing, why do I?
You´ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You´re gonna find, yes you will
That you´re beautiful as you feel.
I have often asked myself the reason for the sadness
In a world where tears are just a lullabye
If there´s any answer, maybe love can end the madness
Maybe not, oh but we can only try.
You´ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
Then people gonna treat you better
You´re gonna find, yes you will
That you´re beautiful as you feel.
Your Words
Your words, your comments, you guys have really been so helpful for me. I have had awakenings everyday. I feel great. I also feel equipped, today anyhow, to walk through the next low. To climb out of the next k-hole. I know there will be many. And today I feel the strength and courage to be okay with the dark the same way I am okay with the light.
I am feeling more and more like my 8 year old self. I flipped through vintage pictures of my childhood and I was in awe of ME. I love the kid in those photos. He was glowing. Smiling. Making faces and wearing capes and costumes and whistling with cowboy boots and hats and bigwheels and candy and garbage pail kids. Pictures of me watching The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Facts of Life and General Hospital. Pictures of me with a cast after breaking my leg playing basketball (first and last time...jewish alert/theater geek alert). Pictures of me as Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie: 8th grade. Me in Fame: 9th grade. Me..as a kid, dreaming of greatness. Me, high on laughter and warmth and love. Nothing else.
Maybe look at some of your photos of YOU at your most innocent. You will fall in love with YOU, too. And you will take that big, deep breath and say "i want that now..I want that again." And you will wake up every morning and say "that's the person I am going to be today...my 8 year old self."
Thanks for taking this journey with me.
I am feeling more and more like my 8 year old self. I flipped through vintage pictures of my childhood and I was in awe of ME. I love the kid in those photos. He was glowing. Smiling. Making faces and wearing capes and costumes and whistling with cowboy boots and hats and bigwheels and candy and garbage pail kids. Pictures of me watching The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Facts of Life and General Hospital. Pictures of me with a cast after breaking my leg playing basketball (first and last time...jewish alert/theater geek alert). Pictures of me as Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie: 8th grade. Me in Fame: 9th grade. Me..as a kid, dreaming of greatness. Me, high on laughter and warmth and love. Nothing else.
Maybe look at some of your photos of YOU at your most innocent. You will fall in love with YOU, too. And you will take that big, deep breath and say "i want that now..I want that again." And you will wake up every morning and say "that's the person I am going to be today...my 8 year old self."
Thanks for taking this journey with me.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Up to the mountain lyrics
I love this song by Patty Griffin. Yes, I suggest a download today. This is from her "Children Running Through" album.
Up To The Mountains (MLK Song)
--patty griffin
I went up to the mountain
Because you asked me to
Up over the clouds
To where the sky was blue
I could see all around me
Everywhere
I could see all around me
Everywhere
Sometimes I feel like
I never been nothing but tired
And I'll be working
Till the day I expire
Sometimes I lay down
No more can I do
But then I go on again
Because you ask me to
Some days I look down
Afraid I will fall
And though the sun shines
I see nothing at all
Then I hear your sweet voice
Come and then go
Telling me softly
You love me so
The peaceful valley
Just over the mountain
The peaceful valley
Few come to know
I may never get there
Ever in this lifetime
But sooner or later
It's there I will go
Sooner or later
It's there I will go
Up To The Mountains (MLK Song)
--patty griffin
I went up to the mountain
Because you asked me to
Up over the clouds
To where the sky was blue
I could see all around me
Everywhere
I could see all around me
Everywhere
Sometimes I feel like
I never been nothing but tired
And I'll be working
Till the day I expire
Sometimes I lay down
No more can I do
But then I go on again
Because you ask me to
Some days I look down
Afraid I will fall
And though the sun shines
I see nothing at all
Then I hear your sweet voice
Come and then go
Telling me softly
You love me so
The peaceful valley
Just over the mountain
The peaceful valley
Few come to know
I may never get there
Ever in this lifetime
But sooner or later
It's there I will go
Sooner or later
It's there I will go
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Art Can Still Change Us
I am listening to the Into The Wild soundtrack. Eddie Veder, man it is good to hear his brilliance again. I can not shake this film and I don't want to.
My friend just instant messaged me. My friend, also blown to a new, beautiful place from Into The Wild typed this: "The movie changed me. It's like a new found confidence that is completely covered with love."
INTO THE WILD
My friend just instant messaged me. My friend, also blown to a new, beautiful place from Into The Wild typed this: "The movie changed me. It's like a new found confidence that is completely covered with love."
INTO THE WILD
Monday, September 24, 2007
Q&A with John Palumbo
John Palumbo is a wizard of forward thinking. His everyday is an explosion of possibility. He invents new ways to think about old and new things. His mind churns and churns thoughts of how to market the things we buy and use. But he is not the way you might imagine a marketing person. He is more of Tom Hanks in BIG. He is unabashedly child-like and explorative. John started his own marketing empire a couple of years ago. He has and will continue to change the face of the way we see our everyday things. He inspires me. I think he will inspire you, too.
John's quote:
"vision without activation is hallucination" --albert einstein
John says:
"in my business (as in many) great ideas are a dime a dozen. it's the
ideas that can truly be executed that lead to success. so, we provide
clients with ideas, insights and inspiration...and go one step further
to show them how they can really get them done and the impact they will
have on their business
I think you're always nervous and apprehensive when you are going to
put yourself out there and try something new. however, the thing that
motivates you to give it a shot is having that gut feeling that you are
doing something that makes sense. if you believe it...others will too.
energy and enthusiasm are contagious. when you meet someone that is so
passionate about something they are doing....you want to get involved.
steve jobs is a great example, isn't he. the guy gets up on stage and
is so freakin' passionate about this new phone that does this and
that...and we all go crazy and line up for the damn thing. let me say that again
-we LINE up for it...a phone! are you kidding me?
one more thing...never...never...never...ask people if they think your
idea is a good one. that is the kiss of death because 9 times out of
10
they will shoot it down. it has nothing to do with them being cynical,
etc. they just don't share the same passion you do...and human nature
leads us to "poke holes"...not "fill them"
bob dylan did an interview with 60 minutes a while back and was talking
about "destiny." he said he knew that he would become who is he today
but
he NEVER told anyone about it because they wouldn't get it. simply
put,
they would burst his bubble. his advice - you'll FEEL your destiny at
some point...you'll literally picture it in your mind...but don't ever
tell anyone about it. your destiny is a personal thing.
I know that sounds all heady and this or that...but when you break it
down
to its essence it's really great advice. if you have an idea...go and
do
it. pull the fucking trigger and make it happen. if it doesn't work,
so
be it...at least you tried"
John's quote:
"vision without activation is hallucination" --albert einstein
John says:
"in my business (as in many) great ideas are a dime a dozen. it's the
ideas that can truly be executed that lead to success. so, we provide
clients with ideas, insights and inspiration...and go one step further
to show them how they can really get them done and the impact they will
have on their business
I think you're always nervous and apprehensive when you are going to
put yourself out there and try something new. however, the thing that
motivates you to give it a shot is having that gut feeling that you are
doing something that makes sense. if you believe it...others will too.
energy and enthusiasm are contagious. when you meet someone that is so
passionate about something they are doing....you want to get involved.
steve jobs is a great example, isn't he. the guy gets up on stage and
is so freakin' passionate about this new phone that does this and
that...and we all go crazy and line up for the damn thing. let me say that again
-we LINE up for it...a phone! are you kidding me?
one more thing...never...never...never.
idea is a good one. that is the kiss of death because 9 times out of
10
they will shoot it down. it has nothing to do with them being cynical,
etc. they just don't share the same passion you do...and human nature
leads us to "poke holes"...not "fill them"
bob dylan did an interview with 60 minutes a while back and was talking
about "destiny." he said he knew that he would become who is he today
but
he NEVER told anyone about it because they wouldn't get it. simply
put,
they would burst his bubble. his advice - you'll FEEL your destiny at
some point...you'll literally picture it in your mind...but don't ever
tell anyone about it. your destiny is a personal thing.
I know that sounds all heady and this or that...but when you break it
down
to its essence it's really great advice. if you have an idea...go and
do
it. pull the fucking trigger and make it happen. if it doesn't work,
so
be it...at least you tried"
Into The Wild
Just go see this film. You will be so grateful that you did. I am. It is masterful. I am still processing it and will for a while I think. The one thing I can say right now, though...one of the many things that came through with such intense power is this:
We all need each other and sometimes through you I can feel closer to my brother or mother or father. Through you I can understand things I never understood before. Through you I can, sometimes, get closer to me.
SEE THIS MOVIE and prepare yourself for the following: You will think Sean Penn is as genius a writer/director as he is an actor. You will root for Emile Hirsch to win an Oscar and you will secretly think you discovered him. And most of all, you will want our conversation, Happy On The Painful Road, to grow and grow and move and shake and trigger and effect and cause spark, inspiration and difference.
We all need each other and sometimes through you I can feel closer to my brother or mother or father. Through you I can understand things I never understood before. Through you I can, sometimes, get closer to me.
SEE THIS MOVIE and prepare yourself for the following: You will think Sean Penn is as genius a writer/director as he is an actor. You will root for Emile Hirsch to win an Oscar and you will secretly think you discovered him. And most of all, you will want our conversation, Happy On The Painful Road, to grow and grow and move and shake and trigger and effect and cause spark, inspiration and difference.
"It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough , it is your God-given right to have it. . . I was a raw youth who mistook passion for insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic. I thought climbing the Devils Thumb would fix all that was wrong with my life. In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. And I lived to tell my tale."
-Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild
Sent In From Jennifer
A sweet story with a simple yet meaningful point.
This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. It is well worth reading, and a few good chuckles are guaranteed.
"My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car
>>> he drove was a 1926 Whippet.
>>>
>>> "In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car
>>> you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet,
>>> and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life
>>> and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."
>>>
>>> At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in:
>>> "Oh, bull----!" she said. "He hit a horse."
>>>
>>> "Well," my father said, "there was that, too."
>>>
>>> So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The n
>>> eighbors all had cars -- the Kollingses next door had a green 1941
>>> Dodge, the Van Laninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the
>>> Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none.
>>>
>>> My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines, would take the streetcar to
>>> work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the
>>> streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three
>>> blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.
>>>
>>> My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and
>>> sometimes, at dinner, we 'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars
>>> but we had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would
>>> explain, and that was that.
>>>
>>> But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon as one of you boys
>>> turns 16, we'll get one." It was as if he wasn't sure which one of us
>>> would tur n 16 first.
>>>
>>> But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my
>>> parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts
>>> department at a Chevy dealership downtown.
>>>
>>> It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded
>>> with everything, and, since my parents didn't drive, it more or less
>>> became my brother's car.
>>>
>>> Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my father, but
>>> it didn't make sense to my mother.
>>>
>>> So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach
>>> her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I
>>> learned to drive the following year and where, a generation later, I
>>> took my two sons t o practice driving. The cemetery probably was my
>>> father's idea. "Who can your mother hurt in the cemetery?" I remember
>>> him saying more than once.
>>>
>>> For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the
>>> driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of
>>> direct ion, but he loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the
>>> city limits -- and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.
>>>
>>> Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout
>>> Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement
>>> that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of
>>> marriage.
>>>
>>> (Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)
>>>
>>> He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20
>>> years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's
>>> Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would
>>> wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was
>>> on duty that mornin g. If it was the pastor, my father then would go
>>> out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the
>>> service and walking her home.
>>>
>>> If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then
>>> head back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Fa
>>> ther Slow."
>>>
>>> After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother
>>> whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If
>>> she were going to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or
>>> go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine
>>> running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. In the
>>> evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd explain: "The Cubs lost again.
>>> The millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on
>>> first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored."
>>>
>>> If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry
>>> the bags out -- and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream. As I
>>> said, he was alway s the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she
>>> was 88 and still driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the
>>> secret of a long life?"
>>>
>>> "I guess so," I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.
>>>
>>> "No left turns," he said.
>>>
>>> "What?" I asked.
>>>
>>> "No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I
>>> read an article that said most accidents that old people are in,
>>> happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic.
>>>
>>> As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth
>>> perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make
>>> a left turn."
>>>
>>> "What?" I said again.
>>>
>>> "No left turns," he said. "Think about it. Three rights are the same
>>> as a left, and that's a lot safer. So we always make three rig hts."
>>>
>>> "You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support.
>>> "No," she said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It
>>> works." But then she added: "Except when your father loses count."
>>>
>>> I was driving at the time, and I almost drove o ff the road as I
>>> started laughing.
>>>
>>> "Loses count?" I asked.
>>>
>>> "Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes happens. But it's not a
>>> problem. You just make seven rights, and you're okay again."
>>>
>>> I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked.
>>>
>>> "No," he said "If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it
>>> a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put
>>> off another day or another week."
>>>
>>> My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her
>>> car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999,
>>> when she was 90.
>>>
>>> She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year,
>>> at 102.
>>> They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought
>>> a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I
>>> paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom -- the house
>>> had never had one. My father would have died then and there if he
>>> knew the shower cost nearly thre e times what he paid for the house.)
>>>
>>> He continued to walk daily -- he had me get him a treadmill when he
>>> was 101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy sidewalks but
>>> wanted to keep exercising -- and he was of sound mind and sound body
>>> until the moment he died.
>>>
>>> One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I
>>> had to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all
>>> three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual
>>> wide-ranging conversation about politics and newspapers and things in
>>> the news.
>>>
>>> A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first
>>> hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred." At one point
>>> in our drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not
>>> going to live much longer."
>>>
>>> "You're probably right," I said.
>>>
>>> "Why would you say that?" He countered, somewhat irritated.
>
> "Because you're 102 years old," I said.
>
> "Yes," he said, "you're right." He stayed in bed all the next day.
>
> That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him
> through the night.
>
> He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us
> look gloomy, he said:
>
> "I would like to make an announcement. No one in this room is dead yet"
>
> An hour or so later, he spoke his last words:
>
> "I want you to know," he said, clearly and lucidly, "that I am in no
> pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone
> on this earth could ever have."
>
> A short time later, he died.
>
> I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I've wondered now and
> then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so
> long.
>
> I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life. Or because
> he quit taking left turns.
> Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat
> you right. Forget about the one's who don't. Believe everything happens
> for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life,
> let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would
> most likely be worth it.
This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. It is well worth reading, and a few good chuckles are guaranteed.
"My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car
>>> he drove was a 1926 Whippet.
>>>
>>> "In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car
>>> you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet,
>>> and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life
>>> and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."
>>>
>>> At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in:
>>> "Oh, bull----!" she said. "He hit a horse."
>>>
>>> "Well," my father said, "there was that, too."
>>>
>>> So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The n
>>> eighbors all had cars -- the Kollingses next door had a green 1941
>>> Dodge, the Van Laninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the
>>> Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none.
>>>
>>> My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines, would take the streetcar to
>>> work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the
>>> streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three
>>> blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.
>>>
>>> My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and
>>> sometimes, at dinner, we 'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars
>>> but we had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would
>>> explain, and that was that.
>>>
>>> But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon as one of you boys
>>> turns 16, we'll get one." It was as if he wasn't sure which one of us
>>> would tur n 16 first.
>>>
>>> But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my
>>> parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts
>>> department at a Chevy dealership downtown.
>>>
>>> It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded
>>> with everything, and, since my parents didn't drive, it more or less
>>> became my brother's car.
>>>
>>> Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my father, but
>>> it didn't make sense to my mother.
>>>
>>> So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach
>>> her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I
>>> learned to drive the following year and where, a generation later, I
>>> took my two sons t o practice driving. The cemetery probably was my
>>> father's idea. "Who can your mother hurt in the cemetery?" I remember
>>> him saying more than once.
>>>
>>> For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the
>>> driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of
>>> direct ion, but he loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the
>>> city limits -- and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.
>>>
>>> Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout
>>> Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement
>>> that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of
>>> marriage.
>>>
>>> (Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)
>>>
>>> He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20
>>> years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's
>>> Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would
>>> wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was
>>> on duty that mornin g. If it was the pastor, my father then would go
>>> out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the
>>> service and walking her home.
>>>
>>> If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then
>>> head back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Fa
>>> ther Slow."
>>>
>>> After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother
>>> whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If
>>> she were going to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or
>>> go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine
>>> running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. In the
>>> evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd explain: "The Cubs lost again.
>>> The millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on
>>> first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored."
>>>
>>> If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry
>>> the bags out -- and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream. As I
>>> said, he was alway s the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she
>>> was 88 and still driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the
>>> secret of a long life?"
>>>
>>> "I guess so," I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.
>>>
>>> "No left turns," he said.
>>>
>>> "What?" I asked.
>>>
>>> "No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I
>>> read an article that said most accidents that old people are in,
>>> happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic.
>>>
>>> As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth
>>> perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make
>>> a left turn."
>>>
>>> "What?" I said again.
>>>
>>> "No left turns," he said. "Think about it. Three rights are the same
>>> as a left, and that's a lot safer. So we always make three rig hts."
>>>
>>> "You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support.
>>> "No," she said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It
>>> works." But then she added: "Except when your father loses count."
>>>
>>> I was driving at the time, and I almost drove o ff the road as I
>>> started laughing.
>>>
>>> "Loses count?" I asked.
>>>
>>> "Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes happens. But it's not a
>>> problem. You just make seven rights, and you're okay again."
>>>
>>> I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked.
>>>
>>> "No," he said "If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it
>>> a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put
>>> off another day or another week."
>>>
>>> My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her
>>> car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999,
>>> when she was 90.
>>>
>>> She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year,
>>> at 102.
>>> They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought
>>> a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I
>>> paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom -- the house
>>> had never had one. My father would have died then and there if he
>>> knew the shower cost nearly thre e times what he paid for the house.)
>>>
>>> He continued to walk daily -- he had me get him a treadmill when he
>>> was 101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy sidewalks but
>>> wanted to keep exercising -- and he was of sound mind and sound body
>>> until the moment he died.
>>>
>>> One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I
>>> had to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all
>>> three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual
>>> wide-ranging conversation about politics and newspapers and things in
>>> the news.
>>>
>>> A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first
>>> hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred." At one point
>>> in our drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not
>>> going to live much longer."
>>>
>>> "You're probably right," I said.
>>>
>>> "Why would you say that?" He countered, somewhat irritated.
>
> "Because you're 102 years old," I said.
>
> "Yes," he said, "you're right." He stayed in bed all the next day.
>
> That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him
> through the night.
>
> He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us
> look gloomy, he said:
>
> "I would like to make an announcement. No one in this room is dead yet"
>
> An hour or so later, he spoke his last words:
>
> "I want you to know," he said, clearly and lucidly, "that I am in no
> pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone
> on this earth could ever have."
>
> A short time later, he died.
>
> I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I've wondered now and
> then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so
> long.
>
> I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life. Or because
> he quit taking left turns.
> Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat
> you right. Forget about the one's who don't. Believe everything happens
> for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life,
> let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would
> most likely be worth it.
Q&A with Skinny Bitch Author, RORY FREEDMAN
I had the good fortune of meeting Rory Freedman a couple of weeks ago. She is one of the funniest people you will come across. And smart. And pretty. So yes, you will likely have a crush on her while she is making you piss your pants laughing. She is honest and authentic. She will make fun of her lacking CD collection before you can. She was an agent at Ford Models, now she is a New York Times Best Selling Author. She inspires the freedom of change, the liberation of doing and succeeding at something entirely new. And her book is clever and funny as all get out. Go to any airport, bookstore or brothel and buy Skinny Bitch.
Rory told me her favorite quote as it relates to our conversation is:
"When everything seems to be going against
you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with
it." ---Henry Ford
I asked Rory this: You transitioned from agent to author...did you have any trepidation? If so, how did you overcome it and become a best selling author? If not, why not?
Rory said: "There were certainly times I wondered, 'What have I done? I had a six-figure income and a steady career!' But when I decided to leave Ford Models, it was because I felt
certain that I could make a real difference in the world. I felt like I had to. I can now say, without a doubt, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my entire life. And not because Skinny Bitch is a success. But because I believed in the abundance of the universe;
honored my truest, deepest instincts; and chose to be of service instead
of self-serving."
Rory told me her favorite quote as it relates to our conversation is:
"When everything seems to be going against
you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with
it." ---Henry Ford
I asked Rory this: You transitioned from agent to author...did you have any trepidation? If so, how did you overcome it and become a best selling author? If not, why not?
Rory said: "There were certainly times I wondered, 'What have I done? I had a six-figure income and a steady career!' But when I decided to leave Ford Models, it was because I felt
certain that I could make a real difference in the world. I felt like I had to. I can now say, without a doubt, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my entire life. And not because Skinny Bitch is a success. But because I believed in the abundance of the universe;
honored my truest, deepest instincts; and chose to be of service instead
of self-serving."
You Is Where You Is
Monday morning. Listening to "Day By Day" by Brett Dennen. Itunes his ass and download whatever you can.
Just landed from a 36 hour hour trip to Boston. It was warm there. Warmer than Los Angeles. The leaves are starting to change back East. It gets confusing. The New England air is as familiar to my senses as a Billy Joel song. And so is California. Where are you supposed to be? Wherever you are, right? Do you ever want to split yourself in two? Be in two places at once? You are celebrating the journey with people over here and "missing out" on the journey with those over there?
I have always had a problem with the notion of Missing Out. To the point, where as a kid, I would rather be in the center of the action than go to the bathroom. So if I had to go, I'd hold it in. Visual: 6 year old squeezing his legs while family laughed in the family room. And the Missing Out has followed me. Now, I realize, there may not be Missing Out. If you refer to the"Wherever you go you are" quote, you are in exactly what you should be. You are there.
So, the quick, red-eye turnaround from West to East and back again has informed my choice to start being where I am, being in what I am.
And it applies, so well I think, to work. Often, I begin writing a script and another story with new characters starts to chat in me head. Then I am writing 2 scripts. This can, often, explode into a symphony of stories and before I know it I am penning 5 things at once. I want to focus and finish the one. Tell the others to shut the fuck up for a minute. And although I am a good finisher (nothing is more satisfying than completing the first draft) I want to be better and complete the first, second and third draft, sell, make and move on.
I think this applies to any business. A dentist can't really have one hand in your mouth and simultaneously fiddle another with his other hand. Well, I suppose he could, but that would not be terribly efficient.
Just landed from a 36 hour hour trip to Boston. It was warm there. Warmer than Los Angeles. The leaves are starting to change back East. It gets confusing. The New England air is as familiar to my senses as a Billy Joel song. And so is California. Where are you supposed to be? Wherever you are, right? Do you ever want to split yourself in two? Be in two places at once? You are celebrating the journey with people over here and "missing out" on the journey with those over there?
I have always had a problem with the notion of Missing Out. To the point, where as a kid, I would rather be in the center of the action than go to the bathroom. So if I had to go, I'd hold it in. Visual: 6 year old squeezing his legs while family laughed in the family room. And the Missing Out has followed me. Now, I realize, there may not be Missing Out. If you refer to the"Wherever you go you are" quote, you are in exactly what you should be. You are there.
So, the quick, red-eye turnaround from West to East and back again has informed my choice to start being where I am, being in what I am.
And it applies, so well I think, to work. Often, I begin writing a script and another story with new characters starts to chat in me head. Then I am writing 2 scripts. This can, often, explode into a symphony of stories and before I know it I am penning 5 things at once. I want to focus and finish the one. Tell the others to shut the fuck up for a minute. And although I am a good finisher (nothing is more satisfying than completing the first draft) I want to be better and complete the first, second and third draft, sell, make and move on.
I think this applies to any business. A dentist can't really have one hand in your mouth and simultaneously fiddle another with his other hand. Well, I suppose he could, but that would not be terribly efficient.
Friday, September 21, 2007
By The Way
I would love to post anything from any of you as it relates. So if and when you leave a COMMENT, write CAN POST or something like that. Then I will. I would not want to put something on the blog if you intended it solely as a comment.
One More Pre Yom
listening to Bob Dylan's "Buckets Of Rain." One of my all time favorite songs. Heard it for the first time in an apartment on Perry Street in the West Village with three life long friends. So, it is a very anthemic song for me. And yeah, I suggest a download.
I went on an early morning hike with my dog and a friend. We discussed life. The crisp Fall breeze felt right. The skies were clear. I thought I was in Montana for a moment. I watched Sean Penn on Oprah (tivo) right before my hike. He blows every part of my mind. He was discussing his new film Into The Wild, adapted from the book of the same name, adapted from the real life story of a journeyman, seeking AUTHENTICITY.
And just now, I had a conversation with another friend. She thinks there is something happening in the Universe. Something strong. Something that has a lot of us in a very pensive place. Good pensive, though. And I wonder, is the change in season? Or perhaps, and more overwhelming, the drastic change in the world. War everywhere. A fool running our country. Dan Rather (see Larry King or read it on CNN) being manipulated into quitting CBS because of seeking truth. We are living in a censored time. Is that making us censor our own selves more? Open up less?
I know, heady, heavy shit. All that said, I feel great today. This week has been wonderful. I LET GO AND LET GOD. I remembered who I am. I got proactive again. I finished mourning my old work relationship with the green faced bike rider(see first blog) and realized, too, that for a long time I was taking the poison...the poison that distorted my thoughtscape and made me feel less than, incapable, a flash in the proverbial pan.
Perfect timing for Yom Kippur. A time to get quiet and cleanse and re think, re define and move in a new direction for all of us.
I went on an early morning hike with my dog and a friend. We discussed life. The crisp Fall breeze felt right. The skies were clear. I thought I was in Montana for a moment. I watched Sean Penn on Oprah (tivo) right before my hike. He blows every part of my mind. He was discussing his new film Into The Wild, adapted from the book of the same name, adapted from the real life story of a journeyman, seeking AUTHENTICITY.
And just now, I had a conversation with another friend. She thinks there is something happening in the Universe. Something strong. Something that has a lot of us in a very pensive place. Good pensive, though. And I wonder, is the change in season? Or perhaps, and more overwhelming, the drastic change in the world. War everywhere. A fool running our country. Dan Rather (see Larry King or read it on CNN) being manipulated into quitting CBS because of seeking truth. We are living in a censored time. Is that making us censor our own selves more? Open up less?
I know, heady, heavy shit. All that said, I feel great today. This week has been wonderful. I LET GO AND LET GOD. I remembered who I am. I got proactive again. I finished mourning my old work relationship with the green faced bike rider(see first blog) and realized, too, that for a long time I was taking the poison...the poison that distorted my thoughtscape and made me feel less than, incapable, a flash in the proverbial pan.
Perfect timing for Yom Kippur. A time to get quiet and cleanse and re think, re define and move in a new direction for all of us.
The Yom
Yom Kippur
(literally, "Day of Atonement") is the holiest day of the year, a day of fasting and prayers of repentance. In ancient times, it was also a day of purification of the Temple. A solemn day, it is nonetheless marked by joy in the certainty of forgiveness.
See you Monday.
(literally, "Day of Atonement") is the holiest day of the year, a day of fasting and prayers of repentance. In ancient times, it was also a day of purification of the Temple. A solemn day, it is nonetheless marked by joy in the certainty of forgiveness.
See you Monday.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Shaques Suggested Poem
DESIDERATA
"GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE, AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN SILENCE.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they, too, have their story.Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater or lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in you own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you for what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere live is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the council of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
-- Max Ehrmann, 1927
"GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE, AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN SILENCE.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they, too, have their story.Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater or lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in you own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you for what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere live is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the council of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."
-- Max Ehrmann, 1927
Elizabeth Wrote:
I believe learning to love yourself unconditionally is one of the
greatest successes we can ever achieve. This love will bring us the
purest joy life can ever give us. Just like our dear fragile and
insanely human friend Whitney Houston and so many other wonderful
artist have sung the song "The Greatest Love of All", hearing the words
"...learning to love yourself, is the greatest love of all...", gives
me chills all over. I use to sing that song to myself in the shower
with tears streaming down my face when I first moved 3000 miles away
from everyone and everything that was familiar. I had moved to Los
Angeles to create success as an artist, an actress. And I was scared
and alone because basically that's a hard thing to do in a town that
thrives on commercialism. But what I have gained is the wisdom that I
am already a success no matter what happens outside of me. I have
learned and continue to learn how to love myself unconditionally and to
be in my voice and my power. I often like to remind myself(when I do
remember!) that I am exactly where I am supposed to be on my path in
this life, that we are all in perfect alignment with our Soul's journey
for this lifetime. I am becoming more aware that when I surrender to
God, to my Higher Self, to the Universe I feel such peace inside. The
more I feel and express my feelings in the moment, and let them wash
over me, the more freedom I have to express the truest part of me. And
as an artist my mission is to express truth from my heart so others can
see themselves reflected back to them, and go deeper into healing their
own hearts.
So when the sweet divine destiny of outer success does appear we are
all so much more grateful for the process and the journey we have taken
to arrive at that moment.
My wish for everyone is that we all fall in love with our most highest
wisest selves, as well as, our deepest darkest selves. And know that
whatever our heart desires, that very thing desires us. AND that we
can create peace on Earth by creating peace within our own hearts and
minds, and finding forgiveness for ourselves and for others. AND to
listen for the soft loving whisper of truth inside telling us that we
have been preparing are whole lives for this very moment and breathe
deeply into the fact that we are already a success for just being born.
greatest successes we can ever achieve. This love will bring us the
purest joy life can ever give us. Just like our dear fragile and
insanely human friend Whitney Houston and so many other wonderful
artist have sung the song "The Greatest Love of All", hearing the words
"...learning to love yourself, is the greatest love of all...", gives
me chills all over. I use to sing that song to myself in the shower
with tears streaming down my face when I first moved 3000 miles away
from everyone and everything that was familiar. I had moved to Los
Angeles to create success as an artist, an actress. And I was scared
and alone because basically that's a hard thing to do in a town that
thrives on commercialism. But what I have gained is the wisdom that I
am already a success no matter what happens outside of me. I have
learned and continue to learn how to love myself unconditionally and to
be in my voice and my power. I often like to remind myself(when I do
remember!) that I am exactly where I am supposed to be on my path in
this life, that we are all in perfect alignment with our Soul's journey
for this lifetime. I am becoming more aware that when I surrender to
God, to my Higher Self, to the Universe I feel such peace inside. The
more I feel and express my feelings in the moment, and let them wash
over me, the more freedom I have to express the truest part of me. And
as an artist my mission is to express truth from my heart so others can
see themselves reflected back to them, and go deeper into healing their
own hearts.
So when the sweet divine destiny of outer success does appear we are
all so much more grateful for the process and the journey we have taken
to arrive at that moment.
My wish for everyone is that we all fall in love with our most highest
wisest selves, as well as, our deepest darkest selves. And know that
whatever our heart desires, that very thing desires us. AND that we
can create peace on Earth by creating peace within our own hearts and
minds, and finding forgiveness for ourselves and for others. AND to
listen for the soft loving whisper of truth inside telling us that we
have been preparing are whole lives for this very moment and breathe
deeply into the fact that we are already a success for just being born.
Q&A with RUSSELL YOUNG
Russell Young has been a mentor for me...whether he knows it or not. He is an extraordinary artist. See www.RussellYoung.com
He cooks like the best chef on a hillside in Tuscany. Gets fresh fish from the morning market, throws newspaper around it, adds some herbs and throws it over an open fire. Meanwhile, he goes to his many hand planted gardens and picks lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes. Then to his trees. Avocados, lemons, limes. Then to his pizza oven. Homemade dough, blended sauce. And then you feast. And you look out over his land and see the thousands of lavender bushes he planted, the roses, the perfectly green grass, the stones that become steps that lead to overviews of sky and ocean and solace. And when you are up there, you look down at the home he designed and you say...this fucker is also a great father of two, husband of one and dreamer of much.
He inspires me. And I know he will inspire you. Below are his words.
Russell's Quote..."life is what happens to you whilst your busy making other
plans"
Matt, I would have titled my blog Painfulonthehappyroad
I have no fear, I know what I think about my work and I don't care
what other people think. I analyzed my paintings from every possible
angle and level, I know what is good about them. I also know where all
their faults lie. I create my work to please myself and not others.
I have found over the years that creative honesty is the most important
artistic value that I can have. You have to start from a platform of
absolute honesty, I don't mean as in not telling lies....but know what
is really deep down inside of you, who are you, what is it that really
makes you creatively euphoric!! This has taken me decades to really
achieve, there is no simple pill to swallow. As you go through the
creative process, creating from a foundation of honesty, you find that
whatever problems or solutions are thrown at you, you have 100%
confidence in your creative abilities.
The last thing I rely upon heavily is instinct, I find that as the years
have past my instincts are nearly always right, if you have been honest
with yourself, you start to understand yourself better and find out what
decisions you make that are right for you, you get to trust your instincts.
Instinct, I believe, is very different to experience...too many people rely
on experience and lose sight of pure creativity.
Be bold and brave, don't be afraid...
He cooks like the best chef on a hillside in Tuscany. Gets fresh fish from the morning market, throws newspaper around it, adds some herbs and throws it over an open fire. Meanwhile, he goes to his many hand planted gardens and picks lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes. Then to his trees. Avocados, lemons, limes. Then to his pizza oven. Homemade dough, blended sauce. And then you feast. And you look out over his land and see the thousands of lavender bushes he planted, the roses, the perfectly green grass, the stones that become steps that lead to overviews of sky and ocean and solace. And when you are up there, you look down at the home he designed and you say...this fucker is also a great father of two, husband of one and dreamer of much.
He inspires me. And I know he will inspire you. Below are his words.
Russell's Quote..."life is what happens to you whilst your busy making other
plans"
Matt, I would have titled my blog Painfulonthehappyroad
I have no fear, I know what I think about my work and I don't care
what other people think. I analyzed my paintings from every possible
angle and level, I know what is good about them. I also know where all
their faults lie. I create my work to please myself and not others.
I have found over the years that creative honesty is the most important
artistic value that I can have. You have to start from a platform of
absolute honesty, I don't mean as in not telling lies....but know what
is really deep down inside of you, who are you, what is it that really
makes you creatively euphoric!! This has taken me decades to really
achieve, there is no simple pill to swallow. As you go through the
creative process, creating from a foundation of honesty, you find that
whatever problems or solutions are thrown at you, you have 100%
confidence in your creative abilities.
The last thing I rely upon heavily is instinct, I find that as the years
have past my instincts are nearly always right, if you have been honest
with yourself, you start to understand yourself better and find out what
decisions you make that are right for you, you get to trust your instincts.
Instinct, I believe, is very different to experience...too many people rely
on experience and lose sight of pure creativity.
Be bold and brave, don't be afraid...
In two years will you...?
"A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I'm going to apply myself when I go back to school next September. It's such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you DO it? The answer is, you don't. I THINK I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question."
--The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. SALINGER
I know what I want right now. I believe that I know what I want two years from now. But, I also know that ideas change and life turns and in it we bend. Does God laugh while we are making plans? Maybe. Perhaps the laugh is loving and not, as I always saw it, condescending.
It could be that HE/SHE/IT is laughing, almost nervously, because IT/SHE/HE knows that you can plan all you want and you should plan because if you don't plan on the next two years then what is there really needling you to wake up in the morning. Meaning, if there is no planned path leading toward a goal then what is there? So yes, God may be chuckling because, indeed, we can plan all we want but, in truth, plans change, moods and needs shift. Can I be certain that I will want the same things in two years that I want in this moment?
--The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. SALINGER
I know what I want right now. I believe that I know what I want two years from now. But, I also know that ideas change and life turns and in it we bend. Does God laugh while we are making plans? Maybe. Perhaps the laugh is loving and not, as I always saw it, condescending.
It could be that HE/SHE/IT is laughing, almost nervously, because IT/SHE/HE knows that you can plan all you want and you should plan because if you don't plan on the next two years then what is there really needling you to wake up in the morning. Meaning, if there is no planned path leading toward a goal then what is there? So yes, God may be chuckling because, indeed, we can plan all we want but, in truth, plans change, moods and needs shift. Can I be certain that I will want the same things in two years that I want in this moment?
Q&A with my FATHER, Part 2
Matt, I want to add something. I should have also pointed out that hard work is part of the picture. Although hard work alone may not get you across the goal line , my experience is that those who work hard always seem to be in the right place when a break or good fortune comes there way. Here's a story, my friend Joe Masci, owns a chemical distribution business that he started years ago after coming to America with just a third grade education. Joe opened his business in Newark on the same street as a more seasoned competitor. The competitor stopped by one day and and said "Joe, Inotice your lights go on at 7;30 am, well I want you to know I will be opening at 7, because nobody outworks me'. Joe paused for a moment and said"don't bother I will be open 24hrs a day" My friend Joe was determined to suceed by hard work and he did. Also I wanted to add this on the subject og getting over a disappointment if you lose a deal and you let it effect you and you in effect stop rowing don't be surprised if the rest of your team stops rowing as well. Just another point to remember to move on.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Q&A with my FATHER
Matt, You asked me 2 questions, the first is what is my favorite quote, it comes from Winston Churchill who said " success is never final and failure is never fatal, what counts is the courage to keep going".
I have always thought it embodies the answer to your second question which is how do you keep going after your poured your heart and soul into a project that ends up not going well for you.
Actually for me that is an easy question to answer but more complicated to implement. You don't have to be the boss or in charge to have people count on you. Many people count on me, hundreds of employees, the rest of my corporation not directly related to the company I have the good fortune to run, vendors to our business and most importantly my family. But as I said you don't have to be the the boss, everyone has someone who counts on them, could be employees, or your family or just yourself. So you can't allow a disappointment or as Churchill says a "failure", to let you tank, to take you down. Never focus on the negative, I re-examine the deal I did not get to see how I can be better on the next one and trust me there will be a next one. I channel the passion to "win" to the next one because I know I can't let down those who count on me including myself. I don't dwell I move on. Easy to say harder to do because human nature might say "whoa is me". Can't have that the world has to many opportunities So there you go what does the old song say "accentuate the positive"
I have always thought it embodies the answer to your second question which is how do you keep going after your poured your heart and soul into a project that ends up not going well for you.
Actually for me that is an easy question to answer but more complicated to implement. You don't have to be the boss or in charge to have people count on you. Many people count on me, hundreds of employees, the rest of my corporation not directly related to the company I have the good fortune to run, vendors to our business and most importantly my family. But as I said you don't have to be the the boss, everyone has someone who counts on them, could be employees, or your family or just yourself. So you can't allow a disappointment or as Churchill says a "failure", to let you tank, to take you down. Never focus on the negative, I re-examine the deal I did not get to see how I can be better on the next one and trust me there will be a next one. I channel the passion to "win" to the next one because I know I can't let down those who count on me including myself. I don't dwell I move on. Easy to say harder to do because human nature might say "whoa is me". Can't have that the world has to many opportunities So there you go what does the old song say "accentuate the positive"
Leaves Return To The Trees In Autumn
Why did we all like that American Idol anthem "Have You Had A Bad Day?" Even if you hated it, you liked it. The black and blue mark theory...hurts when you poke it but don't stop poking it.
We liked it because it was wonderfully cliche. We have horrible days, weeks...And the world wants us to get through it fast so we can return to who we are. But in returning to who we are we need first go through the mourning of where we have been and what WE WERE.
The next time you are in the hole, the next time your loved one is in it, the next time I am in it...let us remember that come winter (east coast mostly) the leaves die and they fall. Do you get mad at the trees? No. Because you know full well that come Autumn, the leaves will return to the trees and they will be more vibrant than you recalled them ever being. Kind of like us.
We liked it because it was wonderfully cliche. We have horrible days, weeks...And the world wants us to get through it fast so we can return to who we are. But in returning to who we are we need first go through the mourning of where we have been and what WE WERE.
The next time you are in the hole, the next time your loved one is in it, the next time I am in it...let us remember that come winter (east coast mostly) the leaves die and they fall. Do you get mad at the trees? No. Because you know full well that come Autumn, the leaves will return to the trees and they will be more vibrant than you recalled them ever being. Kind of like us.
QUOTES
Sophia sent this in a response. Even though this blog was just born, I am making a NEW addition to it. Any quotes that speak to our conversation will be posted as blog. Here is the first. Thanks, Soph.
SEPTEMBER 19
"It's not just major challenges that require courage. Even the minor skirmishes with life demand some deep breaths, perhaps hushed prayers, and lots of hope. We'd glide more easily through every day if we'd accept that struggle is part of the process of life; that it offers more opportunities for us to realize our individual potential than any other dimension of life.
Struggles strengthen us, enrich our character, temper our emotions. They enhance our being in untold ways, and yet we plead to be spared them. How ironic that we each long for greater success, at least some recognition for our accomplishments, but recoil from the very experiences that guarantee these personal satisfactions.
MY STRUGGLES TODAY ARE MY GIFTS IN DISGUISE. I WILL GROW ACCORDINGLY."
SEPTEMBER 19
"It's not just major challenges that require courage. Even the minor skirmishes with life demand some deep breaths, perhaps hushed prayers, and lots of hope. We'd glide more easily through every day if we'd accept that struggle is part of the process of life; that it offers more opportunities for us to realize our individual potential than any other dimension of life.
Struggles strengthen us, enrich our character, temper our emotions. They enhance our being in untold ways, and yet we plead to be spared them. How ironic that we each long for greater success, at least some recognition for our accomplishments, but recoil from the very experiences that guarantee these personal satisfactions.
MY STRUGGLES TODAY ARE MY GIFTS IN DISGUISE. I WILL GROW ACCORDINGLY."
The Art Of Sharing Your Process
How do you share your train of thought, your creative process, your new ideas with others?
I am just learning how to share in a way that doesn't send me directly into a K-hole.
I wrote a play three years ago. I have been workshopping it ever since. I was not sure what I wanted this play to be: a musical, an an actual play, a film or a TV show. I decided that I would make it a TV show. So, along with a talented producer friend of mine, I set out to make a presentation. No money. Just my living room, some lights, a backdrop, a camera and some very talented actors. And we have been editing the piece. In the midst of editing, knowing full well there was much more to cut and tighten, I got excited and wanted to share the piece. And I did. And I prefaced the share with the apology "It is not done yet. Still working it out..." And I also opened up the conversation, asking those who viewed it what they thought. Some liked it, which of course strokes the EGO (this is not a Kaballah blog, don't worry, and if you are a Kabbalist then frame this for you) and some had questions, concerns, specific things they would love to see taken out completely. I set myself up. I asked. They spoke. And then my heart fell, my ears burned and the chest closed in.
I quickly called a singer/songwriter that I admire. I offered up my account of what had just happened. She said that she too, has gotten excited by the beginnings of a new song, played it for people only to be faced with blank stares and looks that intimated "is that it?" To which she would defend herself and her process...only to learn that perhaps she should not share something that is not COMPLETE.
I hear that. But aren't we INCOMPLETE. I mean, as people...aren't we totally UNFINISHED. Aren't our abilities, our wants, our viewpoints, our spirits ever evolving? If they are, then we are certainly ever-growing things. So if it is okay for US to be works in progress, works that should be gently handled so as to grow not from roots of fear but roots of love, then why can't our First Drafts, our Initial Ideas be viewed similarly? I don't want to be scared of sharing something that is just beginning for it is the greater community spirit that oxygenates the something. But I am scared.
I am just learning how to share in a way that doesn't send me directly into a K-hole.
I wrote a play three years ago. I have been workshopping it ever since. I was not sure what I wanted this play to be: a musical, an an actual play, a film or a TV show. I decided that I would make it a TV show. So, along with a talented producer friend of mine, I set out to make a presentation. No money. Just my living room, some lights, a backdrop, a camera and some very talented actors. And we have been editing the piece. In the midst of editing, knowing full well there was much more to cut and tighten, I got excited and wanted to share the piece. And I did. And I prefaced the share with the apology "It is not done yet. Still working it out..." And I also opened up the conversation, asking those who viewed it what they thought. Some liked it, which of course strokes the EGO (this is not a Kaballah blog, don't worry, and if you are a Kabbalist then frame this for you) and some had questions, concerns, specific things they would love to see taken out completely. I set myself up. I asked. They spoke. And then my heart fell, my ears burned and the chest closed in.
I quickly called a singer/songwriter that I admire. I offered up my account of what had just happened. She said that she too, has gotten excited by the beginnings of a new song, played it for people only to be faced with blank stares and looks that intimated "is that it?" To which she would defend herself and her process...only to learn that perhaps she should not share something that is not COMPLETE.
I hear that. But aren't we INCOMPLETE. I mean, as people...aren't we totally UNFINISHED. Aren't our abilities, our wants, our viewpoints, our spirits ever evolving? If they are, then we are certainly ever-growing things. So if it is okay for US to be works in progress, works that should be gently handled so as to grow not from roots of fear but roots of love, then why can't our First Drafts, our Initial Ideas be viewed similarly? I don't want to be scared of sharing something that is just beginning for it is the greater community spirit that oxygenates the something. But I am scared.
It is better to Understand than to be Understood
I am listening to Beck's song "Jackass." I suggest an immediate download. The song comes from his ODELAY album.
I been drifting along
In the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying a noose
In the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together:
It's a strange invitation
When I wake up
Someone will sweep up my lazy bones
And we will rise in the cool of the evening
I remember the way that you smiled
When the gravity shackles were wild
And something is vacant
When I think it's all beginning
I been drifting along
In the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying the noose
In the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together:
It's a strange invitation
I have already received some incredible e-mails from you guys. And I just figured out how to open the blog for posts...so post away.
I will be posting my first Q&A later today. I turned to my Father to get things started. He is the C.E.O. of AIG ENVIRONMENTAL. He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and takes the train from the West Village to Wall Street every morning unless, of course, he is flying all around the world for conferences, meetings or to deliver speeches about cleaning up the environmental mess of the world. He sits on many boards including The Riverkeeper Foundation, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. And in between, he romances my Mother. After 36 years of marriage, he brings her flowers every Friday. He guides my Brother, daily, through his budding business career. And he has talked me off of ledges for as long as I can remember. He is as loving and open with his employees as he is with his family. He has been up and down a thousand times, often up and down in the same, high stakes, corporate American business hour. And all the while, save the occasional migraine (Imitrix is his best friend), he remains funny, alive and very much awake.
So he will share a sliver of his journey with us later this afternoon.
Until then, I am hearing this quote over and over in my head. "It is better to UNDERSTAND than to be UNDERSTOOD." I am choosing to hear this quote as "I don't need to try so damn hard to make everyone out there understand ME and my roller coaster ride, my dreams come true, my dreams squashed...what is important, what lightens the load, empties the mind a bit is to simply take a beat and UNDERSTAND them (whoever your THEM is). Once we can UNDERSTAND others we can clearly see their ability (or lack thereof) to serve our needs."
I been drifting along
In the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying a noose
In the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together:
It's a strange invitation
When I wake up
Someone will sweep up my lazy bones
And we will rise in the cool of the evening
I remember the way that you smiled
When the gravity shackles were wild
And something is vacant
When I think it's all beginning
I been drifting along
In the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying the noose
In the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together:
It's a strange invitation
I have already received some incredible e-mails from you guys. And I just figured out how to open the blog for posts...so post away.
I will be posting my first Q&A later today. I turned to my Father to get things started. He is the C.E.O. of AIG ENVIRONMENTAL. He wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and takes the train from the West Village to Wall Street every morning unless, of course, he is flying all around the world for conferences, meetings or to deliver speeches about cleaning up the environmental mess of the world. He sits on many boards including The Riverkeeper Foundation, with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. And in between, he romances my Mother. After 36 years of marriage, he brings her flowers every Friday. He guides my Brother, daily, through his budding business career. And he has talked me off of ledges for as long as I can remember. He is as loving and open with his employees as he is with his family. He has been up and down a thousand times, often up and down in the same, high stakes, corporate American business hour. And all the while, save the occasional migraine (Imitrix is his best friend), he remains funny, alive and very much awake.
So he will share a sliver of his journey with us later this afternoon.
Until then, I am hearing this quote over and over in my head. "It is better to UNDERSTAND than to be UNDERSTOOD." I am choosing to hear this quote as "I don't need to try so damn hard to make everyone out there understand ME and my roller coaster ride, my dreams come true, my dreams squashed...what is important, what lightens the load, empties the mind a bit is to simply take a beat and UNDERSTAND them (whoever your THEM is). Once we can UNDERSTAND others we can clearly see their ability (or lack thereof) to serve our needs."
...On The Painful Road To Success
I am starting this blog as a universal dialogue. A conversation between all of us about being young and taking a journey toward success. Success in career, relationships, friendships and in self-realization.
I have just come up for air...again. Last week I was someone I'd never met before. Where I am usually hopeful and funny, kind and compassionate, last week I was cruel and quiet, shut down and, well, depressed. I did not have the tools to crawl out of the hole that dug itself when I left my literary agent, realized that getting a new agent was no walk in the park, started having anxiety attacks when I acknowledged that the five new TV shows I'd spent the better part of a year writing may simply be three-hole-punched pieces of paper on my coffee table...for this pilot season anyway.
I am a writer. In Los Angeles. I write TV shows and movies, plays and poems. And now, this blog. It feels, lately, that my hands are tied in pursuing the very thing I have made a living doing: writing. I do not know if your career can be or feel stifling. If you sometimes feel not allowed to or unable to or exhausted by the concept of finding NEW ways to...do the thing you DO.
While this tornado of beat down has been swirling around me, it has also stirred my new marriage, some of my friendships and my spirit. I know this sounds super drab, maudlin (insert your own word) but it really isn't. It is actually quite exciting.
When I found myself directly in the eye of the tornado, where I actually saw my former agent, green faced, riding a bicycle...I thought of this blog. I need guidance. I need to hear stories of people with passions and dreams who decided to pursue those passions and dreams. I need to hear what it is like to balance becoming an adult, being in a relationship, sifting through friendships to find the best of the best and making your mark in the world the way you want to make your mark in the world.
So, my pledge is to crack myself wide open. I will share the great UPs (selling TV shows, making TV shows, selling movies...um, having them shelved) and the great DOWNs (being told "your script is too funny" or "it is very hard to sell a show with female leads" or "you have to many ideas"). I will also go into the world and talk to actors, CEOs, painters, sneaker makers, head chefs, authors, songwriters, singers, directors, theater producers...and the list goes on. I will bring you their exact words as they relate to OUR conversation about how to be Happy On The Painful Road To Success.
And when you have thoughts, join in.
Okay, now I am going to make some tea, listen to the Across The Universe soundtrack and think about how today can be better than yesterday.
I have just come up for air...again. Last week I was someone I'd never met before. Where I am usually hopeful and funny, kind and compassionate, last week I was cruel and quiet, shut down and, well, depressed. I did not have the tools to crawl out of the hole that dug itself when I left my literary agent, realized that getting a new agent was no walk in the park, started having anxiety attacks when I acknowledged that the five new TV shows I'd spent the better part of a year writing may simply be three-hole-punched pieces of paper on my coffee table...for this pilot season anyway.
I am a writer. In Los Angeles. I write TV shows and movies, plays and poems. And now, this blog. It feels, lately, that my hands are tied in pursuing the very thing I have made a living doing: writing. I do not know if your career can be or feel stifling. If you sometimes feel not allowed to or unable to or exhausted by the concept of finding NEW ways to...do the thing you DO.
While this tornado of beat down has been swirling around me, it has also stirred my new marriage, some of my friendships and my spirit. I know this sounds super drab, maudlin (insert your own word) but it really isn't. It is actually quite exciting.
When I found myself directly in the eye of the tornado, where I actually saw my former agent, green faced, riding a bicycle...I thought of this blog. I need guidance. I need to hear stories of people with passions and dreams who decided to pursue those passions and dreams. I need to hear what it is like to balance becoming an adult, being in a relationship, sifting through friendships to find the best of the best and making your mark in the world the way you want to make your mark in the world.
So, my pledge is to crack myself wide open. I will share the great UPs (selling TV shows, making TV shows, selling movies...um, having them shelved) and the great DOWNs (being told "your script is too funny" or "it is very hard to sell a show with female leads" or "you have to many ideas"). I will also go into the world and talk to actors, CEOs, painters, sneaker makers, head chefs, authors, songwriters, singers, directors, theater producers...and the list goes on. I will bring you their exact words as they relate to OUR conversation about how to be Happy On The Painful Road To Success.
And when you have thoughts, join in.
Okay, now I am going to make some tea, listen to the Across The Universe soundtrack and think about how today can be better than yesterday.
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