I think half the battle of a creator is in finishing their projects. I wonder how many of the worlds greatest creators never created anything great, because while they may have had the intelligence and even the skill, they weren’t finishers. Finishing is part of the art. A guy I met once ran into Norman Mailer at an airport and asked him what he was working on. Mailer politely declined to answer the question, saying that when he talks about a book too much, it steals his motivation to write it. I agree with Mailer, and I also think it was a brilliant way to get out of answering a question most writers are asked fifty-thousand times a day! Regardless of his intention, it’s true that when we talk about our work, we give ourselves the feeling that we are working on something when truthfully, we aren’t. If you sat down with a pen and paper and counted the hours you’ve been working on your project, would the number be embarrassing? Lets stop talking about our work over coffee with friends. We can talk plenty about it when it’s done.
My two favorite books are Catcher in the Rye and A Moveable Feast. Both are books with elusive plots, which is interesting since I often maintain story is everything, but I confess I rarely read books for story or even content, I read for style. I can hear the critics chiming now style is content…I know, I know, what I mean is I read to see how a writer handled their subject, not to learn about the subject. But that’s hardly what this post is about. This post is about romantic trickery, and how easy it is for a creator to get caught up in the romanticism of a life that hardly exists. The allure of Catcher and Feast rest in the easy lilt of the prose, and perhaps in the subtext that one can be unemployed, ride around in taxi’s, flirt with girls at clubs, smoke pipes in cafes in Paris, drive around with F. Scott Fitzgerald, bet a little on the horses and not have any bad days. I picked up Feast in the airport in Boston. The older, black woman at the counter clutched her heart when I set it on the counter. It’s his best, she [...]
“One of the things I love about this place is the ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) methodology. We try to create an atmosphere here where creative people are free to share their opinions about things. If somebody has an idea about a shot, they say it. And when people are honest about what they think, the work is better.” -John Knoll, Visual Effects Supervisor, ILM I heard this quote recently while watching a documentary about Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects company that pioneered CGI and other technologies that work together to create movies such as Star Wars and Avatar and hundreds of movies in between. ILM spun off Pixar, another creatively free environment that gives their storytellers years to create their narratives. The quote struck me, though, because of what John Knoll said about ILM is true for any creative environment. One of the reasons a community can fail to be creative is if thought is over policed. Here are some things to remember: 1. Many pioneering creators who’s work have lasted centuries, including Michelangelo himself, were often enemies of established communities. For Michelangelo it was both the church and the state, though both loved and hated him, [...]
So when I was a kid I played the Tuba. Our high school band was renowned throughout the state of Texas as one of the best. We were forced to practice for hours. I played the Tuba and took lessons from a local classical tubist. We really got into it. Our hero was a guy named Roger Bobo, the greatest living tuba player alive, and the only tuba player to ever solo on late-night television. I’ve also included a little master-class lesson from Mr. Bobo. Enjoy Roger Bobo:
I traveled recently with Derek Webb, who I greatly admire. We spent about a week on a bus in a traveling circus with Robbie Seay, who was shot out of a canon, and myself, who juggled plates, and Derek who put a knife through an apple sitting atop his wife Sandra’s head. It was a great week. Nobody was hurt. Anyway, I found it interesting how Derek lives his life regarding communication. Derek is a humble, honest, non-showy kind of person. He is who he is and there is no pretense. He is brutally honest with his fans on twitter and in his music. That said, he ticks a lot of people off. He shares how he is feeling and if he changes his mind he says that he changed his mind and has no problem with the change. If it’s raw honesty you are looking for, follow Derek. Another friend I greatly admire is Max Lucado. If you are wondering if Max really is as genuine as he seems, then I’ll tell you he is. He’s my hero, in many ways. Max’ philosophy about blogs and twitter and for that matter, his own tongue, is not not to say [...]
