I wish I was better at updating this site. I guess it’s one of those things where no one’s really pounding on my door asking for more content, so I just post when the mood strikes. Anyone else in the artistic world struggle with this? The idea that you need to self-motivate.
I’ve a background in theatre and one of the best benefits I’ve found is that we’d sell tickets for shows weeks in advance. Suddenly there’s motivation to get things up and running. People’s money is on the line! Expectations! Motivation.
But this…. it’s another thing all together. This is throwing creations into the void and hoping for some response. Some validation. This is not to belittle the folks who have given me some of the good-time-feel-good-motivation-juice. Thank you to those who at least give me a “like” click, or an encouraging comment. A couple of you have even given me money! Crazy!
I put a new link up of “Musings” the plan was to put up posts that weren’t any specific artistic piece, just thoughts and ideas. Man, this worked really well in my head, but if I need motivation to post art projects and feel the basic idea that “who cares, no one really wants to see or use my art.” then you can imagine how difficult it is for me to post rambles that I don’t feel have any real value to the void.
Anyway. A couple things about “Musings”. The first is that I read somewhere a long time ago that if you have a journal (you know those things that people used to write in with paper and pen.) it was best to buy a really cheap and crappy one not a special spangly expensive one. Because then you’d feel free to write just any old thing not just the “special” things. I feel the same way, currently about this web-site. It’s too “special” to just throw anything up there. Well…. fuck that…. I’m really going to try hard to get over that little mental roadblock. And, that’s all it is really, a small mental roadblock. There’s enough roadblocks in real life to be making ones up in my head.
The second thing about the “Musings” section is about the first entry I was writing about. It was/is about depression and how it stops creativity and productivity. Sure enough, just by writing about it spiraled me into a small bout of depression and here we are now. A month gone by an nothing new posted.
If you’ve read this far, thank you, I love you. If not, fuck you…. I can say that, because you didn’t read this far. I actually don’t mean it. I probably don’t even know you enough to make such a mean blanket statement.
However, if you have read this far, some quick teasers of things I’ll be posting soon enough here.
#1. Art work! Paintings that I’ve done with a couple of talented painter friends of mine. It’s a series of paintings called “Dames Drinking Hooch”…. or “Booze” one of the two. They’re currently adorning my bar, but we’re making prints and you can buy them soon. Very soon.
#2. More Musings. These aren’t going to be special or amazing (maybe they will be, accidentally. That’s a good title for an autobiography “Accidentally Amazing”, but I digress). They’ll just be something. Maybe you’ll get something out of them, maybe not. I know I will.
#3. The first couple chapters of my novel “Cards With The Devil”. It’s currently going through some major pain in the ass editing, but I feel secure that the first couple chapters will be posted here soon.
#4. A video series called “The Science of Comedy”. I’ve got the raw footage of 4 episodes (maybe more depending on how long we edit an episode) Featuring; Matt Sloan, Devin Dugan, Jon Bruinooge, and Gabby VandenAvond. These currently fall in the category of “Mike doesn’t feel like he’s any good at editing video.” But, I’ve got friends.
I don’t know if/when any new “How to Write Good” episodes will happen. Those fall in the same category. But, we’ll see. They were fun to do.
Hope you’re all well and living great lives. I’d love to hear from any of you. I’m continually hungry for friendly conversation. Don’t be a stranger. Chat me up.
Mike
As always, I eagerly await the next creation that springs from your mind. Kids book still in the works?
Kids book is definitely still in the works. The editing process of “Cards with the Devil” has, for good or bad, made me incredibly gun shy about my grammatical abilities. I’m trying to get over that, but Grammar Nazis abound. I think there may be a post/commentary on grammar soon. I would like to release the kids book (“The Continuing Adventures of Byron and Bing”) chapter by chapter for free on this site. I could probably start doing that soon.
looking forward to it. I wouldn’t worry too much about the grammar nazis, different writers have different styles and voices. I hope your editor(s) don’t diminish yours for the sake of “correctness”