Just Do It

Excellent advice. I'm just doing it now after not doing it for way too long and I am enjoying the hell out of it.

I never stopped doing it. I never grew up. Why bother with a second childhood when you can just keep the first one going forever? I have a lot of fun - although inflicting my singing on anyone else is cruelty, and if I draw it elicits looks of sympathy. What makes me sad and a little upset is when I hear people say "I'm bored". I don't get it. Bored doesn't register in my head at all.

Wow Sal, that was the best 15 minutes I have spent all weekend.

In songwriting we call the devil the "editor"... That Devils is why I have still yet to finish Terra's song.

We become excited and playful about making art the way we want, then the editor comes in and says "You cant write that, you have to think about this more...".

Songwriter trainers teach you to throw the editor out of the room while the writer is writing. And to write pages and pages frantically like he said... then let the editor come in later and clean up after the writer has written with reckless abandon for a couple of hours or for 10 pages straight...

If you let the editor in the same room with the writer simultaneously, then your creative piece will sound like it was written by an editor, who over analyzes everything, and the artist, and the art itself, never got a chance to really express.

However, if you let the writer go crazy with ZERO editing... then later when he is all written out, the editor can come take that 10 pages and find all kinds of awesome lines to edit down into a majorly cool one pager.

You never get there though if you let him bug the writer while he is writing. You will come out with grammatically correct work that sucks, and isnt moving.

Inside we all have a creator, and an editor...Dont let them work in the same room at the same time.

Good stuff.

Right now Im saying "I want to type out that guys speech", and something inside is saying "Why? That will take an hour"... and something else is saying "So what?"....and the devil is saying "You cant waste an hour on chasing a rabbit hole that you didnt even intend to go down in the first place", and the creator is saying "Why not?".

Unfortunately , today the devil will probably win, but I need to work on this.

-John

Darn it, I keep trying to resist this irresistible thread but... I have a song about it.

I wont bore you with the whole thing but here is the first verse:

There's a tree out in the back yard
Where me an Mari use to swing
and behind the house
We said our vows
With a big orange candy ring
She had just turned nine that sunday
So I guess that made me ten
Man I sure do miss the way things were back then...

Back when the world was full of wonder
and our hearts were filled with zeal
back when superman could save the day
and ole jack frost was real
back when the forrest looked like neverland
and it was fun for just pretend
Man I sure do miss the way things were back then...

The last tag line at the end of the song is

"I can look into my daughter eyes, and that ole feelin comes again, and I see a glimpse of how things were back then..."

Im not fishing for compliments on this seriously, but it seemed like an appropriate song to share at this juncture... I think it expresses alot of what we are talking about here.

Ps. Amazing thread Sal. Will try not to hog it anymore. I just love this subject. Very inspiring contribution for a Sunday. It's perfect.

Ah dunno...I couldn't understand a word that feller was saying...:confused:
He was one fast talker...

Oh, wait...was I supposed to read all them words on the screen? :p

In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it. (Michelangelo)

It's not just about "fun" - it's about unintimidated creative expression of the self. It's about creating with no preconceived disposition about excellence and creating just for the sake of creation - not for notoriety, and regardless of external judgement.

Here - Try something...

'Skip' -

I mean, don't skip lunch, or skip that appointment, or skip school ...

Just 'skip' - ..while you're walking down the street today, just break out into a skip and see what happens...it momentarily releases your 'inner child' -

But don't break a hip! :rolleyes:

I remember when Mark and I first went up to the Geneva Basin in CO. Just at timberline there was a creek with a nice little sand beach. That stretch of the mountain was fairly flat with many very narrow felled pine tree trunks. We had a roll of industrial garbage bags with us and ended up putting up a tee-pee with a nice stone backed fireplace inside (gets cold to the max there at night) and a fire ring outside.

The next time we went up there, someone had used the camp and instead of trashing it, added to it with a nice log "couch" by the outside fireplace. We added a log chair. It went on like that the whole time we lived in CO - we'd go there at least twice a summer as it was right down the road and each time there had been improvements, each time we also made one.

I never did ever meet the other person that used the campsite, but I think we both know how much we both appreciated the creativity of the other party. We created, without judgement, and the other enjoyed and created. It was a joyful campsite always rendering surprise and appreciation when we arrived. At times we would hang something we made there for the other person, something like a necklace, etc - and they would respond in like.

It was awesome to share our creative selves without reprisal and with continuing joy and appreciation of even the most simple creations - simple but wonderful. That was a magical place.