In a recent episode of WTF, Marc Maron says something to the effect of “considering it was an HBO special, I probably should have gone in there with better jokes.”
So the story is: he had an HBO special (a coveted thing) and he went in with no set, just fly by the seat of your pants Maron, angry, insightful, demons et. al.. The show was good, but he feels he should have cared a little more. (more…)
“There are few things more liberating in life than to have your worst fear realized.”
Conan O’Brien via RobinHood Ink.
I’ve been trying to put together an introduction to a book I’m writing. I spent several hours on it, tightened it up, and totally thought I nailed it.
Then I pinged a writer friend of mine for his feedback, mostly expecting to impress him and receive some good encouragement.
I, of course, had not nailed it. His feedback was excellent, however, great stuff for anyone putting together an introductory essay/article, so I’m posting it here along with the original introduction I wrote. (more…)
“Novare Serbando (Renew but conserve)”
Fratelli Branca Distillerie motto, 1850
“I believe strongly in the emotional authenticity of the product.”
Chris Bangle in Objectified
“I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, ‘I wanna grow up and be a critic.’”
Richard Pryor
Remember what you want to be doing… remember what you care about and what you’re making.
I run a site for new dads and I get sidetracked from time to time looking at the “competition”, comparing my work to theirs, my “place” compared to theirs.
I get frustrated. “WTF!? How does this site have a pagerank of 4!?” “My god, who’s reading this stuff? And they rank for all that!?”
I could spend a shit-ton of time working my way up the list. It wouldn’t be tough. All I’d need to do is post something readable everyday. Maybe hunt for a few links here and there, too, but mostly just write a bunch and tweet about it and google starts to honor me with these abstract metrics.
But that’s not what I’ve committed to making. I’ve committed to making something better, to giving up on analytics and making something I love. I don’t want to blog a bunch and then have opportunities to promote other peoples’ products and then have to keep blogging a bunch and then have ideas I’d love to create but can’t because I have to blog a bunch and then end up with a body of work that has a few gems no one’s gonna wade through to read because I rank for “baby sourkrout stain fermentation.”
I’m just reminding myself on this one: Remember what I want to be doing.
“Don’t confuse legibility with communication.”
David Carson (in Helvetica documentary)
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
Chase & Mellisa Music Greatest Hits
I recently found a shit ton of music my wife and I wrote and recorded. I had forgotten about most of it. I’d like you to hear some of it.
Some of it’s from high school, where I had a band and we played in the quad, just a mess of black dickies, Mesa/Boogie half stacks and a whole lot of Braid on the mind.
Some of it’s from a couple years ago when I was trying to write and record a song everyday.
Some of it’s total shit.
Most of the tracks happened randomly and now hang out in the world like some bad tattoo I don’t regret all that much.
Just about every track has something I’m somewhat proud of… some lyric, off-time bit, recording trick, etc.
So, do me a favor and listen to the best tracks from the group: Chase & Mellisa Music Greatest Hits