UP on the Creative Path

One of my favorite movies is UP by Pixar.  I remember looking around the movie theater and watching the adults cry and the kids laugh.  It reached nearly everyone.  The marriage montage at the beginning is already a classic sequence.  The crafting of the story must have come easy, right?  

Wrong.  

Read these comments on the creation of UP from Ed Catmull, Pixar Animation Studios President in a recent speech:

"The first version of UP took place on a castle floating in the sky, and there was a king in the castle who had two sons; the sons didn't like each other. And the people in the castle were at war with the people on the ground, and...the two sons happened to fall overboard and ended up wandering around in enemy territory. And in this wandering around they came across a large bird.

"This version of the movie didn't work; all that was left was the bird the word 'up.' [Creativity] is a path that is filled with false turns and errors, and the errors are a necessary part of the process."

As I like to say, trust the process.  And of course...

...Keep writing and keep living!

More tips on creativity: Double Your Creativity in 3 Hours

I Concede

As the presidential candidate of the SODA Party (Screenwriters and Other Disadvantaged Americans), I hereby concede the election to Mr. Trump.  Both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton campaigned hard and I acknowledge their efforts for America. 

I appreciate the two votes I got in Rhode Island and another handful scattered across this great land.  I was hoping for double digits, but alas…it was not to be.  Yes, I am disappointed, but as with others that lost, I promise to support our country's principles.    

Let’s all come together and play nice on our national playground.  And God bless the United States of America!

The Last Statesman

As Election Day nears, I become more confused.  I get the feeling that neither of the two major candidates are terribly concerned about what is good for America.  It’s seems as though it’s all about them. 

Okay, okay, I know it’s politics—I get it.  But I yearn for a candidate closer to a statesman or stateswoman.  In fact, who was the last statesperson in our country?  I realize that politicians are politicians, but one guy stands out to me as someone who seemed to stand for what he thought was right, to the point that he had to leave his own party for it.  Yes, I’m thinking of Joe Lieberman.  

Now I often disagreed with Lieberman’s stands on issues, but I always had the feeling that he felt those stands were good for America, regardless of criticism.  Perhaps I’m mistaken about him, but I like to think of him as a symbol of what I’d like to see in American politics today. 

In the words of Paul Simon, which I have slightly altered: “Where have you gone, Joseph Lieberman; a nation turns its lonely eyes to you—woo, woo, woo.”  

So what can you do, and who should you vote for?  Well, that’s for you to decide, but in any case, keep living!