Lost and Found I'm tremendously excited to report that I've just been hired as a creative consultant/lead writer/producer on a huge project for a major cable TV network. I'm somewhat sad to report that I can't discuss any more of the details until we're ready to promote the launch -- which is frighteningly not that far away! Of course, UglyTown is still going full force, and I'm hoping that this additional work will also do wonders to continue to fuel my creative battery (I work best when I'm overwhelmingly busy).

This good fortune has had me thinking about the best context in which to create. What is it about being busy that is so good for me? Perhaps it's the same as being horribly and despondently out of work. Music producer and movie trailer editor Alex Pitschka and I just had a conversation about the benefits of being LOST. We were saying that in today's modern world, it's just way too easy NOT to get lost, geographically. Even though it's probably easier than ever to FEEL lost.

I believe that a rich source of creativity comes from the true feeling of being lost. Whether it's a simple as sitting in front of a piano without sheet music -- hell, without the ability to PLAY the piano -- or something more drastic like finding myself so overwhelmed by what I'm doing (not doing), what I'm trying to do, why I'm trying to do it ... that I just have to get out of the forest, I just have to tell a story, as simple as following a stream.

This is not a "handy trick" that you can try at home in fifteen short minutes. It's as serious as Descartes' refutation of the world, leaving only the singular truth of ego cogito. I've often said that if you want to be a writer you have to write, read, and edit. Now I want to add that you have to get lost.

Okay, I'm getting way too worked up with all this philosophy. Maybe I just need to curn down a bit.