Lessons from the week

I haven't blogged in over a week, putting in my first March post at the end of its first week, and I'm not going to flog myself over it. I'm not Catholic so why do I live with so much guilt? I just keep wondering when I got to be so flaky. I used to have lists and goals and always knew what I wanted and where I was going. Then somewhere along the way I looked up and I was lost. I looked back down at what I thought was my map but it there was nothing on it except a couple of things from a "to do" list crossed off. Get a degree, travel in another country, move to another city, become an actress, make a film, find true love. Huh, now what? LESSON: There's never been a map. Get used to it.

There's a stone around my neck about this documentary that I volunteered to make for a non-profit in June. I then promptly moved and proceeded to put it off for about six months. Now it's due and I'm utterly uninspired by the footage they've sent me and pushing much to hard to figure out how to tie it all together. I keep thinking brilliant inspiration is right around the corner. In the middle of trying to make that movie, I made a little movie for the Bicycle Film Festival. Shot it, edited it, recorded voice over, even got a friend to make a soundtrack, burned a DVD and submitted it - in about two days. Today, I got a call from the woman at the non-profit. Crystal Light hired a production company (real filmmakers!) to make their own movie and she wants me to hold off for a while until we see what they're doing, and thanked for my flexibility! All this time I've been feeling guilty and she's thanking me. LESSON: Guilt is a waste of time. So is waiting for inspiration.

I read this great article about the advertising world and how mean the industry is. I was so thrilled that someone was finally saying it's not cool anymore. After a work experience at a small ad agency that left a very bad taste in my mouth, it's refreshing to hear an industry insider chastise these guys for "ad campaigns based on a hardening spirit, a lack of tolerance and an egocentric meanness that characterizes so much of today's advertising." It's not like I'm one of those goody two-shoes who only wants nice things in the world (or maybe I am!) but advertising is particularly rude, sexist, insulting and seems to delight itself in humiliating others. As someone who has auditioned for commercials, worked with the people writing them, and worked for the "client", I've seen it inside and out. Ad guys (and they are almost all men) conduct a brainstorm meeting like a pow-wow in the locker room after a game. The things I used to hear these guys say in would make their wives divorce them. The writer ends the article by saying that "it behooves marketing professionals to understand the difference between subtle irony and idiot snideness and aim for an advertising denominator cognizant of the maxim that expansive, confident consumers part with their cash far more readily than do angry, fearful ones." Shortly thereafter, I saw the film "Be Kind, Rewind," and realized walking out of it that it was actually, and truly, a film about kindness. No one was made fun of or belittled, no one acts like an ass for our amusement, no one is called ugly or fat and yet no one is held up as the ideal for us to worship. It's a movie about regular people coming together to make something beautiful. LESSON: Kindness is cool!

After all my blah-blah'ing about not caring that only 12 people read my blog, I have to say that I still wish my blog would show up in Blogger's "blogs of Note." There are some pretty cool ones in there and they prove my theory that popular blogs have shorter postings, more frequent postings, a single theme (a garden, photos of Paris) and lots of pictures! People like pictures. So I'm going to try that. Instead of not posting because I'm composing some big essay on things I know nothing about, I'll just post a photo and some tidbit. LESSON: Keep it simple.