Chasing Dreams

Life is more than just a collection of random events and our reactions to them... at least for me it needs to be more. Like a lot of people I need purpose, adventure, friendship and most importantly variety... routine is poison for creative people. But as I'm learning, purpose finds YOU, so there is no need to go looking for it. Adventure gets the heart pumping fast but it walks hand in hand with drama. You might think you don't like drama but interesting lives are usually filled with some kind of dramatic event or combination of such. Friendship, well that's all about how much you're willing to open yourself and your lives to people that have an effect on you. I have lots of people I'm friendly with but a select few friends... I mean people I can rely on. That brings us to variety... or the need for variety which is really just the need to grow, the need to evolve, to learn, to see the world through different eyes. This has been the driving factor in my life. ...

Ok now... I am back. My car is back home with the help of my family and although I now have to change the dead battery that I suspect might have been switched during the 2 days in the city pound it's good to have wheels again. It's hard to understand how it's actually more expensive to NOT have a car in NY. Yeah I know all the arguments about parking, tickets, maintenance, etc but the daily cost of a commute from home to JFK works out to be less with a car... funny. Attended an amateur comedy night last night at a friend's fabulous apartment. It's a community of artist that is designed to promote creativity. They have periodic shows, comedy and music and gotta say it wasn't bad. Not sure if I enjoyed myself because of the company I shared or because it was a little escape but it might have something to do with the Cuban meal, with sangria and the Johnny Walker Black on the rocks we shared on her incredible deck complete with a view of NYC. Open air, witty conv...

Well today was one of those days that feels like I’ve fallen to bottom of a pit of misfortune. That’s right folks I’m gonna grip now. My cable is off so this was written on Tuesday August 3 and I’m not sure when I’ll be publishing it to my blog. My 4 year old Razr is on it’s last legs evidenced by the occasional blank screen that I’m only seeing because I lost my beautiful Droid. And on the 4th day of working 14 hour days, I go home to change for my next job and emerge to find that my car has been towed for multiple parking violations on the day that my divisional decides to pay us a visit. I now have to go to my family to borrow the money to get my car out of the pound before it is sold at auction… yeah it’s one of the days that I hope I never to see again. And all of this on the heels of me finally self-publishing the picture book that I’ve working on for so long. There is a lesson in all of this but I’m not sure what it is yet. Just when I feel that I have hit an all time low one ...

So NASA's space Shuttles have these fantastic tiles designed to withstand the tremendous heat of reentry but what about me and my precious emotions? Ok this is what I mean. I work in one of the most inhospitable environments known to man, otherwise called the airport. Now don't get me wrong, the job is not horrible... all the time. But something happens to people when they get in an airport. I think the fear and anxiety of air travel for some is redirected and expressed in ways that don't always make sense. Unless you're a psychologist you don't see the connection and think that these passengers are either crazy, sadistic or just plain stupid. But if you look closer you'll see most of them or just scared little kids that want to go on vacation but don't want to fly so they arrive late or fuss and obsess about minor things. Now of course you DO have your share of obnoxious assholes that try to get over and don't care who they run over. My coworker h...

So I was planning to go to South Africa with some buddies of mine to see the World Cup but as it turns out there was no credible way for us to get back in time for me to get to work. So it was either I pack enough stuff to just start a new life in Jo'burg or go somewhere else. We chose Italy. Now I'm no novice to travel but I don't really do the trains in Europe unless it's taking me from an airport to my affordable hotel. So when my buddy Steve mentioned "training it" to several cities I was intrigued. I was even more intrigued when he mentioned NOT booking a hotel ahead of time. I think he said something like "we'll figure it out when we get there". WHAT THE?!?! Ok... I've been known to hop on the last flight to Vegas with another buddy, eat, drink, gamble, look for women and a good party then head back to the airport for a first flight back to NY. No hotel, no room but THAT'S in a place where they speak English. This whole ...

Ya know sometimes life feels like a crap-shoot. You plan and plan and fate gives you a hand you didn’t plan for. I like to think that is what makes this existence interesting but sometimes it can take a toll on your soul. I mean here I am struggling to make my dream a reality 3 years after walking away from a great career and comfortable life. Now don’t misunderstand, my life now is still great. Next month I plan to spend a week in Johannesburg experiencing one of the greatest sporting events on this planet, The World Cup but the goal of me leaving advertising was to make it as an artist and it still feels out of reach. The time I SHOULD be spending to make it happen is spent working to pay the bills. I won’t let this blog post spiral into a rant about how hard my life is. Too many people don’t have jobs and will never experience the things I have been fortunate enough to call memories. It’s just sometimes the weight of your dreams can feel like a burden. I guess that’s why so many...

Life is truly fascinating. I mean everything is relative or gray , perception is the only thing that is black and white. I look at myself, through the judgmental black and white lens of impatience and wonder why it is that I am not the successful sought after photographer/writer I set out to be when I left advertising. I look and judge comparing this venture to previous leaps in my life that were more successful. So as I was researching some trivia one day I had an epiphany, standing in the middle of Times Square in NYC with yellow cabs, delivery trucks and bicycle messengers whizzing by. It may appear as if I’m standing still and not moving but all I have to do is look up at any building and notice the clouds moving behind them, except the clouds are not really moving it’s the earth rotating, it’s me moving on this spinning rock from morning to noon to night. What’s even more fascinating is the fact that although we appear to be rotating just a bit faster than a snail's pac...

Ok so I haven’t blogged in a while but it’s certainly not for lack of subject matter. We are living in the truly historic times; times that our grandchildren will ask us with wonder what it was like to be alive then. After stepping back from the brink of what appeared to be economic oblivion on a global scale, America is remaking herself… she is engaged in the most epic make-over which started with the election of Barack Obama and was punctuated with the passage of the health-care bill, both monumental historic events. Blogging about the fantastic meal I had at Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem a couple of days ago just seems too trivial for these times. I mean President Obama is signing nuclear disarmament treaties, Supreme Court Justice Stevens is stepping down and the Stock market is moving into really strong territory again but all I can think about is that brisket, chicken and ribs that was smoked to perfection before being slow cooked and anointed with a savory thick sauce that was the ver...