Summer Means Bikinis and Book Clubs

Last week, I took my art too seriously. This week, I worked on recalibrating back to a placid state. I had good company in the form of my business partner, in town from Orlando (or “up north” as I find the locals saying), and we made the most of Cinco de Mayo/my birthday. Our new friends at Red Mesa Cantina and The Avenue reminded us both we should spend more time celebrating, not scrutinizing, our achievements. And celebrate we did.

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Why are mothers so good at picking out birthday cards? I provided you a picture of mine. Nothing like a to-do list to keep the calibration in check! That's basically my objective list for the 36th solar cycle. I posted it above my workstation, so in those challenging moments when my characters are hesitant or my storytelling peters off, I'll move my eyes to my objectives. Like Marie's great impression of Tim Gunn, I'm gonna make it work.

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When you have company on the beach, it's a great time to proselytize, and Gina and I are great at selling each other on concepts and ideas we can carry forward in our enterprises as we soak up sun. I had to get something off my chest to her, which I'll summarize here but with the preface that I'm not trying to stoke dramatics. That's what Facebook is for. Merely mentioning a facet of participating in the creative community: haters.

I thought, as I have progressed in age, persons in my demographic bracket and the next tier above would have some sort of, I don't know, decorum, when it comes to interacting artistically. I don't want to say there needs to be a professionalism about it, because 'professionalism' denotes stuffy shirts, time sheets, and quotas. It would be nice, fellow artists, if we could stand out from the at-large society by automatically projecting positivity instead of negativity towards each other when we're engaging as a community? It's hard enough to work the energy and mind towards sharing something so intimate and definitive, one shouldn't have to add to the struggle by defending against daggers and shards of animosity. Especially when all I've done is promote and laud your artistry! I didn't like experiencing that when I wore suits and my hair pinned back. I definitely don't want to repeat it in my bohemian artist mode. So can I just make a blanket request here...save the hatred for global terrorists? If everybody loves everybody, it makes for richer art and productive creative sessions. Thank you, the management.

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This summer, I invite you to join me in exploring all the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, starting with Casino Royale. These average about 200 pages; you can get it done in one beach or pool outing.

And I did re-read The Great Gatsby with the DiCaprio movie coming out soon. The 1974 Redford/Farrow film is available on Netflix. Check 'em out!