Comments on: you are responsible for your own experience

By: Miguel

Miguel — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 22:44:43 +0000

I like the pages and this cartoon, but learning to be a shepherd means you get to play creatively with both the sheep and the wolves.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 17:15:04 +0000

Brad, it sounds like a good plan, at least on paper. I think creatives respond well to lots of contact with other people. In LA one is more sealed off from others by their automobiles etc.
But LA has its good points. I do think it’s a place that needs (a) a terrific idea and (b) a diamond-hard sense of purpose. Turning up there without a plan and just hoping for the best is the kiss of death in LA.
The trouble with New York for the stuggling artist is– every 3rd struggling artist in the country and their uncle has has the same idea as you. Bohemia is a crowded market.
A big cultural shift is going on with the musician community, and it’s painful. The record deal is no longer the light at the end of the tunnel it once was. So a lot of musicians are feeling stuck in the dark. A new light is needed.

By: Brad Byrd

Brad Byrd — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 14:25:06 +0000

Hey man, been reading your trip for a while. Pretty interesting. I lived in NYC for 6 years and have been living in LA for the past three. I appreciate you appreciating my music via cdbaby.com. Anyway, i am currently going through a crisis. I have a record, spent all my $ on touring, gigging, recording, partying,etc in the hopes that the bid pay day would arrive. It feels like it could happen at any second. So i am essentially bankrupt in my pursuit of rock-n-roll…i know i’m not going to quit i just can’t find a way to find work in LA that makes sense. No one works out here…everyone’s a rock star…i’ve been thinking about heading back to the city again to continue pushing on…at least there i can get a job, not need a car, and feel like i’m in the real world. I don’t man, any thoughts?

By: nick

nick — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 13:05:33 +0000

True, of course it depends on the person. Sparing names, alcoholism has plagued lots of writers, I think because alcohol sometimes helps to get those 3rd and 4th rate ideas down on paper for to be expanded upon later and made into 2nd and sometimes 1st rate ideas. Much of the process of creation is getting ideas out of the head and down onto paper, and alcohol, although def. damaging, has I think, helped to facilitate that part of the creation process, the letting go and getting the ideas down part.

By: pieman

pieman — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 09:58:50 +0000

Dipping down the scale a touch. Third & fourth rate ideas come far quicker and in much greater quantity the more alcohol one consumes.

By: heading out

heading out — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 08:42:08 +0000

You get up and write it in soap on the bathroom mirror at 3 am, in the dark, and you can read it and understand it and it still gets you excited when you see in at 6.