Act like you belong, until you do belong.
-- Cameron Crowe, on the best piece of advice he's ever gotten
Create. Communicate. Relate.
Act like you belong, until you do belong.
-- Cameron Crowe, on the best piece of advice he's ever gotten
When I was starting to write, James L. Brooks told me, "Buddy, think of the privilege we have. We got the greatest job in the world. We get to tell stories." I still feel that every day.
Glenn [Frey of the Eagles] was such a student of how to slip into a room and make everybody part of your sport, which is "Let's all do great stuff together."
You’re never going to get the story done or delivered in time if you’re that guy who is there for a dual purpose. And I think there’s a kind of journalist that gets filtered out of the process pretty quickly if you realize that they’re there to make friends more than write something from the heart.
"Do you know who Billy Strayhorn is?" I said no. (Max Roach) kept playing music -- beautiful music -- on the piano. He finally stops and says, "If you don't know Billy Strayhorn, you don't know anything about the drums." I was 12, and I didn't really know what he meant by that. But I know now. He meant that ... you first and foremost are a musician, and you need to learn about music ... and open your mind and ears to all the possibilities ... Then you're able to play music instead of just playing drums.
Joy doesn't just find you ... it takes work, and it takes intention ... We're going to do this one thing to bring us some joy and then continue on with what we're dealing with.
Your instincts are composed. They're affected by what you practice, by what you think about, by what you hear, by what you talk about. And they change. And they develop. And they hopefully get better.
(The Westerlies' album Paradise) asks the question of what paradise means, and to us it's gathering around art and fostering empathy, which is something music instinctually does. With the state of division especially in the U.S. today, that feels more important that ever.
-- Andy Clausen