Mirth, Reason and… The Hustle

The hustle. You know the game. Look for the best window in the room and go on through it. I just finished writing the script for a romantic comedy with a good friend of mine, an accomplished writer from back east, and let me tell you what, we laughed an unreasonable amount. We cackled. It took a long time too, but we delivered it on motherfuckin’ Valentine’s Day, just for additional style points. Panache counts.

This is a money gig. First time I ever worked for any time with another writer, too. Generally, I try to be an okay guy to the artists and writers I know. Don’t step on people, they will remember, and help when you don’t even need to because they’ll remember that too. Just the other day I sent along a couple of cool residency programs I thought looked pretty good to a newish writer I know and low, they were far beneath him. It reminded me of my early years, before I understood the value of information great and small, and no one as vain as I am likes looking at pictures from puberty. It’s just rude, I tell you. The truth is if you want to make your bacon off dreams alone, you have to stay low the ground and sniff out the truffles, AND you have to cover some serious territory. The only thing beneath you is the ground. Where the truffles are. This is where the fun is! And ultimately why your hardest working peers become your trusted friends. They’re somehow less exalted (makes no sense, I know), and that feels good to be around. The opposite of this, ‘humble’, is often a serpent’s favorite disguise in the arts, this is generally known, but ‘real’, well. Absolutely priceless. Real is honest. And honesty has Game.

Art pays. People say it doesn’t but it does. Tattooing. Painting. My friend Pete makes a pretty good living playing old swing and blues at bars, night after night, and he likes it. He’s a happy guy. A good guy. And he has Game. Writing is broad spectrum and pays in broad ways because of it. There are words everywhere, just look around. You’re looking at some right now. The truth is almost any kind of earnest work in the making of things will pay in some way if you work the angles. Game is part of the code. Mojo. Dedication to craft means feeding yourself and having a long table. Hustle is what makes the world go round. A great restaurant has it. A great gallery has it. A great artist, a great sculptor, a great pizza jockey. A great band. A great bookstore. And all that has to be smooth. When it is, and I try to keep it that way, it’s the best ride in town. When it isn’t you work at the laundromat. So word to the wise, my fine creatives. If you seem to be enjoying yourself, and I mean in the part of your soul that’s close to the backbone, you’re probably making two kinds of currency- money for a vacation and some glow for that all important life of yours. All kinds of artists and writers have put forth in various ways that the greatest work of art is your own life, a lifespan work, to be viewed by one at its conclusion. You’re that viewer.

I hope it’s a masterpiece.