Back in Michigan from San Francisco. Coming down from this high is always difficult. At the same time, I’m still inspired and motivated to do something bigger with my life, something more than I have been doing. I’m very grateful for that boost, because now seems like a very active and creative point in my life. My film crew is getting together, I just finished in the Top 4 in a standup comedy competition, I’m making music in a band, I’m making friends, and I still have a few prospective projects around the corner. This is big for me. This is something I’ve needed for a long time.

Ultimately I need to just be, to keep up with things and to go with the flow. I need to be myself, be confident in my abilities. I can be impressed and inspired by others but I shouldn’t want to be them. When I create anything, I create it in my own light, and that’s the way any artist should work. I’m not here on this earth to follow in other people’s footsteps; I’m here to create my own path.

I performed a pretty solid set Wednesday night at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, and for the first time, I met Mark Ridley. He stopped me as I was walking back to my seat. I didn’t recognize who he was at first, because I had only seen older pictures of him. The exchange went something like this:

“Jim?” extends hand

“Yeah.” shakes hand

“Mark Ridley.”

shakes hand even harder “Oh man, hey, it’s nice to meet you. Thank you for having me.”

“You did a good job. You have a great voice.”

beaming “Thank you so much, I’m glad you liked it. I hope to see you again soon!”

“You will.”

That’s the boost of confidence I needed. My creative juices have been coming up dry and I’ve been really down on myself lately, but hearing that from Mark Ridley really gave me a push in the right direction.

I finally found a new theme that I really dig. I’ve been trying to find something that looks like a notebook to remind me of the olden days of writing in a notebook. Chances are I won’t blog more often, though, but I figure I can at least collect dust in style.

It seems like people think you’re crazy for talking about death, but as one of my former English professors who I greatly admired once said, the easiest way to dismiss someone in an argument or a debate is to call them crazy.

On The Road gave me an optimistic reminder. I’m gonna die some day, and so are you. How often do you think about that when you’re afraid of doing something, or when you decide to sit around and do nothing, or when you’re looking at the world like it’s some big huge scary mess?

Death puts all your bullshit day-to-day waste of time troubles into perspective. Why is it pessimistic to think that every day is one day closer to death? I think that’s a very optimistic way to look at life, because it reminds you all the more to make something of that day. It’s a reminder to make every day the greatest day. Can you get any more optimistic than that?

When pursuing a creative venture, be it painting, music, comedy, whatever, you’re entering into an dark cave of the unknown, and the only thing lighting your way is this desire in your heart to bring something beautiful into the world. Most people, myself especially, walk in fear. You stumble as you walk, tripping and falling, running into rocks hidden in the shadows. You stop in your tracks and ponder going further, you turn around and begin to walk quickly back to the entrance of the cave before something stops you and forces you to turn back. You may do this several times before you hit a point in that cave where you notice a single, tiny ray of light at the other end. Your careful steps become a relaxed stride as you move forward, the light seemingly becoming brighter, and the brighter it gets, the quicker your stride becomes.

Dashing towards the end of the cave, you find that it is no longer dark, that it is as if you’re venturing through a sunny green field, the bright yellow sun radiating above, the sound of movement surrounding you. Before you know, you are no longer in the cave, and you are not surrounded by the sunlight, but from the light emanating from your creation. The energy from the light sends you forth into another dark cave, but this time, with far more light and a much more confident stride than before.