The Creative Life

I am trying to live a more mindful, conscious and creative life.  I want to feel inspired on a daily basis.  Some days it is easier than others.

I guess in terms of creativity my focus for the year is on learning to go from the idea/premise to actually putting that idea/premise on to the page.  I know this sounds pretty basic but this is the epic journey of the writer: allowing yourself to write. The only thing is most of my creative ideas are for funny songs and musicals.  So I am constantly taking classes.  For the next month each week I alternate between piano lessons with Anita Beaty and a master class in songwriting with Murray Foster.

By the end of the year (or sooner), it would be oh so great if I could do some sort of presentation or something but I guess I’ll be working up to that.   I’m still pretty raw from all my epic set backs from last year.  So I am simply trying inch myself forward creatively by doing a little of this and a little of that.  For now, I just want to create for the sake of creating.  But then again that pesky ego of mine is always like “Endelay!” (Not sure why it’s Spanish but hey).

I am improvising with a friend, Chris Levielle, as part of the World’s Biggest Improv Competition and we had our first show Feb 28th and we advanced to the next round.  The name for our duo is Lean In with Leverage.  I came up with that.  I thought it was pretty clever, if I don’t say so myself.

This past weekend I did something pretty great.  I went through my most recent notebook I keep of all my song ideas and organized them by putting them onto my computer.  Aww snap!  I have 29 songs in various stages of construction.  (Oh and that doesn’t even include some of the songs I wrote for Idol).  Some day my friends (are we friends?) these babies will make it out into the world.  I know it won’t mean much a bunch to have a list of song titles thrown at you but someday I’ll figure out how to go from the page to stage/screen (but that has proven quite difficult and expensive so we’ll just have to wait).  For now, here are the highlights (I left out the ones without real song titles):

1. 12 Steps
2. Astronaut – Music: Murray Foster; Lyrics: Me (duh)
3. Lady Gaga Stole My Friggin’ Act
4. Le Spaz Hot
5. Mama Jean is a Beauty Queen
6. Pretty / Skinny
7. Seriously in Love
8. Some Girl, Not me
9. Superman Loves Me
10. Superstar
11. Tell a Different Story
12. That Je Ne Sais Quoi
13. The Fix
14. The Gospel of Oprah
15. The Litany of Britney
16. The Most Ridiculous Thing
17. The Universe Loves/Hates Me
18. The Well Oiled Machine
19. Virtual Unknown
20. Your Show’s Gonna Bomb

I know again there’s no way for you to know whether the above are legit or not.  I guess you’ll just have to trust me.  I long for it to be really easy to take this material and make it happen.  Someday.