Hmmmm…what do I say to the blog I’ve neglected for so long? My bad? I'm sorry? I have no clue. The only truth I have is that I fell off the radar because I dived headfirst into work. This is not an original thing. It happens to almost everybody but my return to this space has a back story I don't mind sharing. As a matter of fact, it's imperative I share the reason for my absence and my return because, 1. I want to. 2. It just may help someone else. 3. I need a place to showcase my work.
And it goes a little somethin' like this...
The year was 2011. The month was March and I remember sitting at my desk pseudo paralyzed by the thought that life was passing me by. So I did what one might do when they have some time to think and reassess some things, I hopped on a plane to Los Angeles, went to a good friend’s apartment who's neutral about most things and got still. During my stay in LA I hit up a Prince concert, cried when he sang "Purple Rain," took public transportation (yes, I road the bus and train in LA) to all my destinations except the concert and found an album (vinyl) that I'd been looking for for about 11-years. A couple days later I flew back to Portland, typed up my resignation letter, walked into the office, sat at my desk, waited for the clock to strike 10a.m. headed upstairs to the 5th floor and handed in said resignation letter to the head of my department.
Now, I was fortunate enough to function in two roles at my old gig, role one as a copywriter, role two, as a strategic planner/brand strategist. During my tenure as a planner I had an epiphany of sorts while sitting at my desk bored one Tuesday afternoon while reading through the Wall Street Journal, the online edition. For some reason I kept thinking about how dry my eyes were and the artificial, preservative free, 99% close to real tears eye drops my eye doctored prescribed, and wondering if that one percent of not real tears was some sort of chemical additive that would make my eyes even worse. Then I started to think about how staring at my computer for hours on end was contributing to my dry eyes. Sight is one of my favorite senses so I’m rightfully bothered by anything that would threaten it. But the “wait a minute” moment came from the fact that I had enough time on my hands to contemplate artificial, preservative free, 99% close to real tears eye drops and that one percent that stopped it from being 100% like real tears with such depth and concern that it was evident that what I was being paid to do wasn’t doing it for me anymore.
As a planner my day-to-day required that I know culture so well that I would be able to assess and distill that knowledge, extract a key or multiple insights to create a foundation for creatives to make great advertising. I approached/approach my work as a copywriter the same way.Yet, I started to question how connected I was to a wider culture when I looked at the fact that I spent the majority of my time behind a desk clicking around on the Internet and reading published things. I knew there was more to life outside the safe walls of Wieden+Kennedy and it was evident that something had to change.
While I miss that place, life from out behind a desk is a beautiful thing. I hold random conversations with random people about not so random things. I'm writing poetry, again and will even be performing in New York this coming October. I'm soaking in new things, shedding the old and entertaining new challenges.
Now my blog hasn't been updated since 2008 and it's 2011. That's almost three years. And yes, those three years were full. The coming post will be a retrospective of sorts to give you all an idea of what I've been doing with myself over the last few years, sprinkled with some of my thoughts on the ad world and the world in general, the occasional poem and new work.
Thank you for visiting and visit often.
And if you're wondering, yes, I'm for hire.
Peace & Love
