Listen:
Once again, not a lot of time for show notes today. That’s not such a bad thing considering how many different directions we went in this episode – songs from Pulp Fiction, reading fiction, having books of fiction signed by famous authors.
And then the new Foo Fighters album, Medicine At Midnight.
I talked in the episode about a profound moment of realization I had when I met Douglas Coupland and had him sign my copy of his magnificent book Life After God. I won’t give away the whole story here, but the profundity was in realizing that while Doug and I seem to write about similar things (or did in those days when I was still writing), we are not at all like each other. I know that seems obvious, but at the time I was writing hard and a lot of my work was influenced by his. It was only when I heard him read and got to meet him that I understood that his work is the product of his personality and mine needs to be a product of mine.
And yours needs to be a product of yours.
All of the greats in any artistic genre work from themselves, kids. People like me become great imitators of other writers, musicians, etc., but in doing so we can sacrifice whatever genius we have (which means sacrificing our best work). That’s the take-away from this episode. It resonated with me and I hope it does with you.
If not, enjoy my musings on the wonderful Maria McKee, memories of an amazing Feist show, thoughts on the new Foos record, and an inspiring tale about making some young Queens Of The Stone Age fan’s day at a concert a few years ago.
Oh, and the story of David Sedaris drawing a picture of my friend vomiting.
Here’s Maria. Amazing.