I’ll use anything for notes if I have to.

And more often than not, I go “old school” with a pen and paper. Feels like I’m doing something purposeful.

Here, I used the back of a Toro y Moi ticket. I don’t remember the show much, other than I got there late and couldn’t really see well. The Metro is like that sometimes.
What I do remember, vividly, was running into college friends later that week in the jungle-like River North area of Chicago at a bar, one of the few, that's open til 4AM. I must've had the ticket in my pocket - loved finding stuff in pockets of winter jackets - and when we saw each other, the conversations took off.

Architects, writers, cocktail artists that have the insane high-rise views to support that moniker: creatives of all kinds and they all look good doing it, too. If you've ever seen High Fidelity, when John Cusack goes to see Catherene Zeta Jones and meets all of her hoity-toity, "Holy crap, these people are too cool" friends, that's who I'm talking about...

Only they're nice.

One friend in particular was one I've always vibed with - Stephen Coorlas. We always got along with not only what we were creating but how we could streamline the process. I remember watching him play a xylophone in his lofted "chill space" surrounded by 5 or 6 people. The kid picked up sticks and started running with it, composing something that was magical. I thought it was unbelievable... turned out the kid had been doing that sort of thing for quite a while.

Zoom forward a few years and we hadn't hung out in a while but, like always, we dove in on whatever we were talking about.

***SIDENOTE - I have this relationship with a lot of people and I often leave the conversation torn between whether I should ride the newly acquired energy or feel guilty about what I just put that person through. I wonder if it's a chore for someone to talk to me about creating and ideas and stuff. I'm a pretty passionate guy and I can surely exhaust an issue …and a person.

Me?
I covet those moments. I get so stoked to see someone that'll ping-pong ideas with me because they're perpetually in my head. I'm Forrest Gump playing against a wall and now I get a buddy to go back and forth with? Sign me up.

Here, in a noisy bar, Stephen heard out whatever idea I was throwing his way and subsequently mapped out a great way to bring that idea, and any idea, to fruition.

*NOTE: The asterisked part in the middle. Sorry for partying, I guess.

**ALSO NOTE: I love the frenetic way this was written out reminds me of Kevin's map in Home Alone.

Stephen had always drawn these ideas and concepts and gorgeous, flowing pieces of whatever they were. I’ve always been in awe of how steady he is: His art, his controlled behavior, his relationship with his lovely wife, his close ties with friends. There's definitely a zen-like relationship between he and his art - where for some, including me, it can be burdensome, but for him, it's something meditative and soothing to produce and create something you conjure up - and he's made it look easy since I've known him.

The Perspectives

I was just getting into videos and made this guy, combining the Focused Freedom perspective and a song he made using Final Cut X and After Effects. Pretty archaic, but it was more of an experiment both with a kaleidoscopic effect in FCPX and see what I could do as a beginner in AE.

Pretty cool that I found all this stuff years after. Even cooler that all of these thoughts have this through-line that stems from a buddy's drawings.