How to Be Creative

Hugh McCloud has an interesting essay on how to be creative. A couple of good excerpts, which I have believed for years:

"If you’re looking at a blank piece of paper and nothing comes to you, then go do something else. Writer’s block is just a symptom of feeling like you have nothing to say, combined with the rather weird idea that you SHOULD feel the need to say something."

"The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not. Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly."

"Early 30s is a great time to be alive- you're still young, but you have experience. A powerful combo. The downside is all that weird rockstar shit you believe about yourself is well past its sell-by date, and if you haven't outgrown it by then, it starts to fuck up your life."

Preacher Video Humor

"Televangelist Benny Hinn is threatening to sue the religious satire magazine The Door for the video clip it is distributing that shows Hinn's wife, Suzanne, preaching at their former church in Orlando, Florida. She says if you're a lifeless, blackslidden Christian, you need a "Holy Ghost enema... right up your rear end."

Because, according to Mz. Hinn, "God won't tolerate" you not getting a Holy Ghost enema. She paces back and forth on the stage like a drunken caged tiger, raves against "butt-kissers," loses her shoes and goes on some obscure tangent about high-heels, blames her sense of humor on being British, and collapses on the stage at the end of her lunatic breakdown, which is typical of "spirit-filled" services. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's just difficult to take as seriously as the crowd obviously wants to take it. I laughed so hard I nearly fell down, so perhaps that means I'm filled with the spirit!

If anyone is filled with the spirit, it's Robert Tilton, isn't it? And in this hilarious video, the spirit just won't stop coming out of him. I got that from PCCboard. Some of my favorite comments there were, "The man is full of prophetic utterances," and "It's like a mightly rushing wind!"