My Back Pages

Busman's holiday:

NOUN: Informal A vacation during which one engages in activity that is similar to one's usual work.

I write.

I always have, for as long as anyone who knows me can remember.

At so many points in my early life, I was told, "You should be a writer." Sometimes I took encouragement even from criticism: a professor once told me that my writing for a term paper was lyrical, and I was thrilled. I've been down a number of roads. I've been a dedicated but probably middling actor, I minored in theatre and art history, I hold a degree in English literature and I've worked in various fields of entertainment. And though I have sometimes made my living without my words, often working in film production, I am a writer at heart.

Expect me to break all the rules.

Over the last half a dozen years, my busman's holiday has been writing about a singer who intrigued me, some causes where our lives intersect and the vagaries of a career in entertainment. I've tried to move conversation in the direction of a better future, "using ideas as my maps." Sometimes I've seen impossible victories, most recently on November 4 with the election of Barack Obama.

The hundreds of thousands of words I've written to earn my living aren't included, but a few of the words I've played with are here on my back pages. I have a lot more to say beyond my favorite pasttime, though he'll show up from time to time.

This blog is about the rest of my life --- sometimes getting it right, and often having a hell of a good time while getting it all wrong.