Author Archives: thevsstudioblog

If you want to shrink something,you must first allow it to expand.If you want to get rid of something,you must first allow it to flourish. -“Tao Te Ching” by Lao-Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation) “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start by somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper.”-Anne LamottContinue reading “Write, Then Excise”

I really love the below excerpt from my dear friend Robyn Cohen. Besides being an incredible human and artist, Robyn is a sensational actor and teacher. She writes in her weekly newsletter… This thing is called SHOW BUSINESS. We work in plays. How did we manage to make it sound like a prison sentence? HavingContinue reading “The Pursuit IS Happiness”

“It’s time to reclaim excellence. Excellence is less about what you do and more about how you do it. You can aspire toward excellence in any worthwhile project.If you strive to do it well, just about anything can be truly transformative.” -Brad Stulberg The reason to pursue excellence is…well…to pursue excellence. Brad Stulberg in hisContinue reading “The Pursuit Of Excellence”

In medieval and ancient philosophy, the Wheel of Fortune or Rota Fortunae is a symbol of the capricious nature of Fate. The wheel belongs to the goddess Fortuna (Greek equivalent: Tyche) who spins it at random, changing the positions of those on the wheel: some suffer great misfortune, others gain windfalls. -per Wikipedia “Thirty spokesContinue reading “Wheel Of Fortune”

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” -Rumi “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. AndContinue reading “One Step”

“In 1977, the science fiction writer Orson Scott Card sent a draft of his later-to-be award-winning and film-adapted Ender’s Game to the science fiction magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The magazine’s editor Ben Bova wrote back to Card. In the letter, Bova said that, though he liked Ender’s Game, it needed to be cutContinue reading ““I Went Slower.””

“The film editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I, II, and III, American Graffiti, etc.) writes in In the Blink of an Eye that every time he test screens a movie, “there’s a lot of what is medically called ‘referred pain’ in the process.” Referred pain is when you experience pain in a partContinue reading “Referred Pain In The Process”

A Part Two to yesterday’s post and a little origin story of how Sawyer came to the Clark household… We rescued Sawyer from a kennel. He was originally bred to be a show dog for an overseas owner in Japan. During Covid, when all the dog shows were cancelled, the owner called the kennel andContinue reading “Unexpected and Unconditional Love”

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it upContinue reading “The Full Spectrum Of Emotion”

“A Hard Day’s Night took less than 15 hours from idea to finished record. More Than a Feeling, from Tom Scholz and Boston, took five years. Each pleased their audiences. One is not 1,500 times more valuable than the other. Sometimes, work that requires effort leads to scarcity, and that scarcity can increase its value.Continue reading “Who Cares?”