And it actually might end us all.
Tonight I'm going to a gathering of my former co-workers at the ad agency I used to work at in Portland. We have all traveled far and wide to be here: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vermont, New York and all points in between. It meant something for all us to be here.
There's a reason I'm here. I'm here to see people who transformed my life at the age of 23 and got me to see once again that the world is bigger than I imagined it. The Jesuits of my high school did it for me when I was 13, the artists in New York City did that for me when I was in my mid-twenties, and it's something that I constantly have to remind myself. Art has a purpose. Art and Commerce can co-exist. When you are communicating the truth, it can have a powerful impact. It can sell computer software, it can sell shoes, it can sell soda, and it can have meaning. What I learned working for Wieden and Kennedy is that storytelling is powerful.
This is why I moved to Los Angeles to try to make it as a TV writer. It's why I write plays, to share something truthful and common about the human experience. We were a motley crew of copywriters, art directors, music directors, ad sales associates, and visionaries. It's important to be a visionary. It is also a hard road, full of ups and downs, successes and failures, triumphs and tragedies. We were schooled by some of the best creatives in the business. And now we have gone to other places in our lives. We come back together with the full extent of our experiences and it's time to share that with each other again. These are people who are at the top of their game in every respect, in different fields. And now we're back together. To reminisce. To remember. And to re-inspire each other.
My boyfriend kept saying to me this week on the phone that I must be excited for the party. What I'm excited for is to be around that energy because I, for one, needs to be reminded of what a powerful force we were all together. It was almost like we were living in this dreamland, in this commune of Portland, in community. The agency was at the top of its game when I lived there. It was a fun place to be when I was young. But I don't think I realized how special it was to be in that environment and I don't think I truly appreciated how it was going to influence me in the future. But it has.
I have stories to tell. I want them to have impact. And I want them to have power. Sometimes that power comes from our ability to communicate. It's what I would like to do in television. If I can bring that determination, that truthfulness, that relentlessness to my work...if I can do what this agency did, then I can really do something. It was a great environment to learn something from. I imagine it might be similar to what the comedians who have gone to the school of Saturday Night Live feel like.
Chris Rock once said about SNL that no one leaves less famous for having been on the show. I also don't think they end up a worse comedian. I think they become better. Even though that environment was treacherous, difficult and a real crash course, it made them better. Much in the way that the influence of that time, being around those people who may or may not have known what they were doing at various points, had a major influence on me.
There's something about the act of creation that is a mess. But if you can find a place of being unencumbered, a place of freedom, then you can fun fast and far. That road might not be endless, but it can take you far.
So now I'm going to leave, and head to this reunion, to get shitty drunk. But I'm going to celebrate all that that time in my life meant to me and what it has done and will continue to do for me.
I never understood the term "Golden Age" until this week. When you are touched by something like that, it makes you better. There's a term in the TV business called "camp", as in being a part of the Joss Whedon camp, the Shawn Ryan camp, the David Chase camp. This means that if you were on a show that those showrunners ran, you somehow were christened as gifted and you were better for it.
I think we were all lucky to be a part of the W+K camp and have become better in someway because of it. And that's not just bullshit or blowing air up anyone's ass. It's the truth. And I think the full effect of the Loyola camp, the W+K camp, and the Tisch School of the Arts camp has yet to be realized in me.
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