"The Black Man Talking Emotions Podcast" Starring Dom L'Amour
"The Black Man Talking Emotions Podcast" Starring Dom L'Amour
Beyond Inspiration: The Hidden Rituals That Fuel Creativity
Dom L'Amour speaks with Christopher Shank about our creative process, being more organized, working on ourselves and so much more.
What if the secret to creativity isn't waiting for inspiration to strike, but simply showing up consistently? In this thoughtful conversation with screenwriter and friend of the show Christopher Shank, we dive deep into the mechanics of the creative process and challenge the notion that artists need to wait for the perfect moment of inspiration.
Shank shares how breaking down his scriptwriting into manageable chunks—sometimes just a single scene during lunch—has transformed his productivity while preserving his mental health. Meanwhile, I've discovered that continuously moving between projects—songs, poems, musical scenes—keeps my creative muscles active without feeling burnt out on any single endeavor. We both agree: consistency trumps intensity when it comes to sustainable creative work.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when we explore the relationship between creators and their tools. I detail my practice of designating specific pencils for specific tasks—drawing inspiration from Japanese perspectives on objects having their own energy or spirit. There's something powerful about treating creative tools with intention rather than mere utility. As Shank puts it, "Everything has its own energy."
We also unpack how ideas evolve in unexpected ways. Shank describes a story he's worked on for nearly two decades that finally clicked when he found the right metaphor, while I recount how a song inspired by "Cherokee" transformed from an attempted tribute to Native American history into a personal reflection about living off Cherokee Street. Creative ideas rarely arrive fully formed—they need time and space to evolve.
Whether you're a seasoned creator struggling with blocks or someone just beginning to explore your creative potential, this episode offers practical wisdom for sustaining your practice through both inspiration and drought. Subscribe now and join our continuing exploration of creativity, emotion, and the human experience.
Opening quote by Aldous Huxley
Opening and Closing Theme song: Produced by Dom L'Amour
Transition Music from Mad Chops Vol. 2 by Mad Keys
and
from Piano Soul Vol.1(Loop Pack) by The Modern Producers Team
Featured song : "Nothin" by Dom L'Amour
Cover art by Studio Mania: Custom Art @studiomania99
Please subscribe to the podcast, and give us a good rating. 5 stars please and thank you. Follow me on @doml_amour on Instagram. Or at
I got that from a couple of things In Japan, of course, they hold things higher like personal items. They hold them higher on a different level. They look at them as if they're their own spirit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything has an energy.
Speaker 1:Everything has its own energy and so when you are in these environments where you have something that's special to you, giving it that energy helps. It continue to help you. And another thing I think about I think this came from the Braden Sweetgrass book I read last year, where they were talking about how you got to be respectful to the earth. Earth will show you the same respect and I truly believe that works with inanimate objects. It's so weird to say that out loud, but it's the truth. Like you could put bad juju on something. You can have something that you have cursed yourself because you have been so negative about it, and every time you see that thing, some reason, something bad happens and you blame it on that thing again. You're like it's because of that, it's because of this thing, this is unlucky, and it's like you're doing that. You're giving the power to this item.
Speaker 1:Ladies and gentlemen and anyone else who is here my name is dom lamore and you are listening to the black man talking emotions podcast on today's. We speak with friend of the show, shank Christopher Shank, to be exact about our creative process being more organized, working on ourselves and so much more. There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self. I feel like I get you on here sometimes and we have great conversation and we talk about very sad stuff, and I wanted to talk more about the craft with you today, because something that we always talk about is finding that inspiration to create, and I read a book, the War of Art. That's the name of the book, the War of Art. Yeah, steven Princefield, yeah, yeah. So the idea that, as a creator, you create, you got to keep creating. Even when you finish something, the next thing to do is to make something else.
Speaker 1:That really hung with me because, there will be so many times when I'll be writing music or I'll be putting stories together, arranging a show, getting stuff prepped for the podcast, doing something artistically. While I'm doing all of this work, I get to the end and it's like, okay, now I don't have to work anymore. Now.
Speaker 2:I'm done.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm finally done with that. I'm going to take a break. I deserve a break because I've worked so hard and months go by or some time go by and I'm like what's wrong? Why am I kind of, oh, I'm not creating, I haven't created something. I stopped creating because I felt like I needed a break from creating and so I kind of switched that in my brain, where I finished writing a couple of songs for my album and I was like I need to keep writing. So I started writing stuff for the musical and then I would write a song that I'm thinking for the musical, but I'm like, actually, this might go better with the album. Then I'm writing poems and I'm like, oh, these are random, I can put these on the podcast. Just me, continuing to create has allowed me to keep that muscle working.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of just collecting ideas from the muse and just slotting them wherever they feel most appropriate.
Speaker 1:And it truly has elevated my happiness. It has completely destroyed any of the naysaying of I need a break. It's like no, I don't. I enjoy this. This isn't something that's a task to me. This isn't something I have to do for a deadline. I'm doing this because I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when it feels like a task, that's when you want to step away for a little bit, exactly.
Speaker 1:But the thing is I forget which book I read so much last year. There's one book in particular where they really spoke about the idea that you can dictate your feelings. If you want to be happy, just be happy. And I know that sounds very simple and ridiculous, like no, if you're sad, you're sad. But it's true. If you sit down five minutes and in your head say I'm happy right now, I'm so happy, and force yourself to smile At the end of that five minutes and in your head say I'm happy right now, I'm so happy, and force yourself to smile At the end of that five minutes, you might actually be smiling, just because you're like I can't believe, I just did that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's why I started every day with like a gratitude practice too. Yes, yes. Even if it's the same things every single day, I'm happy that I have a house or a roof over my head.
Speaker 1:Oh bed, I have food in the refrigerator.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. I got a dog that gives me a lot of happiness. I got a wife that has built a great life for me and for us. That's enough to get me started a lot of days.
Speaker 1:So the reason why I bring all that stuff up just to kind of paint the picture is to turn to you Okay, have you been finding ways to keep that inspiration? Do you think you are struggling with finding inspiration? Or putting pen to paper Like are you working through anything, or has it been dope as well for you?
Speaker 2:Honestly, if you would ask me this 24 hours ago, I'd have a different answer. Yeah, I was texting with a friend yesterday and he was asking me like have I written anything recently? And initially I wanted to be like no, I took a couple of months off, but then I thought about it. I just finished a feature. I just started another feature, finished a short, I finished a pilot, like all of this in the past, like 45 days. So I mean, it's all working like it. May not look like me sitting at my computer writing all the time, but you know, I'll make my way through a draft of of something and I'll send you the draft and while I'm waiting for your notes, I'm working on this other draft of this other thing yeah I'm always hopping around from thing to thing, like you were talking about with your songs, like sometimes I'm like I have to write.
Speaker 2:I have to write something. Okay, what's what's going on in my head right now? Go to your idea notebook or you know idea document and just see if something speaks to you and like, a lot of times, that'll be enough. Even if nothing comes of it, I'll get a couple of pages going and then I'll figure out what had stopped me on this other thing and I'll table that and come back to it eight months later. But I mean, that's a long winded way of saying, like I said just yesterday, I would be like, no, I'm not been feeling inspired, but you know, the data is there to show the like. I'm keeping it moving, keeping it together, yeah, k-i-t. But yeah, yeah. And after I'm done with this draft of something I'm working on right now, we got another story that I'm kind of repurposing for present. Some things have happened that really color the story differently in life. So I'm trying to like repurpose that into something a little bit more true. After that I've got another story lined up, so I've got three features I'm trying to work on this year.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. I will go back, though, because something that was very interesting that happened when you were talking was your first instinct was to be like actually no, I didn't write much to the friend when you obviously had. Why do you feel like you were in that?
Speaker 2:headspace, you know artistry, with somebody who's like absolutely obsessed with their craft yeah, and somebody who, like forgets to eat or bathe and just like sits their computer, sits at their keyboard, and adrian dana, whoever you know is around, is like, don't bother him, he's in the zone right now yeah but for me, I found I get a lot more done and I feel a lot better about what I've done.
Speaker 2:If I just break things down, you know, not try to write a hundred page script in a weekend, but write a hundred page script over the course of four or five weekends or four or five weeks. So you know, all of a sudden it's 20, 25 pages a week. Divide that by you know, seven days or even four days. You know you don't want to write every single day. All of a sudden it's like you know what. Three to six pages, yeah. And if you know what you're doing, I have a whole document. Like I have 49 scenes to do in this script. I'm on number 12 right now. I know what 13 and 14 are going to look like. I have a rough idea of how many pages they're going to be. I know what I want to happen in each of the scenes. So I just sit down and say, okay, what's up next? Okay, I remember that and just click, click, click and I'm done like an hour later with that scene and I just move on to the next one. So it doesn't really feel like I'm doing a lot because I'm knocking it out in a half an hour, an hour. Sometimes I get it done over lunch. That's a lot better for me and my mental health and my overall health than trying to do it all at once.
Speaker 2:In my 40s now I have to look out for my physical health and I got to get to the gym and I'm getting back into running and you have to do all these things just to stay afloat. I don't have the capacity or even the ability to forget about the world. For three days I got to stay on top of stuff and I have to break down my projects into manageable chunks, and the same thing goes with physical stuff. You see people in the gym that are there for two or three hours. They go two, three times a week. And then there's me who I'll be there for 45 minutes to an hour. Sometimes. I'll get my work done. I'll just carry on with my life. I think it's the expectation that we have to really hone in on what it is that we're trying to accomplish and give it our 100% of the time, instead of compartmentalizing it and say, okay, now's the time to work on this, but at six or whatever time, hang it up, move on to the next thing.
Speaker 1:I think that has been really helpful to me as well. I have my planner and I've been writing everything out. So whatever I need to scratch off the planner is priority that gets the first attention. And trying to avoid scrolling on social media. It's helped when I have tasks I'm like, oh, I need to scratch this off the list and, like you said, trying to make it so that you're not overwhelming yourself, where today, as soon as I finished my final interview, I'm going to go eat dinner and hang out with Adrian's parents and have a normal night and then be in bed 10, 30, 11 o'clock, like I normally am, and then wake up at seven and do it all over again tomorrow.
Speaker 1:So staying focused on my mental health, that has really helped me. Breathing, especially when I'm frustrated, just taking the time to extra breath, reminding myself of what the reason is that I'm doing all this stuff. I feel like that's kind of been a common theme with a couple of conversations, because as artists, you got to have that definition. You got to have that elevator pitch, that understanding of exactly why you're doing what you're doing and the reason why you keep going. I feel like being inspired is kind of overrated if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:When I was younger, I wouldn't write a song because I just don't have an idea.
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:But now if you put me down and you're like, okay, dominique, write a song, it's not a matter of I don't have an idea. It's like, okay, let's figure this out, let's just put some words on paper and see how I can create and test myself, because something incredible might come out, something bad might come out, but when you go through the process and you continue to work on that process, inspiration will come. Just because you're sitting down at that point. And when you stand around and you go out and you're in the world and you come home and you're too tired to even think and you're like I'm not inspired, you're the one that's shutting down your ideas. You're not going to be inspired.
Speaker 1:Because you're saying I'm not inspired, you're creating the spell that is literally casting no inspiration in your brain because you're saying I'm not inspired right now. I truly think the older I get, the more I start to read different books, different things that give me different perspectives. It's really you were going to do every day, and in college you had a planner and so you knew everything, or you at least should have kind of tried to know where you're supposed to be and when you're supposed to be. You were supposed to keep it a little more together.
Speaker 2:Nine o'clock in the morning on Tuesdays you're in voice class.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, you know exactly where you're at and I missed that so much. And now I'm starting to gain a little bit of that routine back and I'm creating it myself, which kind of makes me feel more proud, because it's like I am creating this routine and I am actually staying true to it and being disciplined about it. Have a clearer mind through the day. I don't have foggy brain as much as I used to when I was drinking and when I was out late and when I was staying up on Instagram or I was listening to YouTube videos before I go to sleep, while I was trying to go to sleep having headphones on because I couldn't sleep without headphones. It's like take all that stuff away, stop overthinking, just do what you want to do, and if you're not enjoying these things, why keep allowing these things to control you? It's been a really fascinating journey for me, and I'm always curious to ask other artists and performers about their journey, because it's really something that I don't even think we really think about, you know, yeah as artists.
Speaker 2:it's cliche, like it's as natural to me as breathing, like I don't think about breathing, you know. But like, for me, creativity is like going. It is like going to the gym, honestly, like it's something that you do every day because, like, you have to keep that muscle going or else it just atrophies and goes away. It's really hard for me to get back into writing whenever I've taken some time off, even just two days, and I know exactly what you mean. If I'm out and about and an idea comes to me, I might just say you know, that's dumb, not right now. Idea Like, yeah, I'll remember you for later and then I won't remember it.
Speaker 2:Keeping a notebook or a notes app on my phone or something at the ready is always something that, like, it's useful to keep that kind of stuff around. And getting back to something you were saying about, like you know, sitting down and doing the work, that's like. I know people that they have a chair that they just use for writing or for performing. You know, like, like it's not something that's in the living room, it's in the studio, but you don't use it unless you're sitting down to play piano. So when your butt hits that chair, it's like, okay, it's time to go now.
Speaker 1:That's something that I've always done too. I have a pencil that I keep right here that I only use that pencil. I have literally at least 50 pencils in front of me, but I only use the one pencil while I'm writing the music that I'm working on on the computer. Then I have my one pen for my planner. I have my one pen for my journal. It's like I give things purpose. I got that from a couple of things. In Japan, Of course, they hold things higher like personal items. They hold them higher on a different level. They look at them as if they're their own spirit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything has an energy.
Speaker 1:Everything has its own energy and so when you are in these environments where you have something that's special to you, giving it that energy helps. It continue to help you. And another thing I think about I think this came from the Braden Sweetgrass book I read last year.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Where they were talking about how you got to be respectful to the earth. Earth will show you the same respect, and I truly believe that works with inanimate objects. It's so weird to say that out loud, but it's the truth. You can put bad juju on something. You can have something that you have cursed yourself because you have been so negative about it, and every time you see that thing, some reason, something bad happens and you blame it on that thing again. You're like it's because of that, it's because of this thing, this is unlucky. And it's like you're doing that. You're giving the power to this item, this jacket that you wear. You say you always miss opportunities when you put this jacket on and it's like Stop wearing it. Exactly, stop wearing it or try to make it something positive instead of something negative. Don't blame it on that.
Speaker 2:This is one of my good things right here. Yeah, just like a nice. I don't even light this thing like it's a candle for anybody listening. Yeah, when I take a whiff of this thing, I'm like I'm right, let's go.
Speaker 1:I'm like I get that. I get that and I feel like, especially with your senses, like something that you smell, that that gives you a good feeling that that's another way of creating those positive moments that smell is a memory in your brain and when you smell it you're like all right, I'm good a soundtrack and I'll just kind of like have it playing in a loop while I write.
Speaker 2:Do you have anything you do there? Is it like I'm writing this type of song so I'm going to listen to some stuff like it, just to kind of get maybe like somebody's horn charts in your head or something like that. Or is it like you just kind of sit down and let the music flow through you without any sort of inspiration? Or it's like like, since your stuff's all about the sound, you find having a maybe not a soundtrack, but something else with a different sensory sort of experience helps you get to where you need to go I don't have like a playlist or something like that I do have.
Speaker 1:All right, let me take that back. I have playlists dom's mspo playlist that I listen to. That is like it's music that I want to create. That's kind of the idea. But when I sit down and write unless I'm focusing on a certain type of, on certain music like I was doing this one thing last year when I was writing my hundred songs where I would listen to Instagram videos of people creating loops and I would use those loops to create songs so in that sense, I'll listen to it over and over, and over, and, over and over again until something pops and I'm like okay, let's go to it.
Speaker 1:Or there's this app called iReal where it has every chart you can possibly think of. If you want to play a Frank Sinatra song, you want to play a Johnny Mathis song. To play a Frank Sinatra song. You want to play a Johnny Mathis song. You want to play Bill Withers, stevie Wonder, anything. You could find the charts usually on this community in this app and it has the ability to play the charts to you. You could change the keys to whatever keys you want.
Speaker 1:I've let that help me find inspiration before just playing the chords and having these different chord progressions. What does this make me feel like? What is this giving me vibes about, and then I'll write it. But I've never sat down and was like I want to write a samba, let me listen to a couple of samba songs. It was first. It was I was listening to a bunch of samba songs and I was like, oh, let me try to write one of these, and that was kind of the way I approached it, and I feel like now it's a lot different, because I do write more now than I used to. So in some scenarios I'm just in the room about to go to bed and melody pops in my head, I jump out of bed and write down and record what I was thinking, and maybe three weeks after that I'll pull that note up and boom, I got the idea, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like you keep your phone nearby, not so you can scroll Instagram late at night, but so you can pick it up and be like I'm not sure where this goes. But and then you just like sing a little motif.
Speaker 1:Well, the thing is I purposefully put my phone at a distance away from me that I have to get up and get it. So that also helps me. If I have an idea, I'm like, is this worth getting up right now? Is this worth leaving the comfort of my bed to put in there? And if it is, I'll get up, grab it, take it in the bathroom while Adrienne sleeps so she won't hear me singing randomly into this phone, and then I'll get back in bed and go to sleep.
Speaker 2:Does that help more than it hinders Like we're talking about the artist's way thing, the whole like resistance. Do you ever find yourself going like, ah, this is crap. And just like going back to bed? Or do you with me if I have an idea, no matter how dumb it may be, no matter what time it is, I got to get up and just like write it down or speak it into a voice note or something.
Speaker 1:I don't view it negatively, though, if I tell myself it's worth getting up. It's worth getting up, and I might listen to it the next three weeks or the next day or whenever I listen to it and be like, oh, that was a bad idea, and then get rid of it. But it's never negative to do it, because usually, if I did it, it was because I knew that I'll be able to build from that, and it's very weird how that happens, like you kind of just have this feeling of, actually, this is pretty good. I need to write this, or I need to at least hum this melody, so that when I hear it later, future Dom will be like, oh damn, that was good, that was a good idea. Let's do this, though, and switch it up.
Speaker 1:I feel like that is something that I really do enjoy, and when I was younger, I forget where this reference came from.
Speaker 1:It might have been how I Met your Mother. It was how I Met your Mother, I think, where he kept a notebook next to his bed, and if he had ideas in the middle of the night, he wrote them down and looked at the notebook the next day to try to figure out what the hell he was trying to do and I used to feel that was the purpose to keep my phone close to me. But, honestly, if I get off of this pod and I say, okay, let's start writing a song, I'm going to start writing a song then and later on tonight I'll be able to sleep comfortably, knowing that I was creative and wrote something earlier and I'm not jonesing to have to write again. You know, usually because it's always an accomplishment when I get through a full project or I come up with a full concept and an idea and I put it down and I add the chords together and I record the demo. Like, if I do anything like that musically or creatively, I tend to pat myself on the back and be okay with that.
Speaker 2:Is there a way that it normally comes to you? Does a tune come to you, does a lyric come to you, or is it just going to vary depending on what you're working on?
Speaker 1:I don't even know how to describe the way songs come together. Here's a great example, all right. Know how to describe the way songs come together? Here's a great example, all right. I loved this tune called Cherokee by Bucky Pizzarelli and it's one of these incredible jazz standards and they do it more as a guitar kind of Latin guitar kind of feel to it.
Speaker 1:And I remember hearing that song years ago, thinking I want to try to put lyrics to this. It'd be really cool to try to find a way, put lyrics to it. So I put it in my notes right to this song at some point. And then month later I look at that and I'm like Cherokee, okay, and I start thinking of Native American things. Maybe I can make this about the earth, maybe I can make this about the way that we view everything. And like, cause Braden Sweetgrass was fresh in my mind. So I'm like maybe kind of use that as the inspiration to create something on it. But then one day I finished up stuff down here in the basement. I was like, okay, let's, let's try to write something. And I went back to that note again and it was like Cherokee. And I'm like how does Cherokee, how's that apply to me and I was like, well, I used to live right off Cherokee Street and boom, that was the line that inspired the song that I wrote. That was maybe three, four months after I initially had the idea of I should do something with this song and I had gone from trying to make it about Native American history and struggles and things that would be incredible about the earth and it had this whole journey. But then it just came to a point where I was like, oh, I used to live off Cherokee Street that's an incredible way to use that word and it'd be relevant to me and I can truly create something that felt fresh, new and different. And that's one way. Another way you know the musical I'm writing.
Speaker 1:I read the book the Eight Rules of Love. I had started writing this musical years ago in my head and then put it in on notes and I had the premise and the idea, idea and I just wanted it to be a love story. But I didn't start to put scenes together and actually write songs for it until I read that book. Because I read the book and I was like what if the musical is based off of this, the eight rules of love you follow in these couples and they're following the eight rules of love and that's why they stay together, because they actually go through the process, work together and truly engage with each other on their issues and talk through things and they understand that it isn't just their partner's job to be better, they have to be better.
Speaker 1:It was like wow, and then, out of nowhere, that was enough to inspire four songs, five scenes, and I added some music from my old songs in there and I'm like I'm still moving off of that inspiration to finish that musical right now. So I say it's hard to say when, because honestly, every song, every poem, every idea has come to me different. It's never the same routine. It's always me attaching to an idea randomly. It's always random, I feel like.
Speaker 2:The story I'm working on right now is a very old story. I've written several versions of it. It's called the Reservist. I don't know if that sounds familiar to you, but it was right after my brother died back in 2006. So we're talking coming on 19 years now.
Speaker 2:I had this idea of a guy that was himself in the military and he found out that he was going to get deployed and then one of his best friends died in the war and he was like struggling with the whole, like well, what if it's me too?
Speaker 2:Like I don't want to go off to die. It's scary, it's like the guy facing mortality. I could never really hook into how to make that into a story. And then I just started getting on to a Google document and just writing out personal stories from back when I was a kid, from after my brother died and everything like that, and I realized that there was a very small little kernel that could grow into something and it was that my brother used to have this like this car heart jacket and I have one that's similar. It kind of grew off of that.
Speaker 2:But like then the story that I'm writing now, this this guy like snaked his brother's jacket after his brother went off to the army and he just kind of made it his own, put patches on it and things like that. Um, yeah, and then over the course of the story he stops seeing it as something that belongs to him, but something that used to belong to his brother yeah and he slowly but surely starts removing the patches off of it and at the end, his brother's girlfriend wants the jacket and he hands it over.
Speaker 2:to the end, his brother's girlfriend wants the jacket and he hands it over to her. So the jacket becomes a metaphor for his own growth. And even though that has almost little to nothing to do with the actual story, I'm like okay, that's it, I know how to tell this now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's see. In that scenario and you asked me the question, do you feel like there is a specific way how stories come to you too, or is it just random like that? Because I honestly think well, not think there was a book I read and one of the lines within there they spoke about was you have to let the unknown happen when it comes to being an artist, meaning that moment when you're writing something, you're like I don't know where that came from, I don't know how that happened. You have to continue to write and continue to create so that that moment happens more, because that moment is something that helps artists create, and if you don't do it enough, you won't have those moments. Yeah, so you got to keep doing it so that you can continue to surprise yourself.
Speaker 1:I personally think that being an artist is as random as it gets. It comes to you through the world in different avenues and it's never really the same way. So, before we get off this because this is still just incredibly fascinating to me, if you were to say, dominique, what's your routine of writing, it really starts with my planner. I write in a journal every morning One of the journals that you gave me, actually and I use the Boscott pencil with it because I love I used to write my journals with pens. But but having a pencil has really taken me back and I don't know where I think it was, maybe as a kid. You know you use pencils because you're in elementary school and then you became a middle schooler and you have pens now and you're cooler and you're an adult now of gravitated away from why I gravitated away from using pencils. But I'm kind of reverting back to like, oh, this is nice to be able to just erase and to the feeling of sharpening the pencil. Everything really kind of helps with writing in the journal and writing my music and everything it makes sense to use a pencil. I don't know why pens were such a thing in my head, but I I'm saying all of this because the routine for writing for me.
Speaker 1:There is a lot of things that I have in place already. Another, how much a mother reference where future Dom will handle that. That's a problem for future Dom kind of thing and I never really I never tried to set up future Dom negatively. I know how forgetful I can be. I know how clumsy I can be. I know things that I do. I know the way that I think.
Speaker 1:So usually my goal is to place things around me in areas that, if I forget exactly where it is, future Dom will be able to be like, well, wait a minute. I think this way I would have put it right here and I'll go look in that area and be like, thank you, past Dom, because he's always considering what would I do in the future. Where would I go? So, with pencils, with my music journal is right here. You know what I'm saying. I don't have to go searching for it. I don't know how people live, where they just throw shit around and then they just come back and they're like oh, I know. No, I need it in a specific place. I need it to have this next to it. I have my permanent markers right there.
Speaker 2:This next to it. I have my permanent markers right there. Everything is in a place so that when I come down here and I want to be comfortable writing, I'm already comfortable because everything is in position for me to be comfortable. Do you have some type of journaling and that just kind of like primes the pump, yeah, as it were, and then I look at what I'm going to work on that day and I spend the day thinking about how that's going to play out.
Speaker 2:Like the next scene I'm writing and the story I'm writing right now it takes place out in the middle of an open field. A bunch of guys are going mud. Yeah, that's not something that like I did too many times when I was a kid but I am familiar with like all the stuff that happens there. It's not just like everybody's standing around watching like somebody get their truck caught in some mud, like there's you know group over here doing the stuff. So like I'll spend three or four hours trying to figure out like okay, what, what is thing a that's happening, what is is thing B, what is thing C, what is thing D?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And how do they connect toward the end. And then, once I have all those things in place, I hit it. But going back further than that, I'll just kind of start with an idea and then break it out slowly but surely into smaller, smaller pieces. What's this idea I'm working on, okay, where does it begin, where does it end? Where are the acts? Where are the beats? How do we connect the beats to one another? What is the conflict in each place that gets us from A to B? Who are the characters? You just kind of start filling a bucket with more and more data and then you just go in, ladle out some, and just go in, ladle out some and just go but it's not all that different from from what you were saying like.
Speaker 2:It seems to me like we're both kind of trying to and I feel like not too many people know what this is like anymore, but back when we had like antennas on our tvs yeah, get the frequency right yeah, you got to get the frequency right.
Speaker 2:You had to take the rabbit ears to a certain part of the room and you had to crunch the tinfoil onto a specific part and hold it just so In order for the frequency to come in. Yeah, but you had to do all these things and you had to do them in this order. It would work. That's the way it works with me. It sounds like yours is just like you turn on the TV set, see what it looks like and then just kind of like maybe start playing with things around the room until something comes in.
Speaker 1:For sure. I feel like I miss a lot of older routines. I miss a lot of things that had more process to create. We live in a world now where for this podcast, if I want to put together a description, I could either write it out the way I want to write it out or I can have an AI machine just do it for me. And it's like you take away so many elements that in some ways you looked forward to back in the day.
Speaker 1:You looked forward to putting together the cover art for this album. You looked forward to contacting people about your project and saying hey, what do you think? I want you to check it out before anyone else. You look forward to all that stuff. But now there's so many avenues where, if you want to check if your poem has the proper English in it, you could just put it on chat, gpt or whatever and have them edit it and they'll make it so that it sounds a certain way. You can tell them to make it sound like it's in the New York Times. You can tell them anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, copy paste. Does this make sense?
Speaker 1:And I feel like looking back and taking back those old traditions. You know, this past week great example of that. I've been trying to figure out different ways to eat a little cleaner and one thing that I grew up with was popcorn, but not like movie popcorn, not like you put it in the microwave and it's pop. I had that as a kid but when I lived with my great grandparents, my grandma would pop popcorn on the stove and she had the whole process that she would go through and it really is one of the more healthy snacks. And if you put the right stuff on it not too much salt, use olive oil instead of butter, stuff like that it could be a more healthy snack. I sat down and thought about I need to go buy this, buy some chips, buy this and I'm like no, no, let me. I have popcorn seeds at the house.
Speaker 1:I don't make it as often as I used to because I don't want to go through all of that process, but it's like maybe I need to go through that process because if I do that I can have so much popcorn in so little time and have so much more of something that's more healthy, something that has a purpose. And if I'm like I need some munchies, I can just grab that and that's good. And I think I'm like okay, and so I've been making popcorn all week and it's been amazing and it's. It's something that luckily I was raised by my great grandparents because that was something I experienced when I was with them. But even then, like if I were to just go buy popcorn and put it in the microwave, that's still a routine that I could go through the process and it'll make me happy. But doing it the older way, just for me, it works and I don't feel like I need to change that, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it kind of connects to that breeding sweetgrass book, right, Like, yes, just the thought of popcorn like imbuesues you, imbibes you with the story of your grandma, and so it's like the past is being like funneled into these kernels and it means more to you when you make it yourself. Yeah, instead of just going out and getting the bag, putting it in the microwave for three minutes and just munching on it.
Speaker 1:The memory of my grandma. You know, my grandma taught me how to do this. So I'm going through this process that someone that I really love and miss helped me do, and I could do it so easily just getting it and putting it in the microwave. I could do that, but also I do this and it just takes me back. It helps me clear my mind.
Speaker 2:It shows me that it's not that big a deal to do extra steps, especially if you're going to have the best outcome it ties to creativity, like chat gbt could write you a song and you can perform it, but it's not going to mean as much to you as if you just if you write the thing yourself and you're using memories, stories, even things kind of like cherokee street, you know yeah once that all ties together and it becomes a thing like all of a sudden, it's that much more important.
Speaker 2:You have to write it One, two, three, four.
Speaker 3:Time stands still when you're around, Life is full of smiles. I've found Red lip stains and wonderful sounds. When more could I ask for now? Skies are blue and flowers just bloom, Crazy little characters in brand new costumes. Mississippi mud meets Julio's doom. Oh and more. Should I have to assume? Absolutely nothing. You're all that I need. I repeat there is nothing I change, baby.
Speaker 1:This is my tune. Nothing that I wrote for my second album, new Art. I played the ukulele a lot when I lived in Chicago to inspire me to write more music, and this is one of those tunes that came from messing around with the ukulele, so I wanted to put it on the album to represent me. You can listen to all my music on all streaming platforms and, if you want to check me out for more information, go to DonMemoircom where you can get anything and everything.
Speaker 1:Don Memore, you know what I love. I love Legos and that is such a random thing, I know, but this Christmas was the first time I put Lego sets on my Christmas list. Since I was a child I haven't had a Lego in any of my homes that I've ever had, by myself meaning from the first apartment in college to now, I never had a Lego in any of those houses and that's something that I just kind of identify with being a kid and I'm going to avoid that. But I love puzzles, I love using my hands, I love brain teases, I love following rules, I love all that kind of stuff, stuff.
Speaker 1:So I was thinking about, I was like I kind of I would love to like put together the star cruiser from the mandalorian, I would love to put together the infinity gauntlet from, you know, marvel like I can do that with legos. I would love. I would love to just do it to see. And I got two sets this year and I put them both together literally the day after I got home from Christmas in St Louis, and so that right now is kind of the highlight of what I've been enjoying, one of the highlights I've been enjoying.
Speaker 2:So I pose the question to you honestly, I love silence, but a specific type of silence and um, and it's a, it's a thing that we've experienced a little bit here in the past couple days. Here in Georgia, snow silence, yeah, yeah, that, yeah yeah, nobody. It seems like they're in too terrible of a mood. Like you, can you just, I don't know. It feels like everything is just like humming at the correct wavelength.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's uh, that's just something that I could. I could deal with a lot more and I know that's a little bit of a downer, but man, that is that's the last time. A couple of days ago, when I stepped outside at five o'clock in the morning, it was just no cars on the road, no trains coming, no planes in the air that I could see or hear. It was just silence.
Speaker 1:We've made it to the end of the episode. I always appreciate talking to you and having you on here. I talk to you every day, almost with the jam text, but it's still great to see your face and to catch up. You know how we do this. At the end of the episode. We've spoken about everything we want to speak about. All I have to ask now is how do you feel?
Speaker 2:These days I feel a lot better. Last time we were talking, we were talking a lot about grief and sadness and sorrow and pain and things like that.
Speaker 2:But I have a lot of optimism for this year. I'm feeling like I have a good handle on how I'm gonna tackle the next 11 and a half months. Now, okay, and I love, I love that, uh, that you're part of it every single day. Yeah, man, by the way, anybody that that's listening to this, find one of your closest friends and send them songs you like every single day. Yeah, you have no idea how much that helps out people. So send the stuff you like to the people that you like. Cheers to you, man. Cheers.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you for listening to the black man talking emotions podcast. The opening quote. Credit goes to Aldis Huxley and shout out to Shank for being on the pod. Chris keeps to himself, so he does not have social media. I appreciate him for letting us into his world. Please subscribe to the podcast and share the podcast. Give us a good rating five stars, please and thank you. You can support the show by clicking the link at the bottom of the episode description. If you liked this episode, you should check out our previous episode titled Grief. It's a great listen. Check it out. Follow me at D-O-M underscore L-A-M-O-U-R on Instagram or at DomLamorecom. I'm Dom Lamore. Much love.
