Freestyle Drawing

i never liked the talent show growing up. to me, they were a bit biased and may as well be called "the showcase of people who can dance, sing, or play music." because, as someone who's main talents involved drawing and running very fast, i felt particularly left out. i wasn't talentless, yet there was no space for the kid who would start his act on the far left hand side of the stage, carrying a microphone.

"i'm going to run to the right side of the stage in under ten seconds."

nobody wanted that. they'd prefer off-key songs sooner than any of my nonsense. and so i sat in the audience of every talent show.

and then, as i grew up and entered the partying scene, i found myself left out again. the guy with the guitar would come through and it was over. no chance for conversation with a stranger without looking rude. it was time to sit quietly and listen to an acoustic guitar.

there are times we all love to hear music-- especially at a party and especially when it's live-- but i couldn't help but feel like this was merely a repeat of the talent shows. except this time drunken. and being the one person in my group of friends who did not play some form of musical instrument certainly didn't make me any more comfortable. maybe i was just jealous-- there's a good chance of it-- but we did all go to parties to meet new people and being musically uniformed was a brilliant handicap of mine.

in the world of acting which existed shortly after my partying stage, i was always asked if i could sing, dance, or play music and i always lost points by replying with an honest "no." that extended into my real-life, in which i was berated for having long hair that was never properly used to head bang at heavy metal shows.

but just a few days ago, i found an accidental balance.

we all got high-- and as someone who smokes no more than once a month, i got really high-- and had nothing to do but toy around with my new digital drawing tablet. the wacom. for me, there are three things i can do very well while high:

1. draw.
2. hacky sack.
3. sleep in uncomfortable positions.

i generally hate drawing in front of people-- i'm not sure why-- but i was high enough to do it anyway and i discovered it to be something more entertaining than i'd ever imagined. we would turn on cat stevens, or tom waits, and i would try to draw an image of what they were singing as the lyrics swung by. freestyle drawing.

sometimes people would shout out impossible things, or strange suggestions like "a wary turtle" and i would do my best. always drawn in under ninety seconds, just to keep things epic and exciting.

a lot of people were too nervous to try their hand on the tablet-- but fair is fair: i was always too nervous to try and wing the guitar-- while some others joined in for a drawing battle. it was great to see people participating in a community drawing. you can jam with one another, but it's so much rarer to sit down and draw together.

for once, i felt like there was a place for the guy who could run very fast and draw pretty well.

and i didn't even have to run.