girls make trouble

Two days ago I started a list of book ideas in the new blank book I did up last week:

One of the ideas I’ve been contemplating for about three years. Basically it was to create a cookbook geared toward music lovers. Cutesy recipe names, fun facts in guitar shaped boxes, recipes/meal times coordinated to track lists. Can’t miss, right? And then I read about this in the new issue of Readymade, which I only got around to opening today:

Now, what’s the lesson of this? Well for me it means that great ideas, even though some truly do have that evergreen, always smart, pretty much a guaranteed safe bet quality, do indeed have expiration dates. Take it from me, I’ve had several ideas for clothing designs, recipes, books, you name it, only to see it everywhere in like a year’s time. If you have an idea you think has some potential, try it out as soon as you can. Even if you just make a little headway (a few pages of a manuscript, a sketch of a prototype), you’ll get a feel for whether the idea has legs or not and you’ll have a basic sense of what resources you’ll need if you decide to continue. Hell, if I’d just gotten off my ass and stopped thinking, “Oh, that idea’ll keep,” I’d be a cookbook millionaire by now! Well, maybe not that great, but you get the idea.

This might sound terrible, but recently I’ve been fantasizing about just taking a few months off. Not just taking a vacation mind you, but actually checking out of my life for, say, three or four months. For all you reality show fans, it’s the same feeling you often get near the beginning of a season–there are so many contestants and so many possible winners that it’s hard to sift through the pile, so you start to think, “Well, maybe I’ll just take a little break and come back when they’ve narrowed down the field.” I swear, sometimes you see a stretch of time in front of you and all you can visualize is a wasteland.

I’m sure I’m not the first (or millionth) person who’s longed for human hibernation, so I really think there’s a missed business opportunity here. Cryogenics people, I’m looking squarely at you to provide some kind of pioneering solution. Unconscious vacations? Cryo rental facilities? Freezer spas? The possibilities are endless.