ONCE UPON A TIME, I LED A VERY MAD, MAD, MAD LIFE.
FOR MANY YEARS, I WAS AN AD AGENCY CREATIVE.

So. You will find a whole lot of information about my life in the literary world. But, the truth is that, of my many lives, I began my career as an art director in advertising ad agencies. I was living la vida Mad Men—and my best mentor was the one-and-only Howie Cohen. He is an advertising Hall of Famer. And, he is the one who penned the famous Alka Seltzer line, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!” (Some of you will be too young to get the reference, but we can still be friends.)

I started out my career at Foote, Cone, Belding/Leber Katz parnters in NYC. I had a ton of fun. I made a bunch of friends. But, as a very green creative, the reality was that the television commercials were going to the creative directors. I was wanting nothing more than to shoot commercials. That seemed like the most fun—and the most glamoropuss!

To that end, when I heard that LA was the place to be if you wanted to shoot lots of spots, I made the leap. And it was the best high-wire-without-a-net thing I have ever done…

So, I am archiving that very important part of my life here. How does one distill decades of experience that I’d determined would be my lifelong career as an artsy junior high schooler? Well, here’s my best attempt!