As the Founder of CCIQ Press I relish the concept of finding content that can light a heart on fire with endless amounts of inspiration. Bright Blue Gorilla’s origin story is riddled with tenacity, an insane amount of sensitivity, and human understanding. The indie industry is consumed with PHENOMENALLY talented and creative individuals like BBG’s founders Robyn Rosenkrantz & Michael Glover. The article below written by this incredibly whimsical duo is one that is filled with such valid advice for future Artists. I agree with everything they both had to say; especially with regards to the need outweighing the want; truly such a valid lesson to learn — one that comes with a pure and resilient heart.
Thank you so much Robyn & Michael for furnishing me with such an awesome piece, pictures, & videos. I am hunkering down to write my MASSIVE review and am truly excited to note the wonderful evolution of BBG!
Rania M M Watts, EIC CCIQ Press
BRIGHT BLUE GORILLA: 31 YEARS OF MUSIC & MOVIES IN A WORLD OF THEIR OWN *Terrific tips for living your dreams now. By Robyn Rosenkrantz & Michael Glover
It’s May 19, 2021, and my husband, Michael Glover, and I are celebrating a very special Bright Blue Gorilla Anniversary. It was 31 years ago today that we left Los Angeles for Europe on a $199 one-way ticket, stand by on Martin Air. With guitars, backpacks and cassette tapes we landed in Amsterdam where we knew only 1 person. Now we have thousands of friends around the world, who have made our Bright Blue Gorilla Movies & Music miracles possible! They fed us bananas, gave us nests to sleep in, came to our concerts & movie screenings and best of all shared their sweet lives and friendship with us.
Last October we launched our 7th indie feature film, the Mystical-Musical-Kung-Fu-Spy-Comedy: “36 Husbands”. We traveled the world to make this film and put together a creative team of over 300 artists. Releasing a new feature is always an exciting time and we’re hoping our comedy helps to lift the spirits around the globe! Normally, we’re touring the world, doing concerts, movie screenings & creative workshops, but now we’re back in Los Angeles due to the pandemic. Since this worldwide slowdown is a great time for personal reflection and self-improvement, we wanted to share a few tips & methods for manifesting your dreams:
After making 7 features, and touring the world for 31 years with our movies and music, we’ve learned a few tricks we’d like to share. Success Principles we discovered along the way. But first… the prologue:
BACKSTORY: IT’S 1989 AND BRIGHT BLUE GORILLA IS BORN
Los Angeles has always been a place where people come from all over the world to chase their dreams – and hopefully catch them. The movie industry, the TV & music business, the California lifestyle, send a message to the world: come to Hollywood and “make it big”. I was born in L.A. so, for me, it was just “home”. I knew the city, the people, the methods, and I made early progress with my music career traveling the usual path: Industry Showcases, making fans, promoting, promoting, promoting the shows. But at a certain point it dawned on me: I was on a Rat Wheel. Spinning and squeaking and using plenty of energy to “get discovered”, but getting nowhere. I realized I had to leave my hometown, to take a journey where I could reinvent myself and realize my dreams.
It was just after this realization (1989) that I met Michael Glover in Hollywood. We were both performing (another Industry Showcase) downstairs at the Coconut Teaser on the Sunset strip. They called their basement bar “The 8121 Club” and put the Singer/Songwriters down there. (Upstairs it was heavy metal.) Michael and I didn’t actually meet that night, we just saw each other perform. He caught my last song and I caught his first. I had to leave early so I asked a friend to give him my phone number. It took him two weeks to get up the nerve to call me. We got together, wrote a love song, and fell in love. A few months later, we came up with a crazy plan….
We had gotten an apartment together, a tiny place in Venice Beach (our bed took up the entire room, plus a minuscule bathroom and a hotplate kitchen area). One morning at breakfast I said, “Why don’t we quit our jobs, sell everything we have, and buy one-way tickets to Europe?” Michael took a bite of his shredded wheat, thought for a second, and said, “Great idea. Let’s do it.” I was shocked by the quick answer and tried to back-peddle: “Well, I mean, we should THINK about doing it… It’s just an idea.” “No,” he said. “Let’s do it. It’s a perfect plan.”
My parents didn’t think it was a perfect plan. “Why do you want to go bumming around Europe? You’ve got money in the bank and a good job. You’re throwing your life away.” NOTE TO READER: I had $600 in the bank and I worked as a receptionist at a job I hated.
A few months later Michael and I formed our musical duo and called it Bright Blue Gorilla. We sold everything we had (except our guitars) at a garage sale and raised the exact amount ($398 dollars) for 2 one-way tickets to Amsterdam. Our dream was to travel, play music and create our own career. We knew one guy from Holland so decided to start there. I didn’t have his phone number but I had his address so we wrote him a letter telling him about our plans. We never heard back from him, so we guessed we were on our own.
We landed in Amsterdam and, while everybody was getting off the plane, Michael had a major panic attack. He couldn’t get up, couldn’t let go of the armrests. He kept saying, “I don’t think I can do this,” over and over. (Fortunately for both of us, this was his first and last panic attack.) The stewardesses came over to help. “He’s never been to Europe before,” I told them. They exchanged a look and, with a tone of voice normally reserved for psychiatric patients, they calmed him down and convinced him to loosen his grip on the seat. We made it out of the plane and into the baggage area. In those days at Schiphol Airport, security was lax and people were allowed to wait outside the baggage area. There was a big crowd waiting to greet the arrivals. Michael turned to me and said, “I think I saw Baruch.” (That was the friend we wrote the letter to.) We looked again and didn’t see him, so we started walking through the crowd. A hand grabbed my shoulder. It was Baruch. He’d gotten our letter and made arrangements for us to stay at his parent’s house – a beautiful mansion on the canal, built in the 1700’s. His parents were out of town and, Willem, a friend of the family, was house-sitting. (Baruch warned us: “He’s a scientist and is a little weird”.) We’d have to share the house with him and could only stay for one night.
Well, we hit if off with Willem-The-Scientist like we were long-lost friends. We had so much in common and talked and talked. We played him some songs, and he bought our cassette tapes. (Our first sale 8 hours after landing!) He was a great cook and made us dinner. It was a wonderful evening. In the morning, Willem had a proposal: “Since I’m house-sitting here for the next 3 weeks, my apartment is empty. Would you like to stay there?” That offer of exactly what we needed, when we needed it, was the beginning of a trend that continues to this day. We’ve discovered that it’s a Universal Principle – when there’s genuine need (not just a desire or a “want” but a need) the Universe provides. Especially if we help things along with some key actions.
KEY ACTIONS FOR CREATING CLARITY, FLOW, AND SUPPLY
1. (The most important and the hardest part.) Figure out what you want. What is the vision you want to create? What is the project or condition you want to manifest? What exactly is your goal? At this point, don’t think about what is “realistic” or what is “likely”, just be honest with yourself: What do you want, and why do you want it? Why is it important that you manifest this? Private journalling, deeply focused thinking, and meditation will help you get the answer.
2. Write it down. Write down the idea. Elaborate on the vision. Make it as detailed and clear as possible. (Again, don’t think in terms of “likely” or “possible”, just write down what you want, even if it’s a big leap from where you currently are.) As you move along with your action plan, you’ll see new ways and avenues for finding what you need. Just like a journey, as soon as you get over one hill, you see a whole new landscape, and other ways to go. This writing should serve as a blueprint for your project. You’ll adjust it as necessary once you’re underway.
3. Ask for help. This is one of the most important qualities that separate those who accomplish from those who don’t. (The people who ask for help are the achievers.) Be clear on what you’re asking for. The ability to ask people to help you is critical to success. So, if you have some issue with this, like feeling that you’re not worthy, or feeling like you should be able to do it all by yourself, or asking for help is “weak” – go back to journaling for awhile, work that out and discard that self-sabotaging-concept. And take a look at the examples of people like Gandhi, Lincoln, Madame Curie, and Oprah Winfrey, or any exceptional person. None of them reached their position without the help of others. They all were able to explain their vision to others and to enlist their help. All of them.
4. Be of service to others. Another critical element to long-term success. You know the saying, “God helps those who help themselves,” right? Well, here’s another saying – the sentence is a little awkward, but true: “People love to help people who help people.” If you’re seen as a self-centered, selfish person, you’ll still get help: ONCE. (In that case they’ll probably want to help you just so you’ll go away!) But, if you’re seen as a decent person, who has other people’s welfare at heart – including the welfare of the person you’re asking for help – then the ripples of that help will spread and increase. We all want to see good people get ahead, and almost everybody will lend a hand if it’s to help a decent person that cares about others.
5. Expect road-blocks, obstructions, and washed-out bridges. Your project is a journey. Nothing more, nothing less. Imagine for a moment that you see a point in the distance, some mountain top and you’ve heard it’s fabulous up there. It’s far away and there’s a lot of unknown territory between here and there. But you know you want to get there. So… you start walking… walking… now, imagine that you come upon a cliff or a canyon or a deep river. Are you going to turn back and give up or are you going to figure out a way around, over, or through the obstacle? Bringing a project to life is exactly the same. There’s always an obstacle and there’s always a path over, under, around, or through it. (Or sometimes, in dealing with people, you can convince the “obstacle” not only to move aside, but to help you with your journey.)
6. Analyze your plans & progress now and then and be sure you’re still on track. Once you get busy, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of seeing a project take off. Or overwhelmed with the hard work of getting a project rolling in the first place. Be sure to take some breaths now and then, to review what you’re doing (again: journaling, deep thought, and meditation are good aids) and be sure you’re on the right track. Be sure you haven’t veered off into some undesired byway. Be honest with yourself and refer back to your original intentions (the blueprint you wrote down). If you need adjustment and course-correction, don’t get discouraged or hard on yourself. Just grab the steering wheel and adjust.
7. Don’t give up. If you’re sure about what you’re going for (hence the importance of #1 on this list) and you’re more or less on the right track, don’t quit. Don’t give up no matter how hard it is or how long it takes. (That should be the attitude.) If you have that level of commitment and drive, doors will open. Or you’ll suddenly see a window you can climb in… There will be a way to move forward. It’s inevitable, if you’re determined enough.
Those are some of the principles that helped us make our new film, “36 Husbands”, and all the other feature films & music we’ve made over the last three decades. We hope that, by putting your own blueprint down on paper and exploring these tools, that we’ve given you a road map to manifesting your dreams. And of course, We hope you’ll check out our new comedy, “36 Husbands” and help us spread the word!
Connect with Robyn and Michael of Bright Blue Gorilla Movies & Music at www.brightbluegorilla.com
About the authors: Robyn Rosenkrantz is a film & music producer and touring musician. Michael Glover is a director, screenwriter, editor, and musician. Together, they make up the music-duo and production company Bright Blue Gorilla. When they’re not on tour with their movies & music they split their time between Los Angeles, Berlin, and India, or where ever their next project takes the
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