I didn’t plan to do this interview. I didn’t know who Jeff Pulver was. I met his eccentric friend Geo Geller at a Webgrrrls party I sneaked into to meet my camera person Adrienne. I don’t know what Geo was doing there but he and Adrienne were chatting and drinking it up and became pretty insistent that I  interview Jeff.  They KNEW, even if I didn’t, that Jeff was the real deal, and I needed to have a conversation with him.

Geo took me out for some split pea soup after the party, at some point in the meandering of dialog he handed me his cell phone, mid call:

"Hi this is Melissa"

"Hi Melissa this is Jeff Pulver"

SURPRISE – an interview is born.

Adrienne and I met Geo at Grand Central Station two days later.  We didn’t know exactly what we were doing, or exactly where Geo was taking us. In fact, when we got to our train stop, Geo says, " I don’t know where he’s meeting us, or when, we can just wait in the Dunkin Donuts."  

It crossed my mind that Geo may have been plotting to enslave us into frying vats of donut holes for the rest of our natural born lives. What the hell were we doing in the dark standing in front of Dunkin Donuts? I was starting to rethink this whole "go with your gut" thing, starting to wonder if this "uncomfortable" intuitive moment was really just plain ole’ uncomfortable. How could I even think that I could make a movie with just an idea but no grand plan? I was starting to remember those public service announcements that played during Saturday morning cartoons, the ones about not going anywhere with a stranger.  I’ll spare you ALL the thoughts racing through my head in the small moments we waited because lo and behold Jeff Pulver pulled up in his SUV.  Luck 1 – Donut hole frying enslavement 0.

Sometimes, you just get lucky, and that’s OK.

To find out more regarding the fine line between abduction and intuition, subscribe to life in perpetual beta or follow Melissa on twitter.  If you want to contribute to the cause, join the tweet team for $30, email me about how you’d like to help, or scroll to the bottom of the page and support the film monetarily with whatever amount you’d like.

Disclaimer: Melissa is getting really good at editing, however you should not be fooled into thinking that she has past the intermediate level of the editing experience just yet. Please make allowances. Shout out to Adrienne Brawley for shooting this interview, and to Lucy, my canine twin.

Liz Danzico. A month before we interviewed we sat drinking Clover coffee on a bench outside. The bench had been offered to us by a familiar looking famous guy who wasn’t quite famous enough for either or us to actually name – but we knew, and we were grateful that we had been afforded the moment to thank the mysteriously nameless celebrity. 

That knowing, that moment, that epiphonous magical flash when an idea becomes obvious, even if you can’t articulate it quite yet… what is that? What does that feel like?

For Liz Danzico, it feels just a tiny smidge uncomfortable. What? No still small voice? No tingles of sensational electricity? No instantanious calm?

"When I put myself in a situation where I’m actually uncomfortable, it forces me to look at myself a certain way, it reveals things and teaches me where the next path is. That kind of shows me a puzzle piece, and shows me how the pieces fit together for the next thing."

"When I’m looking for or presented with a new opportunity, and that opportunity seems like it’s going to be uncomfortable… I know that it’s going to be the right thing for me because that sense of feeling uncomfortable in any kind of way, it always reveals something new about myself and teaches me something new about myself that I know will lead to a really rewarding experience."

 It’s not a huge leap, it’s not a frightening all or nothing moment. It’s a tiny risk, a pin prick, a new item ordered from the menu. It’s teaching a language you know in a country you don’t, or picking up a camera and interviewing strangers, or asking an actor if the seat next to him is taken. It’s this tiny moment of preference for growth and newness that perhaps we have been socialized to ignore.

"What’s authentic is what’s inside of you, and what’s creative is what you can achieve based on your insticts… and if you can follow your instincts you can follow a creative path…You need to establish a pattern of how to strip away the excessive things, because so many things get in the way."

So then the question is: How do we strip away the excess, and how do we know what our authentic intuition is?

If you also want to find the link between authenticity and creativity, subscribe to life in perpetual beta or follow Melissa on twitter.  If you want to contribute to the cause, join the tweet team for $30, email me about how you’d like to help, or scroll to the bottom of the page and support the film monetarily with whatever amount you’d like.