This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog

Friday January 13, 2006

Do you write poems? I think at least 85% of the poulation in this country writes poetry. OK, maybe that number is slightly arbitrary (how can something be slightly arbitrary?), but you get the point. A lot of people write poetry. I bet you do. Are you a poet? That’s a different question.

Our current era is like a bootleg rennaisance – everyone is doing everything….kind of. We’re living in an age of dabblers. These days terms like “starving artist” are starting to make less and less sense because that “starving artist” is more than likely an accountant (or something slightly less boring) who writes poetry in MS Word, does photography with his digital camera, records music with Garage Band, makes movies with iMovie, etc. Technology makes many different pursuits extremely accesible to us and it also helps us to get the leisure time to take them up. In response, we pack in as many disciplines as we possibly can. But, if everybody is making movies, what does it mean to be a producer or director? What does it mean to be a poet if every Tom, Dick, and Harry AND their mommas are writing poetry?

Look back at artists throughout the ages and you’ll find the answer. At home I have copies of the complete works of Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe. These books are pretty hefty volumes with small print and thin pages. These guys put in much time and effort until they reached a point where there was no questioning it – they were writers, not just people who wrote. Doing something on the side does not make you a specialist. Being a writer requires the same things as being a doctor- hard work, dedication, and focus. Talent isn’t enough. You could be a brilliant poem writer, but if you only have two poems, you are hardly a poet. If you’re fine with dabbling, then that’s not a problem, but if you consider yourself an artist and you’re not putting enough work in your art to break a sweat every day, its time to re-evaluate. Maybe you’re not following the right calling, or maybe its time to buckle down and get to work. Either way, it can only help to know where you stand. Are you an artist or are you just someone who does art?

Agree, disagree, have more to add? I have friends now so I can ask for feedback! (Thanks Audacity)

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Today’s rant actually came from a decision I had to make about myself and various pursuits a few years ago. Part of what made me start thinking about the poet vs. one who write poems thing was a completely tastless joke I heard once. It went something like this:

Two men were sitting in a bar having way too many drinks. One, clearly the more inebriated of the two, decided to share one of his gripes with the other.
“About a mile down the road is my farm. I built the house and barn from scratch. Still, no one calls me a builder. When foxes were getting my chickens, I put up a wall. No one calls me a mason. If you plant one plant, no one calls you a gardener, if you paint one wall no one calls you a painter. But, dammit, I molest one child . . .”

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog

Wednesday January 11, 2006

Last night I was at an open mic and the host asked the audience a question. “If you were going to die, what three things would you want to know you passed on to your children?” Here are my three things I want to pass on to my children and the rest of the world:

1) Know your abilities A lot of people underestimate their abilities, seeing limits where there are none. If you see limits, you will limit yourself because you will never push yourself to full potential. Why would you push yourself if you don’t believe you can get there? Many people have goals in mind but don’t reach for them because they think they need someone to help them get there. I’m not saying anyone can do anything, because I don’t believe that. We have to be realistic yet optomistic in our expectations and hopes – there’s a balance. Yet, there’s so much we can achieve on our own. We live in the age of information, but we’re trained from a young age not to seek it. I think educating yourself is the key to understanding your abilities and reaching your potential.

2) Choose your battles I think I mentioned this in my last rant, but I’ll say it again. It’s really important. Don’t fight just to fight or for the sake of winning. You should do your best to know beforehand what you gain by winning, what you lose by losing, and what you lose by winning. If you consider those three things before any battle, you’ll find yourself often realizing that some things just aren’t worth it. Conversely, you’ll realize that certain things are really worth it. Having considered those the gains and losses you’ll have strengthened your conviction and by not fighting the unworthy battles you’ll have conserved your strength.

3) Have fun Do you live to work or work to live? Don’t get so caught up in life’s necessities that you forget why they’re necesary. When you’re in those situations that make you think “one day I’ll laugh about this” take a moment to see the humor and laugh now. Life’s a big game. Enjoy it.

Wow! I should be a motivational speaker.

This is reposted from my Yahoo! 360 blog.

Tuesday January 10, 2006

So I’ve been considering starting a new blog for a while now, and here it finally is. The purpose was to write down my random thoughts on random things, not really to write about myself or my life. The problem is now that I’m sitting at the keyboard, there are no random thoughts. Randomness can be so inconvinient at times. It never happens when I plan for it to.

Well, since I can’t count on the unpredictable , I’m going to pick a subject that I had a heated discussion about a few weeks ago. I post regularly on a message board for musicians (and music related people). A few weeks ago somebody posted an article about a studio owner who was shot and robbed by some guys who initially gained his confidence by posing as rappers and prospective clients. You lose ten points if you can’t guess what happened next. A bunch of people posted some ignorant ass responses, things like “that’s why I never work with rappers.” A long time ago somebody told me “choose your battles” and I try very hard to live by those words because they make sense. Why fight a battle you can’t win or if winning isn’t worth what it takes to fight? I knew it wasn’t a battle I was going to win, but as its so close to home, I had to jump in to let those people know that that was some dumb shit to say. Of course then a long back and forth followed with more ignorant comments and in vain responses to them. I had a few backers along the way, but I think most of the people who were smart enough to understand what was wrong with what people were saying were also smart enough not to waste time on that conversation. I’m not going to rehash the whole thing, but if you’re really interested in reading it, here it is.

So from that argument I realized two things that I already know. (What? Sometimes you need to be reminded of what you know)

1 – Hip hop is seriously misrepresented in mainstream media

2 – A lot of people don’t know that

Let’s take a very rough trip back through hip-hop history. Hip-hop music started out as a party thing – fun and good times. Hip Hop music evolved and developed new species. there were different sounds and different subjects. Some hip hop was still about parties, some was political and social commentary, some expressed racial pride, some was about love and relationships. Most of it wasn’t very big with the “mainstream.” In the 80s and early 90s, it definitely seemed that hip-hop was for black folks and rock was for white folks. At some point that changed. Back then, the jewish kid who used to lend me Ice Cube CDs was an oddity, today he would be the norm. It seems that around the same time that that change was happening, the whole “Gangsta Rap” thing was getting big. I remember at first the radio was loving it, but then some of the “leaders of the black community” (Maybe I’ll explain the quotes in another post sometime) started getting upset and making noise about the negativity they were hearing on FM frequencies. I remember when WBLS in NY decided that they were boycotting gangster rap.

I guess that despite (or maybe because of) the controversy and protests, gangster rap sold well. Record companies decided it was profitable and media companies agreed. Today, when you hear rap on the radio, chances are its about how hard someone is, how much ass someone gets and/or how much money someone has. That is what a large chunk of the population believes hip-hop is about. Nowadays if you listen to the radio and watch TV, you rarely hear uplifting words or social commentary or anything substantial coming from a rappers mouth. If Sony and ClearChannel and all these other corporations are right, hip-hop is a culture of violence, excess, negativity, and nothing more. But what happened to the diversity that used to be there? Did the rappers who had something to say beyond these three categories suddenly stop talking?

I’m going to end this here and leave the (probably 1 or 2) people who read this with that question along with the answer’s rmifications to think about. Also, I’m tired of typing.