I don’t have a problem with being such a hypocrite. It’s good to know what you are when you need to know who you are. You never know when you’re going to need to know who you are. It comes in really handy when planning parties or deciding on which movie to go see. I could be wrong, but because I’m a hypocrite, I won’t readily admit it…at least not in public.
Hypocrites definitely have more fun. Conventional wisdom suggests that in fact blondes have more fun. I’ll have to get back to you on that… once I bleach my tail.
Henry Rollins once remarked in his concert recording Talk is Cheap, Volume 2, about the rock band KISS… either you love them, or you don’t. Rollins, a punk rocker from way back was not a big fan of KISS. Begrudgingly, he accompanied the rest of the members of his band Rollins Band to a 2000 KISS concert. It was the reunion tour…and Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter won over Rollins like he had never been won over before.
I was the same way.
As a squirrel out in the street, I obviously never got a chance to listen to much music. Most of the time what I did hear came from open car windows as they sped past me. When I adopted Frank, I started listening to entire songs for the first time in my life. I found KISS.
The songs were good. But they weren’t great. Then, Frank showed me why they were so great…a video of one of their live shows.
Boom. I was converted. The lights, the explosions, the spitting of red syrup, the flying…wow. The music was just one part of the overall show. These guys aren’t the best musicians in the world, they don’t write songs that will change the world. They do something better… they make you forget the world for a while. That’s not something you can just learn how to do.
I also wish I had 1/1,000,000th of the confidence these guys exude. If you only know four chords, but play them like you know 400 you are something that many wish to be. Confidence isn’t learned either. It is either there or not there.
I’m gonna go listen to Love Gun now. You should too.
When Frank taught drawing, the first assignment he gave his students was called “the last drawing”. If you only had time to do one drawing before you passed away, what would it be? What would the subject matter be? How would you approach even thinking of something to draw? What would be your final message to the world?
A bit morbid for a cartoon drawing dude… but there was a reason.
He wanted to see what level of student he had technique wise and he wanted to see how they thought. As one can imagine, many students didn’t really know how to approach it. Most, if not all of them came from a “there’s only one right answer to anything” education. And, this was an introductory course for first year students.Giving them a broken leash with which to go nuts was overwhelming to them. Many illustrated a scene of what they’d do with their last moments, portraits of who they’d visit, places they’d like to go to. No one really illustrated their feelings. What they wanted to leave behind…the concept of a legacy is pretty distant for someone just approaching the beginning of adulthood
The funny thing is, Frank never did the assignment himself. Must be the broken leash would be too much for him too.
When given the ability and opportunity to say whatever you want, most will never truly say what they want.
Getting your point across these days is all about volume. Volume is everything. If you can out-decible the other person longer, then your point is going to inevitably be the point. It doesn’t matter if you are so far out in left field you might as well be playing basketball… if you cot the sound, you got the argument locked.
It was never like this.
Bull.
It’s always been like this. Two differences, rather… two changes. Technology and perspective. If you can amplify, you can prophesize … if you can change perspective, you can create a point of view. The bait and switch of public speaking has been since neanderthals first picked a leader. Don’t long for the days that never existed. Deal with it… and get some ear plugs.
There is a pretty definitive way to know rejection when it’s in front of you. There’s an even more definitive way of realizing rejection when it’s behind you. There usually is a degree of pain involved along with a smattering of localized laughter. The tail pain doesn’t hurt nearly as much as that laughter. I can fix my tail… I could even cut it off. But once that laughter gets in your head and swims around for a while that’s a bad scene. You can develop think skin in a lot of places, but it can’t be everywhere all at once. Trust me. I’ve tried it…and let me tell you, it’s very hard to walk that way.
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I’m not a fan of Monday. I think I made that clear last week… But the thing about Monday is that it always comes at the same time each week. Barring any kind of space/time/calendar weirdness going down, there’s no way to avoid the inevitable. It’s gonna get you whether you’re ready or not. The weekend is usually a time of full speed ahead. The nonsense that you couldn’t get to during the week… like sleep, can be caught up on those forty-eight glorious hours. Think about it… most of life is lived during the weekend…When you’re out and about churning away at your 9 to 5 gig, you’re not really living… you’re working for that set of other hours…if you don’t believe me, just ask the band Loverboy.
I had an experience experience once. Just once. After that one time I knew I knew enough to not have to go through that type of thing ever again. Luckily I took a lot of pictures and made detailed notes of every nook and cranny of that series of moments. I didn’t want to forget a thing. Unfortunately, I lost the notes and the pictures. I know they’re somewhere, just that somewhere isn’t anywhere I know.
I wish I knew where all that documentation was. Seriously.
Ever have the feeling that you know too much for your own good? That, if you were more somewhat less with it, you’d be happier in your own skin? I feel that way a lot. Deep down though I know that knowing is much better than not knowing. You should too.
“Failure is not an option.” This is a quote made famous by the movie Apollo 13 and attributed to NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz (although he never actually said it). To me it’s a perfect quote. Fortunately, I am never really in a situation where it’s all or nothing… where something like that would have to come out of my mouth. Sometimes it’s easier to wallow in the familiar waters of mediocrity than to see what the temperature is like in other bodies of water.
If you came here today looking for some positive reinforced affirmations that will put Eye of the Tiger on repeat in your mind, sorry. That’s not my bag today. I’m just not feeling it.
I hope Frank decides to watch Apollo 13 today. I think I need it.
Feng shui… I always wanted to use that in a sentence. Of course, when you live with who I live with and where, the whole idea of a proper place for everything goes out the window… if you can even reach the window. We live in clutter, which means our minds are cluttered… well, who’s isn’t? Everyday life is just one big clutter pile after another. The philosophy around my neck of the woods is, if we have room for it, we have a place for it. Pretty simple, right?
There’s no need to determine the proper energy flow. Just try really hard not to trip over anything.
