Seriously One of the Coolest Things Ever

I went out last night with some friends, who took me to this place:

Basically, you pay a suggested $5 to lie down in this room while tons of pounding, permeating, crashing, caressing, and choppy frequencies are blared from four amplifiers in each corner. It sounds fucking annoying at first, and trust me, I am skeptical of pieces of art that are fucking annoying, and yet pass for art – but damn – this was really cool.

The multiple frequencies gradually change and melt into one another, allowing you to hear the fabric of sounds clash with each other, producing lots of rhythmic ideas that start out clear and identifiable, begin to pulse faster, and then finally pulse so quickly that the initial rhythms eventually subside into a new wave of frequencies.

I was stoned out of my goddamn mind when I went into the room, and as is typical for anybody who has ever smoked before, I felt I had hundreds of brilliant and concise ideas/clarities of logic in maybe 20 minutes. Although, drugs make you think and do funny things.

The funny thing was, the length of time I could focus on each particular “brilliant” idea was very limited, and my mind would gradually shift to a new idea – in parallel with the rate of change of the frequencies being blared. Almost like the frequencies were forcibly shifting my brain pattens. Even if I would try to hold on to a thought, I would lose it. I wish I had a pen and paper in there.

Awesome experience. I don’t like getting high, but a scenario like the Dreamhouse is PERFECT for that. I want to bring some sweet/cute girls next time.

It's Sloppy Out There

The coolest thing I find right now about the music industry is that I haven’t yet invested in it. I’m not going to sit back and play armchair general in this round, its complicated and I’m not really in any position to point fingers or call idiocy. However, at the moment it seems like the industry is composed of people primarily motivated to maintain a current profit-seeking model without regard to its  practicalities (or lack of) and have too heavily invested themselves in the current system to want to radicalize and change it.

There is a name for this apparently. It’s called the entrenched player’s dilemma, and a guy I read a lot has talked about this many times – although I’m the kind of person who needs things repeated a lot before I get them. Until I was actually flailing around today trying to think of a concise way to explain what I thought was going on in the industry, this concept and its meaning weren’t really clear. Now they are.

That being said, I can’t really blame the current group of “entrenched players” for behaving the way they do. Especially if they want to milk every last drop out of the current model. To radicalize, they would have to forgo obvious money-making opportunities.Sure they weren’t yielding as much money as before, but still, they’re there. What, not capitalize? Fuck you, go write on your blog.

And as wonderful and beautiful and brilliant as it sounds to suddenly drop everything you’re doing in favor of some insanely attractive and nebulous “no business model is the future!!!” rhetoric – for the existing companies out there that are dealing with this transition – the reality is far more unpleasant than what the rhetoric eludes to. There is a reason the record companies have taken so long to die.

However, I can blame this current group of “entrenched players” for being idiots if they honestly believe that not only  will the current model continue to sustain itself, but ought to, for the alleged sake of everyone involved, artist and all. In other words, its okay to be fucked, as long as you know you’re fucked, because only then can you begin to hope to unfuck yourself.

Rather than get involved in a constantly shifting industry whereby as an artist I become dependent on X group and Y group doing their thing and scurrying to capitalize on new trend after trend in an effort to squeeze every lessening pile of money from increasingly alienated and pissed off fans….I opt to…opt out.

In a way, it seems to make more sense to sit out and focus on making some really good fucking art, and finding small ways to connect with the very people that might love and appreciate it. A “marketing strategy” doesn’t necessarily have to be about inundating people with the message – they’ll get around to it if its good enough. But if you’re a) not patient enough to deal with this reality, and b) don’t make art that is good enough on its own merits, then you’re fucked.

Good. Its about time the prospect of one day making $30,000-40,000 a year working as an artist making possibly marginal art is actually a somewhat plausible scenario. Why not?? Cut out the bullshit and leave me be. I don’t need to be rich, just let me work.

http://www.mediafuturist.com/2008/12/2009-the-year-o.html

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/01/davos_discussing_a_depression.html

I Am Depressed, therefore Full of Unique and Profound Things To Say

Sometimes I wonder why the fuck I’m doing this. I’ve heard successful entrepreneurs reminisce about their times in the beginnings of their ventures – and they typically say something like “If I knew how hard it would end up being before I started, I wouldn’t have started.” Doing as much personally meaningful stuff when I’m young and helplessly ignorant is probably the best the to be doing. That being said, it is frighteningly easy to fall back into the comfortable verbal pat-on-the-backs of good friends and family who support you.

“Everything will be okay, you’ll make it. You’re talented, so you’ll make it.”

The reality is, none of it means anything. I literally doesn’t mean anything – and you have to know that, down to your core, that those words of encouragement, while nice and uplifting, don’t really mean anything. At that point you can decide whether or not to move forward, because if its vague words of encouragement from external personalities and motivations mostly influencing your own drive and fervor to accomplish stuff, then you’re probably fucked.

You can’t fall back on the sympathetic promises of other people, because they aren’t you and definitively do not share your motivations. They don’t care, nor should they necessarily care. They aren’t you.

The only thing left is to take complete personal responsibility for what you want to do. If you’re going to feel truly liberated as a human being then this is essential. You have to take responsibility for who you are, what you are at least attempting to do, and see it through to the end. No bullshit. No “Well, if I had these things, then I could move forward…”

No. That’s horseshit. Either move forward or don’t, and take responsibility for whichever you choose. Its a visceral and unpleasant feeling, but the deeper you explore this the less you want to head back into what you were before.

And its a process. I’m starting to get that making art is not a glamorous or romantic sort of thing. All the audience tends to see is the product, and well, yeah, there is glamor there when it works. But the process of getting good at making it? Making GOOD art? Its a pain in the ass, frankly.

Don’t get me wrong, its a profoundly uplifting process, and there is nothing sweeter than the feeling of having worked on something and being able to contribute it, no matter how shitty – but it also sucks a lot of balls and brings out the most exquisite feelings of worthlessness you’ll ever encounter. Cheers.

Brett