Post 600, catching with a conversation almost two weeks ago, goes out to my buddy Glenn R. Brown. If you like Dark Horse Comics or think you might, look for his artwork in a new comic book from them soon.
Let me say here, you can barely underestimate the importance of being able to write, to every one of us given that precious gift by others who understood it. To write anything, from a grocery list to a text to a Facebook message to a page to a scene to a poem to a series of novels, is to share with potentially anyone who shares the gift to read; you will never truly know all the people who spent time with something born of your private musings, plus hours staring at the ceiling, included free of charge.
He and I were having a conversation about encounters with deeply gifted musicians, when we shared an acknowledgement of how tough it is to go from relative poverty and obscurity to a functioning, bill-paying success who just failed enough times for something to stick anyway.
We also discussed a big pop group's almost-done-deal revival, but that's a surprise for another time. Here's a clue: look up "Deion Estus."
On some level, I feel whatever these people's faults, there's always redemption. Music is such a powerful gift. Yes, everything that was standard thirty years ago is kinda gone.
It is a mind-blowingly horrible time to be a young band, an unestablished song writer...you have to be so committed to the power of what your creations do for you, regardless of what they come to mean in the world of Man.
you can't think about how miles it is to shore...you've got to think about swimming..and when you're tired, float...but never sink.
He concurs it's maybe the worst time...yet, there's an amazing amount of distribution possibilities for a nominal fee...if you can get it promoted! Glenn referred to it as a digital Pandora's Box.
It also means, potentially, anyone holding a phone could hear or even buy one of my songs; I may find out with a laptop someone wants to read my book, or post a drawing that maybe you remember you said you'd pay me for?
It is quite nearly a Pyrhic sacrfice to be an artist of any stripe...and here I am, soul-devoted to music, writing and art and utterly unable to stop this love affair with any of them, like a man possessed. I know...if you can't score the live shows, you go home hungry. Everyone's tied into some endorsement or they'd all be middle class at best.
Well, I won't even recount the horror stories. And all so one poor soul might find your song hung up in their head, or two people might dance an unforgettable memory. It is to crawl from one crumb to the next, even if you're not spending a dime on booze or weed or anything to make it "easier." It is the most spiritual time to create culture out of the essence of yourself. Yet potentially the most selfless, bravest souls are the ones left to create anything at all. And they, and their devotees, are all that sustains it. It is to live with no surety of one's future. it requires the sweetest gratitude. And yet, I think of all the great minds who came this way to die virtually unheard, because of prejudice, disease, misfortune of every kind...and I realize I'm on the shoulders of giants whose faces I never knew.
I had to admit, one thing that keeps me humbled ever more is the thought of some man or woman or child of any color, working so hard in a field, perhaps even for a harvest that won't save their lives after all. They had all these stories and songs and pictures of art inside them, and they died with no one knowing much what they could do, or even in the case of someone talented, perhaps only getting a chance to sing for dinner even once in a lifetime, who never maybe thought to nor expected a dollar to their name for what they did in the name of enjoying art.
I always credit the understanding of those with whom I'm conversing for the quality of what I imagine to say. Could've only come out talking to one who understands it. It was you, there to listen, that evoked it.
And that is where our gratitude lies...to the people whose openness and support evokes the greatest powers of expression to rise within you, within me, so that we might feed undying soul food to the seekers.
And that's what makes the miraculous nature of this age where material sustenance seems elusive for many. Once you reach a certain level of income, however, you're able to take a trip to the beach, or fly to Colorado Springs, or decide you ache at Mount Rushmore and start to wish you were home...or at least back in Colorado Springs. And you can do all this in a matter of days, while a year may have vanished once in the time it'd take to see Wyoming from Georgia, much less actually coming back through New Orleans. When you look at the wonder of it, is it any wonder we are occasionally either floored by the pace of life, or simply at some half-ease with accepting a numbness in your nest after a day of flying with purpose?
We're a moment in an eternal dialogue, the very power that has made human life worthwhile to carry this far down the road. We bear the burden, but are humbled by those with no fame, no comfort, who bore it before us. The idols, yes...but the men and women with lost names who created, as we do, because of the real something that beats our hearts, that ineffable cosmic love that makes man to dream of every inch of Better World we can build. Perhaps it's unique in the universe, and it exists mysteriously, for why would it even be so. Maybe we'll find out one day?
If we can evolve our sense of energetic barter, I'm reasonably certain there's plenty for survival in the foreseeable future. Perhaps we can earn an elevation of our sense of value. But just to come alive and create culture, to make stories, songs, pictures of our own...it moves on a wheel of inspiration!
As for the mystery of what may continue to prove true long after this life is through? Well, as brother Glenn said, that's the reason for this journey. You discover the purposes of many things.
And finally, the purpose of us is to choose creatively. Whatever we do in life.
Please do look up Glenn R. Brown in the upcoming Dark Horse Comics and be amazed for yourself. And thanks for joining me, however long you've been down this road with me. I hope you see the miracle of your life there in your hands, too.
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Let me say here, you can barely underestimate the importance of being able to write, to every one of us given that precious gift by others who understood it. To write anything, from a grocery list to a text to a Facebook message to a page to a scene to a poem to a series of novels, is to share with potentially anyone who shares the gift to read; you will never truly know all the people who spent time with something born of your private musings, plus hours staring at the ceiling, included free of charge.
He and I were having a conversation about encounters with deeply gifted musicians, when we shared an acknowledgement of how tough it is to go from relative poverty and obscurity to a functioning, bill-paying success who just failed enough times for something to stick anyway.
We also discussed a big pop group's almost-done-deal revival, but that's a surprise for another time. Here's a clue: look up "Deion Estus."
On some level, I feel whatever these people's faults, there's always redemption. Music is such a powerful gift. Yes, everything that was standard thirty years ago is kinda gone.
It is a mind-blowingly horrible time to be a young band, an unestablished song writer...you have to be so committed to the power of what your creations do for you, regardless of what they come to mean in the world of Man.
you can't think about how miles it is to shore...you've got to think about swimming..and when you're tired, float...but never sink.
He concurs it's maybe the worst time...yet, there's an amazing amount of distribution possibilities for a nominal fee...if you can get it promoted! Glenn referred to it as a digital Pandora's Box.
It also means, potentially, anyone holding a phone could hear or even buy one of my songs; I may find out with a laptop someone wants to read my book, or post a drawing that maybe you remember you said you'd pay me for?
It is quite nearly a Pyrhic sacrfice to be an artist of any stripe...and here I am, soul-devoted to music, writing and art and utterly unable to stop this love affair with any of them, like a man possessed. I know...if you can't score the live shows, you go home hungry. Everyone's tied into some endorsement or they'd all be middle class at best.
Well, I won't even recount the horror stories. And all so one poor soul might find your song hung up in their head, or two people might dance an unforgettable memory. It is to crawl from one crumb to the next, even if you're not spending a dime on booze or weed or anything to make it "easier." It is the most spiritual time to create culture out of the essence of yourself. Yet potentially the most selfless, bravest souls are the ones left to create anything at all. And they, and their devotees, are all that sustains it. It is to live with no surety of one's future. it requires the sweetest gratitude. And yet, I think of all the great minds who came this way to die virtually unheard, because of prejudice, disease, misfortune of every kind...and I realize I'm on the shoulders of giants whose faces I never knew.
I had to admit, one thing that keeps me humbled ever more is the thought of some man or woman or child of any color, working so hard in a field, perhaps even for a harvest that won't save their lives after all. They had all these stories and songs and pictures of art inside them, and they died with no one knowing much what they could do, or even in the case of someone talented, perhaps only getting a chance to sing for dinner even once in a lifetime, who never maybe thought to nor expected a dollar to their name for what they did in the name of enjoying art.
I always credit the understanding of those with whom I'm conversing for the quality of what I imagine to say. Could've only come out talking to one who understands it. It was you, there to listen, that evoked it.
And that is where our gratitude lies...to the people whose openness and support evokes the greatest powers of expression to rise within you, within me, so that we might feed undying soul food to the seekers.
And that's what makes the miraculous nature of this age where material sustenance seems elusive for many. Once you reach a certain level of income, however, you're able to take a trip to the beach, or fly to Colorado Springs, or decide you ache at Mount Rushmore and start to wish you were home...or at least back in Colorado Springs. And you can do all this in a matter of days, while a year may have vanished once in the time it'd take to see Wyoming from Georgia, much less actually coming back through New Orleans. When you look at the wonder of it, is it any wonder we are occasionally either floored by the pace of life, or simply at some half-ease with accepting a numbness in your nest after a day of flying with purpose?
We're a moment in an eternal dialogue, the very power that has made human life worthwhile to carry this far down the road. We bear the burden, but are humbled by those with no fame, no comfort, who bore it before us. The idols, yes...but the men and women with lost names who created, as we do, because of the real something that beats our hearts, that ineffable cosmic love that makes man to dream of every inch of Better World we can build. Perhaps it's unique in the universe, and it exists mysteriously, for why would it even be so. Maybe we'll find out one day?
If we can evolve our sense of energetic barter, I'm reasonably certain there's plenty for survival in the foreseeable future. Perhaps we can earn an elevation of our sense of value. But just to come alive and create culture, to make stories, songs, pictures of our own...it moves on a wheel of inspiration!
As for the mystery of what may continue to prove true long after this life is through? Well, as brother Glenn said, that's the reason for this journey. You discover the purposes of many things.
And finally, the purpose of us is to choose creatively. Whatever we do in life.
Please do look up Glenn R. Brown in the upcoming Dark Horse Comics and be amazed for yourself. And thanks for joining me, however long you've been down this road with me. I hope you see the miracle of your life there in your hands, too.
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