...for creative types, this is truly the best and worst of
times....never in the history of the world has finding a receptive and
appreciative audience been so easy...
...now is the era
where
everybody creates...
Patti Smith
...that is, even if what you’re doing is so esoteric that
only three or four people in the world could possibly appreciate it...solo
upright bass instrumental interpretations of
obscure gangsta rap b-sides, expressionistic black chalk drawings of dolphins in
bondage masks, cynical musings on yoga practice...in the past, the chances of
those weirdos stumbling upon what you do, even if you could find a gallery,
coffee shop, or magazine that’d let you put it on display, would be about
nil...but, chances are, one or two of those people is on-line right now...
No man but a blockhead
ever wrote except for money.
Samuel Johnson
...and, yet, the likelihood of getting paid for creative work grows ever slighter....(if Van Gogh were painting now, he'd likely feel less isolated, with people all over the world "liking" his art...but he'd still, probably, be broke)....I got fans all over the world, and,
until recently, a person with fans all over the world could expect to have
royalty checks rolling in....then, similarly, thanks to the virtual world, I’ve
got friends all over the world...and,
until recently, a person with that many friends had no problem finding a date
for brunch...
i don’t understand: my
ideas are universal
but my audience is
five guys at the shell
station people just
don’t get it
Andre Codrescu
...quit looking at the analytics
for this blog a couple years ago...and glad I did...was getting too caught up
in numbers of readers...or viewers...or visitors...or clicks....ended up using artificial means to get more people here, even
if most stayed just long enough to take a glance and click away: gratuitous
link-dropping, pornographic tags, posting every other day, whether or not I had
anything worth saying...anything for these all-important digital marks of approval...
One of these days and
it won’t be long, goin’ down to the valley and sing my song, sing it loud sing
it strong let the echo decide if I was right or wrong...
Bob Dylan
...finally decided to get all Bhagavad Gita-ish and forsake
the numbers...simply do my best at putting something good out there, and try
not to worry so much about the fruits of my actions..........which is not to
say a little money wouldn’t be nice...
