Archive: October 29, 2010
I would like to say before I begin that I own a Blackberry Storm or Curve or whateveritis…And I hate it. The dang roller ball never works or it always falls out. Bleh. I loved it at first but it’s made the amount of information I send and receive simply overwhelming. Nothing is special anymore. It’s not special when I get an email. My brain is super muddled from the onslaught of information and also the dumb roller ball never works and always falls out. 🙂
I will now use a turn of phrase which I learned from the classic children’s book “Bunicula” and every time I hear it I see and hear a content dog curtailing his tangent and getting back to the heart of things, “But I digress”:
I had the pleasure of watching the Company Rose dance performance tonight. Bex and Audra were amazing and so beautiful. It was a really gorgeous performance and I was brought to tears several times as they explored themes of the early Impressionist movement.
As they danced I kept imagining what it must have been like to be a group of artists who painted with so much passion and so much emotion but were widely rejected by their community of the supposedly renowned artists of their time. There was a scene (which was repeated twice) where the dancers would try to run back into their fold and be pushed back into a solo by the other dancers. I was positively overcome at this point.
We as artists are so quick to critique each other. Not realizing how damaging and unnecessary those critiques are. We just tear each other down. I can not figure out what has fostered this culture of unkindness (especially in America) and I can not figure out how we can collectively turn the tide. Art absolutely THRIVES in environments of enthusiastic encouragement and love. Why we don’t recognize this and support each other so that we may experiment freely (even if only to fall on our faces) is beyond me. But we constantly judge and pick and I promise that I am not the exception. Nashville, sadly, not only carries this mentality at large but champions it and I fear excels at it more than any other city. Some people call it jadedness. My friends have coined the dreaded phrase “The Nashville Funk” to describe the mentality. What we need is a good old fashioned artistic uprising in this city an abandonment of things past and a culture of kindness and self less encouragement. I mean common people! The music industry is a dead horse we’ve been whipping. Let’s rally the troops and create ART in this town!!! Great great unjaded, unabashed, unbridled form of the celebration of intellect and LIFE! Let’s tear off these death shrouds and reconcile these broken relationships, quit the divisive competitive junk, and love each other. Let’s stop taking from others and use the gifts we’ve been given to innovate and create a new NEW! Let’s redefine song. Be unafraid to tear apart structure and bring new hope to every artist who is starving for new direction. The best songwriters and musicians in the world live here and we are squandering our talent and I THINK WE ALL KNOW IT and that’s why everyone is pissed off and jaded and blocked artistically. Why don’t we push each other back into the process of creating when we are desperately trying to seek sanctuary and bury ourselves in critique and Medicating ourselves? I actually didn’t expect to rant like this. But I mean it… Is anyone listening? Do you even care? Or is this an unheard whisper lost on the air? Kat