Art 2.0
As he was flicking through the channels a documentary on Chaos Theory caught George’s attention.
Unfortunately he didn’t quite get all of it.
All characters and situations mentioned in this blog are completely fictional. Anyresemblance to actual people or places is purely coincidental. The publisher cannot be held responsible. For anything. Ever.
For some reason, let’s go into what it was, I was searching online for the name of that robot on the ‘old’ Buck Rogers’ series. (During my search I also found out that apparently the coolest member of the Battlestar Gallactica 
series (the robotdog Muffit) did not make it into the new one, which could almost be considered a criminal act, but that’s an entirely different posting,) When I read it’s name, Twiki, I suddenly remember one of my favourite lyrics of all time: ‘Andrew’s a starfighter pilot‘ by Snow Patrol. At some point Gary Lightbody sings: “He’s better than James Kirk or Twiki…”. even though that’s some bold statement (to boldly state where no statement has gone before), that’s not what this post is about. It’s about popularity, or to be more precise: Do I like alternative popbands less when they become popular, or do they become popular when I start liking them less, i.e. they start making a different kind of music.
My first example is of course: Snow Patrol. About a decade ago they were signed on the no-less-than-brilliant music label ‘Jeepster‘, also the label of Belle & Sebastian and Looper. 
They released two fantastic albums ‘Music for polar bears’ (1998 ) and ‘when it’s all over we still have to clean up’ (2001) before they switched labels to Polydor and started hitting the charts. I am very happy for them that they’ve become so popular but I also a bit sad that to do so, they had to let go of the wonderful quirky musical bits, and brilliantly bizarre lyrics. On the band’s website I read that mr. Garrett ‘Jacknife’ Lee (a charming name) can be credited for finding their new sound. In my humble opinion, he should be accused with it, not credited. I still consider Snow Patrol to be ‘okay’, but only in the way I’d call Coldplay ‘okay’. I hesitate to write this but I feel like one of my favourite bands has …erm… ’sold out’. ‘Chasing Cars’ is a typical crowdpleaser, but nothing as groundbreaking as ‘Get balsemic vinegar, quickly you fool’. Am I perhaps just jealous?
Another band that used to be great; Korn. Their first self entitled album 
created a whole new music genre: ‘nu metal‘. It’s one of the best things I ever heard. Then they became popular and it appeared they weren’t picked up by the mainstream, but swallowed by it. The edge was gone, they started producing more of the same, but watered down. Did many original fans of Extreme, Mr. Big and Ugly Kid Joe still remain fans after ‘More than words’, ‘be with you’ and ‘cats in the cradle’? Didn’t anyone learn anything from Kiss?
I heard that the British punkband Chumbawamba lost almost all of its fanbase after they scored a big hit with their single Tubthumping. Was that beacuse they radically changed their music? Or was it just not ‘punk’ to score a hit? But alternative popmusic doesn’t necisarilly have a problem with hits. The biggest popband out there, Radiohead, had a larger than life hit at the start of their career with ‘Creep‘.
I guess it will always be difficult to really figure it out since music is such an emotional thing. When bands we love change their music and become popular and mainstream, we feel let down and respond like they’ve broken our hearts. But perhaps the band has just moved on to different music which just ‘happens’ te become really big. And perhaps they have not ’sold out’ at all. I guess I’ll just go and play my old Snow Patrol albums for old times’ sake.
I am not going to lie about it. Whenever I read a Coupland novel I think I can write myself as well. I start feeling the urge to document certain contemporary trivia about my life the way he does. And now I have this blog thing… so I can bother you with it as well. How?
Well, this morning when I walked out of the train station (since I work in the center of Amsterdam, going by car is not an 
option and would be insanely bad for the environment) I discovered two things. First; I am glad I quit smoking a long time ago. When you walk out train stations you see a lot people, a certain group of those people smoke. Those people do not seem to be the type of people that are going anywhere fast. In a lot of cases those people don’t even seem to be the types of people that are taking regular showers. Obviously, this is a crude generalization. Some people that smoke are young, successful, cool, cosmopolitan and healthy. However, their numbers are decreasing and they are none of those things because of their addiction but in spite of it. I took a deep breath of fresh morning air. At least, as fresh as you get it in Amsterdam.
My second discovery is that I really satisfied with the playlist I have uploaded to my first generation iPod Shuffle. My playlist currently features;
And even though I am very pleased with this selection, it’s got some good tracks for reading while on the train as well as for walking though the center of Amsterdam I know it is far from perfect. A perfect mix depends on various variables like where, when and for how long you intend to listen to it. At this point I am not even sure whether or not I will add several individual tracks to the playlist or, as I have done now, select a couple of albums which will make it possible to not listen to a shuffle but in fact an entire album.
Which brings me to a different point. I believe that the iPod shuffle is superior to its bigger siblings, not in spite of but because of it shortcomings. There is not too much memory on a shuffle so you have to really select what tracks you add instead of adding just everything and thereby merely postponing the moment at which you cannot choose what music you’d like to listen to. It’s the same reason why I will never download a ringtone but just use the one my mobile came with. If you start downloading ringtones, you will never be happy and just keep on wanting more and better ones. Leave it to the marketing people. It’s just like the casino: the only way to win is not to play. Furthermore, the iPod shuffle does not have a screen or various sorts of buzzers. It limits your options to the basics, which is such a relieve nowadays.
Hey, just forget about the philosophical question ‘why are we here’. I have got something way better than that for you: I am going to tell you why you are here. And with here I mean; on this blog. And with why I mean; statistically speaking. If you read all this… you’ve got wayyy too much free time on your hands. Or you’re one of those lists-of-trivia fetishists. If you are: enjoy.
If you made it all the way down here… you are scary. And in for some good news. Because what would follow a ‘why are you here’ list? Exactly! A ‘where are you going’ list… but please be patient… the wait is half the fun.
My blog is more and more about myself, which is not a good development…. I should dedicate my life to the greater good of art and not try to glorify myself, dammit! But, perhaps a couple of more personal posts will also help some other artists out there. “Well, I may be bad, but at least I’m not as bad as him…” that sort of thing. False modesty is modesty too.
Anyway; I’m actually beginning to believe that positive things happen to people with a positive attitude. (that’s ‘the secret’… or actually: that’s a quantum physics theory) Today I got an e-mail from the nice, fantastic, wonderful, creative people at Gawker.com that from today I am officiallya Gawker artist! And that really also feels like a bit of extra appreciation. And that’s what we artists want: not wealth, but recognition. (well, a bit of wealth wouldn’t be bad either actually) And yesterday afternoon the canvasses I ordered arrived, a week to soon.
Things are running smoothly this month. So much so, that I might not even get round to either finish reading that Stephen Hawking book ‘The universe in a nutshell’ (bit of namedropping there) or celebrate my birthday. Hopefully all this won’t mean that I’ll start making crap happy art now.
How things can change overnight. Wow, that would be a beautiful pay-off for those UPS or Fed-Ex guys wouldn’t it? Perhaps I should try selling it to them. But I am sure that you are not here to read about how I would like to sell my soul to the devil. Just before my poetically beautiful post about ‘female midgets’ I wrote about artists block, the arty equivalent of writers block. Life as an artists sucks when you’ve got artists block. You get used to the feelings of doubt about the qualtiy of your work, the necessity of your creations, the briliance o your ideas, but when you’ve got artists block, you’re actually proving yourself right. You must be the worst artist since…. <please fill in ou own most despised artist>.
But, as I said, things can change dramatically overnight. It started when the gallerist with whom I had a show rang the doorbell. Even though my show was no big commercial success, his gallery would like to keep on representing me as an artist. Hurrah. After that, I got a few paying assignments writing the copy for some websites. Not my big dream (copywriting), but it will certainly help in paying for canvasses and extra paint. At the midweek job, there was a mice infestation. The stench of mouseshit and -piss was intolerable. But, they’re sorting that one out today and for the rest, things seemed to have gine well during the days I have been ill, so things are looking up over there as well.
Which leaves the most important bit: the actual creation of glorious, humbling art works. For the first time since a couple of weeks I have loads of ideas again. My fingers actualy start tingling when I think about painting. When I’m at work I can actually daydream about picking up a can of pain and giving it a good cuddle… okay; that’s sick, but you get the general idea. I can safely say that the artist block has gone. Artworld: beware.
Warning: ego-documentation. My life as a contemporary artist.
Must be the equivalent of writers block: artists block. Every year I go through a couple of those phases when I just cannot seem to get anything done. No paintings get finished, no projects worked on, no new ideas generated, no stuff written… and at those times you get more and more convinced that you are a crap artist. All the work you have previously done, sucks completely. Every project you’re working on is crap.
This time, the block was put up somewhere in December. I had been doing quite a lot of (extra) work in the month before for a show I was participating in and since that also gave me a lot of energy, I had also managed to do a lot of extra stuff for this blog and the cultblender site. At the ‘regular-pay’ job there were also several nice, creative projects going on, so there was creative energy everywhere. Then, from December, the creative power-line was cut. The presentation of my work at the show was rather disappointing. I had a bad case of the flu. I noticed that a couple of postings on my blog attracted loads of extra visitors, which was good, but also annoying, because, well, you don’t want to see those numbers drop again, so you sort of feel obligated to write more stuff, which just means: ‘more work’. Then you get all those ‘holiday activities’ which are all very nice, but really tend to get in the way of your creative work. During that time I also found out that a lot of friends and family respect me, think I’m very talented, but do not take my ‘being an artist’ very serious. Most of the creative projects at the dayjob turned out to be a nightmare since they all involved commercial partners who are all very much interested up to the moment where they actually have to do something, when they start being complete and utter bastards. And on top of all that, our dear bunny James turned out to be a couple of years older than what they estimated at the rabbit rescue where we adopted him from a couple of years ago. He died of old age, covered in a blanket, with me and my girlfriend lying beside him. We miss him.
Well… apart from James dying, all the other stuff is just a spoiled brat moaning about ‘how difficult his life is. It’s not. My life is absolutely brilliant. I have food, shelter, health, love and television (hurrah), and a case of ‘artists block’. So, I may just be second rate artist, writing second rate postings to promote a first class artists site have ou seen the interviews with Kendrick Mar and Joey Monsoon yet? Whoa!); I can live with that. I’ll just have to keep on trying my best. And there is light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday I managed to get some sketches on paper which will be first studies for the two other parts of an ‘Essen’ tryptich. Cheerz.
|
