The Odd Thing about Inspiration (or, More YouTube Videos!)

So, there's this recording artist known as Lady Gaga who has decided to singlehandedly revive the late seventies and early eighties in terms of aural influence and visual aesthetic. There are of course mixed reactions to such an endeavor, you can come with your own on your own. In case you haven't heard of her, here's one of her songs.



Now, personally I believe there's a lot more work for the eyes and ears than there is for the higher cognition functions of the brain with this individual's work. There is a part of me that feels this is just another flash in the pan act that could burn out sooner or later from people getting tired of it. BUT, for some reason it has inspired covers, people actually taking the time to learn the music and the words. There was something about all this that captured some peoples' imagination and they did something with that.

Here's Chris Daughtry, that one guy from that one season of American Idol.



A different song when he does it.

Then there's this artist called Molly who went all out and used obscure and improvised instruments to produce her version.



But, I wonder at what point in the life of relevancy something has reached when the one and only Christopher Walken does his rendition.



Does that mean she's made it? She's reached the pinnacle of creative success? Does the content not matter, but whether or not you can inspire people to take action in some form or another? If imitation is the highest form of flattery, how much more can the world bestow upon her?

This will be interesting.

We stand at the eve of a tremendous event, Write-Off:2009. Three of my writerly folk, and another whose identity is a mystery to me, are duking it out in a word-count free-for-all. They've all been practicing, they have their preparations near completion, they all know the rules, and they all seem determined to win.

In all honesty, I have no idea who will win, or by what margin. We could sit here all day and speculate who's got what it takes to crank out a lot of letter-packed words, but really, this all comes down to two things: Endurance, and the ability to navigate life's little challenges.

We've heard it during NaNoWriMo, all the trip-ups. I've hit the wall of Writer's Block. I've just spent 30k words working on this and I've realized it's all crap. My wrists hurt from typing. My back aches. My. Brain. Just. Can't. Work. After. Three. Days. Without. Peeing...well, maybe not that one.

Writing because you love it leaves you victim to strange vulnerabilities. Money still needs to be made. Food still needs to be cooked. Drama erupts at weird times and from unexpected people. Washing machines inexplicably break down. Computers get knocked off tables by rambunctious wild animals that take the form of family members. Gang violence spills into your workplace. Aliens arrive from outer space and they're only interested in YOUR brain. Things that would never happen if you spent your time wasting your brain away watching trashy television, or staring at the sun, but since you've decided to do something productive with your time, all of a sudden the entire world needs your attention.

This is not a task for mere mortals. Nay, not even a task for those slightly leaning towards immortal. This is only for those who can withstand all of these hindrances, and come out still writing, still creating tension for their plot, still providing development for their characters so the reader remains invested and engaged. Who will this person be? Time will tell.

Good luck to all, and remember, aluminum foil wrapped on your head keeps the aliens from picking up your brainwaves.

Wheee! Random Thoughts!

Mall Security Rent-a-Cops: When you're patrolling parking lots in your pretty jeeps, keep your flashy lights off unless you're about to administer mall justice. Otherwise it looks like you don't know how the buttons work.

So a guy yelled during the President's speech. If he was really into making a point, he'd have thrown his shoe. Isn't Freedom of Speech great?

District 9. Go see it. It's good.

When are people famous for being famous going to stop being famous? We gotta organize an underground, grassroots boycott or something. Somehow the financial incentive for idiotic behavior has got to go, ya'll.

Apparently CD-Rs have a shelf life. Buying in bulk may not have been a good idea.

Closer to that Bradburian Million

I use Moleskine notebooks to write out first drafts of things I want to work on. I've been using these notebooks more or less since 2002, when I purchased my first one at the giftshop in the Art Institute of Chicago. I bought it because it reminded of the journal Dr. Henry Jones Sr. kept in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and I thought it would make me look cool because I had never seen anything like it before in stores. This was before they got really popular and now Borders sells them next to garishly colored pencils, and calendars with glittery vampires on them.

I've only managed to fill up five notebooks in the last seven-ish years. The last book took me a little over six months to fill, while the first took two years. Ballparking it, each one contains room for about 60k words, I suppose in theory you could write a novel(la)(llete) in these books, assuming you can write in the exact order the book will be read in (I've yet to do that).

Ray Bradbury is attributed the saying, "You have a million words of shit in you until you get good." Just yesterday, I finished Book 5, and with some guesstimation I concluded that I've written (raw, not edited) somewhere around 350-425K words counting the books and the other places I've written things down.

I looked at the sorts of entries I made back in 2002. Admittedly not all of them were attempts at fiction, some were pontifications, some were attempts at poetry, some were philosophical adventures, some were pure drivel. Comparing that to the drivel I produce now, I believe I've made some progress, lo these seven years. Going through these tomes, I really didn't start kicking up the word production until about three years ago, when I first seriously started to focus energy towards improving my writing.

If I was really ambitious I would plot out a graph or something, but I think it's safe to say that my word production more or less has followed an exponential growth pattern over the last seven years. At the rate I'm going now, sooner or later I'll hit that 1 million mark. Hopefully, during that time I won't plateau with regard to improvement with word usage, turn of phrase, and otherwise making words sound purty.

I'm prepared. I've a got a lot more blank books to fill.

Life after Icon

Two years in a row now I have entered in the American Icon competition and two years in a row I walked away with no certificate in my hand. I could go on about the "moral victory" that I had in both years, but at the end of the day a non-win ia still a non-win. There seems to be a higher emphasis placed on pre-wrapped marketing-friendly works.

On the one hand, there is a stung artist's ego, upset over the philistines' sway over the decision. How can these people have such a dismissive attitude over art?

But, on the other, one cannot ignore the harsh reality of the situation: In order to sell enough to reach a bestsellers list, people have to want to buy it. In order for enough copies to be sold, it has to be easily marketable so that it makes fiscal sense to produce it as a product.

So the real question becomes: Where does one find that tricky balance between artistic credibility and world-wide marketability? How can you outsell without selling out?

I suppose if I knew the answers to those questions, I wouldn't be asking them.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Blackberry Posting

I am testing out the email posting method from my blackberry. Between facebook, twitter, emails, and now this, I can use the crap out of my unlimited data allowance on my blackberry. I wuv technology.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry