Lacking significance through having been overused; unoriginal and trite.
Literature
Literature

Literature

The Creative Act: A Way of Being

“All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.”

Was hoping for a few real world examples from Rubin’s illustrious music career, but this is still an inspiring book on the creative process.

Here is something I need to remember:

“Living life as an artist is a practice.
You are either engaging in the practice
or you’re not.

It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it.
It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.”
You are either living as a monk or you’re not.

We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output.

The real work of the artist
is a way of being in the world.”

Also love this:

“Beware of the assumption
that the way you work
is the best way
simply because
it’s the way you’ve done it before.”

Later, he writes of the Ramones:

“Innocence brings forth innovation. A lack of knowledge can create more openings to break new ground. The Ramones thought they were making mainstream bubblegum pop. To most others, the lyrical content alone- about lobotomies, sniffing glue, and pinheads- was enough to challenge this assumption.

While the band saw themselves as the next Bay City Rollers, they unwittingly invented punk rock and started a countercultural revolution. While the music of the Bay City Rollers had great success in its time, the Ramones’ singular take on rock and roll became more popular and influential. Of all the explanations of the Ramones, the most may be: innovation through ignorance.”

Hey, ho, let’s go.

Recently Read

Two massive tomes I finally conquered: The Stand and The Pale King. Wouldn’t necessarily recommend either but I am glad I read both.

Of course I love reading about movies. After making a list of my favorite (read: not the ones I think are the best) films, I realized two filmmakers had four films on my list: PT Anderson, and one that surprised, Sidney Lumet. I immediately sought out his book Making Movies. It was a bit dated in describing how the sausage is made, but it had a lot of great stories and even better advice, bits that carry over to the creation in any art form.

Shea Serrano’s Movies and Other Things was fun, and made me laugh several times.

After re-watching The Godfather and its first sequel, I picked up the novel, which was fun, pulpier than the films and had an iconic inside cover. After I read Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, which was even better.

Recently finished Mrs. Maisel and wanted to keep living in that world as well, so I finished my copy of Lenny Bruce’s How to Talk Dirty and Influence People and have come to the conclusion that I prefer the fictional portrayal.

And of course I love reading about music. More specifically The Beatles. Read Revolution in the Head, Dreaming The Beatles and 150 Glimpses and loved the different styles and tones of all three, especially the latter.

I did also read, as well as listened to, the Beastie Boys Book and would recommend both. The book’s art and photos are great, but the audiobook elevates the material, and is read by the most absurd cast ever, including Steve Buscemi, Elvis Costello, Chuck D, Snoop Dogg, Will Ferrell, Kim Gordon, LL Cool J, Spike Jonze, Rachel Maddow, Tim Meadows, Better Middler, Rosie Perez, Amy Poehler, Kelly Reichardt, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Jon Stewart and Ben Stiller.

A book I read about film and music and television and pop culture junk and how it all ties together was Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties: A Book.

On Loving God had some great passages and advice, not just for Catholics.

The Swallowed Man was a fun read, the story of Pinocchio from Geppetto’s point of view (from inside the belly of the whale, no less).

“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” didn’t offer as much insight as I was hoping for, but it was a curious glimpse at an incredibly interesting man.

I don’t really know much about poetry but I enjoyed Rotten Perfect Mouth by Eva HD, whom I discovered after watching a film I did not care for, but the poem hasn’t left me.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Ian McKellen Read Letters by Kurt Vonnegut

From two Letters Live events, great letters filled with great advice from one of the twentieth century’s best minds.

Key takeaways:

Reduce and stabilize your population.

Stop poisoning the air, the water, and the topsoil.

Stop preparing for war and start dealing with your real problems.

Teach your kids, and yourselves, too, while you’re at it, how to inhabit a small planet without helping to kill it.

Stop thinking science can fix anything if you give it a trillion dollars.

Stop thinking your grandchildren will be OK no matter how wasteful or destructive you may be, since they can go to a nice new planet on a spaceship. That is really mean, and stupid.

And so on. Or else.

And for your own personal growth:

“Practice any art… no matter how well or badly, not to get money or fame, but to experience becoming. To find out what’s inside you. To make your soul grow… Do art for the rest of your lives.”

(Via Open Culture)

Herzog’s Advice for Filmmakers

Apparently this list is on the back cover of A Guide for the Perplexed. Need to pick this up ASAP.

  1. Always take the initiative.
  2. There is nothing wrong with spending a night in jail if it means getting the shot you need.
  3. Send out all your dogs and one might return with prey.
  4. Never wallow in your troubles; despair must be kept private and brief.
  5. Learn to live with your mistakes.
  6. Expand your knowledge and understanding of music and literature, old and modern.
  7. That roll of unexposed celluloid you have in your hand might be the last in existence, so do something impressive with it.
  8. There is never an excuse not to finish a film.
  9. Carry bolt cutters everywhere.
  10. Thwart institutional cowardice.
  11. Ask for forgiveness, not permission.
  12. Take your fate into your own hands.
  13. Learn to read the inner essence of a landscape.
  14. Ignite the fire within and explore unknown territory.
  15. Walk straight ahead, never detour.
  16. Manoeuvre and mislead, but always deliver.
  17. Don’t be fearful of rejection.
  18. Develop your own voice.
  19. Day one is the point of no return.
  20. A badge of honor is to fail a film theory class.
  21. Chance is the lifeblood of cinema.
  22. Guerrilla tactics are best.
  23. Take revenge if need be.
  24. Get used to the bear behind you.

(Via Kottke)

Pet Semetary

Was on the road a lot for work the last week, and found myself on country roads in thick fog while listening to Michael C. Hall read Pet Semetary on Audible. Now it is late on this rainy autumn evening, just on the heels of Halloween, and I find myself home alone, as is Louis Creed. Even though I know what happens next, I am still terrified, for him as well as myself.

Infinite Jest

If, by the virtue of charity or the circumstance of desperation, you ever chance to spend a little time around a Substance-recovery halfway facility like Enfield MA’s state-funded Ennet House, you will acquire many exotic new facts…

That certain persons simply will not like you no matter what you do.

That you do not have to like a person in order to learn from [them]. That loneliness is not a function of solitude. That logical validity is not a guarantee of truth. That it takes effort to pay attention to any one stimulus for more than a few seconds. That boring activities become, perversely, much less boring if you concentrate intently on them. That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt. That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness.

–David Foster Wallace

“The ancient commission of the writer has not changed…

He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.

Furthermore, the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit — for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.”

–John Steinbeck

So I have been reading. A bit.

I was very slowly working my way through Jude the Obscure, but I put that down for the Beastie Boys Book. I am aware I am the only person in the history of civilization that will ever say that.

I’ve been missing Bob lately. I was hoping to see his name in the photo credits.

When I was maybe five or six, I inherited my stepbrother’s bedroom at my father’s. With it, a few things he left behind, including a Beastie Boys photo pulled from a magazine taped to the wall.

Years later, when Bob and Brian J. Bowe were working on the CREEM anthology for HarperCollins, they let me pick and transcribe a few pieces for the book. One was an interview with the Beasties by Chuck Eddy. Bob pulled the art for the article from photos he’d taken, including the one taped to my wall all those years before.

Rules for a Knight

Just finished Ethan Hawke’s epistolary novel written as a letter from a knight going into battle, to their children, imparting knowledge and what they assume will be their last words.

The book is brief and contains simple, effective language and great advice, mostly collected from various sources (credited at the end).

A few rules that stood out to me:

Humility
Never announce that you are a knight, simply behave as one.

Friendship
The quality of your life will, to a large extent, be decided by with whom you elect to spend your time.

Forgiveness
Those who cannot easily forgive will not collect many friends. Look for the best in others.

Discipline
Excellence lives in attention to detail. Give your all, all the time. Don’t save anything for the walk home.