When we are very young, Art outweighs Life - and so Art has the greater weight with the young, representing what we might become. But we expand, we grow.... when Life finally outweighs Art, Life SHOULD have the greater weight.
Life Creates Art - without the weight of fully grown Life, we remain eternal Consumers rather than Creators.
“Life Creates Art.” Right on. It’s a shame so many creatives base their work on copies of copies, trying to make the “next” this or that instead of using their life experiences as fuel for their creation. The best way to be inspired is to live.
I was absently listening to Sam Hyde's stream the other day and he actually had a great line about this sort of thing, responding to someone who sent in a question from a viewer who said they couldn't find anything to be happy about after they turned 20, or something to that effect. Hyde's response was, "At a certain point in your life, things stop making you happy. Doing things and creating things is how you find fulfillment, but things won't make you happy." I think he's right on the money. Not to say I don't derive enjoyment from various bits of pop culture paraphernalia as an adult, but less and less of it does anything for me, and even what I do enjoy... it's fun, but it doesn't make me happy, y'know?
That being said, I listened to the song and was surprised that, even though Jeff Lynne had nothing to do with the production after a certain point, you can still tell he produced the original sessions. ELO is my favorite band of all time but everything the man ever produced sounded like an ELO song.
Sam Hyde is one of the sneaky most insightful person out there.
Agreed about Jeff Lynne. I don’t think him having such a distinctive style is bad. The Beatles have gone on record saying they think ELO is what they think the Beatles likely would’ve been like as they continued. High praise. To me, “Free as a Bird” is the most Lynne-like AND the most Beatles-sounding production-wise of these three final Beatles songs (“Real Love” is the most Beatles-like compositionally in my opinion).
Maybe this is a sign of maturity that you don't get exited by cultural products that easily anymore. If you have seen a lot, you can easily see the copy of the copy of the copy.
Funnily, I got this feeling during my 20ies at a time where I would not feel mature at all. I stopped buying new music on release date as I realized that my favourite music genres had their innovative times already behind them. I also cannot think of any movie that I was looking forward to after the Lord of the Rings trilogy was finished.
As you get more time constrained due to important things like building a family, you also don't have the time to search the whole catalogue of curtural products for the hidden gems that are still released today, drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
Great points. The time constraints are a huge thing, as is the fact you mention at the end of your post: there’s just SO MUCH. The landscape is Balkanized into so many separate subcultures—mainly because this country is an empire that is really, really big—that only relatively bland stuff with huge mass appeal rises to the level of “cultural phenomenon/touchstone.” And that usually applies to the 13-25-year-old set. So oldheads like me (and you?) need to search elsewhere.
I am an oldhead, halfway through life, but I know quite a few people in my age that are still the target group of the bland stuff with mass appeal.
The time constrains in combination with unlimited choice is a major problem for me as it leads to a lot of unfinished projects. Without putting any constrains on myself, it does not work.
Maybe this is just a me thing (and possibly just semantics), but whenever new media or a new piece of art comes out, I am never excited. In fact, most of the time, I'm just surprised it came out at all. What excites me is if the work is good, and if it does its job, and speaks to me the way it ought to. And I must say, "Now & Then" did the trick for me. Gorgeous gorgeous song, beautifully arranged. Same goes for the news of a new Judas Priest tune, "Panic Attack." But I think it is the difference between "oh wow new product" and "hey, this just dropped, wonder what it's like," the difference between obsession and consumption versus a healthy interest upon discovery.
Interest is a good way of putting it. It’s related to excitement without being obsessive or fanatical, turning pop culture and the consumption thereof into a religious experience.
When we are very young, Art outweighs Life - and so Art has the greater weight with the young, representing what we might become. But we expand, we grow.... when Life finally outweighs Art, Life SHOULD have the greater weight.
Life Creates Art - without the weight of fully grown Life, we remain eternal Consumers rather than Creators.
“Life Creates Art.” Right on. It’s a shame so many creatives base their work on copies of copies, trying to make the “next” this or that instead of using their life experiences as fuel for their creation. The best way to be inspired is to live.
I was absently listening to Sam Hyde's stream the other day and he actually had a great line about this sort of thing, responding to someone who sent in a question from a viewer who said they couldn't find anything to be happy about after they turned 20, or something to that effect. Hyde's response was, "At a certain point in your life, things stop making you happy. Doing things and creating things is how you find fulfillment, but things won't make you happy." I think he's right on the money. Not to say I don't derive enjoyment from various bits of pop culture paraphernalia as an adult, but less and less of it does anything for me, and even what I do enjoy... it's fun, but it doesn't make me happy, y'know?
That being said, I listened to the song and was surprised that, even though Jeff Lynne had nothing to do with the production after a certain point, you can still tell he produced the original sessions. ELO is my favorite band of all time but everything the man ever produced sounded like an ELO song.
Sam Hyde is one of the sneaky most insightful person out there.
Agreed about Jeff Lynne. I don’t think him having such a distinctive style is bad. The Beatles have gone on record saying they think ELO is what they think the Beatles likely would’ve been like as they continued. High praise. To me, “Free as a Bird” is the most Lynne-like AND the most Beatles-sounding production-wise of these three final Beatles songs (“Real Love” is the most Beatles-like compositionally in my opinion).
Maybe this is a sign of maturity that you don't get exited by cultural products that easily anymore. If you have seen a lot, you can easily see the copy of the copy of the copy.
Funnily, I got this feeling during my 20ies at a time where I would not feel mature at all. I stopped buying new music on release date as I realized that my favourite music genres had their innovative times already behind them. I also cannot think of any movie that I was looking forward to after the Lord of the Rings trilogy was finished.
As you get more time constrained due to important things like building a family, you also don't have the time to search the whole catalogue of curtural products for the hidden gems that are still released today, drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
Great points. The time constraints are a huge thing, as is the fact you mention at the end of your post: there’s just SO MUCH. The landscape is Balkanized into so many separate subcultures—mainly because this country is an empire that is really, really big—that only relatively bland stuff with huge mass appeal rises to the level of “cultural phenomenon/touchstone.” And that usually applies to the 13-25-year-old set. So oldheads like me (and you?) need to search elsewhere.
The good thing is that we can! It’s out there.
I am an oldhead, halfway through life, but I know quite a few people in my age that are still the target group of the bland stuff with mass appeal.
The time constrains in combination with unlimited choice is a major problem for me as it leads to a lot of unfinished projects. Without putting any constrains on myself, it does not work.
Agreed! There’s just so much out there that, absent discernment and constraints, you’ll just drown.
Maybe this is just a me thing (and possibly just semantics), but whenever new media or a new piece of art comes out, I am never excited. In fact, most of the time, I'm just surprised it came out at all. What excites me is if the work is good, and if it does its job, and speaks to me the way it ought to. And I must say, "Now & Then" did the trick for me. Gorgeous gorgeous song, beautifully arranged. Same goes for the news of a new Judas Priest tune, "Panic Attack." But I think it is the difference between "oh wow new product" and "hey, this just dropped, wonder what it's like," the difference between obsession and consumption versus a healthy interest upon discovery.
Interest is a good way of putting it. It’s related to excitement without being obsessive or fanatical, turning pop culture and the consumption thereof into a religious experience.