Notes From The Edge of the Universe

but show me a person who always feels fine and i’ll show you a...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:06:32 -0400

but show me a person who always feels fine

and i’ll show you a lying sack of shit

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:57:37 -0400

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:54:54 -0400

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Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:18:23 -0400

bohemea: Audrey Hepburn

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:36:52 -0400

bohemea:

Audrey Hepburn

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Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:13:44 -0400

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Tue, 11 Jun 2013 01:31:15 -0400

"[The theatre director and actor] Paul [Lazar] also said to me, ‘You know, there’s no guarantee of..."

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:36:55 -0400

“

[The theatre director and actor] Paul [Lazar] also said to me, ‘You know, there’s no guarantee of making a good living, moneywise, in [the art] world, so if that’s what you want—you know, monetary success, if that’s where the value lies—maybe you made a wrong choice quite a few years ago.

[…]

I was at the Obie Awards the other night, and I had the same feeling. These people were winning awards, some of them were known but really most of them, unless you’re in the theatre world…are unknown, and they’ve been working, a lot of them, for years and years, decades sometimes, and have these incredibly satisfying lives doing what it is that they love to do. I don’t know all their financial circumstances…I think for some of you that’s gotta be really scary right now.

[…]

Well, this is really what matters, that’s really what matters, and it’s something that’s not reflected in these pie charts or graphs. And that’s where these graphs and pie charts lead us astray. They give us kind of false values, and make us think that we have to grade everything according to this criteria, which is not true. The decision is yours, ours—whatever. And I believe that there is a way to have a very, very satisfying, enriching and creative life in the arts, but it depends on what criteria you use to look at that. But I would say that if you’re being creative, with happiness, satisfaction, all that—you’re succeeding. That’s it for me.

”

- David Byrne’s commencement address at Columbia’s School of the Arts got the short end of the media coverage stick, dubbed a “downer” by some and a “disappointment” by others. But such reactions seem to be missing Byrne’s Allan Wattsian point – rather than telling graduating seniors not to enter the arts, the heart of Byrne’s message seems to be that this is a new creative landscape in which we should aim to find our own purpose, define our own success, and not succumb to the cult of money as the measure of fulfilling work.

Complement with this season’s other notable commencement addresses: Debbie Millman on courage and the creative life, Greil Marcus on “high” and “low” culture, Arianna Huffington on success, Joss Whedon on embracing our inner contradictions, Oprah Winfrey on failure and finding your purpose, and Judith Butler on the value of reading and the humanities.

Also see David Byrne on how creativity works.

(via explore-blog)