An apology for all my fellow writer.

Originally posted by masqua
reply to post by B.Morrison

Sensationally in depth & considerate reply, has to be said first, nothing makes me happier than a point by point deconstruction, and i really do mean that

The respect I'm shown fuels the integrity of my response, i.e. you have led by example and it encourages me to do the same.

The problem is Net Nanny programs....

and my ignorance re: the ins & outs of website management become apparent. that is an unfortunate reality for ats to be dealing with.

On top of that is the politically correct desires of advertisers not to offend.

Same thing that caused the final appearence of the late great Bill hicks on letterman to be canned & never make it to air....correction...think i finally saw it in its entirety ON letterman show, as part of a special aired earlier this year in which Dave interviews Bills mother.

to specify, the advertisers/sponsors did not take kindly to his abortion jokes.
that is the only similarity i'm drawing here, just saying
'ah, that's unfortunate'

advertising dollars which keeps ATS free for its membership.

cheers for that btw, i dig this site, even beginning to adapt to the T&C....

I also write stories

awesome

and ATS is almost exclusively the only venue I use.

ditto...not for my short stories yet, but maybe soon....
ditto in a different context,
This is the only forum i've come across worth being part of (imho)
And i want to mention that I have followed variants of sites like this before but the ats vibe is missing.
sure there's people & comments that might annoy you
(as there are in anything),
but what IS good about this site, is REALLY good.

The Terms and Conditions prevent me from doing so.

its almost its own beast.....like how a corporation is a legal 'person'. T&C might well take on a life of it own with the amount of energy directed at it...j/k

BUT, I also have other venues where such restrictions do not apply.

at the end of the day i COULD always post what I cannot here, somewhere else. valid & fair, I just like ats more. and the T&C less. I realise that my outrage or whatnot has been gone over a thousand times before with all the other members that noticed the same things i did. must be getting old by now. It took me a while to realise that its abide by T&C or tough cookies.
Now that I see it for what it is I have no problem accepting it.

I can't afford the character cost to quote it, but thank you for the book/author referrals & I agree with your points regarding visual arts,
honestly i'm not familiar with bukowski's work, just the name.
namely from the modest mouse song.
Finding out that (if i understand correctly) he used certain words for shock value resulting in mundane works, puts the lyrics of that song in a different light.

which by the way,

"The ocean breaths salty"

I still think has some of the greatest verses i've ever heard.
the lyrics in their entirety are ridiculously good.

"your body may be gone i'm gonna carry you in, in my head in my heart in my soul......"

"You tell me what you saw/And I'll tell you what you missed"

"you wasted life why wouldn't you waste the afterlife..."

would post the whole song if i could.

also note worthy for expression would be 'i want more' part 1 by faithless, or for more abstract & sophisticated story telling you can't go past 'trickle down' by 'ani difranco', or for something closer to home for our american readers, 'self evident' by same artist. That last one is poetry through & through, and a topic befitting for ats.

whoooooooooa, sidetracked.

Question... what, pray tell, does 'sense' have to do with the creative process? The arts make no sense whatsoever.

you just made my point for me, art is feeling, logic is thinking, sometimes it can be hard to reconcile the 2 when your heart wants freedom of expression but your mind knows it cannot be. That is all i meant with the reconcile comment AND the sense/right comment.
If THAT does not make sense then i cannot be any clearer.

It was not to suggest that there is any way around T&C or should be. but if u took the mind out of the equation, the heart would be violating t&c constantly, again...i hope that the meaning has now been clarified because i'm at a loss as to how to explain it any better.

Anyone, like myself, who embarks upon a 'career' in the creative arts is, in many ways, doomed to a life of struggle and poverty. It is NOT a 'career' in that it is an enterprise rarely associated with profit.

you didn't know this, but you don't need to tell me this, i live it and have for the last decade. Your reply made it apparent that we are 'in the same boat' in more ways than i think either of us realised. I live for creation, I need to create. my medium is music. every several months or so I see an image in my mind stop everything & hammer it out, so i draw/photoshop too, and then maybe once a year i get the motivation together to write out one of my many ideas for stories. I'm not bragging nor is it a competition, simply stating how we relate. I have chosen to make music my career, studying at uni/tafe doesn't improve the cashflow situation unfortunately.

Your concept of the importance of art was a pleasure to read, very elequently put & apt observations. What unifies your points, is that the importance of the language depends on its context and even then its minor.

That said, I really really really enjoy saying F-[snip] when i stub my toe for e.g. no other word provides the same release, but thats subjectable to the speaker.

Finally, I think, based on everything you wrote, that you would be not only inspired by, but wholeheartedly agree, with this particular philosophical truth expressed as only terrance mckenna could in this video "Terrence McKenna's message to artists..
so as you can see, his idea mirrors the importance you have placed on art.
as he says "anything less....."
keep saving the universal soul of man Masqua income is no real measure of the worth of your work, never let yourself think otherwise
-B.M

[edit on 24/11/09 by B.Morrison]

reply to post by B.Morrison


I'm familiar with the substantial and visionary works of Terrance McKenna and the message encapsulated in the short vid provided by yourself entirely supports everything I've done, mostly as a painter and, secondly, as a poet. Other persons of influence regarding art is Cg Jung, David Lewis-Williams, the poets Shelley, Graves and WB Yeats.

An indication of why I'm an ATS'er would likely be the number of Science Fiction authors who bear responsibility for forming my mindset early on. a lot of their thinking is also evident in my work... people like Farmer, Harrison, Bradbury and Azimov.

If there is a meaning to the word 'soul', I would propose it to be the 'interface' between a collective universal consciousnous and individual consciousness. Soul is that which gives us those 'Eureka Moments' when some new understanding comes unbidden to us... a revelation or vision out of the blue.

As you mentioned, an image for a musical piece is 'seen' in your mind which then prompts you to pursue it with your friends and 'hammer it out'. Painting follows the same procedure for me. EVERY painting within the past 5 years has come from a single idea which puts a blank canvas in my hands. Hammering out that idea might take weeks or even months, even to the point where it is considered a failed experiment, shelved and not taken down for years. It's a long-term process in many cases and often associated with much profanity silently mumbled in frustration to my own inadaquacies.

Strange thing is that many years later I will look upon the effort, see the intent with new eyes and once again tackle the concept, this time to completion. Often, such 'failed' works turn into my most treasured accomplishments.

If I felt self-important enough to pen my memoirs and all of that history which must be detailed as an influence in my 50 years as an artist... and how it all relates to my work:

(Hitler, Faust, Mao, JFK, rockets, stars, death, ecstasy, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, the psychedelic 60's, hippies, neocons, skinheads, the cold war, nuclear annihilation, super highways, '57 chevy's, Bob Dylan, Op and Pop art, Ma and Pa Kettle, Beverly hillbillies, The Family, Ronnie Reagan, Rwandan genocide, Cambodia, 2012, the apocalypse, global warming, ice ages, ELE's, asteroids, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, the doors of perception, cash flow, depressions, corporatism, Buddha, alligators, bee populations, dinosaurs, catastrophy, reality shows, Glenn Beck, Sitting Bull, William Commanda, racism, liberalism and SO MANY OTHER THINGS)

Then I have to ask why it is important to note that I used profanity to express frustration on a failed effort?



BTW... thank you for the great response above. You and I truly DO understand each other as artists.

Did I mention I love music?