Michigan & Huron
I love these Forgive scrawls (and also the “Nothing is Permanent” chalk drawings) in Chicago. I don’t live in Chicago any more, but my best friend still sends them to me when she finds them. Except she just moved away from Chicago today! So. You know. If you are a Chicagoan, and you find one of these, I would be ecstatic if you sent it to me with details on where you found it.
Have you, like everyone else, heard this Ira Glass quote?
“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me … is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.
It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
This quote makes the round on the Tumbland frequently, and for pretty good reasons. It is a lifeline when you are heads down in your work and going nuts about how it’s still not good enough.
I started this “make a short song every day, Monday-thru-Friday” phase last week. Here are some principles I am trying to follow: create obstacles. Don’t bore yourself. Let it be bad! Savor mistakes.
I have eight of these things so far, and part of me wants to post the best of them here to prove that I’m a real musician (Look, guys, I really do stuff! I promise!) but part of me knows that I’m not quite there yet, and it’s better to wait until I make something that is so awesome I can’t stand to do anything BUT share it.
1000x better than “It Gets Better.” Stop lying to kids, it doesn’t get better unless we make it better, and we can only make it better by utterly destroying heteropatriarchy.
*destroying racist ableist (all the -ists) heteropatriarchy (kyriarchy?)
Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes
THANK YOU. “It Gets Better” was a well-intended but incredibly problematic campaign. It will NOT “get better” until we MAKE IT better.
Oh my god, I love this so much.
(Source: queeryouthspace)
I not-so-secretly long to be an advice columnist. Ask away.
(via shorterexcerpts)
Last year, I had a Project. I was always working on it. It was invigorating and fulfilling. I felt direction. I could see where I was going and I could see where I needed to go, even if I didn’t always know how I was going to get there. One day, I finished it, and I haven’t had a Project since.
It’s a hard space to be in. I still work really hard. I write every day; I practice; I read. I take guitar lessons. I’m in a poetry program. There are little things that excite me about what I’m doing but it’s hard to not be able to connect them to an overarching Thing. When I’m in the trenches it’s easy to feel like I’m not digging forward, I’m just digging down.
Harder still, I have a lot of people in my life right now who do have Projects, and they’re blooming. It totally inflames this part of me that says, “They’re Real Artists. They’re Better. You’re the Worst Who Ever Was.”
I just had a meeting with my mentor who assured me that these feelings are pretty normal, and to not listen to that crazy voice. There’s room for everyone, and you have to work at your own pace and develop on your own schedule. Even if you are digging down, eventually you’ll end up in China.
It feels like I didn’t do anything in 2011 but that is a lie. Here is a list:
Things I want to do in 2012:
— Stephen Elliot, The Daily Rumpus 12/29/2011
Oh Tumblr, did you know that today is not only the day after Christmas, the first day of Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, and the feast of St. Stephen — it is also my birthday? Yes. It is. I have managed to turn 27.
This morning my aunt asked me on the phone, “What does 27 mean to you?” Which, honestly, kind of a weird question, so I said, “Uh… in astrology it’s the year of your Saturn Return? And uh, I guess I’m officially in my late twenties now, I feel pretty good about that…”
And that’s true! I do feel good about being in my late twenties. I feel good because life is getting better. I’m getting better at writing and playing guitar. I’m getting better at dealing with difficult times (because let’s face it, there will always be difficult times). I have friends and family that I love. I’m not afraid of having peaked; I’m not actually convinced I ever will peak.
I’m excited to see what I can do this year. I have a feeling whatever it is, it’s going to be great.
— Jennifer Crusie, “Rats with Islands: How To Survive Your Publishing Career”
