1717 Anything Nice.
Just let him twist in the wind why don’t you, Alex?
I’ve got that blank inside feeling I get sometimes. It happens more often when my allergies are bad, and they have been all summer. I don’t feel creative at all. If I were anyone else I’d just say I have art block and quit working, but I’ve trained that nonsense out of myself. I think that art block, as a concept, is part of the toxic thinking that artists are encouraged to believe in. Culture at large doesn’t want to pay for work, so if artists don’t think what they do has value that’s free work for people. If they get told all their lives that it’s okay to be flaky because they are artistic they will be, which reinforces the negative stereotypes about artists and creative people in general.
What matters about a person is what they can do for other people.
28 Comments
Hey John –
You clearly don’t relish the taste so that foot, so mustard? Or maybe you would like your brain some time to ketchup?
Maybe “book smarts” would deliver a relatively honest answer without smarting to much?
—
Jackie – Do you take antihistamines? I found that when I was finally able to stop taking antihistamines it was like someone had put me on stimulants (even thought the antihistamines were “non-sedating”) … hope you start to feel closer to how good you deserve!
I’m supposed to avoid antihistamines because of my blood pressure medicine, so I haven’t taken any for well over a year. Possibly two. They never really helped much anyway.
I guess it’s hard to stop something you aren’t doing … have you tried allergy shots?
I think you relish these puns
Go ahead, butter ’em up!
It’s thyme for more puns, I see!
:D
Vive les puns!
I’mayonaised that I can says a me have seeded a bun thread!
Those are some beautiful puns! :)
Sometimes, Betweenfailures gets too sauce-y for me.
Not a pun, but- this is a joke from around 2000:
How do you find Ronald Mcdonald on a nude beach,
Answer: by his sesame seed buns! :D
Not many people get to dig their own graves.
I disagree too many people dig their own graves now-a-days.
“A certain… je ne sais quoi.”
“What?”
“Exactly.”
That’s an excellent suggestion … though I suspect Maddie might be better at understanding she’s being talked down to than we give her credit for …
Just say it in French, even insults sound like wiping your ass with a silk sheet.
I don’t know, “manger de la merde” always leaves a bad taste in my mouth ;-)
Just not Quebecker French. Or worse, for that matter – Maine French!
That’s interesting.
Maybe you’ve heard of this one, but there is an insult in France, which is: [a translation]- “He/she is a sh** in a ball of silk.” Reading about insults from other countries can be fun. :)
the sass is so strong
I’m so glad that I only ever get into John’s position when I speak of a friend’s flaw. On account of being so detached from the greater human population, I can (and have) insulted people without skipping a beat. In fact, I love ridiculing stupid–not clinically retarded–people whenever I get the chance, so Maddison would make for a jolly good mockery.
I dunno John, you really should be able to get out of this one. Both of them actually, the double play is right there.
I do believe artist block is a real thing. It tends to happen to me when I’m writing – I get to a point where the words won’t do my vision justice. And I struggle for a while, staring at the wall or a book or something, totally frustrated I can’t make myself get over it. And then suddenly I can just start writing again. I found out that half the time it’s artistic exhaustion I’m suffering (see below). Once I figured that out, I realized I’m only getting artist block maybe once or twice a year.
However, yes, it is overused as an excuse to stop doing something creative because suddenly you find out you have a lack of skill or you’ve taken on something too big for you. Or maybe the artist is lazy. Or a thousand other reasons that don’t pertain to an actual mental block.
Maybe – if the artist admitted it – they are facing creative exhaustion. They’ve done something for so long they can’t make themselves produce at the level they have in the past. I have artist friends who are so obsessed with meeting these insane deadlines for themselves that they eventually go right to the “artist block” excuse. I used to, but then I realized I just need to step away for a week and actually rest my noodle.
A good / bad example would be a certain [possibly well known] artists proclivity to jump into side stories where once before he just did “sad girl in snow” pages as filler because he just wasn’t feeling it.
Oops.
You’ve really put yourself in trouble this time, John. 0.o
Maybe John could right this situation, by saying:
“Reggie likes [clever] girls. Find out what things you are clever at, then show them to Reggie.
I like that our ratio of nice solutions to mean ones is so high …
:D
Height! A certain level of, uh, height… Yeah, that’s it.
Now this sounds like the degree of suaveness that John is inclined to reach.
Time to blatantly lie. “You just not as tall as the type of girls I thought Reggie went for.” Something like that. Or, “you’re a lot more bubbly/less sarcastic” or something. Plenty of ways to twist what you’re saying before you truly step in it.
Turn it around into a compliment:
“Well, his last crush was on the scrawny side, while your figure is… rubenesque.” Now, lean in and roll that R when you say it.
You might still be in trouble, but at least it’ll be a different kind of trouble that you might appreciate a bit more.