personal

The internet has opened up the distribution channels for all aspiring/hobbying artists.

Before* a band had to buy expensive recording time and get the backing of a label to release an album. Now they can record and mix with GarageBand and ProTools, then distribute with CDBaby.

Before* a filmmaker had to get expensive equipment and convince a studio or independent theater to distribute a movie. Now she can take a Flip camera, edit in iMovie, then post to Youtube, Vimeo, or Viddler.

Before* a photographer had to start a shop, or have work commissioned through a broker. Now he can display his work through Flickr.

Before* a writer had to send her novel to twenty publishing houses and hope the right people liked what they saw. Now, she can self-publish digitally, or in print through Lulu.

* Before means 15 years ago, roughly. In some cases, the change is even more recent.

The Cult of the Amateur?

A book by that title by Andrew Keen brings up the valid point that opening up the distribution channels opens up our world to a flood of amateur art. The undertone is a fear that we’ll be inundated with “crap” and it will become very difficult to find quality content. This in turn, will stress the market for good/high art, possibly decreasing its future output.

Is it possible that today’s generations will never see the creation of a Sistine Chapel in their lifetime? Absolutely. I don’t think the vanishing cost of distribution cost is the only (or even a major) factor, but I buy the argument that it plays a role. I could discuss these arguments, and the question of whether it’s more difficult to find great high art now, but I want to consider the value of amateur art.

Tribal Art

The definition of “good” high art is quite different than the definition of “good” amateur art.

Good high art either inspires an elite group of tastemakers, or is widely appreciated for craftsmanship/emotion/artistry (i.e. The Mona Lisa).

Good amateur art galvanizes a group of people to form a tribe around appreciating it. Let me qualify my use of the word amateur here; I user it as a substitute for “low” art, which is terribly condescending. Musicologists likely consider Nickelback to be quite amateur, but they are very successful because they have a strong, loyal tribe of fans.

The tribal experience surrounding an amateur band, a small-scale independent filmmaker, or a novelist who posts chapters each month on his blog is something that can’t be replicated in the world of “high” art. This is the art of our ancestors, passing down stories by word and drawing, building literal tribes based on those mythologies.

High art is often (there are, of course, numerous exceptions) approached too academically to generate the kind of passion and community that amateur art can.

Not only has the internet opened up distribution opportunities, its made it easier for fans to coalesce into tribes. How incredible is that?! What is it when 1,000 fans of an obscure documentary can get together (virtually) and have spirited discussions that were not possible twenty years ago?

That’s value, and I think more value than finding the next Sistine Chapel.

Shout Outs:
Who are some great amateur artists (any form) that you love? Spread the love from your tribes!

Bonus:
From my docket:
John Garrison (musician) – found his album Above the Cosmos through my college radio station. Great singer/songwriter with electronic and rock overtones.

I recently made a trip up to Durham, North Carolina (to watch the Duke Blue Devils DESTROY unc and claim an ACC championship), and as such spent several hours in the hallowed Krzyzewskiville (where I used to live).

The weather in Krzyzewskiville is typically cold (the low was about 27 degrees on Friday night), making dressing stylishly a difficult challenge.

Naturally, I was interested by the challenge, and participated in it with gusto. I’ll talk about how to dress to your style despite cold conditions later, but today I want to talk about what the point of that is.

Many people consider fashion/style to be a reflection of ourselves or a form of communication. Thus, we can talk of whether this communication is honest; whether it reflects what we truly feel. In cold weather, this manifests itself in the question of whether warmth and comfort is more important than the visual image we project.

I was thinking about whether being uncomfortable to allow my standard style meant:

• My honest feeling is that I valued the style over the warmth.
• OR

  My honest feeling is that I valued the warmth over the style, and my fashion communicates dishonestly.

It’s a tricky philosophical question, and I don’t have a clear answer yet. I’ll be thinking about this over the coming week, and I’d like to hear what your opinions are. Has a similar situation come up for you?

Everything I talk, write, pontificate, and shout about on this website is for fun. Really. Nothing bad is going to happen to you if you don’t care about fashion or style. Nothing truly bad would happen to you if you randomly picked clothes from a box every morning (so long as they fit; one could get hurt otherwise…).

It doesn’t matter if you match your shoes to your belt.
It doesn’t matter if you buy clothes that fit well.
It doesn’t matter if you change from business to casual.

Nothing bad will happen.

But good things can happen if you do. Fashion and style, for me at least, are about enjoyment, about expression, about puzzles and challenges (this is the mathematician in me speaking). It’s not about following the rules, fitting guidelines, or being “acceptable.” Those are distinctly negative outlooks, and I don’t want that in my life.

It all comes down to entertainment for me.

I am entertained when I dress, when I try on clothes and play with images and visual looks. Just as someone who plays baseball gets enjoyment out of doing it, and doing it well, I get enjoyment out of playing fashion. I thought about putting the word “playing” in quotes in that last sentence (the fact that I did so in this sentence is a tragic coincidence), but that would be disingenuous. It really is playing. It’s fun for me. It might not be fun for others; we all enjoy different things (where I like fashion, tennis, mathematics, and baseball, another might like saxophone, poker, soccer, and carpentry).

I know a lot of people out there who would enjoy fashion/style/dressing don’t give it a chance. That’s a big reason I do this; I make a moderate fool of myself sometimes in putting my content, my image, my text and video out there. Guess what? It doesn’t matter! Nothing bad happens. I hope people see that and realize that there’s another side to fashion besides the (somewhat fictional and largely inconsequential) clique of perfectly-pressed girls who look exactly like a page in a catalog and roll their eyes at anyone who doesn’t.

Further, entertainment is rarely one-sided. Even when we don’t make it explicit (like a musician going on stage for a show), we constantly entertain those around us. A coworker mentioned to me that she looks forward to seeing what I wear each day (because I typically dress the most unusually in the office; I wouldn’t even say I’m the best dresser). Because I allow myself to have fun; to be creative; to express joy through something like fashion, I make someone’s day a little better. That’s really, really cool.

So, when I say something in a video that sounds like a rule, that sounds like a box, that sounds like a stuck-up guy rolling his eyes at you, remember; it doesn’t matter. Not one bit. I’m just talking about what I like to do; some of that will mesh with what you want to do (even if you didn’t know it before). What matters is that you go be you, and feel no shame in doing so.

-Barry

I was working out last evening, thinking about how easy it is to come up with excuses to not get the most out of a work out. It’s easy to rationalize out of doing the last set, citing “a need to get home to work” or thinking “I don’t want to embarrass myself doing 3 pullups in front of that huge guy.”

Thus, I moved on to consider a bit of external motivation. My first thought was to donate some money to charity every time I failed to attempt a part of my workout (nothing wrong with giving your all and not making reps). There are a lot of reputable athletics-related charities out there, so it made sense.

But, the fact that the money goes to a good cause provides another convenient rationalization. Don’t want to do that last set of sprints? It’s OK, you’re donating to charity. It has the potential to do very little for the actual discipline and the actual workout.

On the other hand, I don’t want to actually destroy money, or donate to a truly evil organization; missed workouts happen and I don’t want to contribute to something that’s going to hurt people.

What was I to do? I turned and saw the dreaded logo:

As a proud graduate of Duke University and extreme Cameron Crazie, I have an unbridled hatred for the UNC Tar Heels. However, I must admit that, being a college, they don’t actually bring evil to the world.

Thus, a donation to the University of North Carolina shall be in order for every missed workout/unattempted set, etc. I haven’t figured out the exact numbers yet, but the concept is strong.

Hopefully a lot of people will take my advice as I’m guessing about half of you would end up donating to Duke!

I hope that most of you are reading this post on Saturday, or even Sunday. But, I suspect you are indeed reading it on December 25th, Christmas day.

It’s not surprising; at least for me, there is often a surprising amount of downtime on Christmas, whether from waking up early to a quiet house as siblings play with their newfound gadgets. And naturally I end up surfing the internet.

So for anyone out there in the same boat; take some extra time with the family today. Things won’t fall apart if you don’t put in the usual 8 (or 12) hours. Recharge. Reconnect. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas or any other holiday today, take a few extra hours to yourself.

Then go out and dominate tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!