Marionette Von Trapps! Bizarre Adjectives! Comparative Values in Artistic Motivations!

   Went to see another Center Stage production this evening. The Salzburg Marionette Theatre are touring in the US this month, and we were one of the stops for a couple of days, apparently! The Sound of Music, put on today and yesterday, Thursday and Wednesday.

   I snapped a few pics after the show, some of which are better than others, of the "actors" of the thing, hanging around (I... I think I'm sorry for that one?)

   This is where we stumble across the conflict at the heart of art, the purpose of creation, because... because I'm pretty tired right now, not even as tired as I am sometimes when writing up one of these posts at the end of the day, but I just want to go to bed, and, I can do that, because I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for me...

   I just worked out the extreme hypotheticals, and, that makes sense, that even if an artist produces art to bless the lives of others, if he or she isn't blessing their own lives as well in the process, none of it is worth it. I wouldn't walk away from Ursula Le Guin's Omelas, though, so, yes I'm a hypocrite and it's all just opinion anyway, which means that the question has no real answer except, yeah, those that are within that ghostly asparagusly realm of opinion... (I'm working on my, adjectives; those punch things up. So far, though, I'm not sure if I've got the hang of it or not...)

   I just finished listening to an Image Comics podcast (right here!) of an hour-long panel recorded during, New York Comic Con I think is the one, 2015, and nearer to the end the panelists talk about, the drive to create art, basically, versus the drive to have had created art: people who want to write comics, is the language used, versus people who want to write autographs. And you can always tell the difference.

   I don't enjoy writing. I've said this before. I enjoy having written, very much-- so, yes, I do enjoy writing, but it's not my default go-to hobby like other things would be. I really want to write TTDECBA, because it's the kind of thing that I'd want to read, but I've very seldom "forced" any of my art; anything but letting it grow naturally is anathema to me. They further talk in the panel about how the best most successful comics are the ones created by true lovers of the story they're telling, rather than the ones that are just playing to any trends (which, I just realized-- does anyone really do that, or is it a dead unicorn? Clearly there are still the comics-writers vs the autographs-writers, still, so either way yeah I guess it makes sense that the winners are always the comics writers.) That's true; the best artists are always the ones who do it for the love of the craft.

   I love blogging? So I do it for myself, and that makes it better for you... My hypothetical Omelas artist could never exist. Some small comfort. Recapitulating the theme, then, and hopefully tying it up (with a ball gag! wrong kind of tying up,) yes, I can go to bed, serving myself, but by now, diving headfirst into the juiciness of this issue, I'm no longer tired, and could really continue if I wanted, serving you. Or, no longer as tired. I still think it would serve you best to serve myself.

   Tomorrow's Friday, which means no class, but it doesn't mean no homework, and I'd really like to get that done in the morning, because I've got a (I want to use the word juicy again, so hey why not juicy) reservation for P2B in the afternoon, which something something something TED except with BYUI? Supposed to be a lot of great networking ops! I'll let you know how that turns out, soon as I figure out what I'd want to network fer...