"i hate to show up out of the blue, uninvited..."
i'd heard that adele did something incredible at the british music awards recently. her performance received some criticism for being... somewhat affected, shall we say. i cry horsefeathers. the only affectation is the glitter rain. what she's doing on stage at that moment is being present. if you're going to sing about heartbreak and sing like you mean it, the first one to crack will be your own. i prefer her more upbeat work, but she's always so beautiful and this really got me. nsfw if your mascara's not waterproof.
amanda palmer blogged a cohesive little number about the horror of oslo, the beauty of life in the face of mortality, art and the love that strings it all together. her twitter drives me nuts but her blog has some fire to it.
she had an astute observation on amy winehouse:
"there’s heaps of lessons to be learned from watching the downfalls, but there’s absolutely zero to be gained by declaring war on the dead. following the links, i looked at the recent footage of amy winehouse taken at shows a few weeks/months ago where she’s clearly in pain, clearly losing the plot. most disturbingly, not seeing the crowd. totally disconnected from the people who are there because they love her music, know every word to every song.
her eyes can’t focus on the people who are there to love her. they’re cheering, they’re rooting for her.
that’s the saddest part to me. that she can’t seem to see them."
i'm sad for the loss of another great voice. that she struggled so publicly was upsetting. if there is any good to come from the death of amy winehouse, it is the raised voices insisting that it is well past time this society stopped romanticizing the image of the tortured artiste. there is absolutely nothing glamorous or newsworthy about addiction, it is not something to be photographed and broadcast for ridicule. it kills so many amazing and wonderful people who could be out there, contributing to the flow of incredible art or doing whatever else it is that they do.
following that, she ties in a fantastically joyful teaching moment with a young musician on the connection between artist and audience, how essential it is to recognize and honor that. it's got broader application for creative types of all sorts. it doesn't come from a vacuum, it's not going back into one. love that.
thoughts can't be put back either. me, myself and i, we're still stumbling along. i was talking through an awkward new visual project, looking to smooth out the rough spots because it's on a tight deadline. i got a little truthy and made a small aside comment and got a gentle "well, that's really worth looking at and saying, too." what? i'd meant to be slightly self-deprecating and full of snark. true words spoken in jest? yeah, it was like falling down several flights of stairs. this awkward ostrich has some sand to shake out of her ears.
Click to viewamanda palmer blogged a cohesive little number about the horror of oslo, the beauty of life in the face of mortality, art and the love that strings it all together. her twitter drives me nuts but her blog has some fire to it.
she had an astute observation on amy winehouse:
"there’s heaps of lessons to be learned from watching the downfalls, but there’s absolutely zero to be gained by declaring war on the dead. following the links, i looked at the recent footage of amy winehouse taken at shows a few weeks/months ago where she’s clearly in pain, clearly losing the plot. most disturbingly, not seeing the crowd. totally disconnected from the people who are there because they love her music, know every word to every song.
her eyes can’t focus on the people who are there to love her. they’re cheering, they’re rooting for her.
that’s the saddest part to me. that she can’t seem to see them."
i'm sad for the loss of another great voice. that she struggled so publicly was upsetting. if there is any good to come from the death of amy winehouse, it is the raised voices insisting that it is well past time this society stopped romanticizing the image of the tortured artiste. there is absolutely nothing glamorous or newsworthy about addiction, it is not something to be photographed and broadcast for ridicule. it kills so many amazing and wonderful people who could be out there, contributing to the flow of incredible art or doing whatever else it is that they do.
following that, she ties in a fantastically joyful teaching moment with a young musician on the connection between artist and audience, how essential it is to recognize and honor that. it's got broader application for creative types of all sorts. it doesn't come from a vacuum, it's not going back into one. love that.
thoughts can't be put back either. me, myself and i, we're still stumbling along. i was talking through an awkward new visual project, looking to smooth out the rough spots because it's on a tight deadline. i got a little truthy and made a small aside comment and got a gentle "well, that's really worth looking at and saying, too." what? i'd meant to be slightly self-deprecating and full of snark. true words spoken in jest? yeah, it was like falling down several flights of stairs. this awkward ostrich has some sand to shake out of her ears.