"Because all I ever needed was for people to *care*" "But it's fucking imperative, for me, that it has the capacity to make someone else happy too."
^This. 100%. Paul can go down and noodle on his guitar for hours just for the Hell of it, but when I sing it has to be *for* something. Even if it's just making someone laugh in the car but it's never really been for me. It's something I do for other people and I need to know they like it.
On my lunch break today, I was reading Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process (homework for the dance intensive I'm heading to next week), and there was a bit that resonated with this idea and made me think of you both:
No matter how short the presentation, how fragmentary the excerpt, or how early the stage of development, artists want to hear that what they have just completed has significance to another human being.
It's funny what you mentioned about Paul. John's the same way, but unlike Paul he is not and never has been a performer, so he's only ever played for his own enjoyment. I can also spend hours playing music for my own enjoyment, but I seldom dance for my own pleasure, except to live music. I was trying to think about why that is, and I don't think I have a good answer. Something to do with mediation, ephemera, and creating out of the body vs. through an instrument, but I don't quite have it yet.
No, I get where you're going. I've tried to explain something similar, that my voice is always with me. Paul and some friends have always talked about how they'd "die" if they couldn't create and perform but I ventured that I wasn't that way because my voice is always with me. I can sing anytime, anywhere much like I imagine it is for you and dance. It's a part of us, it's not a thing we do so when we share it we have to know it was for a purpose, if that makes sense.
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^This. 100%. Paul can go down and noodle on his guitar for hours just for the Hell of it, but when I sing it has to be *for* something. Even if it's just making someone laugh in the car but it's never really been for me. It's something I do for other people and I need to know they like it.
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No matter how short the presentation, how fragmentary the excerpt, or how early the stage of development, artists want to hear that what they have just completed has significance to another human being.
It's funny what you mentioned about Paul. John's the same way, but unlike Paul he is not and never has been a performer, so he's only ever played for his own enjoyment. I can also spend hours playing music for my own enjoyment, but I seldom dance for my own pleasure, except to live music. I was trying to think about why that is, and I don't think I have a good answer. Something to do with mediation, ephemera, and creating out of the body vs. through an instrument, but I don't quite have it yet.
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