“You do art when you make change that matters, and do it via a connection with an individual. A great waitress or conductor or politician can make art. So can David, who cleans the tables at Dean and Deluca. Art isn’t the job, it’s the attitude you bring to the job and work you do when you’re there.”
“To all the people watching, I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing—and I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch: please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism—for the record, it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere.
Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”
- Conan O’Brien
Driving to work this morning, I realized something:
The cars that go 5 miles per hour with their turn signal on, waiting to get in the 30 mile per hour lane don’t get ahead as fast as the cars that change lanes after matching the speed of the cars in the 30 mile per hour lane.
It made me think of my life and work. That if you can be successful and match the speed of your favorite artists, bands, industry, and gatekeepers, etc. in your OWN lane, it makes it much easier to cross in and out of their lane.
Click here for more on Petco Place and People Assisting The Homeless
Someone asked me the other day if there was a celebrity who would make me nervous to be around, and I said there wasn’t. But thinking about it now, there is one person that would make me extremely nervous and excited to be around: Dr. Martin Luther King. The things he sacrificed, the odds he faced, the hatred he fought against, and the love he shared . . . I’m so grateful for his life and work. Thank you Dr. King for all you’ve done for us.
As this coming monday is Martin Luther King Day, it only makes sense to celebrate all that Dr. King lived for, worked for, and changed in the world around us plus I just found this in my phone:
To Love and Challenge: How artists are called to love and challenge our friends, family, culture, country, and world.
Ex:
MLK’s love for America and its people was the motivation to challenge it so that America could live up to the potential he saw in it.
“Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967.
What do you think about magazine ads with musicians such as Avril Lavigne flashing a smile while on the new 3G t-mobile phone? Or maybe that’s not such a shock. But what about Bob Dylan a couple years back in that Victoria Secret commercial? Does this bother you like it bothers me?
I came to the conclusion that it bothers me the same way it would bother me if in Ghostbusters, Bill Murray’s character, Peter Venkman, took a moment to flash a Pepsi can in my face, tell me how great it is, then go back to zapping the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man.
You just wouldn’t trust the character anymore. How could you? What does soda have to do with zapping ghosts? Is Dr. Venkman just in it for the money? These questions dilute the character’s authenticity and story. And I’m betting I’m not the only one questioning.
