These are the lean days
the days of travel and truth
and spicy chicken
These are the days you reminisce
about the future
drifting into it on the warm breeze
Anonymous ears listen to your ravings
with a patience
discouraging in its constancy
Criticize me!
23 comments:
I just realized that the first stanza is a haiku, which was completely unintentional.
these are keen eyes
where imprints lie
and to what we all abide
those are keen lies
to what we all bow down to
and to where we all confide
just randomness...
is criticize me part of the poem or a request?
okay then, i'll criticize you--
i suspect, sir, that not only are you morally inconstant, but that your personal hygiene is, shall we say, less than exemplary?
ha, ha. just kidding. i'm sure your morals and hygiene are both first-rate.
so, you mean criticize yr work?
funny, b/c i was thinking about that yesterday-- how, on this blog, the rule unofficially seems to be say something positive about the work posted, or say nothing.
i like the art school crit, if it's done nicely-- the approach of "here's something i like about it, and why", followed by "here's something i don't like, and why" followed by another "here's what i do like".
i dunno. just thinking out loud at 0102, quebec standard time.
you suck at guitar! :D
sssssarcassssssm
ha! yeah, no doubt.
It's a request BY the poem.
I've had that request before, does it make you feel strong, or is it desperate?
I've had both experiences.
Feats of strength 'like.
Word verification: vjkaows
Interestingly Shan Random was just asking me about our overly nice cult-like positivity. I understand that it feels weirdly artificial at times, but besides the welcoming new artists to the blog I think every comment is worth some consideration. As an online art-community we have no obligation (as schools often do) to create self conscious artists, and through the discussion (at least with a few of us) we have come to the conclusion that positive stimulus makes better art and artists anyway. If you want to know how provocative you are with a work, count how many comment you have. If the # is zero, time to rethink. The only real danger in art (or maybe blogdom), in my opinion is boredom (or if you post things that I don't like, or have opinions different than mine, hehe). As for new people on the site here, feel free to try out your conventional university bash-crit techniques (80% of painting grads never paint again) if you like. I think it's a good chance for some of us to test "art reinforcement" principals with different people, in our little (growing) blog society.
I also had to experiment with control and development and stimulus and discipline in a class room setting. For the most part, I found the positive approach, art reinforcement style, was the best. The kids were often enthusiastic about learning and communicating, I'd say even more so than in the class with the teachers who carried hitting sticks! Of course none of you are REALLY kids (chronologically speaking) but the idea doesn't stop there.
There are countless self help band aid books and movies (secret, what do we know, Anthony Robbins!) that have caught on to these ideas. One has helped me in a personal way to quit smoking. I found that it was impossible to quit even for a day. When I beat myself up chanting mantras like "you're so sick and stupid, why do you smoke dummy, you're gonna die" to myself, I could never manage, and even smoked more in my pathetic desperation. It is only when I start swimming and drinking Acai juice and thinking how awesome it will be to taste food and feel healthy (etc) that I can get it done. I must say I even enjoyed quitting (again). Sure no one is perfect, but it's a lot easier to traverse the churning waters with sails full of warm wind, than it is by boat-kicking. That's not to say I want the blog to be a Skittles comercial, with rainbow coloured sugar candy bursting from flowers (puke). Just mostly positive.
If there is a real emperor with no clothes issue, I assume someone would point it out (maybe even with the good sense and tact to use a private channel to help reduce embarrassment). Some people are opposed to the anonymous comments, but I think this is like a "comments box" in a business or whatever. It gives a chance to say what needs to be said without the personal connections that can complicate things. I suppose Ideal is would be if the personal connections were simple and heartfelt and not biased by past or limited perspectives, but thats just not realistic to expect all the time (especially when we have people together in such a loose way, and knowing each other to different degrees).
That make sense?
Gold medal overthink-rant! Ya!
=P
I think that the people on this blog are not the types who would submit any serious criticism that wasn't well thought out. That being said, I'm all for criticism, even without very much thought in it! (Tangent: I think the poem that started this all off was really about SELF-criticism, but I can't really be sure - I don't really think of my poems as MINE in some weird way, I just happen to write them down...) I don't consider our behaviour to be cult-like, by the way, just polite and respectful.
You are right brother Sky, we are not like a cult. May the six fingered hand of Manisaskerta pass over you in ragefull blessing for your astute observation.
=P
It hasn't always been nice
i never said: "overly nice cult-like positivity" about this blog. david is confused.
i said it was strange that all the "criticism" was so sugary.
the only evidence of negative criticism i saw on the entire site was shushed up immediately with a that's-not-art-reinforcement-positive schtick.
personally, i like criticism. it makes me immediately decide whether i want to defend the piece or concur that it blows.
this then prevents me from wasting too much time on poorly planned or executed projects and also inspires me to spend more time on things i like because it irks me when people don't have the vision to see what something is eventually going to be.
[that last sentence was 46 words long].
i think it's positive to be honest. progress would happen a lot faster if everyone were honest.
c'est tout.
I agree completely with your views on criticism and honesty, but not necessarily with the time-saving progress-making aspect. Though perhaps that's just because I have no ambition!
Actually, I really enjoy things (music, art, writing) in nearly every stage "as they are". I like the songs I've written when they were one chord and two words, and I like them when they're "finished" - but I don't know which I like better.
Pardon my ever present embellishments ...
Just one more...Being positive isn't dishonest of course. Art reinforcement is just a conscious decision to control the energy we put out. If I don't like something my silence represents that, unless its enough where I feel compelled to (still thinking about how I say it) take a stand against something. If I don't like stripes, it surely isn't going to help you that I mention it during your stripes period =P. Watch how different a response you get if you announce you're going to eat live Koala bear as a performance! Even then, I hope I would have the decency to ask you why you wanted to do such a thing and try to ease you out of the idea (before having you committed. This kind of niceness is seen in many people who I consider role models or enlightenment/organized innocence/self actualization or whatever.
Oh crap, another rant?
I am going to print out your rant...
and then eat it...
alive!!!
(while wearing stripes)
You guys me make sick.
I h-te you.
i like criticism too, but i'm not sure about the notion of "faster progress"...
the rest of my life is full of endless striving and ambition. i don't use this blog (nor do i want to, necessarily) to further my career(s).
and while, on the whole, i think your points make sense, i don't see an absolute dichotomy between being "honest" and being "nice".
for me, nice is honest. generally, by nature, i'm a nice person, i think. therefore, my comments reflect that. to try to force some kind of criticism where i don't see one would in fact be dishonest.
as for the concern expressed about anon comments, i've usually been the one to complain about those, because i've been a person who has had a lot of anon comments directed at my posts in the past-- and not out of any sense of wanting to help me grow, develop, or progress, but simply as a way of people being mean and hurtful without having to take accountability for it.
so if anon comments can be in some way usefully critical, or supportive, or whatever, then go for it.
but in the past they've been used mostly just to be snarky.
Perception is important too, and you (Wolfboy) have already confessed to oversensitivity on several occasions.
only, uh, twice. maybe. :)
Great debate. But yeah, the shan is right, you're all a bunch of sissies. :0
ha!
you see any fear in these eyes, k-dog?
nope. none.
:)
You don't see fear...you smell it...and you stink.
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