Gainsay the naysay

Nothing makes me wanna go on a homicidal killing spree (as opposed to a homicidal puppy-patting spree) more than people lambasting someone for doing something new to them.

Honestly, what’s the deal with people shitting on Kanye West for directing a film (or the model Selita Ebanks for acting in it)? I mean, sure bring a critical eye to bear on the made thing itself, but it’s bad for a musician to try his hand at another art form? Really? REALLY?? We should point and laugh at anyone with the audacity to pursue more than one of the multiplicitous possibilities for  joy and nourishment the world offers?  David Byrne shoulda just stayed in art school? Alice Munro shoulda just stayed barefoot and pregnant? Julian Schnabel shoulda never turned his hand to film-making? Because … why, exactly? Seriously: what’s the downside? As it turns out, Byrne is a genius pop musician and Munro a genius short-story writer and Schnabel a frickin’ kickass film director but even if they weren’t, why should it bother anyone that they tried? Life is for the living, right?  No shame in going balls-out towards adventure and creation. No brickbats from me, ever, whether you fail or succeed, only hosannas because what on earth is the point of being out here in the beautiful world if you don’t make an effort? The effort should be celebrated, even when the finished product can’t be. Should. And by me, is. Always.

Talking Heads, “Don’t Fence Me In”:


Kanye West, “Runaway”: