June 25ths
An interesting juxtaposition on both the Game of Art and Art of the Game. We've always valued the artist archetype. But it was also always a game: once an artist is a Player, they become a different kind of artist. But not always--Picasso was primarily an Artist in the more pure sense of the word, but earned status as a Player inadvertently by the weaving in of other archetypes that made him a celebrity. Pop art made art more fun, and that you could get away with anything. Postmodernism changed the art game, and it is changing again now with AI art and NFTs, which will produce similar art stars.
6/25/1987
(Keith Haring Journal)
."..I tried, as much as I could, to take a new position, a different attitude about selling things, by doing things in public and by doing commercial things that go against the ideas of the "commodity hype" art market....I fear there is no way out of this trap. Once you begin to sell things (anything) you are guilty of participating in the game. However, if you refuse to sell anything you are a non-entity. My decision to come to New York and be a "public" artist was spurred by my desire to communicate and contribute to culture and eventually history."
6/25/1998
Interesting documentary on PBS on Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone. He loved being a celebrity, but once he started doing commercial spots, he lost his credibility as an artist. Now it enhances you career. It shows that you can lighten up and have fun. No one likes that heavy artist stuff anymore unless there's a mystique that translates well to product endorsements or some cause celebre like the homeless, AIDS, or human rights. But his writing was brilliant. Interesting that he didn't rewrite. Jack Klugman, who acted in it, said that Sterling had a way of constructing dialogue that had lots of good words you could roll around in your mouth. There really is something to what kinds of words you can use and those you can't.
6/25/2019
Ever since the 50s, contemporary music has been simplifying elements and/or removing them: melodies became simpler and were repeated, harmony was reduced to 1-3 chords, and by the time Hip Hop emerged rhythms were replaced by beats, and melody and harmony were removed. The next phase of evolution has to be in AI, algorithms, and code because it's already a popular thing. Music always gets left behind in the rush to do what everyone else is doing. If musicians were smart these days they'd be artfully introducing new ways of approaching pop music.