VEGANGELICA

Hmm...I think the people here, rather than being amoral, are simply very vigilant about newcomers just using the site to benefit themselves, and so moderators try hard to make sure the rule about self-promotion is followed. Also, most people here don't stroke egos, so the good news is you get honest opinions!

Very true about the importance of being able to defend what you do or, perhaps more important, recognize the fact that sometimes others will feel what you do is crap and indefensible! So, whatever else you gain from MB, I hope this will be part of it: staying true to your artistic vision regardless what others say, even as you take their feedback and decide if and how to use it in your work.

I hear you, too, about the importance of being able to get out of your comfort zone, Seth. I had an art instructor in college who said to me essentially, "Your art tends to be so pretty and controlled. When are you going to let yourself really express how you feel? If you aren't safe to do that in college, when do you think you'll be able to?" At the time I answered inside, "I don't know." His question always stuck with me, though. I think getting your project out of your comfort zone by sharing it is a great idea for personal and social reasons.

You wondered earlier in the thread about music similar to what you have planned (where you take famous people's socially conscious, spoken words and accentuate the rhythm of natural human speech). I don't know of whole songs that are like that...I've just heard songs that use excerpts of famous speeches. Maybe someone here who knows more about music than I will be able to answer your question.

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misterseth

Hi Erica,

You're absolutely right about people being vigilant - not amoral - and rightly so. I think I was a little disheartened that so few people were actually engaging with the ideas I've put forward so much as figuring out whether this thread belongs here. That just shows how much I've been languishing in my comfort zone! I really appreciate your story on that subject. How have you dealt with that issue since college?

In my idealistic and optimistic fantasy I have been assuming that most people are also fed up with self-serving musicians not actually saying much of anything other than issues to do entirely with themselves. Not only do I not actually know if this is true but I may have ironically missed how much it could actually apply to me. Ouch.

In the past I have done what most musicians do which is to reside comfortably in anonymity behind aliases and personas. The reason people do this is avoid being confronted with themselves. Therein lies the difficulty.

Thanks everybody so far for your reactions and sorry for implying that any of you may be amoral (except for KMS, who has made this clear already).

VEGANGELICA

I completely understand why you might feel disheartened...it probably felt as if people here care less about discussing music issues than protecting the online community!

Well, after college I only continued painting actively for several years, and then my time for that dwindled. I never really pressed out of my comfort zone with my studio arts except for one 3D sculpture/painted installation piece I did near the end of college. It looked like a welcoming, beautiful home scene with painted stained glass doors behind a table set with a painted table cloth, painted dinner, and real flowers in a vase, but with one chair pushed back. Scrawled on a painted napkin by that empty chair and place setting were the words, "I hate you all, you ****ers!" The canvas stretched from the top of the "stained glass doors" on the wall down over the floor as a painted carpet, up over that chair as its upholstery, then up and over a box to make the table...so all the beauty and the vile feelings were encompassed as one.

Interestingly, that installation was the painting of mine that the students and teachers liked the best, probably because I was showing some of my true, unedited feelings. And I was always a very good painter of realism.

But then during graduate school I got out of my comfort zone more regularly by volunteering and then later working at a domestic violence/sexual assault center for 4-5 years nights. I'd always wanted to be the person who felt brave enough to help others during traumatic times in their lives. So, even though I was worried I wouldn't feel comfortable as an advocate, I tried to become the person I wanted to be.

I discovered I was much more comfortable outside what I had thought of as my comfort zone than I realized I would be. So, that's one reason I encourage others to get out of their comfort zones and do the very things they fear but dream of doing.

Oh, I think many people are fed up, just like you say, Seth! Go visit the Lady Gaga thread, for example, where debates occasionally rage about whether she is self-centered and vapid or a helpful activist.

Yes, it is an irony that in trying to reach out and change the world rather than just savor the world as some musicians appear to do, we may actually be self-serving. It feels nice to try to make a difference.

Of course anything we do has to do with ourselves to some degree. But you definitely seem more outward-focused than many people may be, and I feel that's wonderful. You know that saying, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Now, I'm not saying there is any actual "evil" (I don't believe so), but I do feel when people aren't engaged in their communities, governments, societies, etc., then those who *are* may be making decisions that aren't going to reflect the wishes of the silent. So, piping up and adding our opinions and viewpoints is important.

I have never regretted getting involved in some cause or trying to fulfill some dream I've imagined...but I've regretted times when I *haven't.*

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