one year

today marks one full year in my first job - that of marketing/ads & promo executive in a record company. for someone who is torn between ideals and excelling where i feel my integrity is being sacrificed, i like this article. i may not be in a position to carry this out, but thanks anyway, rome.

CULTURE VULTURE
By Rome Jorge
Mantra for insurgents in
the cultural battlefield



Never simply borrow your sense of fairness, your criteria for excellence, or your standard of artistry from those who benefit from the status quo. Before you follow the rules, know who are making them.

Those who hinge their satisfaction on the reaction of their opponents make their happiness the hostage of their enemies. Adversaries never behave the way we want them to. Those who seek another’s approval become their servants; if you must, pick your master well.

Any effort to better yourself can never be perfect. There will always be some inconsistency—otherwise known to critics as hypocrisy. The only way to be thoroughly consistent is to be completely apathetic. Brave hypocrisy. Brave criticism.

Don’t take it personally. Who the hell are you anyway? It was never about you.

Take it personally. Anything worth doing is worth taking to heart.

They will take it personally. None of us can absolve ourselves of the consequences of our action or inaction. If you must make enemies, do so for a worthy cause. The country’s a crowded place. One enemy is one too many.

Excellence is the best revenge. There is no other battlefield but work; not politics, not popularity and certainly not intrigue. Accomplishments remain when all pettiness fades.

Let your work speak for itself; that shuts them up.

Our loyalty is to our craft. The same is true for our superiors and associates, despite rallying cries and professions of fealty.

The business of the artist, much like the journalist, is the truth and nothing else. Let those in business and marketing sort the profit—unless that happens to be you as well.

Always question where the money comes from, where it goes and who profits from what.

Enough preaching; it is raising the dead, multiplying loaves of bread and turning water into wine that makes believers out of them. And when all else fails, smite them.

Nasty temptations

A sculptor will leave much of work as dust and rubble on the floor. So too with the writer. The real story is often unheard and unwritten. So much is said off the record.

Those dear to us stand so near that they reveal their slips and flaws. We see them falter at the dance floor, erase the sketchpad or miss a note or two. While audiences revel at their performances, we observe the clutter backstage and the panic that comes with presenting effortless grace. While fans gush at their photos, we know what they look in the morning, their face naked and their breath stale. While listeners dedicate their songs they to their sweethearts, we witness how their heartache becomes inspiration. While patrons swoon for characters they portray, we play a part in their real lives.

But an artist’s work should speak for itself. Though context enriches our experience, if the artist intends to display what they say in confidence, then they will do so with their work. To keep their confessions off the record is respect their artistry and their humanity.

On the other hand, we suffer works we want to savage. Trashy songs that sound like shrill nursery rhymes, politicians that insinuate themselves as wannabe actors, and artists who get by more on image and publicity than actual talent—you know what and who I am talking about. Damn such sensory pollution and there are bound to be readers to affirm the same sentiment. And that’s my point. With ink and paper so precious and days so few, we should not waste them highlighting what already takes too much of our attention and validating opinions already held by those intelligent enough to read. You know and I know. Already. Let’s do something else.

A friend of mine once said that if one wanted to make a name for one’s self as a columnist, one must be highly critical, or better still, trash something or someone. To standout in a crowd of self-serving cronies, one has to be nasty. But I’d rather help.