A video about being less precious about your creative endeavors.
November 13, 2019 6:00 PM   Subscribe

 
"Lower your standards" is kinda my mantra.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:47 PM on November 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


I don't even have to watch the video to know I love this post already and so I'm going to comment before reviewing it and I'm sure you'll love it, mistakes and all.

It took me way too long to learn this, even while dourly and intentfully shambling towards zen koans and metaphorical mira kagami-esque efforts be it art or life.

At the moment I'm reviewing a DJ set for a mistake that I know for sure is there to see if I can edit it out and post it, but the rest of it is rock solid and nicely expressive and I'm hunting a needle in a haystack.

And - no lie - I just now heard it and found it exactly as I was typing those last words. Fuck. 1:06:30 to just under 1:06:31 - just about one whole second of the wrong track and fader that isn't beat-synced, and pretty much no one is going to notice it except me.

This is exactly what we're talking about and I love the synchronicity.

It doesn't even sound like a misplaced beat, but some weird bass roll or break/phrase motif. A shiver. Anyone listening who DJs or listens with a critical ear to this sort of thing is going to think "What the fuck was that?" for like two seconds and not even register it as a trainwreck or error.

So, sure, within the framework of some kind of intent and level of quality or skill or passion - pretty much all of the best art I've made has been some variety of some kind of a dumb, happy accident and mistake or managing to take the right wrong turn or otherwise getting something turned around.

We're not talking about just thrashing about randomly here. Ok, sometimes we are, see punk, noise or experimental music. We're not talking about a lack of intent, or vision, here. We're not talking about lack of talent or effort or learned skills.

We're past that and talking about excessive self-critique and worry and care, the kind of care that makes for good creative efforts.

My best photographs? No tripod, or taken from the hip, or no plan, or not even the subject I set out to capture.

My best visual art? I broke things and found something interesting in the process instead of the perfection I had envisioned.

My best self-produced music? Started off trying to record something entirely different, ended up finding an entire audio effects and processing chain to hang two albums off of, using entirely different found sound sources instead of the field recordings I set out to record.

Best recorded DJ sets? Not setting out to do anything at all and instead just messing around and even multitasking. Seriously, one of my best sets I ever recorded I was just bouncing around and dancing and cleaning my room. The set I mentioned above was also just a practice set and just messing around without a plan and it's good.

All of the best responses from audience or viewer or patron I've had has often been to flaws I couldn't manage to eradicate or avoid and when I thought I was dying and wrecking things.

One of the things I really like about getting older and wiser is, counter-intuitively, knowing when to not be so wise. When to accept your own pratfalls and quirks. How to gracefully accept compliments about things you didn't think you even wanted a compliment about, or a reaction, or mirth and warmth from the people who love you.

I effectively need this reminder - always.

Do care, do strive. But have fun. Play. Make mistakes. You learn from them. People appreciate seeing your humanity in the creativity you share with them.
posted by loquacious at 11:08 PM on November 13, 2019 [3 favorites]


Oh man, it’s unironically always good to see someone basically just restating Ze Frank’s Brain Crack thesis
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:04 AM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


Man oh man this is going to be the best comment I ev
posted by erniepan at 6:44 AM on November 14, 2019 [2 favorites]


Zee Bashew makes, hands down, the best D&D videos on YouTube. I've posted about them here before.
posted by JHarris at 3:35 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


(yeah, maybe comments like that one are why he feels an urge to perfectionism, but really, he's so far ahead of the pack that he could slack off a bit and still be in the lead. His storytelling is excellent, his videos are never long enough to try your patience, his information is always terrific,his animation is delightful, and even his ads don't grate. IMO his vids are the way to do it.)
posted by JHarris at 3:40 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


Lower the Standard That's My Motto

Lower the standard: that's my motto. Somebody is always putting the food out of reach. We're tired of falling off ladders. Who says a cihld can't paint? A pro is somebody who does it for money. Lower the standards. Let's all play poetry. Down with ideals, flags, convention buttons, morals, the scrambled eggs on the admiral's hat. I'm talking sense. Lower the standrads. Sabotage the stylistic approach. Let weeds grow in the subdivision. Putty up the incisions in the library facade, those names that frighten grade-school teachers, those names whose U's are cut like V's. Burn the Syntopicon and The Harvard Classics. Lower the standards on classics, battleships, Russian ballet, national anthems (but they're low enough). Break through to the bottom. Be natural as an American abroad who knows no language, not even American. Keelhaul the poets in the vestry chairs. Renovate the Abbey of cold-storage dreamers. Get off the Culture Wagon. Learn how to walk the way you want. Slump your shoulders, stick your belly out, arms all over the table. How many generations will this take? Don't think about it, just make a start. (You have made a start.) Don't break anything you can step around, but don't pick it up . The law of gravity is the law of art. You first, poetry second, the good, the beautiful, the true come last. As the lad said: we must love one another or die.
-- Karl Shapiro
posted by storybored at 5:44 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


lol, "standrads"...! Definitely not fixing that typo.
posted by storybored at 5:49 PM on November 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


Anyone know why this video was removed from YouTube?
posted by marlond at 3:17 PM on November 27, 2019


The guy who made it pulled all of his videos because of YouTube’s new policy about “content for children”
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:06 PM on November 27, 2019 [1 favorite]


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