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one of my recurring talking points to anybody who's willing to listen: any small group of people loosely-but-truly aligned on something can create powerful vectors by producing public-facing work that's directed at each other talking about the creation of scenes, basically
a lot of scenes falter bc the alignment isn't sufficiently "true", and bc there aren't enough good people to hold it together this is my unhappy assessment of the problem with many arts scenes music & literature scenes are full of ppl who care about neither music & literature
what's a minimum viable scene? if you have two sufficiently obsessive people who are trying to impress and outdo each other in public, two is enough but usually it seems that it takes a broader/wider scene to generate 2 such obsessive people https://t.co/N3qBkYWy12
in reality scenes seem to need like, idk, 2 dozen people you need the conflict and collaboration and one-upmanship to push people far out of homeostasis https://t.co/K0nfEiE2iO
I beat this drum periodically to find the others sad thing is that there aren't actually very many others few people have any real creative vision, any real ambition I'm not trying to be mean, it's just true reason to stay optimistic nevertheless: we only need a few people
@visakanv https://t.co/SFmSqA4MID
an additional confounding factor: not only do most people not have any real creative vision or ambition... many people entertain themselves by PRETENDING that they do most people want their lives to be sitcoms that pretend to be adventures https://t.co/vEsESFYja4
A funny thing to discover is how many people like to play-pretend that they are more adventurous, more irreverent and naughty (“met my partner-in-crime!”) than they actually are. This is a super common social pretense. True weirdos don’t have this luxury https://t.co/EeibMr9Cym
but if you can make the leap and decide that you're an adventurer, and then, by going on small adventures, find the other adventurers, then you can pool your energies and resources and go on BIG adventures. I always suspected this to be true, and my knowledge of it has grown https://t.co/3jSwLlEBUL
the purpose of this thread was for me to find Matt 😂👇🏾 today's mission: accomplished. I always take note of people who manage blogs and moderate communities – they know what it's actually like to be in the arena and make the tradeoffs https://t.co/aajtrYBxTj
It's interesting to reflect on how my frustration has shifted over the years I used to be frustrated that people didn't care (why don't Singaporeans support local music?!?!) then I got frustrated that artists didn't care (why are local musicians quibbling over dumb shit?!?)
but now I realize the only thing that matters is finding True Artists and supporting and challenging them, and the bottleneck there is my own thinking, my own behavior a summary: 2007: fuck everyone 2013: fuck you guys 2015: fuck Visa 2019: there is no fuck 😂
a flourishing scene is a context where people unblock each other at a tremendous rate https://t.co/cQkJ0Xfgcn
@visakanv specialization https://t.co/71Qz2Omq0H
16. composers during 1750-1899 were significantly more productive when they lived in close proximity to other composers (via @tedgioia, h/t @EashanKotha) https://t.co/iXMQgUOE2v https://t.co/QIc65CeXq1
17. Muscle Beach https://t.co/m07hLzLmWn
Paul McCartney tells Rick Rubin about how The Beach Boys influenced The Beatles. It was an all-time creative rivalry and here were key moments when the bands inspired each other: ◻️February 1964 Over 73m Americans (40% of the population) watch The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Beach Boys lead Brian Wilson says Beatlemania "shook me up a lot. They eclipsed a lot of what we'd worked for...So we stepped on the gas a little bit." ◻️ July 1964 In the months after Ed Sullivan, The Beatles rip off a streak of #1 hits including "Love Me Do", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", " She Loves You". In July, The Beach Boys drop the song "I Get Around" and snag the #1 spot. ◻️ December 1965 The Beatles release the groundbreaking "Rubber Soul" album. Wilson is "so blown away" by it that he immediately goes in the studio, smokes a joint and writes "God Only Knows" (which Paul McCartney cites as his favourite song ever). That song kicks off The Beach Boys next album. ◻️May 1966 The Beach Boys finish the "Pet Sounds" album. It's writing, vocal harmonies, consistent theme and use of non-traditional instruments (French horns, sleigh bells) pushes the envelope. They give McCartney and John Lennon an advance listen to the album. McCartney recalls how “Pet Sounds” affected The Beatles: "That was the album that flipped me. The musical invention on that album was wow! I just thought, ‘Oh dear me. This is the album of our time. What the hell are we going to do?’" ◻️August 1966 The Beatles release another classic album ("Revolver") with McCartney writing a few songs inspired by "God Only Knows". ◻️ February 1967 The Beach Boys are working on their "Pet Sounds" follow-up album called "Smile". The Beatles release the song "Strawberry Fields Forever". Wilson hears the song while driving and — years later — remembers his reaction: “I had to pull over to the side of the road…and I said, ‘I’ve never heard anything like this in my life’”. He believed that The Beatles had gotten their first to the sound he wanted for the "Smile" album and shelved the project. ◻️May 1967 The Beatles release "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". They had stopped touring the year prior and spent the time in the studio experimenting (with sounds and drugs). The all-time album is heavily influenced by "Pet Sounds".
@visakanv I've been thinking about creating an epistolary blog or something like that, and that seems really relevant to this thread. https://t.co/lToWOArv0S
@visakanv do you have any tips for finding a scene? my irl friends have pretty divergent interests from me and online spaces often feel like either people lobbing their work over the fence or just discussing a topic without producing public-facing work... do i have to build it myself