Published in The Reckless Muse·1 day agoMember-onlyShould an artist cultivate a public persona?Can creativity be a personality, a way of life? — “If you’re going to be a fucking rock star go be one. People don’t want to see the guy next door on stage; they want to see a being from another planet. You want to see somebody you’d never meet in ordinary life.” — Lemmy Art is life with the…Art2 min readArt2 min read
Published in The Reckless Muse·2 days agoMember-onlyHow NOT practicing guitar soloing made me a better guitar soloistVisualize first, play second — Seems counterintuitive, but the creative process needs a good amount of eccentricity to function properly. Last year, I joined a band that was in need of a guitarist. Since I hadn’t played in a band setting since college more than a decade earlier, I jumped at the opportunity to jam…Music5 min readMusic5 min read
Published in The Reckless Muse·3 days agoMember-onlyFor Artists to Truly Create, they Must Truly DestroyTrue creativity is an inherently destructive process — There’s a myth that art-making is a peaceful, uplifting set of actions. After all, on its face, the practice of marrying images, ideas, sounds, words, and colors sounds like a harmonious, even uplifting one. In many ways, the creative process can be harmonious and uplifting. But only for artists who…Art3 min readArt3 min read
Published in The Reckless Muse·4 days agoMember-onlyWhat Woke College Students Must Learn from the Wrongful Firing of an Art History ProfessorAn open letter to young people who hate ideas. — Are you offended by the above image? Good. Fucking get over it On October 6, 2022 at Hamline University, art history professor Erika López Prater showed her class two images of the Prophet Muhammad, one from the 14th century and the other from the 16th century. In the religion of…Art5 min readArt5 min read
Jan 23Member-onlyNetflix’s Wednesday Isn’t Woke Enough…SomehowThere’s no satisfying Woke Folk — Because Woke Folk are a pack of ravenous piranhas who devour everything that’s fun in its path, it only makes sense for them to turn on themselves when fresh meat is scarce. Netflix’s Wednesday has plenty of elements to make it palatable to a progressive audience: the title character is…TV Series9 min readTV Series9 min read
Published in The Reckless Muse·Jan 17Member-onlyNew MLK Statue is an insult to the Civil Rights Leader — and to Art Itself“Fuck beauty.” — Woke Artists — The new statue commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. was recently revealed in Boston, and it looks more like something you’d see portrayed on Pornhub than a symbol of racial unity. Titled “The Embrace,” this modern art disasterpiece was supposed to be a representation of King and his wife Coretta hugging…Art3 min readArt3 min read
Published in The Reckless Muse·Jan 15Member-onlyMarvel Studios’ Grand Plan: Diversity Over StorytellingFor the MCU, it’s ideology over ideas. — I’ve been reading Marvel Comics since I was in middle school. While I’d been a fan of the characters before when I was watching X-Men: The Animated Series, the 2000 film was what inspired me to go to the original source material, and from then on I was hooked. I…Movies8 min readMovies8 min read
Published in The Reckless Muse·Jan 10Member-onlyReckless Lessons from Quentin Tarantino: Ignore Naysayers & Just Create What You WantSage wisdom from one of the greatest living directors — During Quentin Tarantino’s appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, the discussion turned to the topic of the types of movies that couldn’t be made today. It’s part of a wider debate about the rise of Cancel Culture in recent years and its attack on artists and creators who’ve released works…Film4 min readFilm4 min read
Published in The Reckless Muse·Jan 6Member-onlyIt’s endless wartime for artists who dareA call to creative arms — “…But perhaps there is no peace for an artist other than the peace found in the heat of combat…” That quote is from the speech, “Create Dangerously: The Power and Responsibility of the Artist,” which author and philosopher Albert Camus gave at the University of Uppsala in Sweden on December…Art3 min readArt3 min read
Published in The Reckless Muse·Jan 3Member-onlyHow a Popular Podcaster’s 2023 Reading List Caused a Twitter ControversyYou accomplish nothing by flexing on Lex. — It’s clear that not enough people made “be less offended by harmless tweets” their New Year’s resolution. The Age of Rage continues as 2023 kicks off with the piranha-passion pile-on of a necessary digital sage. That sage is Lex Fridman, a Research Scientist at MIT whose specialty is artificial intelligence…Social Media5 min readSocial Media5 min read
