Take a picture of them, they can be cute there forever. You can have pics of shoes down your hall.

Isn't that kind of the point of the song? That he TOTES deserved to be called asshole.

Well, as I see it the point of the song is that if you're good enough then being an asshole is beside the point. Which relates back to my shoe-maker in the above post and my defense of irresponsible artists who make great work at the expense of their families, friends and posting your letter.

Why celebrate rudeness? You can be good at a skill or an art and be not an asshole.

Take a picture of them, they can be cute there forever. You can have pics of shoes down your hall.

Hmmmm

Why celebrate rudeness? You can be good at a skill or an art and be not an asshole.

Yes. There's no reason to be rude, even if you know what you're talking about.

I'm going to bed, maybe I'll dream about tiger woods and roman Polanski totally being jutified in their assholishness because of their extreme talent and all it has done for their respective fields.

Why celebrate rudeness? You can be good at a skill or an art and be not an asshole.

I'm not celebrating rudeness. One of the issues with the shoemaker is simply that he's a snarky Brit and his ironic tone is lost on Northern Californians.

There's no reason to be rude, even if you know what you're talking about.

But what if there's a reason to tell the truth in a culture where that is considered offensive? Because the expectation is that he not say a shoe is ill-made even when it is. He's actually telling them the true value of fixing the shoe versus investing in a better made shoe.

Honestly, I think this is the issue. Truth-telling is not valued (and in this instance I do think that's the source of conflict). I'm pretty sure Cordelia will back me on this one.

I'm going to bed, maybe I'll dream about tiger woods and roman Polanski totally being jutified in their assholishness because of their extreme talent and all it has done for their respective fields.

If I limited your bookshelves to writers who were conventionally nice people you'd have very few books.

But what if there's a reason to tell the truth in a culture where that is considered offensive? Because the expectation is that he not say a shoe is ill-made even when it is. He's actually telling them the true value of fixing the shoe versus investing in a better made shoe.

I have no issue with the man saying that the shoe is ill-made when it is. I do have an issue if he's an insulting ass about it. Which, not having read the Yelp reviews, I don't know that he is, but if that many people are having negative reactions to him, it's entirely possible.

Yeah--I think you can get away with more assholish behavior if you have big talents (artistic or otherwise), but it doesn't excuse it. When you get down to it, being an asshole is treating other people as if they are not as important as you are, and that is the antithesis of art.

Creating art is important and inspiring, and I personally think it's a noble thing and strive to do it myself, but it still doesn't mean you have a free pass to beat your wife or insult people whose only crime is that they don't have your talent.