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.
And being that sort of asshole leads to
Don't You Know Who I AM
behavior and entitlement. And I don't care how fantastic of an artist someone is, I refuse to go along with that sort of thing.
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.
My insane cobbler here in Seattle is a master at his craft, and he has told his customers when a shoe isn't worth repairing. But he doesn't come across as an asshole when he does it.
Your insane cobbler told
me
that.
Well, what he actually said was that I'd snapped the shanks in both shoes and, while he could totes (factual note: he didn't actually say, "totes") repair them, it wouldn't make financial sense. He was very nice about and knew what he was talking about and I took his advice.
And this is why I'd bring other shoes to him and pay him money. Because he wasn't an ass.
For God's sake, has everyone forgotten what Wyld Stallyns taught us? BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER.
For God's sake, has everyone forgotten what Wyld Stallyns taught us? BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER.
You mean, what they taught us IN THE FUTURE?! Because I'm not sure that I've had the opportunity to forget that yet.
One other thing about the Plan B. There is one point. A hell of a lot of artists who had day jobs had lower output because of it. While I'm not as thrilled as Hec about people who won't get one if they need one and have one available, there is a real artistic cost in time and energy to day jobs. Generally we don't expect people to have multiple jobs if they are not in the creative arts; we especially don't expect people to work one job to support their other job. So if someone can find a way to survive as a full time artist, I'm ok with that even if it involves willing and patient support from others - just so long as it really is willing and does not destroy the other person.
How is being supported by your wife for five years not a Plan B?
It seems to me that if you don't starve photogenically to death there was a plan B in effect. It mightn't have been one you had to put a lot of thought into, but you went forward with a safety net. You're not more of an artist because it's more automatic. That's a bunch of romantic hooey. You're just lucky/privileged.
The "no plan B" is dumb when it results in things like the woman who was a lighting designer moonlighting as our box office person refusing to learn or use excel and word because she thought that would make her more likely to take a day job and less likely to succeed as a lighting designer. So she did the whole cashing up process by hand instead of just entering the numbers in the spreadsheet which would calculate for her.
Is Plan B the same thing as a safety net? If so, it could be an accounting degree OR rich parents.
I have so many comments that I could make, but I will mostly say that "different people like different shit" is a reason not to say "I like X, you should, too" NOT an argument against discussing who does or doesn't like X and why.
Oh, and my cobbler told me it would be "expensive" to fix the shanks on some boots, but it was still like 1/3 of the replacement cost, so I went ahead with it.
