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.

I will also note that I see a significant distinction between a person convinced of their own talent in circumstances where they have to give it their all or give it up, and a person who thinks that pursuing their muse means they should be reckless with their future, even if they don't have to. The former may be admirable, the latter just sounds pretentious.

This.

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.

And this.

BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER.

And this.

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.

The people who think that they are too much of an artiste to deal with the daily realities of life drive me nuts.

For example: there was a kid in art school who had THE JOB that everyone wanted -- working in the photography equipment room: all that access to all that equipment and all the darkrooms. And he quit because it "interfered with his art" - and it was only 8 hours a week.

Small child playing with an otter - adorable!