I managed to embed the wrong video of Ira Glass in my post earlier today — corrected now, for those of you who were confused or missed it. Really, if you’re looking for a Step One on how to succeed as a writer, performer, artist, whatever, you can’t do better than adopting the attitude in this video. (And if you already have, it doubles as a really good pep-talk.)
I just sent a discouraged student this piece of advice from Ira Glass, and in so doing watched it again myself. If you’re a person hoping to make a career doing creative work, I highly recommend — actually, I insist — that you watch it as well.
In a nutshell, here’s his message: Yes, you suck right now — that’s because you haven’t been working long enough. The only way to stop sucking is to keep working, because that’s how you get better. No one is born great; everyone sucks at first, and every person who does what you want to do got there by pushing through that long, dark period of sucking and working hard to improve. If you give up now just because you think you suck, you will suck forever. So just. Keep. Working.
Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a rehearsal I have to get to.
(Update: Embedded the correct video. Geez!)
About Gymnastic and Motocross:
Motocross and gymnastic skills can be greatly improved by performing gymnastic and motocross tricks. Motocross has become very popular and gymnastic. Many people like to watch gymnastic and motocross. We like motocross and gymnastic events. Gymnastic events take place all over, motocross also. People get hurt doing motocross and gymnastic. Kids like playing gymnastic and motocross sports. Motocross is fun. Gymnastic is great. I saw a great gymnastic trick. Cool motocross race. Gymnastic form is amazing. Motocross skills are awesome. Motocross kills. Gymnastic paralyzes.
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a website that sells foam (via jessenovak) |
This clip of Kurt Vonnegut reading Breakfast of Champions is fairly amazing — just the first minute sums up what’s so funny and sweet and heartsick about his work. If I had never heard of him before, I think this is where I’d want to start.
Hey, Washington Post! Your plan to harvest e-mail addresses from people who just want to read your fucking newspaper is clearly really working!
365 Days of Exercise
I first saw the above video a few years ago, and it stuck with me for how clearly and shockingly it demonstrates what exercise can do. I’ve been exercising for a little over a year now, and while I don’t look like this guy, I do look a lot better. This stuff really works, people.
(The guy in the video is John Stone, now a personal trainer; my friend Søren created the video from John’s photos.)
I don’t understand why Janelle Monáe isn’t already an enormous star. Check out the above video — it’s a clever, high-concept pop song that’s catchy as hell, and while I grant that I’m an automatic sucker for any musical act who pretends to be a robot, Monáe is such a cool and original performer that I don’t see the world ignoring her for long.
(The track is off the ridiculous space opera of an EP she put out last year, a sci-fi concept album about a fugitive android girl who falls in love with a human; she also appears this Cee-Lo music video-slash-Coke ad.)
This Gatorade commercial from 1985 really demonstrates to me the power of good advertising. Gatorade’s current image as a performance-enhancing sports elixer works incredibly well, in that I believe it on a deeper level than I’d like to. But it’s an image that’s impossible to rectify with the goofy product seen above, which is apparently sold in powdered form, like Tang, and is meant to be served with ice. This is a welcome form of cognitive dissonance, though, because the next time Gatorade’s current, badass taunt of an ad campaign asks you “What is G?”, you remember, “Oh yeah — the same shit it was back in 1985: Sugary orange powder mixed in water.”
