Marco on Craft Porn
“Carpenters who work every day with their craft don’t get magazines about hammers.”
Thanks to Mumford’s sons and other “look at the cabin we made our music in and our evening bonfires and how close we live to the earth and each other and how hand-made everything is and oh yea I made this jam myself” kinds of things, we’re all getting a bit too precious about “craft” and “work.”
I’m guilty too. It feels good to have a name for my work now, an industry. And it feels good to invest my life in a career direction (as opposed to living project to project).
But watch yourself. It’s easy to over-adorn and over-glorify the “job” and what the “job” means and your role in the whole universe thing — especially when you’ve got on suspenders and big ol’ work boots.
Making your own jam is cool. Making music with your friends in cabins is cool. Taking your job seriously is cool. Geeking out about the details is cool. Being precious about your work, being pretentious about what you “do” for a living, making porn out of regular ol’ good and hard work is not cool.
