“The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.”
Banksy via RobinHood Ink.
Not that I agree… Just that I’m always surprised to find myself listening so closely when this guy says something.
“It takes me longer than it should to build websites because I’m all picky about things being proper. I’m a bit like the furniture maker who sands and varnishes the underside of a cabinet. Yes, that’s right; it’s a bit stupid and isn’t a ‘viable business model.’ I wish I could be ruthless and churn out rubbish, but I can’t, which is why I eat out of bins and can’t afford to put the heating on.”
His site’s a good read.
“I cite it as the first thing I ever tried my hardest at.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQYrE1HpZ2s
There’s something I love about this video showing crisp, nike-like footage of a middle-age-ish, regular-size-ish guy flubbing about with the soccer ball in one of the most prestigious football grounds in the world.
Is it because this video points to the fact we all have dreams, and, even if they’re “pie in the sky, never gonna happen” we can still indulge a little and feel some of the strain of our bones towards the stuff of legend? It’s like he’s discarding all care and concern for what’s possible, grunting slow laps around the folks who chant “This is ridiculous, you’ll never be a footballer, you’re crazy.” He pushes hard and tries regardless, all the while understanding it’s totally impossible and worth the sweat regardless. Is that why I love this video… because that kind of balance is magic? (more…)
“I always, in the writing, I always start with a name. Give me a name and I’ll deduce a story.”
Don’t know how true this all is. Found it here.
… but creativity isn’t magic. It happens by applying ordinary tools of thought to existing materials.”
This is exceptional. I’m enamored with it on two counts:
Talk about doing the work, right? If you like this, you’ll like the previous two vids in the series.
“Creative work only seems like a magic trick to people who don’t understand that it’s ultimately still work.”
“Phaedrus found that rhetoric at the University level was taught as a branch of reason alone. He was also having trouble with students who had nothing to say. Especially one girl, who was a serious, disciplined, and hardworking student. She wanted to write an essay about the United States. Phaedrus told her to narrow it to Bozeman but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Phaedrus told her to narrow it down to the main street of Bozeman. Still nothing. He then said “Narrow it down to the front of one building on the main street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left-hand brick.”The next day she returned with a 5,000 word essay on the front of the Opera House on the main street of Bozeman, Montana.
We get blocked from our own creativity because we just repeat what we have already heard. Until we really look at things and see them freshly for ourselves, we will have nothing new to say. “For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses. The more you look the more you see.”
“You see… I don’t run my business to optimize revenue or profits. When I tried to do that, my real-world results were the exact opposite of what I wanted.
So these days I deliberately make business decisions that leave significant value on the table, untapped and unextracted.”