I was listening to these two guys who wrote a book on why screenwriters should leave NY and move to LA. Their whole point was that New York writers make "ART" films and if you want to make money, you move to LA. You have no say over what you write, are always replaced by another writer, but your movies make money and eventually you can write enough hit Hollywood films, so then you can move back to NY and work on "Art" films......what a bunch of bullshit! This whole idea of selling out for the money has seemed to permeate every aspect of our culture. Once we begin to separate our integrity and our art into different aspects and actively cultivate a lesser version of our highest potential, we are doomed!
Whenever we make the choice to pursue money by consciously lessening or ignoring the truth that speaks to us all, or to to put our creative forces into something that doesn't represent our highest aspirations, we begin the not so slow descent into the destruction of our human spirit and soul. When did it become the over riding view that to make money we need to cater to the lowest common denominator? It seems to me that this poisonous thought form has infected not only the arts, but the very essence of all financial transactions and the very core of the American financial system. It has led not only to the destruction of our mountains, oceans, farms, rivers, streams, sky and earth, but to the very destruction of our bodies and ultimately our humanity.
What happened to those enlightened minds and visions that created the Renaissance? The great works of art? The great books? The great films? There was a time when artists were the ones we looked to for something different than the tired and accepted limited thoughts that seep through all our institutions. Where are the new minds, the new visions, the works that break old paradigms? Where are the artists striving for something new, different, challenging? Maybe it's just me, but I truly believe, that if we are true to our highest selves, and we aspire to create inspired art, we will be financially rewarded, maybe not by insane wealth, but by the financial means by which to continue to create, challenge and inspire.
We are being overwhelmed by a world of mediocrity and stagnation in every aspect of life, from every disposable piece of shit made in some third world country by the disadvantaged majority for the profit of the advantaged few, to all the works of what we call art and music which are infecting our minds and our compromising our hearts. I feel like I am surrounded by a society that believes in the idea that economic status is only bar by which we recognize a person and the over riding belief that we pound into our children's minds.
Well I choose not to move out to LA to write some third rate piece crap just so I can have my name on the big screen. I'll stay in New York, and work with a group of really talented artists who are looking beyond their comfort zone, and who with, together, we will create stories and projects challenging this bullshit Hollywood imposed nonsense of what will and won't sell and why we should create some piece of shit and have alot of untalented wannabes and assholes in suits tell us how talented we are because the shareholders are happy.
There is alot that needs change in this world. The only way I know how to help is to create what is true to my inner voice and to work with people who are doing the same. Yeah, I guess I am a little pissed off, but man sometimes you just gotta scream. It can't be just me who feels like this. I think what gets me so upset, is that I really believe that we are all alot better than this. We all have so much potential, but because of fear or some tired belief, we choose to accept our limitations instead of embracing our strengths, and embracing each other. It's not each other that we need to be threatened by, instead it is our very own limitations which scare me the most.
