How is a Rock Star Like a Safety Valve?

Two old rockers sit on a couch, one with a cup of hot tea...saw that one on VH1 yesterday. One of those typically awful clip shows with lots of inanity in between things that used to matter. These guys seemed happy, though. They weren't making excuses or scoring sarcastipoints. "It ain't opera" or some variation thereof was the stated attitude. They had a screaming good time, assumed their fans did too and that was that. What more was there to be said about any of the videos that had been shown? That the hair was bad and the music good? Cause I was too dumb to remember that about 80's? As if.

Having a good time and remembering that if you are a writer or artist that you may want your reader, listener, or viewer to have one too is a difficult proposition. Lately I've been hearing from a variety of sources that what I want requires work and that I will achieve what I work for. If that is working for another excuse to watch movies in the middle of the afternoon, so be it. I had a good time and that's all I can ask from that. On the other hand, if I want to be a writer that gets published, I had better get out in the trenches are started laying down that word count. And I get overwhelmed. Now, I'm thinking that one way around that is to stop taking everything as seriously as I have been. I'm not writing the great American novel. What makes your aspirations great? What makes them cheaper than the latest Wal-mart import? I don't know. If you have a few minutes and want to spend it with someone who just became the caretaker of a grub they believe to be a dragon, well then, have I got the story for you. There's a little bit in there about the discomfort some people feel about the way suburbs have covered the fields, but it's not a diatribe. I happen to live in a house on a former field and while I'm beginning to become anti-monoculture (grass) lawn, that's a fight for the neighborhood association, not for the story. After all, it's not Vonnegut and I had a good time writing it. Letting off steam takes it's meaning from a safety valve for a reason.

Chrissa :)