When I was younger I knew I should go to college. How did I know this? It was encouraged at every turn I took. My parents, my teachers, the television; seemingly everywhere I looked the message was clear: go to college! I did. I was well on my way to a promising career as a lawyer and then into politics where I would someday work up the ranks of elected office until one day I was President of the United States and then I could save the world. It seemed like a perfectly logical and reasonable plan that everyone I knew was totally backing me up on. So what happened? Well, I was interning on Capitol Hill, flying through all of my Government major at record speed and was confronted with the opportunity of throwing on a second major. I chose English. All of a sudden I was reading tons of novels again, discussing their importance and meaning. I realized I had way more fun and passion for books and poetry than I did for politics and then an idea struck me: who impacted the world more, a politician or an artist? I knew government extremely well and I had to honestly say that the work of any one President could easily be wiped out by the next guy and very few politicians made lasting legacies and how valuable were any of them really? I looked at famous writers and thought to myself, wow, someone like Shakespeare has been influencing the world like crazy and he's been dead for centuries. Hmmmmm.....the answer was clear. Ideas were the thing. Whoever created them and could have them spread won. And when it came to expressing ideas there wasn't a better person to do it than an artist. I started writing poetry which turned into spoken word poetry and by the time I graduated from college I was determined to be a novelist. I returned home with my degree (everyone was happy) and got a job as an English teacher at my old high school. I would write in my free time until I could make a full time living as a writer. It was a logical plan and once again all was right with the world. So what happened? Let's just say it wasn't an ideal place for a politically minded, self-determined individual such as myself to make into any kind of a permanent home. I did my best though. I was most proud of one thing I used to do with my students. I took a stack of blank white paper and gave each student a sheet. I then told them they had 15 minutes to come up with something, an idea, anything they wanted. At first they were like deers in headlights but I encouraged them with further explanation. I told them that the piece of paper was their only barrier to having whatever they wanted. I asked, "Who wants to be a millionaire?" and practically all their hands went up. I said, "Good, so here's your chance. Put a million dollar idea down on that paper. You can write a song, an idea for a movie, the start of a story, invent something that will change the world for the better." The lightbulbs shined brightly above all of their heads and I walked around the room for 15 minutes continuing to encourage them. As time went on I left teaching in very dramatic fashion (I wrote a whole book on it called Hip Hop Will Save The World, look out for it) and found myself having to confront making a living as an artist. You see, I had started recording hip hop music just months before I decided to leave teaching. I was making about $100 a day as a teacher and I quickly realized that if I just walked around and talked to people I could easily sell 10 CDs at $10 each and make the same amount of money. Once again it sounded like a logical plan and it was! I spent the next several years making a living as an artist selling my music one by one to the people I met. I set my own hours and I met tons of interesting people. And this was before the era of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube! Anytime I walked outside and communicated with people it was a successful action. Fast forward a few years. I'm married now. I have a son. I live in New York where it snows. We have the internet on our smart phones so..... Yep, I stopped going outside like I used to. My music and my art was still reaching people but not enough that I could make a living off of anything. I scratched my head and wondered what I was doing wrong and then it hit me. There was a time when I was making a living being an artist and then I stopped. I realized that what I was doing back then held an answer to all this. It did. It could be boiled down to one word: Communicating. What does an artist do? He communicates! But, what does that mean? Well, to communicate you have to have something to say, sure, everyone knows that and boy do people have a lot to say, but it's more than just talking and saying stuff. Communication is a two way thing. Someone on the other end has to listen, duplicate you, understand and then they get to say something back! This is basically how people become....wait for it....friends. Friends? You might say, "I have 2,000 friends on Facebook but they don't pay me to be an artist!" My response: Have you really been COMMUNICATING with your "friends" and are they really your friends? We all have something we want to tell the world and in getting our message out we know it would enhance the world and make it a better one to live in but in order to be heard we all have to do a better job hearing other people. They have something to say too and when you listen to them they listen to you. I know you have friends, real friends that you'd support if they all of a sudden had a book they self-published or were performing in a local play. Who wouldn't support a friend? They're your friend after all. When you have lots of friends boy you can get stuff done. Selling a book, an album, a movie, anything, is super easy when you have lots of friends. Real ones that care. In order to get those you have to genuinely care too. (Think about all those big stars that thank their fans and seem to genuinely care about them.) Now, not everybody is going to be a perfect match to be your friend so you have to go find your friends by communicating with lots of people. With the internet it's now incredibly easy. You can find people's entire profiles filled exactly with what they like, and if you like what they like, there's a good chance you'd be friends. Imagine if you made tons of friends, how easy would it be to make a living as an artist or at anything else for that matter? Real power comes in numbers. It doesn't come from staying locked indoors or not interacting with people. My approach is now completely different. I don't just post my stuff and expect people will respond. I post other people's stuff, interact with them, become really interested in what other people are doing and somehow they become really interested in what I'm doing. This isn't a trick, it's not something faked. It's all about finding people you can connect with and communicate with. An artist communicates and when you look at any great artist, what did they do other than communicate with a lot of people? You have that opportunity every moment. When you go to the store, when you pump gas, when you go online, when you visit your kid's school. Make friends, communicate, build an army of support for yourself and not only will you make a living doing whatever you really want to do, you can topple any opposing force with ease because it's not just you at that point, it's a whole army fighting for you to win. This isn't an easy solution. It takes hard work to be a good friend. But isn't that what makes it valuable? I hope this blog has helped you. I know it's already helped me just writing down what I'd been thinking about the last few days. I hope you reach out and leave me a comment on this blog, send me an email (I'm david@davidcarus.net), follow me on Twitter @DavidCarus, etc. because like anyone else, I could use more friends. Also share this blog with anyone you think it might also help. I truly hope you get what you want and you help make the world a better one because there's no excuses anymore right? Best, David Carus P.S. If you enjoyed this, there's a good chance you'd enjoy my songs. They always carry a message of being at cause and making things better. You can download my music for free here: xraypoetz.com Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates.
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After hearing Arcane Insignia, and especially after watching videos of their performances, I decided I had to experience a live performance of their sweepingly surreal music. With a couple friends I ventured into the Village and we made our way into the Lit Lounge on a Wednesday night. The place was alive with an energy that you can only find in New York City. People were at the bar, lost in the music as well as their own conversations and surprisingly an art exhibit bounced with activity at the back of the place. We made our way down some old stone steps as if gaining admittance to some old speakeasy and found ourselves in a dimly lit, long room with huge speakers and microphones at one end and bench seats built into the walls. Before a single note was played I knew I had walked into something exciting.
James Alexander and Antoinette Ady are two remarkable musicians. The coupling of guitar and violin completely engaged me from the start. Their sound grabs you and doesn’t let you go, as if moving you around the room and transporting you to magical places. The songs were passionate, emotionally charged stories that James Alexander’s vocals do an excellent job of communicating. He sucks you into his intimate world and then carries you up and down like a wild rollercoaster. Antoinette Ady’s music shines through with her strength and commanding power of her violin strings. Her playing is comparable to romantic and epic tales of centuries past yet somehow carry with them the flavor of modern genres. Strings are the weapons of choice for this powerful duo and their harmony together is what is liberatingly fresh and brand new. James Alexander strums his guitar with a powerful, aggressive force that turns his instrument at times into almost a sort of drum or bass and his voice carries over his hard hitting playing so one is left with the feeling of being in his grip. While, at the same time Antoinette Ady’s strings weave in and out, creating layers of insightful, soothing and beautiful echoes that put one at ease. It is interesting and surprising to discover that the music overall captures the very essence of communication between man and woman. Alexander with his power and force delivers a very male perspective to the sound, while Ady with her smooth, beautiful tapestry of playing gives us the female counterpart to their musical conversation. This is not to suggest there is romantic love in these songs, instead they rise above that to reach a more basic level of communication. In doing that the music becomes romantic but also becomes anything you want it to be because the two styles are there for you to grab hold of and play in. It is easy to get lost in this music because Arcane Insignia does an amazing job creating and shaping a musical landscape that is rich, alluring and makes you want to explore. If you’ve ever wanted to have songs really move you so you felt it in your chest and wanted to experience something musically unforgettable, then you have found your magic carpet to ride. Don’t be afraid of heights, Arcane Insignia won’t let you down. There is probably no artist's name as well known, as attached to so many works of art and that has inspired more people than Walt Disney. From creating Mickey Mouse to building Disneyland to creating arguably the largest entertainment company on planet Earth, he is a giant personality whose works will be felt for many years into the future. Any artist should study the life of this American genius because they will find mountains of inspiration from any chapter of his brilliant story. He grew up in a poor, yet hardworking farming family in the Midwest and at an early age discovered a love for drawing. He never finished high school, dropping out because he wanted to fight in the war but fortunate for us they turned him down because he was only 16. He found work in making advertisements which led him to discovering animation. He had no formal training whatsoever but was fascinated by the subject and found a book on it, read it, and soon after opened up an animation company. It gained some success but could not turn a profit and quickly failed. That's right, Walt Disney's first animation business went bankrupt and failed! He decided to move from Kansas City to Hollywood where the entertainment industry was. With the help of his brother Roy, they began creating new and exciting animation. Disney's company had success with a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, although it was technically owned by Universal and through strong arm business tactics the character was not only taken from Disney's company but also every single one of his animators except for one. With such a huge loss of staff and resources he did not wallow or dive into self-pity, instead he flourished and prospered through the creation of one of the most globally recognizable characters in human history: Mickey Mouse. Disney had the idea to produce a cartoon in sound and with the production of "Steamboat Willie" in 1928, his company had a bonafide hit on their hands, with Walt Disney's own voice imbuing the new animated star with a lovable soul. Walt Disney would continue innovating in the field of animation with his most ambitious project yet. At the time, cartoons were short and shown before a movie played, but Disney had the idea to produce a feature length cartoon. This was unheard of and they called him crazy, constantly saying that no one would sit through a whole movie of a cartoon; it was ridiculous! Disney spent four years working on his feature length cartoon until he ran out of money and was forced to show early, unfinished material to bankers, and finally his film was released in 1937. You may have heard of it. It was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and it went on to earn Disney an Academy Award, was the most successful film of 1938, is listed in AFI's List of the 100 Greatest American Films (one of only two animated films to be on the list, the other is Disney's Fantasia) and Albert Einstein at the time said it was, "the greatest film ever made." Despite the success of Snow White and Mickey Mouse, The Walt Disney Company had not managed to reach viability as a company because of huge loan debts and large investments into expanding the Disney Studios and beginning production on more animated feature films. Just when the public wanted to see Disney films, the world was thrown into World War II and the company faced giant obstacles to stay afloat and somehow survive. Walt Disney did not let a global war stop him from creating art and when the dust settled he was in control of a company that knew no boundaries, produced more animated films, expanded into live action films, had it's own distribution company and an international merchandising empire. When Walt Disney wanted to create a place where parents could bring their kids that was beautiful, fun, and other worldly, they again called him crazy. His company would go into further debt and had to think creatively of how to raise more money for the idea of a theme park at a time when no one knew what a theme park was. He struck gold by working out a deal with ABC to air a TV show about his new theme park and it's construction and through an investment with ABC was able to get enough money to build his park and promote it on TV at the same time. Until Disneyland opened in 1951, the Walt Disney Company had spent its first 20 years in debt, but it could now go on to amass enormous revenue from the success of "the happiest place on Earth," which would evolve into more parks, including Disney World in 1971. The Walt Disney Company now owns the companies ABC, Miramax, Marvel and Pixar, to name a few. It has produced countless hours of television, motion pictures, and music. It has arguably created more memorable pieces of art and entertainment than any other company in history, and to think it all stemmed from a man from very humble beginnings that wanted to draw instead of farm. His genius lay not in the ability to amass fame and fortune, but in his ability to constantly create art and push the limits of what was possible in whatever artistic field he was involved. and the fame and fortune were inevitable. He ignored the naysayers and always looked to the future. If they call Times Square the "center of the universe" and refer to a "Disneyfication" of it, it only means we have arrived at a future world that Walt Disney helped create, decades ago, while drawing pictures and wanting them to move. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. Ray Bradbury, author of "Fahrenheit 451" and countless writings on science fiction and the human spirit, "passed away" yesterday at the age of 91. He was certainly one of the greatest writers in the last 100 years and leaves the world still ablaze with the fires he started with his great works and the flames he fanned in our minds. If we learn anything from his lifetime spent amongst desks typing and scribbling away, it is that books are powerful igniters for all mankind to lift up and use.
From the time he was a boy he was captivated by books like Tarzan and Flash Gordon. By the time he was a teenager his own short stories made their way into magazines and his career only continued to climb. It was not an easy road for Bradbury, not in the slightest. He is a great example of hard work and persistence overcoming social and financial limitations. His family was on government assistance and attending college was not an option to him. He sold newspapers on the street corner and spent three days a week reading books at the public library for 10 years straight. When he needed to write, he had to rent a typewriter. It was on a rented typewriter in a library that Ray Bradbury wrote his masterpiece "Fahrenheit 451." Today's writers are very much spoiled, given laptop computers, printers and the internet, but in Bradbury's days, writing was much different. He pursued writing and books because he had a passion for it, not because every household had a computer and he happened to be good in English. He went about a career in literature through reading lots of books and then writing lots of books. Lucky for us that he chose the path he chose because the world is a much better one for it. His stories gave birth to entirely new imaginative and scientific creations that actually took shape and impacted the world. He predicted things like ATM machines, the death of newspapers, television screens taking up entire walls and people wearing earphones which would feed them a never ending supply of entertainment, all before these things happened. Ray Bradbury was a literary giant whose footprints will be noticed for many years because we will have to keep stepping into them. His stories are so enormous in significance and scope that hundreds of years from now people will read what this man wrote and marvel at his insights and brilliance. In an era where so much attention goes onto war, violence, drugs and sex, here stands a life spent trying to get our attention where it should be, onto peace, creativity, imagination, literature, science and art. We will always have his books and they will continue to shine a light for generations of men in the future who will not have lived when he did but will surely be bettered in their time as we have been in ours by this incredible being. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. Can you imagine receiving $70 million dollars for something that took you 30 seconds? That's what happened to Merv Griffin in the early 1960's when he came up with a short lullaby for his son Tony. It was originally called "A Time for Tony" but was later changed to "Think!" and debuted as the theme music for the long-running TV game show "Jeopardy" in 1964. Merv Griffin was the show's creator, as well as the creator of the equally famous game show "Wheel of Fortune." He later sold both shows for $250 million dollars to Columbia Pictures in 1986 and at that time it was the largest acquisition of an entertainment production company in history.
Merv Griffin had a very eclectic background. In his early 20's he was a professional singer and had the number one song in America with 1950's "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts!" which sold 3 million copies. He was then signed to a contract to the big Hollywood studio Warner Brothers as an actor but after a few films he actually bought out the remainder of his contract to pursue what he felt was a brighter future in television. Oh, how right he was, eventually hitting it big as one of the biggest television hosts of all time with "The Merv Griffin Show" and of course his famous game shows. He was a hard working, creative force that earned more than Johnny Carson, and after the sale of his production company in 1986, was named "The Richest Performer in Hollywood History" by Forbes. It doesn't surprise one that such a giant entertainment figure became so wealthy and successful, but it does surprise someone when you consider the impact and worth of his 30 second piece of music "Think!" It is absolutely amazing that such a short tune with no lyrics has become such a part of popular culture. Think about how many times you've heard the music outside of the Jeopardy TV show. It plays in giant sports arenas during time outs while the audience is entertained with short trivia questions. It appears in TV commercials and movies. Perhaps the most interesting use of the music is amongst people in everyday conversations. When someone is waiting for an answer, instead of quietly waiting, they may start humming the Jeopardy theme. When someone tells me there is no opportunity for financial success being an artist because they don't have the time to invest creating art, I will now have the Jeopardy music playing in my head, thinking, "you don't have 30 seconds?" Your whole life can change in an instant if you're willing to look outside what people often give as barriers. Sure, Merv Griffin did thousands of other things leading up to his millions in earnings, but it starts with something. Next time you're humming a tune or find a spare few seconds, instead of spending it on your usual fixations, try to come up with some new idea for a song, a movie, a book, a TV show, or something the world has never heard of. You may just get the world singing your tune. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. It's been 35 years since the original Star Wars film first hit theaters in 1977. It was rejected by Universal and George Lucas made it go right by finding investment for the film and got it made. People hadn't seen anything like it before and it became an overnight phenomenon. They lined up for blocks to see it over and over again. Lucas scored a huge hit and at the time no one, including him, could have predicted that it would go on to be a cultural milestone, now valued at over $30 billion dollars. What was the secret behind the wildly successful franchise? What made it so different from other films, shows, books and creations that it took on such a monstrous size? Three things.
1. ORIGINALITY - Science fiction stories had been around for decades and science fiction movies had been made before but it was new things like the opening title sequence, newly developed special effects, light sabers, Wookies, the Force and a ton of others all combining in a wholly unique, aesthetically stimulating experience that drove people crazy. It was something new! They hadn't seen ANYTHING close to this before. 2. MERCHANDISING - Although the Star Wars films have grossed a couple billion dollars world wide, the bigger numbers come from merchandise like Star Wars toys, t-shirts, board games, lunch boxes, backpacks, coloring books, legos, video games, legos inspired video games, phone apps, posters, comic books, novels and a TON of other stuff. From the very beginning George Lucas, a marketing genius, saw the potential of every kid wanting to be Luke Skywalker and later realized he would grow to be an adult wanting to be Luke Skywalker. 3. FANNING THE FAN BASE - When people become fans of something they're usually left to their own devices to express their admiration for it. There might be an occasional fan club one could join where you'd receive a one time package of a photo and a sticker, but Star Wars fans had more, MUCH more. George Lucas realized there was enormous potential in the Star Wars story continuing in the hands of fans across the world. Most entertainment companies go after people when they use their characters' images in fan made creations, but not Lucas. He encouraged it. The result? Countless numbers of fan made movies, songs, websites, you name it and it's probably been made by a Star Wars fan. It is the guy that spends a couple years making his home-made version of Episode IV and shows it to all his friends online that keeps the franchise filled with an ever-growing amount of new content. And these guys buy movie tickets and all the merchandise, brilliant! It all starts from an original idea, but then you need to make other products and create a vehicle for people to help you promote your creations. It's not enough to just make great art. You have to promote and sell it. You have to get others to help you, otherwise you'll be limited to how many people you can reach. Ideally, you want to create a world like George Lucas did, one others will want to explore and play in enough to help it grow and expand. One of the biggest challenges being an artist is being able to create outside of the confines of yourself, to get out there and create with others. I think George Lucas pulled it off and now, so can you. May the force be with you. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. Any artist that has ever faced criticism of their work or had to listen to very convincing reasons why their art wasn't good enough and couldn't possibly be successful needs to know the story of Elvis Presley and Rock n Roll. It may sound totally ridiculous now but when rock n roll music first hit the scene it was only supposed to last a year according to some critics. Singers were supposed to sound beautiful and the music had to match. When this new musical genre debuted it was not predicted to last more than a year, that is until Elvis Presley hit the mainstream with a song that every music executive at RCA hated.
Elvis had just signed to a major record company, RCA, and started recording new songs for his upcoming album. The second song he recorded was completely unlike anything he had recorded before at his previous record company, Sun Records. "Heartbreak Hotel" was a song inspired by a man that committed suicide and left a note saying "I walk a lonely street." It was not the upbeat rockabilly style of Elvis' previous recordings; this was a song that was blues inspired and talked about death, not the kind of song people were listening to on the radio. Elvis fell in love with the song when he first discovered it, however his version ended up sounding completely different, and when he took it to his producer, although reluctant to play a part in such a risky song choice, he believed Elvis knew what he was doing enough to record the young singer. When executives at RCA heard the song and were told this was the first single, they said it was a horrible song choice and there was no way they could release such a song. The only one that was confident in the song was Elvis. Everyone else didn't understand it. It didn't measure up to what they were used to and so they did not want it. Eventually Elvis had his way and the song was released in early 1956 and once again a few critics called it morbid and bad. Remember, at the time, rock n roll was not supposed to last either, according to several of the same critics, but once Elvis performed the song on television and people heard it on the radio, it went to number one, charted high on three billboard charts, was the biggest selling song of that entire year, completely solidified rock n roll as a movement and is widely considered one of the greatest songs of all time. Listening to "Heartbreak Hotel" made a couple of young men in Liverpool, England want to be rock n roll musicians and they started a band called The Beatles. Bob Dylan and countless others up to the present day were influenced by Elvis Presley and rock n roll music not only survived but completely permeated throughout the world and influenced practically every nation on Earth. And interestingly, this almost didn't happen if you remove Elvis' confidence in his artistic work. If he had just said, "well, these guys are the professional music executives and they know better than me, i'll just let them choose what songs I should sing," we'd be living in a completely different world right now. Fortunate for us, Elvis was a true artist that knew what he wanted to create and didn't let an entire world convince him he couldn't create it just because they'd never seen it before. As an artist/creator I can relate to this story because my own music doesn't fit nicely into what people are used to, if you're interested in listening to it go to www.xraypoetz.com. I take a lot of inspiration from "Heartbreak Hotel" because if we as artists don't stand up for our art, we'll be the ones walking a lonely street. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. I recently watched one of many Beatles documentaries in my life and something stuck with me. In the film it was said that upon arrival in an Australian city, 300,000 people (half the city) came out to greet the Beatles. 300,000 people! That's a huge crowd. I thought back to scenes of fans waiting at the airport for the Beatles to walk out of the plane. I thought about Shea Stadium and how the screaming was so loud that you couldn't hear the music. And then I thought, why doesn't this happen anymore? Is it because, in a very high brow answer, "there will never be another Beatles?" No, that's not it.
In an age of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, StubHub, etc. shouldn't we have larger crowds forming for our artists because of the faster communication available to us, unavailable to Beatles fans? We have better, faster transportation too! What is stopping another Beatles-like invasion from occurring? I acknowledge that in the era of the Beatles, there was Elvis, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan: very big legends. But do we have legends today? It seems to me that our biggest stars are artists like Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Beyonce. There's nothing wrong with them as artists but they definitely are not The Beatles. What about U2 or Coldplay? Or Jay-Z and Eminem? They fit the mold a bit better but why aren't huge crowds awaiting them at every airport? Why aren't crowds screaming so loud these artists think about not performing live anymore? Is it the artists that are not good enough to garner the reactions the Beatles did or is it the people in societies across the world that have fallen into an apathy or boredom over music? Somehow I don't think it's either of these. I don't have all the answers but if I had to choose one, I would say this: I believe there is a genuine effort on the part of some suppressive element on this planet to create an atmosphere where artists are kept in line and the public is kept at home. In my hometown there were hardly any live music venues so artists hardly ever performed there. We were forced to admire artists from afar while watching them on TV. There's nothing wrong with TV or the internet but I think there should be more encouragement to go outside and do something, to interact with other people just a bit more. If that happened I think our artists would become inspired enough to want to do more shows. We should be waiting for our favorite artists at the airport. We should let them know what they mean to us in bigger ways because at the end of the day we don't go home and look forward to watching the evening news, we look forward to listening to our favorite band, watching a movie, reading a book, catching an episode of our favorite show. Let's make sure we catch more shows in person, because i think that'd create another Beatles Invasion, except we could turn it into an Artists Invasion, and that would truly change the world. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. |
David CarusI'm David Carus. From overcoming one of the most dangerous cities in the country and graduating from one of the most prestigious colleges in America to leading an educational movement as a teacher and running for Congress at the age of 25, I decided the best hope our world has is through art. Archives
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