Sprint VS. Marathon

I’ve been reading the book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant. And I was thinking of the playwright Christopher Shinn and the fiction writer Lore Segal. Shinn was nominated at the age of 33 in 2008 for a Pulitzer. Segal at 80 was also nominated in 2008. I also remembered a quote by the sometimes annoying Tony Kushner. I wish I could find the quote, but he said something to the effect that if you’re a playwright and haven’t had any success by the time you’re 35 you’re basically a wash-up. Grant writes about how we remember the young geniuses, in the arts and sciences. I love this quote: “…although we’re quick to remember the young geniuses who peak early, there are plenty of old masters who soar much later… In film, for every Orson Wells, whose masterpiece Citizen Cane was his very first feature film at age twenty-five, there is an Alfred Hitchcock, who made his three most popular films three decades into his career, at ages fifty-nine (Vertigo), sixty (North by Northwest), and sixty-one (Psycho). In poetry, for every e.e. cummings, who penned his first influential poem at twenty-two and more than half of his best work before turning forty, there is a Robert Frost, who wrote 92 percent of his most reprinted poems after forty.” He goes on to write that creators have different ways of inventing: experimenting and conceptualizing. The latter starts out with a big idea and attacks it. The former figures it out as he or she goes. One is a sprinter and one a marathon runner. He goes on to write about e.e. cummings. “After imagining his own rules of language, grammar and punctuation in his early twenties, by age fifty, as one critic remarked, ‘Cummings is still the experimentalist of one experiment.’” So what about playwrights such as Shinn and David Lindsay-Abaire and fiction writers such as Jonathan Safran Foer? Ripcord, Lindsay-Abaire’s last play, didn’t exactly get glowing reviews. Shinn is now doing plays where the ancient Horton Foote was put out to pasture (yes, we know. Foote’s language is gorgeous. And he was working on his The Orphan’s Home Cycle into his 90’s) and Nicky Silver, stumbles, gets up, sprints, gets up, falls and seems to stumble again. References Grant, A. (2016). Originals: How non-conformists move the world. New York, NY: Viking.

Fail Better

I am in love with this quote, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." The quote is, of course, by Samuel Beckett, who I always confuse with Brecht. Lol. This is also very American in that try, try again way. But there's a difference. Beckett is telling us not to be afraid of failure. It's not only about success. I think it was Seth Godin who said we need to learn to dance with failure and Rupaul who said that the voice of defeat will always be there (did I just put Seth and Rupaul together). We simply need to learn to love and live with failure. Don't deny it. And certainly don't fear it. No matter who you are, the possibility of failure will always be with us. This means there's no guarantee in life. I've read a few screenwriting books, one of which is by a very famous man who gives workshops. He states that a good story will always sell, no matter what. So, the aspiring artist says to herself, "Let me write the perfect screenplay." She does so. It's flawless. She shops it around. Nothing. What happened? It's absolutely not true that a good story will always sell, or even a great product. The most difficult thing is not to write the screenplay (and trust me this is difficult indeed) it's getting the damn thing made. Today, art isn't about a celebration of beauty, about elegance, about creation. It's about getting the thing produced. There was an American Express ad a few years back which showed Ron Howard and his producer drinking coffee. Most of Ron Howard's films have been pretty awful. Look at his first with The Fonz, called Night Shift. But the advertisement doesn't focus on the quality of his films, his lack of awards, his obvious contacts which enabled him to become such a big director or his horrible aesthetic. It focuses on the fact that the movies were made in the first place. This is the accomplishment. It's not artistic. Its financial. So why Beckett? He was obviously successful by both artistic and financial standards. The economist.com in an article states, "He was the opposite of a self-promoter: intensely private and fearful of fame, he was more of a self-demoter." So how does a self-demoter become successful? Because the human condition, at least according to Beckett, is about being defeated and whipped. About striving for goals only to be cast down in a hopeless world. So it seems Beckett was writing about a human condition. And this universality is what made him so renowned. http://www.economist.com/node/5624852 http://www.larktheatre.org/john-clinton-eisner/

One of the colossal failures is, of course, the movie The Island of Dr. Moreau. Richard Stanely’s script was ruined by egomaniacs Marlon Brando and Val Killmar or so it would seem. I'm sure this was the case. Now, as many of you know, I was an actor in my 20’s and had short revival after meeting the fabulous and wonderful Laura Day. She touched my center for a healing ceremony, said, and I quote, “Oh my!” Later told me she saw me getting back into performing. As this was, and always will be, my dream, I was excited and decided to stay in L.A. to pursue acting just a wee bit longer. I got several films after she told me that and then was abused at an audition by a young filmmaker who hated actors and was extremely cocky. Now, I’ve heard many stories about young filmmakers abusing their actors. Finally, here I was facing the reality. The documentary, if you've seen it, is incredibly biased and shows how actors are abusive to directors, but shows nothing of how those actors got to be abusive in the first place. I’ll tell you: they became abusive dealing with abusive directors. It’s an ego thing in Hollywood. Many people like to waste other people’s times and they like to sabotage others to keep the glory and the mountain for themselves. Anyway, the documentary, Lost Souls, should be looked at and here’s some information about it http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x37rykz. After a quick look at the internet , I came across several ‘reviews’ one of which was on avclub.com. I perused Alex McCown-Levy’s article, which included ass-licking and other I’m-on-a-deadline-and-yes-I-want-to-see-my-name-online statements such as , “…Stanley…’s not the most interesting aspect of the story.” This despite that fact that he goes to a warlock (not a voodoo doctor), to create a spell to keep him on as a director AND IT ACTUALLY COMES TRUE. Other misleading quotes from this site include, and I must edit – God, I wish he had - “The filmmakers…quip about how star Val Kilmer immediately began undermining his authority and hurting the film are good…but stories about Kilmer’s appalling later behavior and clash of egos with the legendary…Marlon Brando are better.” The author never gives us the gift of why this is 'better'. Oy. Seriously. It's a film review. This is good, but that is better? Perhaps he had a party to go to in Chicago, where he could meet girls and brag about how his article was just published. Anyway, I digress and I’m being mean. I’m sure the author hates my writing as well. Usually when you hate something, or someone, they hate you even more. I remember kissing a young woman named Meg R. in high school. She was the worst kisser, honestly all wet and disgusting. Two years later, after we broke up, we were playing a game as high schoolers do, “Who was your best and worst kisser?” We both named each other. Or my partner K. and I recently talked about how we know a cheap couple. Comes to find out, through a friend, they thought we were the cheapest they knew. I’m certainly not here to make enemies. That’s not the G.A. way! I just get frustrated by film criticism nowadays. It’s become so. Well. You know. It's not Mr. McCown-Levy's fault. It's mine. I'm old school. I like the theater critics from the 30's, 40's and beyond. LOL. The point is Richard Stanely hasn’t made many (if any) movies since that one. He’s not considered a success and yet here we are learning a ton from him through this documentary. Kudos to the documentary makers, . Would anyone say he’s not bright? Not a knowledgeable filmmaker? I think not.

All right folks, and welcome! I'm G.A. also known in some circles as Monterrey Goldscrap (that's my porno/rapper name LOL). We're here today to talk about the benefits of failure, particularly when it comes to art. Buuuuuuuut, I'm hoping this can be a resource for anyone: business guys and girls, scientists, bloggers or anyone who's ever said they wanted to be "someone" tried and failed. I want this to be a resource on not how to fail, but on how to succeed. But, I simply think we can learn a lot for others' mistakes and then succeed in our own lives. The reason for the blog is simple: many, many self-help books, blogs, books, seminars, speak with people who are "successful", which is great. But if you've ever read "What I Learned from Losing A Million Dollars" or "Outliers: The Story of Success" or even... damm, I forgot the third, I hope it comes to me, you'll understand that there can be tremendous benefit from learning about things from people who have made mistakes. This way you don't have to go down their path. Or maybe they did everything right, but just had bad luck. I mean, really who knows? Anyway, my point is that people who are "failures" actually have a lot of knowledge, resources and lessons to offer and we should, particularly when it comes to art, pay attention to these folks. Maybe it was timing. Maybe it was the people that surrounded them. But I promise (ok I don't promise anything) that we can learn just as much if not more from listening to people who've dedicated their lives to something: be it space exploration, art, whatever, and who've failed. Some of the people coming to mind: Eric J. Lerner, The guy who invented the timepiece, me, Franz Kafka, etc. Why write this blog? Well, there's many reasons, but here are the main two. !). I was chatting with a friend (Ok he wasn't a friend, it was a booty call and we'd just finished having sex) and he turned to me and said, "I heard you attended a writers conference." At the time I was a playwright/actor who could simply not make a living so I was dipping into fiction. I said, "Yes. But I could have been an presenter there. I mean. What they taught was so basic! I seriously could have taught those people." He scoffed. "Good luck with that." But I was serious. I already knew everything they were teaching. True. Alex Chee had some interesting ideas. But, c'mon. He's Korean. The Koreans always have interesting ideas - at least to us Irish boys! Remember the episode on Seinfeld (Oy! did I just reference Seinfeld? I hope no artists are judging me) when they all wanted a person who was truly Chinese? Anyway I digress. 2). Another friend (OK, she wasn't a friend. I was working for an off-Broadway show called Hedwig and the Angry Inch and she was a co-worker) who was working for the public school system in New York City said, "We're starting a new program in our schools. The idea is to bring artists to talk to the kids!" At this point my eyes lit up, I guess, because she quickly said, "Oh I mean famous and successful ones." I thought, well, these kids could learn a lot more from me, a struggling artist, than they could from them! Thus, an idea was planted. Focus on people who know a lot, but may not be so prominent in the public eye. And now here I am, fifteen years later, finally starting a blog. As a side note, I dedicated a proposal many years ago about Proust's obsession with the art critic John Ruskin. The proposal was accepted, but they wanted to see more. So here I am. Giving them more. Or should I say, here we are. Whatever. So I am trying to find people who've failed. This isn't easy as their not in the public spotlight. Apart from the obvious ones: Kafka, Van Gough, etc. But I'm interested in ones that are living today. People who know a lot, but aren't known. If you know any artistic geniuses out there, who haven't gotten their just rewards, please leave a comment. We've all met brilliant people who should be famous and in the public spotlight, but for some reason just aren't. These are the people I'm interested in hearing from. So please help me. As I wrote, I want this blog to help you, sugar, to be successful. In art. In life. In whatever. To get us started, my next post will be on Kafka, a writer who I love. I think it was Jean Cocteau who said (shite I hope this is right) something like "When we like art it's because it's something which we wish we would have made." That's not a direct quote, but I'm not about to dig through all of his journals looking for the exact quote. Anyway, Kafka's books are something I wish I had made. So, as I wrote, we'll be discussing that next. I should wrap it for now. I hope all is well. Peace Oui! XXO