Starving artists

Two Wednesdays ago, I helped a friend get to a food bank. She is not homeless, but many of the people waiting were. While waiting I listened to a conversation where I learned that the best place to bum cigarettes is at the strip club. You learn something every day, I thought, but I am not sure that I will ever be able to use that.

Last Wednesday I was at a concert, which I will finish reviewing this week. After it was over one of the band members saw a pack of cigarettes on the floor with four lying loose, and he scooped them up for his own use.

Cigarettes are expensive. I don't remember now if it was one of the guys who needed new pants, but it's probably safe to say that while the guys in the headliner are comfortable (not rich), the guys in the opening acts don't have a lot of money.

I did not suggest to him that he try bumming cigarettes at strip clubs, because maybe that's only that one in Hillsboro. If strippers (a stripper at the one club will give you three at a time) in general are generous, I can believe that. Often you find the greatest generosity among the most marginalized.

It also reminded me of this:

http://qz.com/455109/entrepreneurs-dont-have-a-special-gene-for-risk-they-come-from-families-with-money/

Yes, not only does having money allow you to safely take risks; it also allows you to be creative. I see that more now. I have been trying to refinance the house, which is really stressful but also necessary. I am also taking a lot longer to finish my next book than I should. Some days I just don't have it in me to put forth any additional mental effort. I submit to you that those two things are not a coincidence.

One thing I also can't help but notice is that refinancing would be a lot easier for someone who didn't need it as much. There are sums required for paying for the appraisal, and there are other sums they said they would need that turned out to be mistaken (like the property taxes for the end of the year), but the reason I am trying to do this is because I am left with no extra money each month, not for fun.

So that of course reminds me of my recent post on Paul Allen, and how not liking the terms of his loan didn't stop him from defaulting and still owning the building anyway. I don't know how much stress that was for him, but I know he never stops being rich.

It also reminds me of Culture Crash:
http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Crash-Killing-Creative-Class/dp/0300195885

One of his points was that we are getting to where only those who are already wealthy will be able to be artists and musicians, but also journalists, so the options for the working class to get good information about these changes is going down too.

I had seen the demise of journalism as being more dangerous, but there would be great poverty in losing the creative voices that are out there now, and the ones that haven't spoken yet. It is important on a personal level, but it impoverishes us as a society as well.

So I know I said I was moving from political back to personal, but this is personal. I can live with working a day job if I still get to write, but if I become so worn down and so stressed that I can't write, life is much worse.

Watch that happen over and over again, for multiple people. No young bands coming up and following random people on Twitter. No one making art criticizing the oligarchy. Children don't learn art and music and schools, how are they even going to start? It doesn't even send ripples out into the world; it's just stagnation.

One thing that makes it easier for us to judge others is when we don't know their stories. Art helps people find ways to share their stories., via song, prose, poetry, pictures, and every other way. The more money that gets more tied up with the one percent, the more it strangles everything else.

And you know, I still think Black Lives Matter supersedes the economy, because economic fear is still better then fear that you will be pulled over for making eye contact, or not making eye contact, and where not signalling on a courtesy lane change leaves you dead in your jail cell.

If these are my vacation thoughts, you can see why I'm such a buzzkill when I'm working.