L.E.S. Artistes

Brian: I’m an artist.

Daisy: What kind of thing do you do?

Brian: Anger.... Pain... Fear... Aggression....

Daisy: Watercolours?

Brian: It’s a bit more complex than that.

- Spaced

At what point do you become an artist?

Is it when you book a gig? When you make some money? When you get a record deal? When you start being an arrogant, hypocritical fuckwit and telling other people what to do?*

Stop all this ‘us and them’ bullshit and take a look around at the billions of talented folks. You are not special.

You are not entitled to make a living from music and the Government has no obligation to protect your livelihood. The market is changing and if you can’t survive it’s nobody’s fault but your own. Stop being a little bitch. That’s how it goes in the real world.

*It’s when you buy your first pair of Cuban heels. Fact.

Mother and Child Reunion

Last night mumPUNK called me to rant about ebooks.

Why, she asked, do they cost as much as (if not more than) hardcopy books when there are no production, distribution or warehousing costs?

Why do they include restrictions that you would not find on a hard copy book (i.e. can’t loan to a friend, can’t use on more devices)?

Why can retailers remotely delete a book that a customer has legally purchased?!!

Finally she calmed down and concluded, ‘well, I guess publishers are pretty useless now anyway... authors can just do it all themselves’.

Well said. I guess the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.