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Martini Shot: Words of Encouragement
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Rob, great story, thanks for that. Thanks also for the peek inside the barely contained cynicism that must permeate the sidewalks in GlitterVille. Even if this “friend of a friend” couldn’t get his movie made, threw a bunch of money at it, and it went down the tubes, at the very least, he tried to do something that he really, really wanted to do, and didn’t let fear “rob” him of the chance to look back on his life later on and say “Well, it didn’t work out, but I gave it my best shot”.
Maybe it’s true that an encouraging word should be seldom heard, but if the encouraging word is honest, then the decisions people make from those words are their own. So what if the “friend of a friend” winds up in a puddle of his own sick in the back seat of his 1982 Chevy Nova, if his project tanked? Wouldn’t that make for a great movie, too?
From somebody on the verge of actually making his first buck in the music biz, this was timely, moving, funny, and….I said “timely” right?
Great story. Terrific insight. I’ve been in parallel situations in the music world. The magic words, in that case, are: “This is the best song/demo I’ve ever heard.” (They NEVER wanna hear: “Pretty good hook. The second verse doesn’t really pay off. You oughta do a rewrite.”)
The big difference is the money. A person can make a marketable recording these days for a tiny fraction of the cost of making a movie. An indie music artist can sustain a financially mediocre career for years for the less than it takes to make one decent indie film.
This story may be apocryphal, but here goes:
James Joyce’s publisher came to his home one morning to find the great author in the slough of despond. “What could be the matter, James?” the man asked.
To which Joyce replied, “I’ve only written seven words this morning.”
Looking to buck up his meal ticket the publisher responded with, “But, James, for a great author, such as yourself, that could prove to be a significant output.”
Joyce, tired and unresponsive, looked at his publisher and replied, “But I don’t know the order the words should go in.”
Wonderful story and belly laugh funny.
Last week I listened to Rob bash Dell computers, and extol all things Apple, on my much maligned HP PC. This week I log on on my iPad and discover that his piece doesn’t even show up on the screen! So which platform is looking silly now?
KCRW for not having an HTML 5 player (but then again, neither do we — yet).