October 2015 – Page 2 – If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

Oct 08 2015 October 8, 2015 October 8, 2015 4 Comments by ben

A fine, fine ad

Oct 08 2015 October 8, 2015 October 8, 2015 2 Comments by ben

Someone asked me if I’d heard any interesting podcasts recently…

The comedy stuff at the beginning is interesting, but later on they discuss God, morality, language and all sorts of other things.

Enjoy.

UPDATE: forgot to mention that there are LOADS of great interviews on the You Made It Weird podcast. The Keegan-Michael Key one is very funny then very interesting.

And Tim’s greatest song:

Oct 06 2015 October 6, 2015 October 6, 2015 15 Comments by ben

Ed Morris: don’t want.

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Don’t want anything.

I was introduced to this young guy the other day, must have been mid 20’s.
I asked him what he was up to and he said “I want to direct”
I thought about that, the “I want to” bit.
I’ve come to a conclusion.
I think wanting to do something is probably the biggest single barrier to actually doing something. The psychological and literal mechanics behind wanting to do something are the polar opposite to those that would facilitate doing it. All the time you are wanting to do something there’s no way you’re going to do it.

I hear people say “I want to leave my job” “I want to visit Australia” “I want to write a novel” “I want to stop taking drugs” “I want to leave my husband” By wanting they are actually actively engaged in the ‘not doing” of any of these things.

When you chose to want to do something you put an immediate measure of time, ability, circumstance etc between you and the doing.

I believe that the purest form of intention is action…that’s the power we have…we can make thought manifest, that is alchemy, that is magic.

I would caution anyone to be very aware and careful of anything they currently want to do.

“They’re ain’t nothing to it but to do it” is one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite films – Wild style.

Also I’ve noticed that wanting… with time turns in to “wanted” These people with all the “wanteds” are the saddest of the lot.“I wanted to leave my wife” “I wanted to ride a horse naked across a beach in moonlight”“I wanted to spend more time with my children”“I wanted to be more honest with myself”“I wanted to be more assertive”“I wanted to give up the job I hated” But I didn’t.

The ‘wanted” lot have even given up on the possibility of wanting and not doing. That is unfathomably sad.

I don’t think that kid I spoke to will ever direct as long as he lives. I could feel it, I could sense it. It made me sad and angry, for his sake.

If anyone tells me what they want to do from now on I’m going to reply “yes, of course you don’t” maybe followed with “and why exactly don’t you?”

My mum always used to say “I want doesn’t get” and she was right in more ways than one.

It echoes something I heard the other day: ‘While you’re judging yourself by your intentions, everyone else is judging you by your actions.’

Oct 02 2015 October 2, 2015 October 2, 2015 11 Comments by ben

How do you transcend?

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In many creative fields there are one or two people who are so successful that they look as if they’re playing an entirely different game to everyone else.

For example, in the world of movies James Cameron is the only person who has produced (and written/directed) a film that has grossed over two billion dollars. But he’s done it twice. Over the recent history of film so many very smart people have spent so much money trying to create blockbuster movies that you’d almost expect someone else to have joined him on this list. How come the combined creativity and marketing muscle of Disney/Marvel/Joss Whedon couldn’t get Avengers up there? What about the Lord Of The Rings movies? Or Jurassic World? (by the way, I’m not talking about subjective measures of quality here; just the objective measures of popularity). No one comes close to Cameron, yet so many try.

In the world of pop music Taylor Swift somehow manages to be the only person who produces over a million sales in the first week of her albums’ releases. No one else does it at all – not Beyonce, Drake or Ed Sheeran – and yet she does it over and over again. There are lots of popular artists, why is her success so much greater, so consistently, than all those other smart, talented people?

In the world of books we have J.K. Rowling and E.L. James miles out in front of everyone else.

In U.S. radio, there’s Howard Stern and some other people I’ve never heard of.

In the tech world, there’s Apple, a very large gap, then everyone else.

So how do these people (and Apple) go so far beyond the top of their field?

Is James Cameron such a great reader of the zeitgeist, or human emotions, that he can tap into parts of us the rest cannot? Are Harry Potter and 50 Shades of Grey such amazing stories that they clearly go beyond all the other books in the marketplace? What about Taylor Swift? Is her music so much better than everyone else’s?

I’d argue that this has something to do with perceived quality: Swift’s music is really catchy pop; the technological craft behind Titanic and Avatar was (for its time) incredible; Howard Stern’s interviews are consistently more incisive, perceptive and entertaining than anyone else’s; Apple’s products work better and more reliably than those of its competitors.

But why so far ahead?

Sorry. I think you might be expecting me to answer that question.

I have no idea.

If you do, don’t be shy; that’s what the comments section is for.