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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5454 Posts |
 Posted - 01/24/2004 : 01:48:13
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| We've had the debate before about artists selling their music for commercials and I can understand that artists have to make money, but has anyone else seen the Mitsubishi commercial with the Flaming Lips's "Do You Realize" playing? I think that's an especially beautiful and poignant song, but now it's being used to sell cars. They better have gotten a boatload of money to justify cheapening their song. Ugly. |
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realmeanmotorscutor
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1764 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 06:05:54
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pissed me off too
 "I joined the Cult of Popeye / The CoF required my good eye" |
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interloper
= Cult of Ray =
440 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 06:10:44
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Remember the good old days when rock musicians were a tad bit more stout about doing this sort of thing? Seems like nowadays, the goal is to "sell out".
Hand held shower nozzles are the demon enemy of the patriarch and should be destroyed. |
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Owen
- FB Fan -
USA
165 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 06:14:48
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| Modest Mouse's "Gravity Rides Everything" is also used in a Mitsurainforestrapers song. The Shins were in a Mickey D's commercial. Selling out is all well and good, but at least sell out with some dignity. You know, like Liz Phair. |
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Adnan_le_Terrible
* Dog in the Sand *
France
1973 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 06:55:14
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"seems like nowadays, the goal is to "sell out"" :
It has always been that way, I think. We're all working for money. Of course, the White Stripes refused a Levi's commercial, but I don't see the point of refusing. If your music is really original, and avant garde, then the advertising people won't ask you to use your music...
He says "c'est la vie" and takes another dive. |
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interloper
= Cult of Ray =
440 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 08:55:14
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quote:
Originally posted by Adnan_le_Terrible
"seems like nowadays, the goal is to "sell out"" :
It has always been that way, I think. We're all working for money. Of course, the White Stripes refused a Levi's commercial, but I don't see the point of refusing. If your music is really original, and avant garde, then the advertising people won't ask you to use your music...
He says "c'est la vie" and takes another dive.
I agree and disagree. I agree that it has kind of always been that way. Any musician in history wants to make money on his or her music. Sure, we all would. I guess it just seems to me like it keeps getting worse all the time. The world's consumerism grows every second. We live in an age where movie stars are similtaneously recording artists, and writers, and all sorts of things. On the surface there's nothing wrong with this, but I hold steady that it's damaging to the forms in the long run. There's too much career and musical crossbreeding, it's all become the same blob of genericism from all angles. I've noticed a trend that a lot of times, a record will come out, and the very same week, the hit song is in a car commercial. The Walkmen's record (which is okay) was that way. It's a form of promotion sure, but I still think it's weird. As a side note, overselling is what has made rap music so stupid as time has passed. Rap comes from the inner city, so it's practitioners are bound to wind up being overtly materialistic (bling bling),it's been destined to bomb from the beginning. Makes sense. All this talk of "keeping it real" and what not, meanwhile, Regis raps now and then, and "hardcore rappers" are selling fleece products for Kmart. It's been oversold. You know something fresh is done and overwith the moment it starts being used to pimp out some silly product. As far as advertisers being attracted to music for product because it's original or avant gaurd or whatever, exects don't give a flying you know what what the music is like, there looking for current hipness and familiarity. If the hip music of the day was Frank Black farting into a microphone, they'd be tossing one hundred dollar bills in his g-string too. People in advertising should be granted their own planet, preferably one with no oxygen.
This whole issue is a matter of opinion, and I am simply stating mine. We all live in a seriously shitty time in history for creativity, generally speaking. I say hats off to Jack White for saying no to Levis. I like the White Stripes because of his outspoken desire to keep things pure and "real". However, when and if he gets around to singing the line "squeeze my lemon till the juice runs down my leg", I'll be done with him. (too many zeppelin records, Jack)
Hand held shower nozzles are the demon enemy of the patriarch and should be destroyed. |
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apl4eris
~ Abstract Brain ~
USA
4800 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 08:58:53
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Jello Biafra said no to Levi's too - they wanted "Holiday in Cambodia". Just imagine. www.alternativetentacles.com
So anyway, the rest of the band sued him to try to sell the song to Levi's, and now he is out of the band. Mun chien andalusia clued me into this nastiness in the "Frank Black to Keynote DIY Convention" thread:
http://forum.frankblack.net/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4739
 Today, we're gonna learn poodles how to fly. |
Edited by - apl4eris on 01/24/2004 08:59:57 |
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SpudBoy
= Cult of Ray =
Equatorial Guinea
649 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 09:31:32
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Also keep in mind that in a lot of cases, the record contract that the band signed may be crappy and not give them the right of refusal for use. I have seen contracts that specifically state that you will be compensated but will not be consulted as to promotional use. Varies by contract, so they may or may not be selling out.
 I looked for a cult to join, then decided to just play "Sink". Hey! I sank WallaWalla Washington! |
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apl4eris
~ Abstract Brain ~
USA
4800 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 10:06:32
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I think it's funny that a car commercial is using a song that says "do you realize that everyone you know someday will die" - kinda counter-intuitive I think. Anyone else notice commercials lately are using very stupid judgement like this?
Today, we're gonna learn poodles how to fly. |
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Owen
- FB Fan -
USA
165 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 11:53:22
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| True dat. "Lust For Life" in a cruise ship commercial simply defies logic. |
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interloper
= Cult of Ray =
440 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 13:04:59
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quote:
Originally posted by Owen
True dat. "Lust For Life" in a cruise ship commercial simply defies logic.
Good example. That little midget has sold that song to so many damn commercials it's ridiculous. Granted, in an interview I read that he said he didn't care about it because they were not commercially conceived. Fine, but I can't stand that song anymore. He's killed it for me.
Hand held shower nozzles are the demon enemy of the patriarch and should be destroyed. |
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Crispy Water
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
819 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 18:22:29
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The one that gets me reaching for my gun is the fact that there's a (slightly rewritten) Devo song on the new Swiffer commercials.
Nothing is ever something. |
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apl4eris
~ Abstract Brain ~
USA
4800 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 18:36:59
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Yeah - I heard that too, Crispy. Our jaws dropped to the floor in consternation and disbelief.
Then I remembered, Mothersbaugh's a Minister in the Church of the Subgenius, and he can do anything he wants. He is going to be absorbed into the skin and psyche of every Nickelodeon-watchin' soccer-mom Swiffin' brain out there, and bully for him - Imagine a brighter day!
Today, we're gonna learn poodles how to fly. |
Edited by - apl4eris on 01/24/2004 18:39:21 |
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SpudBoy
= Cult of Ray =
Equatorial Guinea
649 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 18:42:31
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that's all well and good, but I will be having some VERY mixed feelings when I hear Jesus Lizard or GG Allin in a car commercial.
I looked for a cult to join, then decided to just play "Sink". Hey! I sank WallaWalla Washington! |
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apl4eris
~ Abstract Brain ~
USA
4800 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 18:50:43
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Damn straight. Like "Lemmee at'em!!!! Motherf#*@ers!!!!!!!" feelings.
I would find Yow, get him real drugged up (won't be hard), and point him in the direction of whoever made the executive decision, and hand him a ball-peen hammer. If it was him, then I'll sic him on a full-length mirror.
Today, we're gonna learn poodles how to fly. |
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SpudBoy
= Cult of Ray =
Equatorial Guinea
649 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 18:52:38
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Yeah - GG already took care of that though. Maybe we dig up GG and set Dave Yow loose on the corpse? Hell he might do that for fun. I'm selling tickets.
I looked for a cult to join, then decided to just play "Sink". Hey! I sank WallaWalla Washington! |
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interloper
= Cult of Ray =
440 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 19:33:24
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God bless the Jesus Lizard. I miss them so.
Sniff.
Hand held shower nozzles are the demon enemy of the patriarch and should be destroyed. |
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Little Black Francis
> Teenager of the Year <
3648 Posts |
Posted - 01/24/2004 : 20:34:34
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| Didn't the White Stripes turn down 1 million $$$ to do a gap commercial? |
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slaveish
= Cult of Ray =
USA
269 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2004 : 22:44:54
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| Of course there was recently a Breeders song used in a car commercial. But I have to agree and disagree with interloper. I don't know if it's the current thing, no matter how bad it is, that is being used to promote these products- because actually a lot of good music has been listed here. I heard a story on the radio about the heyday and subsequent death of the advertising jingle. Truth is, advertising and the media have changed. Jingles used to be effective because they relied on repetition- they were used for years- and were heavily identified with a product. But now, in our ADD age, that kind of thing is just impossible. Products and advertisements for them come and go too rapidly. Also, it is too damned expensive to pay songwriters to come up with jingles. So yeah, the music they're picking is seductive, but also it's necessary- it's a sign of the times. But what I'm wondering about is the products they promote- should an artist use his or her ethical standards to say yes- I'm going to lend my tune to promote this fuel-efficient, small and economical Mini, but I am not going to endorse a piggish and disgusting Cadillac Escalade. Of course you have to keep in mind that the car companies all sell both kinds of cars. So the economy has changed too. BMW sells Minis and they sell ridiculous SUV's. Ford sells the Focus and they also sell Expeditions. So I don't know. Is it ultimately up to the consumer? Vote with your pocketbook? |
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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5454 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2004 : 23:09:44
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| I don't so much have a problem with most songs being bought and sold for advertising. But, when you write a song about how short life is and how we should love while we got it, then maybe you shouldn't cheapen it. |
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interloper
= Cult of Ray =
440 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 05:30:26
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quote:
Originally posted by slaveish
Of course there was recently a Breeders song used in a car commercial. But I have to agree and disagree with interloper. I don't know if it's the current thing, no matter how bad it is, that is being used to promote these products- because actually a lot of good music has been listed here. I heard a story on the radio about the heyday and subsequent death of the advertising jingle. Truth is, advertising and the media have changed. Jingles used to be effective because they relied on repetition- they were used for years- and were heavily identified with a product. But now, in our ADD age, that kind of thing is just impossible. Products and advertisements for them come and go too rapidly. Also, it is too damned expensive to pay songwriters to come up with jingles. So yeah, the music they're picking is seductive, but also it's necessary- it's a sign of the times. But what I'm wondering about is the products they promote- should an artist use his or her ethical standards to say yes- I'm going to lend my tune to promote this fuel-efficient, small and economical Mini, but I am not going to endorse a piggish and disgusting Cadillac Escalade. Of course you have to keep in mind that the car companies all sell both kinds of cars. So the economy has changed too. BMW sells Minis and they sell ridiculous SUV's. Ford sells the Focus and they also sell Expeditions. So I don't know. Is it ultimately up to the consumer? Vote with your pocketbook?
Good thoughts. I guess that at the end of the argument lies the fact that for me personally, nothing makes me buy anything except a need for it. The White Stripes can't make me buy Levi's, and Iggy does nothing to further my desire to go on a cruise. I don't know about everyone else, but for me, none of it has any effect at all.
Hand held shower nozzles are the demon enemy of the patriarch and should be destroyed. |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 07:15:30
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Personally, I'm happy to see lesser known bands get some exposure rather than paying more money to Britney or whoever the latest pop fad du jour might be. It's not like they wrote the song for Mitsubishi to sell cars... they wrote the song, which came from their hearts (presumably) and not their pocketbooks, and then Mitsubishi wanted to use it and pay them to do so. As long as they don't have any ethical objections to what's being sold, I don't see why they shouldn't let them use it. The song hasn't changed, where it comes from hasn't changed, and the meaning hasn't changed.
I'm as happy to hear a Flaming Lips song in a commercial as I am to hear a Pixies song in a movie or TV show. In a way, it could be argued that it's all product placement. But at the same time, art is art wherever you find it. It no more sullies the art to have to purchase it as a CD than to have someone else purchase the rights to play it in their TV show/movie/commercial/radio program/whatever.
To compare with another medium, as a private art collector, you could purchase a Van Gogh painting for a huge price tag and hang it on your wall to show off when people visit your home. Does this reduce the painting in some way? Is one form of licensing different than the other?
I would sooner see starving athletes than starving artists, let me put it that way.
 "Join the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened" |
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GoddessTheory
= Cult of Ray =
USA
675 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 07:21:28
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The thing that is funny about using those songs for commercials is that the commercials always cut out the "objectionable" part and just leave in the ambiguous lines.
I'd LOVE to see the cruise line commercial with the line finished.
"Here comes Johnny in again, with liquor and drugs"
I mean, I want Johnny on MY cruise ship bringing me Liquor and Drugs. |
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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5454 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 08:50:46
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| Paging Johnny Yen. White courtesy phone for Johnny Yen. |
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GoddessTheory
= Cult of Ray =
USA
675 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 10:20:18
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At first I was like...huh.
It is how he says it though. |
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mcmikey
= Cult of Ray =
799 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 10:23:16
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do you realize where my hand is?
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mikey wuz here |
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darwin
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
USA
5454 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 10:32:51
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| Hey GoddessTheory. I wasn't trying to give you shit like others seem to have devoted their time to. I just thought it ws funny that your hearing of the lyrics contradicted the screen name of one the forum's regulars. |
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mcmikey
= Cult of Ray =
799 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 10:37:23
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quote:
Originally posted by interloper
This whole issue is a matter of opinion, and I am simply stating mine. We all live in a seriously shitty time in history for creativity, generally speaking. I say hats off to Jack White for saying no to Levis. I like the White Stripes because of his outspoken desire to keep things pure and "real". However, when and if he gets around to singing the line "squeeze my lemon till the juice runs down my leg", I'll be done with him. (too many zeppelin records, Jack)
Hand held shower nozzles are the demon enemy of the patriarch and should be destroyed.
actually the "squeeze my lemon" line is an OLD blues line. It wasn't new with Zeppelin just like it wouldn't be new in a White Stripes song now
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...and don't forget the taint! |
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interloper
= Cult of Ray =
440 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 10:41:07
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Yeah, I know, but The White Stripes sound more like Zeppelin doing blues guys, rather than the White Stripes doing blues guys.
Hand held shower nozzles are the demon enemy of the patriarch and should be destroyed. |
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mcmikey
= Cult of Ray =
799 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 10:43:06
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are you sure they dont sound like the White Stripes doing Zeppelin doing blues guys?
just putting that thought together gave me a headache
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...and don't forget the taint! |
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KingOfSiam
- FB LinkMaster -
USA
460 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 12:10:21
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| I was happy to hear Ween Oceanman on the Honda Civic commercial. Makes me wanna buy another one! |
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mcmikey
= Cult of Ray =
799 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 12:17:11
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someone earlier mentioned Modest Mouse's "Gravity Rides Everything" in that minivan commercial. That same song was used in Miller Lite ad about 2 years ago.
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...and don't forget the taint! |
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GoddessTheory
= Cult of Ray =
USA
675 Posts |
Posted - 01/26/2004 : 12:44:42
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quote:
Originally posted by darwin
Hey GoddessTheory. I wasn't trying to give you shit like others seem to have devoted their time to. I just thought it ws funny that your hearing of the lyrics contradicted the screen name of one the forum's regulars.
I know. Thanks.  |
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miguel
- FB Fan -
USA
213 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2004 : 01:43:25
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Do you realize.. that's the second song from yoshimi that's been in an ad? I can't remember the first but it was for either a dell or a gateway ad.
"..and I work hard just like a butt spitfire.. I'm just doin' well like a burley key car..."
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Scarla O
= Cult of Ray =
United Kingdom
947 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2004 : 02:15:27
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Bill Hicks: “If you do an advert then you are off the artistic register forever and every word that comes out of your mouth is like a turd falling in to my drink.”
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remig
* Dog in the Sand *
France
1734 Posts |
Posted - 01/28/2004 : 02:57:12
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Very GOOD article from Dave Eggers answering a journalist, about being a sell-out, and comparison with the Flaming Lips:
You actually asked me the question: "Are you taking any steps to keep shit real?" I want you always to look back on this time as being a time when those words came out of your mouth.
Now, there was a time when such a question - albeit probably without the colloquial spin - would have originated from my own brain. Since I was thirteen, sitting in my orange-carpeted bedroom in ostensibly cutting-edge Lake Forest, Illinois, subscribing to the Village Voice and reading the earliest issues of Spin, I thought I had my ear to the railroad tracks of avant garde America. (Laurie Anderson, for example, had grown up only miles away!) I was always monitoring, with the most sensitive and well-calibrated apparatus, the degree of selloutitude exemplified by any given artist - musical, visual, theatrical, whatever. I was vigilant and merciless and knew it was my job to be so.
I bought R.E.M.'s first EP, Chronic Town, when it came out and thought I had found God. I loved Murmur, Reckoning, but then watched, with greater and greater dismay, as this obscure little band's audience grew, grew beyond obsessed people like myself, grew to encompass casual fans, people who had heard a song on the radio and picked up Green and listened for the hits. Old people liked them, and stupid people, and my moron neighbor who had sex with truck drivers. I wanted these phony R.E.M.-lovers dead.
But it was the band's fault, too. They played on Letterman. They switched record labels. Even their album covers seemed progressively more commercial. And when everyone I knew began liking them, I stopped. Had they changed, had their commitment to making art with integrity changed? I didn't care, because for me, any sort of popularity had an inverse relationship with what you term the keeping 'real' of 'shit.' When the Smiths became slightly popular they were sellouts. Bob Dylan appeared on MTV and of course was a sellout. Recently, just at dinner tonight, after a huge, sold-out reading by David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell (both sellouts), I was sitting next to an acquaintance, a very smart acquaintance married to the singer-songwriter of a very well-known band. I mentioned that I had seen the Flaming Lips the night before. She rolled her eyes. "Oh I really liked them on 90210," she sneered, assuming that this would put me and the band in our respective places.
However.
Was she aware that The Flaming Lips had composed an album requiring the simultaneous playing of four separate discs, on four separate CD players? Was she aware that the band had once, for a show at Lincoln Center, handed out to audience members something like 100 portable tape players, with 100 different tapes, and had them all played at the same time, creating a symphonic sort of effect, one which completely devastated everyone in attendance? I went on and on to her about the band's accomplishments, their experiments. Was she convinced that they were more than their one appearance with Jason Priestly? She was.
Now, at that concert the night before, Wayne Coyne, the lead singer, had himself addressed this issue, and to great effect. After playing much of their new album, the band paused and he spoke to the audience. I will paraphrase what he said:
"Hi. Well, some people get all bitter when some song of theirs gets popular, and they refuse to play it. But we're not like that. We're happy that people like this song. So here it goes."
Then they played the song. (You know the song.) "She Don't Use Jelly" is the song, and it is a silly song, and it was their most popular song. But to highlight their enthusiasm for playing the song, the band released, from the stage and from the balconies, about 200 balloons. (Some of the balloons, it should be noted, were released by two grown men in bunny suits.) Then while playing the song, Wayne sang with a puppet on his hand, who also sang into the microphone. It was fun. It was good.
But was it a sellout? Probably. By some standards, yes. Can a good band play their hit song? Should we hate them for this? Probably, probably. First 90210, now they go playing the song every stupid night. Everyone knows that 90210 is not cutting edge, and that a cutting edge alternarock band should not appear on such a show. That rule is clearly stated in the obligatory engrained computer-chip sellout manual that we were all given when we hit adolescence.
But this sellout manual serves only the lazy and small. Those who bestow sellouthood upon their former heroes are driven to do so by, first and foremost, the unshakable need to reduce. The average one of us - a taker-in of various and constant media, is absolutely overwhelmed - as he or she should be - with the sheer volume of artistic output in every conceivable medium given to the world every day - it is simply too much to begin to process or comprehend - and so we are forced to try to sort, to reduce. We designate, we label, we diminish, we create hierarchies and categories.
Through largely received wisdom, we rule out Tom Waits's new album because it's the same old same old, and we save $15. U2 has lost it, Radiohead is too popular. Country music is bad, Puff Daddy is bad, the last Wallace book was bad because that one reviewer said so. We decide that TV is bad unless it's the Sopranos. We liked Rick Moody and Jonathan Lethem and Jeffrey Eugenides until they allowed their books to become movies. And on and on. The point is that we do this and to a certain extent we must do this. We must create categories, and to an extent, hierarchies.
But you know what is easiest of all? When we dismiss.
Oh how gloriously comforting, to be able to write someone off. Thus, in the overcrowded pantheon of alternarock bands, at a certain juncture, it became necessary for a certain brand of person to write off The Flaming Lips, despite the fact that everyone knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that their music was superb and groundbreaking and real. We could write them off because they shared a few minutes with Jason Priestley and that terrifying Tori Spelling person. Or we could write them off because too many magazines have talked about them. Or because it looked like the bassist was wearing too much gel in his hair.
One less thing to think about. Now, how to kill off the rest of our heroes, to better make room for new ones?
We liked Guided by Voices until they let Ric Ocasek produce their latest album, and everyone knows Ocasek is a sellout, having written those mushy Cars songs in the late 80s, and then - gasp! - produced Weezer's album, and of course Weezer's no good, because that Sweater song was on the radio, right, and dorky teenage girls were singing it and we cannot have that and so Weezer is bad and Ocasek is bad and Guided by Voices are bad, even if Spike Jonze did direct that one Weezer video, and we like Spike Jonze, don't we?
Oh. No. We don't. We don't like him anymore because he's married to Sofia Coppola, and she is not cool. Not cool. So bad in Godfather 3, such nepotism. So let's check off Spike Jonze - leaving room in our brains for… who??
It's exhausting.
The only thing worse than this sort of activity is when people, students and teachers alike, run around college campuses calling each other racists and anti-Semites. It's born of boredom, lassitude. Too cowardly to address problems of substance where such problems actually are, we claw at those close to us. We point to our neighbor, in the khakis and sweater, and cry foul. It's ridiculous. We find enemies among our peers because we know them better, and their proximity and familiarity means we don't have to get off the couch to dismantle them.
And now, I am also a sellout. Here are my sins, many of which you may know about already:
First, I was a sellout because Might magazine took ads.
Then I was a sellout because our pages were color, and not stapled together at the Kinko's.
Then I was a sellout because I went to work for Esquire.
Now I'm a sellout because my book has sold many copies.
And because I have done many interviews.
And because I have let people take my picture.
And because my goddamn picture has been in just about every fucking magazine and newspaper printed in America.
And now, as far as McSweeney's is concerned, The Advocate interviewer wants to know if we're losing also our edge, if the magazine is selling out, hitting the mainstream, if we're still committed to publishing unknowns, and pieces killed by other magazines.
And the fact is, I don't give a fuck. When we did the last issue, this was my thought process: I saw a box. So I decided we'd do a box. We were given stories by some of our favorite writers - George Saunders, Rick Moody (who is uncool, uncool!), Haruki Murakami, Lydia Davis, others - and so we published them. Did I wonder if people would think we were selling out, that we were not fulfilling the mission they had assumed we had committed ourselves to?
No. I did not. Nor will I ever. We just don't care. We care about doing what we want to do creatively. We want to be interested in it. We want it to challenge us. We want it to be difficult. We want to reinvent the stupid thing every time. Would I ever think, before I did something, of how those with sellout monitors would respond to this or that move? I would not. The second I sense a thought like that trickling into my brain, I will put my head under the tires of a bus.
You want to know how big a sellout I am?
A few months ago I wrote an article for Time magazine and was paid $12,000 for it I am about to write something, 1,000 words, 3 pages or so, for something called Forbes ASAP, and for that I will be paid $6,000 For two years, until five months ago, I was on the payroll of ESPN magazine, as a consultant and sometime contributor. I was paid handsomely for doing very little. Same with my stint at Esquire. One year I spent there, with little to no duties. I wore khakis every day. Another Might editor and I, for almost a year, contributed to Details magazine, under pseudonyms, and were paid $2000 each for what never amounted to more than 10 minutes work - honestly never more than that. People from Hollywood want to make my book into a movie, and I am probably going to let them do so, and they will likely pay me a great deal of money for the privilege.
Do I care about this money? I do. Will I keep this money? Very little of it. Within the year I will have given away almost a million dollars to about 100 charities and individuals, benefiting everything from hospice care to an artist who makes sculptures from Burger King bags. And the rest will be going into publishing books through McSweeney's. Would I have been able to publish McSweeney's if I had not worked at Esquire? Probably not. Where is the $6000 from Forbes going? To a guy named Joe Polevy, who wants to write a book about the effects of radiator noise on children in New England.
Now, what if I were keeping all the money? What if I were buying property in St. Kitt's or blew it all on live-in prostitutes? What if, for example, I was, a few nights ago, sitting at a table in SoHo with a bunch of Hollywood slash celebrity acquaintances, one of whom I went to high school with, and one of whom was Puff Daddy? Would that make me a sellout? Would that mean I was a force of evil?
What if a few nights before that I was at the home of Julian Schnabel, at a party featuring Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, and at which Schnabel said we should get together to talk about him possibly directing my movie? And what if I said sure, let's?
Would all that make me a sellout? Would I be uncool? Would it have been more cool to not go to this party, or to not have written that book, or done that interview, or to have refused millions from Hollywood?
The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it's corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, under the same bus wheels I'll stick my head if need be, you will not be happy about having said no. You will be kicking your ass about all the no's you've said. No to that opportunity, or no to that trip to Nova Scotia or no to that night out, or no to that project or no to that person who wants to be naked with you but you worry about what your friends will say.
No is for wimps. No is for pussies. No is to live small and embittered, cherishing the opportunities you missed because they might have sent the wrong message.
There is a point in one's life when one cares about selling out and not selling out. One worries whether or not wearing a certain shirt means that they are behind the curve or ahead of it, or that having certain music in one's collection means that they are impressive, or unimpressive.
Thankfully, for some, this all passes. I am here to tell you that I have, a few years ago, found my way out of that thicket of comparison and relentless suspicion and judgment. And it is a nice feeling. Because, in the end, no one will ever give a shit who has kept shit 'real' except the two or three people, sitting in their apartments, bitter and self-devouring, who take it upon themselves to wonder about such things. The keeping real of shit matters to some people, but it does not matter to me. It's fashion, and I don't like fashion, because fashion does not matter.
What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is that the Flaming Lips's new album is ravishing and I've listened to it a thousand times already, sometimes for days on end, and it enriches me and makes me want to save people. What matters is that it will stand forever, long after any narrow-hearted curmudgeons have forgotten their appearance on goddamn 90210. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who's up and who's down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.
I say yes, and Wayne Coyne says yes, and if that makes us the enemy, then good, good, good. We are evil people because we want to live and do things. We are on the wrong side because we should be home, calculating which move would be the least damaging to our downtown reputations. But I say yes because I am curious. I want to see things. I say yes when my high school friend tells me to come out because he's hanging with Puffy. A real story, that. I say yes when Hollywood says they'll give me enough money to publish a hundred different books, or send twenty kids through college. Saying no is so fucking boring.
And if anyone wants to hurt me for that, or dismiss me for that, for saying yes, I say Oh do it, do it you motherfuckers, finally, finally, finally.
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