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The Interests of Artisans
Arts and Crafts
Here's your music for today's lesson
"Art and music are pretty much my favorite things in life.........besides video games." -- my son Morgan
"In school Artisans tend to be interested in artcrafts, where they can practice the required techniques. SPs can appear to be dull, and even bored, when asked to study business (particularly clerical matters), or the humanities, or science and technology, but give them the opportunity to practice any of the arts or crafts and watch them shine. Parents and teachers only rarely give SP children permission, or opportunity, to follow their artistic interests..."
Kindergarten - We had these "stations" that we could choose different activities from. I remember there were two different ones that had blocks, there was a store replica type thing where you could exchange play money for goods, girls dress-up area, etc. I largely ignored all those other stations and spent my time in the "listening center." That was where we could listen to records, some music, some stories, but I would put the headphones on and listen for as long as I was allowed to. My teacher even had to have a talk with me about mixing things up and trying some of the other areas, but if I did so it was only reluctantly, as the art of sound was what really made me happy.
First grade - I got my first taste of acting, as I won the part of Santa Claus and first learned the thrill of performing a part in front of an audience. I had only one official performance, and I had come down with the flu prior to the day we were due to present our show, but I came to school just to play my part, as there was no way after going through the rehearsals and what led up to it, that I was going to miss my chance to perform for real.
Third grade - Our music class did "Alice In Wonderland", so I got my first role in a musical. I was the Dormouse, and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle.." The two main things I remember about that show were the elaborate costume that my grandmother made for me, and the fact that I didn't sing loud enough and people said they couldn't hear me. We only did two performances that time, so I was devastated that I didn't get more opportunity to go back out there and perform better. I never really have been a fan of musicals.
Despite that, I did join the church choir around the same time, and even though I didn't particularly enjoy most of the songs we sang, I did like a few, and I definitely got into my performances, when I could get over the annoyance of the younger girls in the choir who were always giggling and acting silly when here I was, trying to take this oh-so-seriously because it was important to me.
Sixth grade - Headed to middle school, and we had a choice of elective class, it could be Band, Choir, or Art/General Music. My first choice was Band. My older brother had been in Band the year before, playing the flute. I didn't want to copy him, though, I wanted to play a different instrument. My parents quickly shot down this idea though, as my dad said the purchase and care of the instrument was too expensive, and I wasn't responsible enough, and my mom said I had "never shown any interest in band before but had shown talent for choir!" :steam: With my parents not allowing me to do Band, at least I could take the Art/Music class, as I was sick of Choir, but noooo, my mom refused that too, with some ridiculous thing about how that class was what the "low class" kids were in.
So, I spent a miserable year in Choir, getting harassed by a bully that stood behind me on the risers, and hearing stupid jokes about the teacher being my mom because we had the same last name. So, yeah, I know all about that "parents not giving their kids permission or opportunity to follow their artistic interests."
In Eighth grade - finally got to be in art class, and we did some fun stuff such as painting in the dark, and glitter art and various other activities, but I remember more all the times we had to line up and walk silently around the halls because people were talking too much in class. This was one of those deals where I'd have been much happier working alone on the art projects we were given, and not have to deal with all the distractions from the people who were just in the class because they thought it was an easy grade, and didn't care about art at all.
"Remember, however, that artcraft must not be limited to the so-called fine arts, such as painting, sculpture, or the performing arts such as music and dance, but in fact includes the athletic, culinary, literary, martial, mechanical, theatrical, and industrial arts, not to mention what Donald Trump called the "Art of the Deal" in big business. Artisans have a natural ability to excel in any of these arts-- a Pete Sampras service game in tennis or a Chuck Yeager supersonic test flight is just as artistic as a Rembrandt painting or a Beethoven symphony."
In 8th grade - I was in a class called Introduction to Industrial Technology. It started out incredibly boring, as we had to do drafting, which not only did I have no interest in, but I was terrible at, mostly due to my inability to copy things from just the visuals put on the chalkboard by the teacher. I'm a hands-on learner, and don't do well at copying from a visual. There was one really exciting project we got to work on, though. We divided into groups and had to write and record on camera a newscast to broadcast to the class. I took it seriously, as it was a chance to create something cool, but unfortunately our one day we got to use the equipment for real to record, other people in the group kept screwing up and laughing and stuff and we didn't get most of it finished, and thus failed. But I did get a chance to do some broadcasting work, sort of, so it whetted my appetite for future opportunities.
Also in 8th grade, I was in my first drama/theatre class, I remember a play called "The Substitute" that was really fun, it was more like a series of monologues, and I was Mr. Cotton, the old and tired teacher who just tells the class not to wake him up and everything will be fine. That part was my first experience in old age makeup, something I found myself doing a lot, as I seemed to end up being cast as "the old guy" in many shows.
As for the athletic arts, I tried my hand at basketball, flag football, baseball, and tennis, but the sport I played the longest and got the best at was soccer. I became a defensive specialist and took pride in my ability to not let the opposing team get a chance for a shot on goal. I played soccer through my freshman year in high school, but my struggles with math would end up being my downfall, because I failed Algebra and thus missed the bulk of the soccer season as I was academically ineligible. This was another case of people in authority denying my opportunities, as a completely unrelated (and useless to me) subject prevented me from pursuing something I actually had talent in.
Drama I continued to be involved in, and all the more after quitting soccer, it was my main opportunity to sink myself into artistic action. Beyond the school drama activities, I got involved in community theatre performances, starting as a crew member and then auditioning and winning a part in a play that my father was the assistant director for. I went on to more roles, including some pretty major ones, for both my high school drama class - including the one-act play competition, as well as writing and directing my own play, and the community theater, but sadly not much after finishing high school, as I got into other things, and when my itch to act again would return, I was saddled with the responsibilities of work and parenting. I haven't given up on the idea of doing it some more though.
My junior year of high school - I took broadcast journalism, and now this was starting to really get into what I felt like would be my career. In the fall, I got the role of the color commentator on our broadcasts of the varsity football team's games. And as we headed to the playoffs and all the way to the state championship game, I got quite a bit of opportunity to hone my skills. The play-by-play guy quit, and thus for a few games I had to carry the whole broadcast as the sole commentator, getting my stats and info ready so as to have something to blab about on the air as I went, but then once again, changing things up, ad-libbing and going with it, caught up in the thrill of the game and the art of the announcing, using whatever I could come up with to give the best performance possible. I still have one of those playoff games I did solo recorded, and it's fun to pull that video tape out from time to time and watch it, and re-live the fun and the excitement of doing something I love.
It was also in high school that I began writing poetry. It became my number one outlet for all the crazy thoughts and feelings rushing through my teenage head about love and lust, and anger and violence, and growing up and learning about anything and everything, and feeling like I knew everything and nothing at the same time. My writing style was almost always lyrical, and a lot of the time very much just brain-dumping, with no plan of theme or structure, just pouring out what was inside me onto the page, feeling deeply whatever emotions I was experiencing, and pumping the adrenaline just as much sitting by myself in a room writing as I would performing on stage or on the soccer field, or with the microphone sitting in the cold rain on the bleachers at a football game when they ran out of room in the press box.
I kept up my writing after high school, as I started college, as I dropped out of college, and well into my working life, though it dropped off dramatically after I became a parent. I found myself for whatever reason not forming the ideas that made good poems or songs as much, although I probably never entirely stopped coming up with them, they just came a lot less frequently as I struggled with the duties of parenting, and used my artistic talents in other areas.
My interest in radio started as a young child, and in the two summers between my last two years of high school, I worked as a volunteer DJ at Texas A&M's student-run radio station. It was cool because I got to play whatever I wanted pretty much, and hone my voice and announcing skills (as well as my ability to cue everything up properly and follow the clock for the timing of things like PSA carts and such.) Though I never got a professional radio announcing job, I came close in the fall of 2001 when I got the job of writing the weekly top 20 countdown show for an internet-only radio station. The producer was in talks with the network, American Family Radio, to get the show broadcast on several hundred stations weekly, but the management company that owned the station went out of business and thus my dream of having this be the start of a successful radio career ended.
But I continued to independently work on projects like my own countdown shows, and I edited CDs of shows or music both for other people and for myself, I traded with other countdown collectors and have amassed a collection of over 2000 shows, mostly American Top 40, but some other shows as well. As of writing this, I have all but around 20 of the AT40 shows hosted by Shadoe Stevens from 1988 to 1995.
In addition to shows, I also worked on creating my own ideas for radio formats, working on song logs and format basics, following the trends in radio but paving my own way just for the fun of it, but also to be prepared should I ever get the chance to use my knowledge in the actual field for real.
At work, the wall of my office is a sort of collage of collected materials, some given to me, some that I made myself. I doodle on sticky notes, I write television reviews, heck even the posts I make on this forum are an artform in themselves.
Using those "free variables" of the next action to create and share, this has been my driving force for as long as I can remember, and continues to be today.
Stay tuned for a special guest contribution!
