find what you love and let it kill you

[alocispepraluger102]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/apr/26/james-rhodes-blog-find-what-you-love

"My life as a concert pianist can be frustrating, lonely, demoralising and exhausting. But is it worth it? Yes, without a shadow of a doubt"

[JSngry]

"find what you love and let it kill you", eh?

Hmmmm.....not sure if that's the best choice of things to do after finding what it is that you love...as metaphor, yeah, ok, but unfortunately, too often not just a metaphor...

[Chuck Nessa]

I can live with that - for a while.

[JSngry]

Yeah, I can let myself be killed - for a while.

[John Litweiler]

I usually stop loving it after a few missed meals.

[A Lark Ascending]

All part of the usual 'troubled artist and his pain' hard sell:

I thought the thread might be about:

Edited May 5, 2013 by A Lark Ascending

[ejp626]

To pivot off of Bev's image, I think it's good that society has some place for grasshoppers that follow their dreams (yes, I realize it is a mantis). We certainly wouldn't have much jazz to listen to if everyone kept their day jobs. At the same time, society can't function without a large number of "ants" keeping things going. I do find it a bit boring to only read the life stories of the grasshoppers.* Or maybe just how it is such a cliche to completely devalue the positive aspects of "straight life." Rhodes just so blithely tosses off how his obsession with becoming a concert pianist cost him his marriage and so on. Judging by the comments in the Guardian piece, dozens if not hundreds of readers want to join him in a Parisian garrett or something, but this way of selling himself and his art is just a big turn off for me...

* In the same way, during the height of the Olympics I get so tired of hearing how hard these athletes train, as if huge numbers of people aren't putting in a heavy workload without any real public recognition, and in some cases, only moderate financial reward.

[Royal Oak]

The loss of most of one's dignity, marriage and a 9 month stint in a psychiatric ward, all to play somebody else's 200 year old music? Hope it was worth it.

Actually, add to the rewards a new-found legion of Guardian-reading fans.

Edited May 5, 2013 by rdavenport

[JSngry]

I'm kinda like, maybe what it is that you really love is masochism, and maybe music is but the tool you found it through?

[Jim R]

I thought this thread was going to be about chocolate.

[Steve Reynolds]

I thought it was about drug addiction

[alocispepraluger102]

stanley getz once blamed music for costing him everything worthwhile he ever had.

are these cats blaming music for their lack of self control and perspective? of course, artists are wired differently.

Edited May 6, 2013 by alocispepraluger102