To Hell In A Hand Basket

[Troy]

It's just like all the people who don't like modern art. They look at something and say something like, "Hell, I coulda done that."

Well, if it's so damn easy. Go do it. It's gotta beat your day job.

I do. It is my day job.

[nobody]

I do. It is my day job.

OK...the art comment was a bad example for you. By the way, I do like your pictures. I should probably save the covers on your comps. Maybe I can cash in on 'em some day. Rare Troys are bound to be worth something.

Then again, many people do consider photography one of those things that anybody could do, say in comparison to painting or sculpture. I wouldn't think you'd be too wild about that notion. But, it is little different than saying rap is easy, singing is easy, only a specific realm of music takes talent and the rest can be done by anyone. Rap is like anything else. Anyone can do it. Only a few can do it well.

But, I was only comparing art to music. In that vein, since you consider rap so easy, I really think you may wanna give up photography. There's a lot more money in rap if you can make it big, which shouldn't be hard since it's so easy. And the groupies are on a whole 'nother level.

[Troy]

By the way, I do like your pictures.

Thanks.

Then again, many people do consider photography one of those things that anybody could do, say in comparison to painting or sculpture. I wouldn't think you'd be too wild about that notion.

I just had that question dropped on me by an interviewer for a local paper. It's analagous to the Carl Lewis thing. Yes, it's just taking pictures, but it's taking pictures to another level, concentrating on the quality of light and composition. A photographer with training (or practice) is gonna take a much higher percentage of "good" pictures that someone who is not.

I DO understand the dilema, and that's one of the reasons why my photos are so complex and screwey; it makes them take on a more "painterly" quality.

But, it is little different than saying rap is easy, singing is easy, only a specific realm of music takes talent and the rest can be done by anyone. Rap is like anything else. Anyone can do it. Only a few can do it well.

It's not that I'm saying it's easy, more that I'm saying that many of the practitioners of rap don't have any idea how the mechanics of music works because what they are doing is, as Jack says, more akin to poetry than music. If these guys want music awards, they should learn how to play an instrument and write songs.

But, I was only comparing art to music. In that vein, since you consider rap so easy, I really think you may wanna give up photography. There's a lot more money in rap if you can make it big, which shouldn't be hard since it's so easy. And the groupies are on a whole 'nother level.

Ha! I tried poetry in my 20s, went to a bunch of readings and flopped miserably. Free verse is in and I'm much more structured and rhymey. Not to mention, most of the poems I wrote were about my genitalia and dropping anvils on kittens. I was messing with their serious nature and they hated me for it.

Rap is for and about a world completely alien to me. A world that I have no desire to be involved in either. It panders to a black culture that revels in debasement and greed. My black friends think it's a dead end for black youth, and I'm inclined to agree with them.