New Home 21

“When I was a kid” is usually the sign of an incoming bad argument. Well, maybe not bad, but definitely flawed. And the person saying it usually isn’t acknowledging the flaw which is part of the issue.

Bob Seawright isn’t the type to avoid a flaw though. With him, it’s all and always about exposing nuance. So you have to pay extra close attention when he says, but mostly observes, that the shift from three TV stations when he was a kid to infinite streaming options today means way more of life has changed than just what we watch.

Infinite options means less common ground for starters. Not that topics have become uncommon, but with so many topics to choose from, we’ve come a long way from 100 million+ final Mash viewers to me wondering where the water cooler in some obscure corner of twitter is for the 67 people who watched what I otherwise believe to be an incredibly thoughtful Just Press Record solo episode with Matt Reustle.

Bob isn’t opining the death of monocultural experiences. That’s not his style. He is pointing out the nuance of finding new micro-cultural experiences to keep some quality in human existence.

Read more at cultishcreative.com

I can’t shake these 2023 survey stats:

• 86% said arts and culture improved their community’s quality of life
• 79% attended an artistic or cultural event in the past year
• 48% said they actively create: painting, making music, writing, crafting

Despite this, creative people still struggle to earn a living from their work:

• 85% of artists earn less than $25,000 a year (source)
• 13% of artists earn a full-time living from their practice (source)

86% of Americans benefit, so first off, who are those 14% and tell me they’re not even on Netflix or something, but sure, AND 85% earning $0-$24,999 I see and feel your frustration with this creator-consumer gap.

It’s brutal. But here’s what it really means for creators.

Read more at cultishcreative.com

Larry McMurtry said, “Incompetents invariably make trouble for people other than themselves.”

The definition of incompetent is more generous than the word feels: “not having or showing the necessary skills to do something successfully.”

But if you invert the quote and the definition,

“Competents invariably eliminate trouble for people other than themselves.”

And “having or showing the necessary skills to do something successfully,” this is telling.

Because if you’re competent, you reduce frictions.

If you’re incompetent, you create frictions.

If you’re competent you reduce burdens.

If you’re incompetent, you increase burdens.

Read more at cultishcreative.com

On Title Fight’s first record, Shed, there’s a song called “Flood of ‘72” that I always wondered what anybody from anywhere else in the world would think of. If you’re from Wilkes-Barre, or anywhere in the river valley where Title Fight is from (Kingston, Forty-Fort, Luzerne, and the greater WB area – represent!), the Flood of ‘72, aka Agnes, has been etched into your DNA, no matter how old you are or were. It changed life here. All of it. But, then again, if you’re not from here, you can only know your own version of a similar weight.

Natural disasters destroy a lot, and they destroy a diversity of things. Ecosystems get literally and figuratively washed away in a flood. And, I don’t think we give this as much time as we ought to: crisis creates culture. Disasters don’t just destroy – they generate new ways of being together.

I’m bringing this to music. This is a Sunday Music post, let me remind you. I just have to unpack the river-mud in the soul of my basement a bit with you.

The first show I ever played, where I got up in front of my peers on a stage, and somebody handed us money made at the door before we went home, was at a half-abandoned hotel in downtown Wilkes-Barre called the Café Metropolis.

Read more at cultishcreative.com

It’s All Art

Sometimes the most profound creative insight comes from the simplest choice: deciding that something is art because you say it is. This post captures a moment of street-corner philosophy that opens up bigger questions about perspective, agency, and the democratic nature of creative expression.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: (choosing to see art everywhere)

“The point is, it’s a choice, and today I’m choosing to say it was art.”

It Takes An Outside Act To Have An Outsized Impact

Building on the theme of choosing unconventional perspectives, this post dives into why breaking norms creates breakthrough results. The framework here is simple but powerful: normal execution creates normal results, period. The magic happens at the edges, whether through brilliant innovation or boring persistence executed in extraordinary ways.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: (on the power of operating outside conventional boundaries)

“Bottom line, normal creates normal results unless you think or execute in some abnormal way. Think outside of the lines. It takes an outside act to have an outsized impact.”

Read more at cultishcreative.com