The Anti-Corporate Mission Statement: Don’t Change, Stay Original And Be Happy
Some self-proclaimed business guru once said if you are successful, it is time to change. The idea of course is that you have to be permanently dissatisfied in order to get better. Sounds good, right?
Or does it?
The example he gave was Toyota and something about their rising sun or sun rising or whatever. (These business gurus should leave poetry to poets. What is a business guru anyway? Sounds like something you might need antibiotics for.) Anyways, I guess this is the Toyota corporate motto, mission statement or something you hang on the wall in any case.
Hmm, this all sounds really good, for making billions of dollars of profit that is. But is this good real world advice? Is not permanent dissatisfaction why some people take their own lives? If California gets wind of this, I can hear all the therapists saying, “your far too successful Ken, it is time to do away with yourself.” Really, is that the way YOU want to live your life? In a state of constant dissatisfaction?
Reliability is a worthy goal. Please don’t get me wrong. However, the automobiles that we have loved the most (and yes at times hated, which is true in all things of passion) were never by any means reliable. But what they lacked in reliability they more then made up for in personality.
My wife still speaks fondly of driving through the hazardous winter roads of British Columbia in her 6 volt 1956 VW oval, and I often recall the adventures in my old VW bus like it was a scene out of Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant.
In South America we were the proud owners of a 1977 Gurgel X-12 Jeep. A wonderful companion who needed to be cared for and listened to. Her peculiarities were not engineering faults, but rather part of her robust character, her way of communicating with the owner. Now computers do all that. Pretty soon we will all be like the Borg. (I added that just in case any Trekkies CAN read and come across this article.) I don’t want to drive a computer and I don’t want to be isolated from the road, and frankly I don’t want reliability if it sacrifices personality just for the sake of billion dollar profits.
Think of the hand built cars of long ago that were made of steal, wood and leather. Cars that actually had something in common with workmanship instead of Rubbermaid. They were works of art. Being permanently dissatisfied is taking us down the wrong road. Being permanently dissatisfied with their fat profits fuels the current trend of big car makers merging into even bigger car makers. When will it end? Hopefully their own permanent dissatisfaction will cause them to self-destruct and do away with themselves. For once, I would like to see a corporate motto that says: Don’t change, stay original… be happy.
Wonder Bread Art: The Absence Of Substance In Pop Culture
Substance. There is a serious lack of it in modern day popular culture. The commercial powers that be, have almost banished artistic integrity from our vocabulary. Wonder bread art rules. It feeds the mouths of the majority but sadly it lacks substance.
The over commercialization of mainstream media, music, film and literature is ruining the artistic appetites of each new generation with fluffy white bread, that has little if any real artistic value. When Mark Eitzel faced the accusation that many people find the songs of American Music Club depressing, he responded by saying that he finds the likes of (we are too nice to say who it is, but just insert the current talent-less propaganda poster girl or boy here) depressing. We agree.
That is why the role that original art plays is more and more valuable in modern society. Artistic integrity IS still alive. It is just that we need to look a little harder and a little deeper to find it. But when we do find it, whether in the form of an inspiring independent film, some brilliant and virtually unknown musical group, or in some obscure author, it is so worth it.
Take for example espresso. (You did not see that one coming, did you?) If you have a decent espresso machine, please don’t settle for the convenience of mass marketed espresso. Rather seek out a good artisan espresso that has substance. We are very passionate about Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso Blend which fuels our studio. If you live in Canada you can have it shipped direct to your door from Caffe Tech based in Edmonton. Better yet, if you are in Edmonton drop by and visit their Italian inspired Cafe.
When we make little choices based on substance instead of advertising, we find nourishment and preserve artistic creativity and integrity. Stay original… choose substance.
Why Are Micro-Softies So Defensive? Relax, Go Wash Your Honda
First, Apple’s Get a Mac ads were voted among the best ads for 2006 according to The Wall Street Journal, and then Steve Jobs stole the show from CES (Consumer Electronic Show) with the iphone and Apple TV, holding in his hand the future of electronic convergence while Bill Gates just stood there at CES talking about it. Now micro-softies are really getting nervous and defensive (or at least more nervous and defensive than usual).
What they really need to do is relax, stop fighting (why can’t we just all get along?) and read the Stanford commencement speech given by Steve Jobs (highly recommended reading). It explains why Apple is always on the cutting edge of industrial, artistic (this is an art blog, so I had to find some way to get art in here… I even resorted to getting Eva to quickly paint this great Apple still life just for this blog! Now, don’t ever say that we did nothing for you.) and technological design. Once Bill Gates (before the messiah complex hit and he decided to resign as CEO of Microsoft and save the world) was posed with the question, what is your vision? He replied: “to see a personal computer on the desktop of every home.” Good one Mr. Bill, but hardly what one would say is visionary (it was kind of obvious that would happen).
Apple, on the other hand, seems to have no such simplistic vision. They innovate instead of follow. They reinvented the mp3 and now the smart phone. Their products are far more than technology, they become part of our lives, they even become our friends. (Yes, even minimalists need some kind of friendship.) They say that it was Steve Jobs who insisted that the Mac Plus have no fan as the noise took away from the beautiful design and user experience. (Turned out to be a lesson in form follows function as the solder joints would fracture. Of course, hard core minimalists were few and far between back then… come to think of it, we actually still are… I guess that makes us kind of minimal… you don’t have to read anything that appears in parenthesis by the way.) Of course they have had their other failures (the bright colored clamshell notebook with a handle was kind of embarrassing), but when something comes together, wow, it really comes together. Just like great art. (I know, I know, another very weak link to art… did I mention Eva’s great Apple still life… my goal in life is to write a whole article in parenthesis. That would make Penn Jillette proud.)
Of course the micro-softy masses always rely on the same old argument that if Macs are so good, then why do they have such a small market share. (Love that one, because then you have them right where you want them.) Based on that same logic, they should all be driving Honda Civics. Porsche has a very small market share. I guess then it is a failure as well. (Don’t get me wrong. Honda makes respectable cars that sell very well, but no one compares them to Porsches.) Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are both very rich men. Both companies are doing very well. Which one is bigger, richer, or sells more, is of no consequence. (At least to us peons who get excited about finding 25 cents on the street.) One has a rather simplistic vision that has already being accomplished and doesn’t seem to know what’s next (except of course to continue copying, ‘borrowing’ or buying other people’s ideas), while the other, continues to innovate.
Why are micro-softies so defensive? Relax amigo, we don’t really care if you choose to use inferior software on ugly hardware. No one is twisting your arm and forcing you to change. We are happy to keep quietly driving our Porsches and when we pass you by in your Honda, we will even give you a friendly smile. You see, we CAN all just get along. Stay original… Porsches are.
Be free: It Hurts When You Go To School Too Long
Andy Warhol reportedly once said: “It hurts when you go to school too long.” Now, obviously, if you are a heart surgeon or nuclear engineer, you may want to take Andy’s comment with a grain of salt. The point stands however that too much school becomes counter productive and can hurt or even crush creativity.
Take for example Steve Jobs, a college drop out who after touring India started the remarkably creative Apple Computers (think iPod), Pixar (think Toy Story), NeXT Computers (think cool black cubes for people who have way too much money), and who knows what is next. Now, where you ask, did a college drop out get the money needed to start a computing company? His partner (Steve Wosniak) sold his VW Bus (think hippy) and they used the money to build the first Apple computer (housed in a wooden apple box) in the garage of Jobs.
The current North American educational system (think boring) based on the British model of the omnipotent Professor babbling while an overcrowded classroom of peons try to figure out whats going to be on the final, stunts thinking and creativity. (Granted, this is a huge sweeping generalization, but hey this an art blog and artists are free to make sweeping brush-stroke like generalizations.)
So, kids, the point of this little exercise is: study a little, think allot, get an iPod and be free. If a couple of hippies could do it, then so can you. Stay original… be free.
Terroir, Penguins and Parrillas: The Inconsistent Pleasures)
Terroir (no, not terror, try to stop thinking about terrorism for at least a day) is a term used in wine that explains how wine speaks of the earth is comes from. What a wonderful and romantic way travel to the earth. The next time you visit your favorite wine market, pick up a bottle of an Argentine Malbec and travel to the Mendoza region of Argentina. The picture below is a traditional Argentine wine decanter that is still used in many homes and Parrillas (Grills). (More on our favorite Parrillas in Buenos Aires in a future blog.)
Somehow, the wine tasted better served from the friendly and humble Penguin. A perfect companion to the grilled Provelleta. (Cheese aged for a minimum of 30 days, grilled to perfection and topped with olive oil, oregano and chimichurri) Each Parrillero (Grill Master) has his own style based on a custom mix of tradition, skill and intuition. Was the house wine as good as last week? Or is the Provelleta better today? There too many variables to even contemplate. It is all part of the experience that can never be duplicated or replicated the same way twice.
Terroir helps us to remember that while consistency is good to a reasonable degree, if abused, it can choke out and kill originality. Good wine, like good food should never be consistent. It is not natural. Huge restaurant chains (think McDonalds) are successful for their consistency not necessarily because the food is of high quality. They can never replace the romance of the cozy local Parrilla or some other little gem that you have discovered where you live.
There in the Parrilla, accompanied by the penguin, one remembers that good wine like other good things in life (do we even need to even mention original art?) has little to do with the label on the bottle, marketing dollars, or snobbery. It has to do with terroir. It is nature way of putting balance back to life. No matter how large or how sophisticated a winery is; it is the earth that has the final say. It is natures way of making sure that we all stay original.
So the next time you pop the cork out of a bottle of wine, or seek out a place to dine (hey that rhymes), remember Terroir, the humble Penguin and the Parrilla. (Wow, now that would be a great Batman movie.) Stay original… it is beautifully inconsistent.
