A reader writes:
This and this are why I read your blog every day that I can -- usually checking in more than once. I am an active composer of so-called "modern classical" music, and that first post just drove me nutty. I know your point of view on pot, but I've never gotten the point of it. It doesn't help me to think or understand or be creative. No stimulant or depressant chemicals do.
When I read your comment that jazz is "impossible without weed", it was everything I could do to stop from writing you a scolding letter, since many of my friends who are working jazz musicians here in NYC simply don't touch the stuff. And, while I have no beef with your friend's use of pot to help him free up his inhibitions to do his job/art, I'm also sort of tired of the cliche that artists need weed or that weed can solve problems of writer's block. I write and compose every day without the help of chemical stimulation. So do most of my colleagues. We have learned to turn OFF that nagging inner voice of criticism by simply doing the work. It's that easy. (And that hard, too.) But I didn't write that scolding email.
Instead, I went and did a bit of composing (working on a piece for saxophone quartet to be premiered in just a few months). Later, when I needed to take a little break (or, rather, procrastinate!), I surfed to the Daily Dish again to find the quote from David Foster Wallace. How beautiful. I followed the link and read the entire speech, which was even better than the quote by itself.
To sum up: your first post kind of annoyed me. Got me to thinking. Got me to get to work on a Sunday with a deadline looming. Your second post gave me great peace of mind. Got me to thinking, too. And will get me back to work in just a few minutes with just a little bit more of my self centered and at peace with the task of creating something from nothing.
And so, I'll keep coming back to this blog--usually checking in more than once.
Thank you.