ALMOST FAMOUS And The Family Whistle

NOTE: This blog post previously began with a clip of a scene from 'Almost Famous'. The clip is no longer available on youtube.

Subtle is the hardest thing of all. Everyone wants more. But this scene is one of my all time favourite scenes, of any film, ever. And you could say that nothing happens in it.

But for me, everything happens in it.

Cameron Crowe is great at that. The little moments.

Penny and William are leaving the auditorium long after the concert has finished and the bands have gone home. It's that moment three hours after the thing when you're with someone and the moment means something. We've all had them, but they're impossible to capture in art.

But paradoxically, that is exactly what art is for. To capture those precise moments.

In this scene we have a fifteen year old boy fulfilling his dream. And falling in love. And feeling the pressure from his Mother who wants him to be a lawyer (the whilsting in the background is her.. it's a great touch).

And Nancy Wilson's musical score is perfect. The scene wouldn't work without it. A Crowe film isn't a Crowe film without Wilson's score. Cameron Crowe and Nancy Wilson recently announced their divorce, which could well mean an end to their collaborations on the big screen, but I hope not.

Almost Famous isn't about the bomb dropping or the car exploding. It's about the way people look at each other. The way they feel. The music they love. It doesn't get any better than this.

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Beast Of Burden

You think they knew? You think they realised? Can you ever really know that what you've created is greatness?

Average is easy. Good we get to if we try hard enough. So often we create a song, a film, a whatever -- and it's good. And no-one cares! Because good is boring. Why waste two hours of our life watching good? Who downloads a song because it's good? You don't.

You want greatness.

Sometimes you forget that. But when you have the chance to turn the volume up and let a song breath -- you don't play the good song. You play the GREAT song.

'Beast Of Burden' is as good as it gets. It's a band at the top of their form. They captured something in a studio that is so rare. Bands try for years to do something that means something. Often the greatest screenwriters pour their souls into their work and what comes out the other end is mildly decent at best.

Can you ever know? Can you ever be certain that it will connect? I don't think so. 

The Rolling Stones got good through constantly playing. Always touring. Forever recording. Their talent is unreal and the voice is amazing. But it's more than that. It goes deeper. Somewhere between genius and hard work and heart, it all comes together.

This song, this version, is five minutes and twenty seconds of perfection.

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Fear.

It's a leap of faith to choose this lifestyle. You decide that you're a director or actor or writer and then you go off into the world. And you wear that badge.

With a mix of curiosity, envy, and disdain they ask you what the hell you're doing and how you're surviving.

And sometimes you have no idea. You have no money and no-one's into your stuff and you're nowhere.

I think that's the hard part. Artists never really have holidays. They never chill out. Because when people ask what you're doing you freak out. Because you need a masterplan.

If you're not able to tell them where you're going you feel like a fraud.

Truth is we're lost. Putting up dreams into the sky and dodging all the things that tear them down.

We don't know how to succeed.
We don't know where the money is.
We don't know why they like some films and hate the others.

We're just following our hearts.

When are you going to make some money? I have no idea.

Having confidence is hard. And some chirpy actress will lend you a book about positivity but it's vapid like her work. No good. Its just hard to put a script or film out and have it speak for what the hell you're doing with your life.

Sometimes we're miserable. Because we've got no idea when we'll make something good, or make some money or get a holiday. And we don't feel good when we take the pay day over your birthday party but sometimes we go half a millennia without paid work.

We never admit to the fear. Or to the idea we don't have all the answers.

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ADVENTURELAND Takes Me Back

Adventureland reminds me of when I was alive. When the glances meant something. When hanging out was the world. When your heart soared or crumbled on any given day.

Adventureland captures youth and lust and love and dead end jobs perfectly. Takes me back to those days when just as you were about to tell the girl you like her she'd say "oh, I have a boyfriend now" and break your heart.

When you're old and in a dead end job it's a rut. But when you're young, it's the only work you can find. You're all educated and talented and your big brains are confined to small spaces. What do you do when you're stuck in a bad job? You make a community. Hearts fly and hearts fall. And you clock in and you clock out.

You hate your job but that's where it's at. You bitch about the bad pay and the same song they keep playing on the fucking radio and the only reason you stick it out is because of Tuesdays.

Because she works on Tuesdays.

'Adventureland' takes me back to those days, those feelings, those moments. We took chances and stayed up late and had a crowd. Nothing would come between us.

I need 'Adventureland' because those days are gone now. I'm numb. I don't take those chances. We're all grown up. The days of "I'll wait for you after work" are gone. Now it's a Facebook poke and a quick how are you. And you're not even missing out because you just don't care as much anymore.

'Adventureland' reminds you that you still have it in you. The mistakes. The naivety. The romance. The giant ass pandas.

I love this movie.

I talk more about this film here and here

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The Infinite Abyss

Days are passing. But you say you wanna write, say you wanna act, say you wanna be a photographer.

The very best aren't born the best. They print that legend, but the truth is they suck at first. But they keep working at it and working at it.

When did you last put words on the page? When did you last pick up your guitar? When did you last get a group together and act?

Expertise is in your hands. Nuance is waiting. Experience is the prize.

Experience and knowledge just kind of show up one day as long as you keep turning up. People ask me for blogging advice. They see me as an expert. Why? Because I show up day after day and write.

Not everything I write is great. But when I nail it I nail it better than I did three years ago.

Bloggers are writers who don't wait around to get hired. The best actors, when not working, are creating their own stuff.

It's hard to do the work, hard to succeed. But experience and knowledge about failure and rejection help too. It's all part of it.

I know this girl who used to absolutely rip my work to pieces. And everyone else's too. She'd have all the reasons why our work was awful. She was a film director too but she'd never made anything. Said she was waiting because she wanted it to be perfect.

Ten years went by. I'm still waiting. It's only her that suffers.

Take your blocks and obstacles and impossibilities and turn them into something. You can be in prison yet still put on a one man show, even if only for yourself. You could be three out of work actors and put on a sketch show in a local school or in the street where you live. I know an actor who is doing one man plays in retirement homes. It's not the dream, but he's learning so much. He has an audience that, on the first sign of boredom, falls asleep (literally).
You learn more about yourself as an actor and person dealing with sleeping audiences than you do in two years of drama school.

You have a talent, a skill, right? I mean-- you have some kind of gift? Don't wait for Spielberg to call or Simon Cowell to spot you. Just get to work honing the unique brilliance of all that is you. It's not about shortcuts, it's not about getting rich quick. It's about creativity. When you focus on it, it breeds longevity. That's what a career is.

People who worry about the paycheck and bitch about how their genius is undiscovered -- these people tend to stop practicing, learning and discovering. Don't let it be you. Explore the infinite abyss!

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