HEllo Alexander   
      
   On Tue 2012-Feb-14 15:03, alexander koryagin (2:5020/2140.2) wrote to Lee   
   Lofaso:   
      
   ak> I think that one of the most perverted thing in this world is that   
   ak> people invented many wild professions and occupations: a   
   ak> professional singer, a professional poet/writer and so on. Any job   
   ak> that requires inspiration must not be professional. Inspiration is a   
   ak> very rare thing. You can meet it just several times in your life.   
   ak> And any singer, beginning his musical carrier, must be aware that,   
   ak> or his life will be short.   
      
      
   Indeed, bt you can't blame these professions for all of   
   this.   
   Those who have a long career soon learn   
   perspective.  IT's easy to "burn out" because of all the   
   pressure one puts on oneself as well as that put on one by   
   others.  Yet you look at people like MErle Haggard, a man   
   who probably wasn't expected to see his sixties, let alone   
   his seventies.  YEt MErle is still making music, still   
   writing and producing his songs.  Why can MErle turn it   
   around from drunkenness and all the dangerous parts of the   
   profession?  Perspective.  He pared his life down to the   
   simple things that give him joy, that give his life meaning, so that when he's   
   not performing he can get back to that   
   world and recharge his mental batteries.  He has land in the country, grows a   
   lot of his own food, enjoys nature.  I'm   
   sure it's a great contrast for him between the two.  On one   
   hand there are hotel rooms, producers and other people with   
   the constant push push push.   
   "TIme for the meet and greet now Merle"  "TIme for the sound check, after the   
   sound check there's a meeting with the promoter, a planning meeting, then a   
   rehearsal ... "   
      
   When the tour is over Merle goes home to his ranch in   
   California, fishes in the stream, looks after his garden,   
   watches the kids grow, maybe smokes a joint of an afternoon   
   while fishing.  But, life slows down, he has time to gather   
   his wits about him, get his world back in perspective.  Out   
   of that recharge the batteries time comes more songs, when   
   he's ready it's time to gather the musicians and rehearse   
   for another album.   
      
   Ross C.'s tagline he used for awhile is so apropos to the   
   professional entertainer it's not funny.  It says "Just when you think you're   
   winning the rat race, along come faster   
   rats."  The only cure is to get off the track for awhile,   
   regain your perspective, tell the agent and the promoter,   
   the publicist and the arranger that you'll call them in a   
   few weeks.   
      
   I've written some of the best songs I've ever written when I was strugling to   
   keep it together, but still had hope.  I also had time to   
   put the ideas together and refine those songs.  Being a   
   professional entertainer or musician requires a careful   
   balancing act, walking a mental tightrope basically.   
      
   It's the extremes at either end of the spectrum that kill   
   such folks as Ms. Houston.  YOu go from that public   
   adulation and all those cheering people to  self doubt and   
   confusion, in the span of minutes.  Everybody in your circle is there because   
   of what you can do for them.  Your stage   
   management wants you touring, putting money in their   
   coffers.  Others in your management team wonder why you're   
   not looking for songs to record, or writing if you write   
   your own.  You're a commodity to everyone who supposedly   
   works for you.  The sound and lighting people don't make any money if you stay   
   home, they only make money when you're   
   touring.  To keep your sanity you need that downtime, and   
   too many people who get to the level she reached in the   
   business forget that.  YOu need people around you who care   
   about you, not you as a commodity, but you as a person.  If   
   you don't have that you need another escape hatch, a place   
   in the woods, a hidey hole somewhere, and the mental   
   fortitude to tell all the promotional people and their ilk   
   "don't call me, I'll call you."   
      
   IT's not these professions that are bad, it's the fact that   
   people who enter these professions forget their humanity,   
   because the great money machine pushes them to lose sight of it.  Everybody   
   wants a part of you, for something to enrich   
   themselves.  The advertiser wants to use your voice or you   
   image to sell products, the touring manager wants you   
   touring, as do those sound and lighting folks.  The record   
   company wants yourecording, as does your record producer.   
   YOu rush from the photo shoot for the ad for soap to the   
   studio to the  rehearsal to the meet and greet.   
      
   To survive and remain sane the first word a professional   
   entertainer needs to learn is no.  Run the rat race for   
   awhile, because that enables you to do what you love, but   
   then take some time to be yourself, push the parasitic   
   elements of your professional life aside then for awhile and do what you   
   enjoy.  NO that doesn't mean go to Vegas and   
   hang out where the photographers and the reporters can find   
   you.  That means go to a place where if folks do know your   
   name they know you as just another neighbor, find that   
   environment where your privacy and your humanity is   
   protected and guarded.  Even if that's hiding in plain sight in an apartment   
   in the city, the important thing is to pull   
   back, turn off the publicity engine and be just another   
   person for awhile.   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)