We examine the subtleties of music and art in media, their influence on the mind, and their power to evoke emotions. We are committed to understanding the role of the artist in society and the nature of creativity.
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Here
are 4 links showing many examples of actors turned musician and musicians
turned actor. Among the ranks of these passionate and hardworking actors and
musicians you’ll find personalities like the following:
Some of
the celebrities I wasn’t able to find on any of these lists, but I was able to remember
include artists such as:
Keanu
Reeves – actor and bassist for the band “Dogstar”
David
Bowie – musician and actor featured in the movie “Labyrinth”
Steve
Martin – musician, author, actor
Joss
Stone – singer, songwriter, and musician. Actress featured in the Showtime
series “The Tudors”
Bret
Farve – professional football player, actor featured in the movie “There’s Something
about Mary”
Billy Bob
Thorton – actor and musician
Will.I.Am
– musician (Black-Eyed Peas) and actor featured in "X-Men" Sasha Grey - porn star and musician (aTelecine) Beyonce
– superstar singer and actress featured in "Austin Powers"
Tyrese
– singer and actor featured in "Transformers"
Tom
Waits – actor and musician
Chris
Isaak – musician and actor featured in "The Chris Isaak Show"
Gavin Rossdale – musician
and actor featured in the movie “Constantine”
Eric
LaSalle – actor, author, and director
This
list is not intended to be definitive by any means, instead it is provided to be
illustrative of the ideas I presented in my article "The Overflow of Creativity: Why Artists Need to
Find New Areas to Conquer, New Worlds to Explore" and of the sheer number of artists who needed additional channels of
creativity to pour their emotions and imagination into.
So
as an artist or musician which quadrant are you in? To answer this question,
refer to the chart above. One of my most favorite things I’ve ever heard from
Rich Dad author Robert Kiyosaki is that every person has two professions - one
for themselves and one for their money. What does this mean?
As
you’ll see in the video below there are 4 kinds of people. Each type tends to
earn their income from completely different sources, but the difference between
them all is how they view money and plan for its use. In other words, it’s the
ones who realize that their money has to work hard for them if they’ll ever
retire young or retire rich.
Similarly,
as an artist or musician you’re going to have to begin making decisions
concerning finances before your career takes off and you start earning your
living with music.
Your
Money’s Profession
Here
are a few examples of what Kiyosaki means in regard to your money’s profession.
If
you park your money in a savings account at a bank, then your money’s
profession is banking. And if you’re investing for the long-term and putting
your money into an IRA or 401K for retirement, then your money’s profession is
more often than not in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. Or if you’re a bit more
sophisticated, you may learn to buy neglected real estate properties to fix
them up and sell them then your money’s profession is in capital gains from
real estate sales.
The
best example of what not to do with one’s money comes from that of a poor
person. They would be described as the person who spends everything they earn. In
fact, many high income earners spend everything they earn and are technically
broke. For these people their money’s profession is usually in debt payments to
cover the cost of living expenses and liabilities. Many celebrities, athletes, famous
musicians, actors, and even lottery winners wind up in this group because they
lack basic financial education.
Measuring
Wealth in Time
The
most important decision you'll make as an artist or musician is about which
quadrant you'll choose to remain in, change into, or combine to create
the greatest financial rewards you can possibly attain. As a musician,
all 4 quadrants are available to you. Have you ever considered the
broader range of opportunities available to you with a career in music?
Here's a few of the ways in which a career in music can be used to build
passive and portfolio income for your financial fortress.
As an E or
employee, you can work for a music studio as a resident musician or just
be a member in a band. As an S or self-employed, you can freelance for
several music studios or become a music consultant for a variety of clients. As a B or business owner, you can create a business model like Bandcamp, Tunecore, or iStock music where people work for you delivering a service or product to customers. One of the benefits of the B quadrant is that money is made without you, so you can leave the business and return to find it running even better than when you were there last. The self-employed person cannot do this, not working in their case means no income. As an I or Investor, you can build or find start-ups of music related businesses. Or you can invest in medium to large-sized companies to reap the fantastic rewards of their growth or turnaround success from creating cutting edge music related products and services like Amazon and Apple.
The bottom line to each of these scenarios is how fast can your money move and how fast can you grow your money? Each of the quadrants offers a different velocity to the growth of your money and each also severely limits the use of your time and money (E's and S's) or they free them up (B's and I's). Either way the amount of wealth you are going to be able to build will be determined by which quadrant you choose.
According
to Rich Dad, wealth is not measured in money, but rather in time. The primary
question that’s used to measure the extent of wealth is how many days could you
survive without a job, a paycheck, or income. For example, how many days,
weeks, or years would you be able to survive if you lost your main source of
income? Start thinking in terms of the Cash Flow Quadrant to train your mind to locate opportunities for you to take advantage of.
Conclusion
Over
the years I’ve heard many stories in the news about famous musicians, like
famous actors, athletes, and lottery winners, who end up in financial despair.
Why? Because they were never educated about finding a profession for their
money in order to make their money work hard for them. Instead they work hard
for money, remain ignorant about money, trust others to manage their money for
them and end up broke. So while they were able to get lots of money by working
hard they were not able to gain the knowledge necessary to understand how to
efficiently convert their earned income into passive or portfolio income. If they
had learned how to do this, they would have done 2 things: reduce their taxes
and laid a foundation for retiring young and rich. And at the very least they
would have prevented themselves from going into bankruptcy or worse – becoming homeless.
The
reason I’ve written this article is to try to prevent another young or talented
artist from making poor choices with their finances only to wind up broke, on
drugs, or mentally ill. Watch this video to learn more about the 4 kinds of
people that are found in the Cash Flow Quadrant and how you can move out of one
quadrant and into another to secure your financial future starting with a sound
financial education.
Watch this video to hear Robert Kiyosaki explain the Cash Flow Quadrant.
Several years ago during an intense period of research I came across an essay called "The Liberation of Sound" by Edgar Varese. Varese is sometimes referred to as "The Father of Electronic Music." The primary reason he is known in this way is because of his experimentation with timbre, new instruments, and electronic resources.
When I was first exposed to his ideas I immediately recognized them in my own thoughts and music, since so many of the composers and CD's I enjoyed listening to brought his ideas to life in music. Without realizing it I was actually practicing his approach to music and sound creation inadvertently via osmosis. I absorbed his ideas through the music I loved and they become part of my musical thought processes.
I wanted to share these ideas with you, especially those of you who love ideas and to learn about music. Edgar Varese's influence is so immense you may discover that you actually don't like his music, but you will recognize his ideas in the music you do love. Moreover, you'll also find that without his influence the music you love might not even exist today. To learn more about Edgar Varese, click here.
"As far back
as the twenties, I decided to call my music "organized sound" and
myself, not a musician, but "a worker in rhythms, frequencies, and
intensities." "We should
also remember that no machine is a wizard, as we are beginning to think, and we
must not expect our electronic devices to compose for us. Good music and bad
music will be composed by electronic means, just as good and bad music have
been composed for instruments. The computing machine is a marvelous invention
and seems almost superhuman. But, in reality, it is as limited as the mind of
the individual who feeds it." "And here
are the advantages I anticipate from such a machine: liberation from the
arbitrary, paralyzing tempered system; the possibility of obtaining any number
of cycles or if still desired, subdivisions of the octave, consequently the
formation of any desired scale; unsuspected range in low and high registers;
new harmonic splendors obtainable from the use of sub-harmonic combinations now
impossible; the possibility of obtaining any differentiation of timbre, of
sound-combinations; new dynamics far beyond the present human-powered
orchestra; a sense of sound-projection in space by means of the emission of
sound in any part or in many parts of the hall as may be required by the score;
cross rhythms unrelated to each other, treated simultaneously, or to use the
old word, "contrapuntally" (since the machine would be able to beat
any number of desired notes, any subdivision of them, omission or fraction of
them) - all these in a given unit of measure or time which is humanly
impossible to attain."
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Here’s a great exercise video that I thoroughly enjoyed so much I was compelled to share it with you. These Pilates exercises are a complete workout for developing flexibility, strength,
and muscle tone. Many of the exercises demonstrated here can be performed in
all sorts of environments (indoor, outdoor, open spaces, small and enclosed
spaces) and climates, which is part of what makes this regimen a wonderful
workout routine.
I highly recommend the Pilates mat exercises shown in this video for you as an artist, musician, or creative type for the reasons
discussed in my previous article “Smart Moves for Musicians: Exercise without Equipment, Anytime, Anywhere.” Furthermore, this exercise routine and a food
combining diet makes for an ideal combination of exercise and diet to support the
artist’s lifestyle. I hope you enjoy watching this video and that it inspires
you to begin a Pilates / Yoga workout routine which you can then integrate into
the rest of your daily activities. Here’s to optimum health.
“Beware
of people who are suddenly thrown into the limelight through no talent of their
own. They develop this ghastly drive to cuddle with stars and artists, and
therefore reflect rather than generate light.”
- David
Bowie, May 2008 edition of W Magazine
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Introduction
Who are these people who are suddenly thrown into the
limelight? Where are they found, who finds them, and why are they put into the
limelight? Moreover, why is it that they weren’t able to arrive in the
limelight on their own talent? While these questions will not be directly
addressed in this article they are important questions to ask in order to gain
some insight into what kind of person we are talking about. There are two kinds
of people that I will talk about in order to establish a basis for conversation
with you and they are: the attention addict and the psychic vampire.
The Attention Addict and the Psychic
Vampire
Obviously the kind of person who would want to be thrown
into the limelight despite a non-existent or lack of talent is a person
desperate for attention from others. Crowds of adoring fans lining up to see
you in a performance would be a great temptation for someone who craves
attention. And the temptation will be worst for an attention addict, which is a
person who seeks a steady stream of attention from others regardless who those
others are.
Aside from the attention addict, the psychic vampire (of
all varieties) goes a step further by attempting to live off the life force of
others. Instead of thriving on the attention of others, the psychic vampire
drains energy or vitality from those they surround themselves with. In the case
of the attention addict the effect on others is usually minimal.
However, with people who enjoy living vicariously
(spectators) through others, they generally benefit from a relationship with an
attention addict. For example, some movie stars and celebrities are major
attention addicts and spectators love to see them in films playing roles that
the general audience can relate to. You also find spectators and attention
addicts pairing up as friends, so that you find a group of girls where one is wild
and often the center of attention, while the others are subdued and pale by
comparison. Often you’ll also find an attention addict or psychic vampire in a
crowd of spectators seeking out opportunities to exploit a new victim.
With the psychic vampire though the essential quality of
the relationship is one of give, give, give and take, take, take where only one
party benefits from the exchange. Other varieties of psychic vampires include
the emotional vampire, the sexual vampire, and the energy vampire. Therefore,
the effect the psychic vampire has on others is leaving them with a feeling of
being drained, exhausted, unfocused, or depressed.
Artists in the Limelight
Dealing with the attention addict and the psychic vampire
is such an important problem for artists and other talented individuals to
beware of. These two types of individuals seek out opportunities to be near
them, so there’s a hidden, and sometimes not so hidden, danger when it comes to
allowing others to enter into your circle of influence. What is it that they
want from you? What are they offering in the form of their friendship? Is there
an ulterior motive? If so, what is it? Although each case is unique, in almost
every instance I would say that what they desire is either money or admiration.
Money is self-explanatory, but admiration is vaguer.
As far as money is concerned, the parasite that comes for
your money will do so with a lawsuit, an offering of drugs, sexual
gratification, threats of violence, and blackmail. But when it comes to
admiration, the attention addict and the psychic vampire want you to send them
admiration. Part of the underlying idea for them is take greatness from the one
whom others consider great. The attention addict and the psychic vampire both
want to reduce the artist, the talented, and the star into a slave or prisoner.
When they use an admiration trap to capture your affections your experience of
these people is usually in the context of criminal activities, drug use,
suppressive friendships, violence, petty disagreements, and dysfunctional
relationships.All of this occurs
because of vulnerability on your part to trust others from the get-go.
One basic mechanism you can put in place to counteract this
vulnerability is to learn how to screen everyone who comes into your circle of
influence. You must learn this skill and know it cold, teach others this skill,
or hire someone to perform the screening process for you. The essence of the
screening process is to set standards of behavior for those you associate with
and to enforce those standards by establishing a kind of moral code for your
group. The fastest way to put this process to work immediately is to create a
battery of interview questions for your screeners. The list of questions can be
short, long, or tailored to a specific time and context. Whatever the case may
be your screeners must know 2 things about you and the people you are willing
to bring into your sphere of influence and that is: what it is you want and
what it is you don’t want. In other words, what qualities of character are you
looking for and what flaws in character do you want to avoid.
To help you learn the screening process and its associated
skills, check out these 3 interviews and 3 books by using the links provided:
Qualification – listen to the first 10 minutes for FREE.
Direct Game – listen to the first 10 minutes for FREE.
Books
Who’s Pulling Your Strings?
Science of Survival
Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them: When Loving
Hurts and You Don't Know Why
[Note: This book is written from the perspective of the female,
but if you simply reorient the focus of this book to the male point of view
then much of the material will also apply to men in their relationships with
women.]
Reflect or Absorption of Light?
By definition, “to reflect” means to give or send something
back. So do the attention addict and psychic vampire reflect or absorb the
light of artists and other creative professionals? Since the nature of the
relationship with them is always one of give, give, give and take, take, take
the bottom line then is that they absorb or consume the light of others.
The difficulty with generating light is that one must
carefully cultivate it from a small creative spark within and grow it. But the
problem with possessing the light of a creative professional is that others
attempt to remove it from you on the basis that it can be acquired or absorbed
by them via proximity or osmosis. They feel on some level that creativity,
talent, fame, and fortune can rub off on them, but only if they can get close
enough to you and in some cases inside you. In many ways this belief is similar
to that of the primitive man who kills an animal for food and believes that the
qualities, characteristics, or power of the animal that he’s eating will
somehow transfer over into him. Essentially, the attention addict and the
psychic vampire practice a cannibalistic idea that drives their very existence.
Conclusion
Beware of those who seek to cuddle with artists. Learn to
screen and detect the attention addict and psychic vampire among your people.
Prevent them from entering your circle of influence or root them out and
abolish them once detected. Preserve and nurture your creative spark by
choosing talented like-minded people as associates who reflect the light you’re
generating and give something back to you from the light they possess within
themselves.
__________________________________________________________ Related Music: They Make Zombies Psychic Vampire in Love ___________________________________________________________
