How many of us silenced, I wonder, by the shrill and relentless berating of our own inner critic? The foul, often daily, convocation of all our biggest and boldest worst fears. How many a blank page, empty canvas, fruitless hour, unspoken word…
All victim to the slippery tongue of our own well-fed deceit.
No song sung for fear of its meager tune.
No dream conceived for fear of its inabilty to grow.
No love spent for fear of finding ourselves bankrupt, and alone.
How well that spartan critic knows our freshest wound, our darkest plum-colored bruise, our softest bones. But the platitude of his attack grows old, even this very hour. I say we take up arms, dear friends. I say we retreive the reigns of our fertile, agile minds.
Let us write bad poetry and fumble with soft and ineffectual words and tell bold, embarassing stories and find ourselves filthy with the sludge of our own failures. Let us see, at the end of these things, that what we ourselves considered paltry was in someone’s eyes pure gold. That what we tossed aside as silly was, in fact, food for someone’s soul.
Let us go out and seize this beautiful day naked, and unafraid.
The sun will never again graze our brows precisely as it does right now.
PINKY.
No one is impervious to Rejection.
After being cast as the lead in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, Ryan Gosling gained a considerable amount of weight for what he considered an honest character portrayal.
But when a portly Gosling arrived on set, Jackson would have none of it. He fired Gosling, citing “creative differences” and hired Mark Wahlberg in his place.
A good-humoured Gosling was quoted as later saying: “Then I was fat AND unemployed.”
The New York Times has referred to Gosling as “One of the most exciting, talented Actors of his Generation.” The Pinky rather humbly agrees.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values is a 1974 philosophical novel, the first of Robert M. Pirsig’s texts in which he explores his Metaphysics of Quality.
The book sold 5 million copies worldwide.
It was originally rejected by 121 publishers, more than any other bestselling book, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Picking up her first guitar at 14, Joan Jett likely never imagined the road of failure, set-backs and refusal that lay ahead.
Not only was her band The Runaways largely dismissed in the Male-Dominated world of Rock and Roll, but fans were few and far-between - critics, less than impressed.
After losing her Lead Singer and Bassist, Joan became Front-Woman of the band she had long been the driving force behind. But she described the disintegration of the band as “a death”.
When Jett attempted to release her Solo Debut, she was rejected by 23 Record Companies. She struggled through countless ups and downs, eventually creating a sensation with hits like “I Love Rock and Roll” and ”I Hate Myself for Loving You” after receiving some funding from her friends the Who.
Jett continues to work as a Rock Star, Actress, Producer and all-around Force of Nature. She is often referred to as the Queen of Rock and Roll.
At a young age, Naomi Watts aspired to be a Model. But after being informed that she was “too short” and did not have “the fashion look”, she took an office job instead.
After attending a weekend-long acting seminar, Watts- with no manager, no agent and no experience- immediately quit her day job to pursue life as an actress.
Upon moving to LA, she then endured what she refers to as a SEVEN-YEAR “Wilderness Period” where little transpired to encourage her pursuits. She watched, often discouraged, as her friend Nicole Kidman sky-rocketted to Fame.
After taking roles in “awful” films such as Children of the Corn IV, she had a break-through in the form of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Though scrapped as a television pilot, the piece was eventually restructured as a Feature Film, and doors began to open for Watts.
She has appeared in such critically acclaimed films as I Heart Huckabees, Eastern Promises , and 21 Grams, for which she received an Academy Award Nomination.
Watts attributes her success to the “tiny bits” of hope (aka ANY kind of acting work) that appeared throughout her seven years of famine, each coinciding mysteriously with her decision to quit- once and for all.
She remains close friends with Kidman.
Melissa Leo has been a working actress for more than 20 years, but seemed doomed to perfect her craft in relative obscurity on the likes of Soap Operas and Made for Television Movies.
But in 2008 with the release of Frozen River, Melissa was suddenly a household name. She was nominated for 13 awards, including the SAG award and the Oscar for Best Actress.
Since then, Leo (50) has been everywhere, and she has wow-ed.
She has been nominated for a whopping 30 awards for her portrayal as Micky Ward’s Mother in David O Russell’s THE FIGHTER, which is also nominated for Best Picture of 2010.
After receiving a slew of less-than-favorable reviews, Steve Martin closed one particular night of Stand-Up Comedy by reading aloud the last line of his most recent critique:
“Sharing the bill with Poco this week is Comedian Steve Martin… his 25 minute routine failed to establish any comic identity that would make the audience remember him, or the material.”
His career in comedy, film, music and authorship has spanned over five decades and earned him numerous emmy and grammy awards.
His critics have garnered considerably less success in… well, anything.
