Liked vs. $$$

I was folding mountains of sheets at my glamorous day job (managing a bed & breakfast) yesterday, listening to a Liz Phair CD that I had forgotten I had. One line of a song stood out to me in particular:

"It's nice
to be liked
but it's better, by far,
to get paid."

Liz Phair is quite the sage.

That isn't, for me, what it ALL comes down to, as far as making this film is concerned. But it is what MOST of it comes down to.

Dont get me wrong, I absolutely appreciate art-for-art's-sake. My own example: when my brother and I were cleaning out my father's house, after he died of cancer a few years ago, we found (I counted it) over $8,000 - in Camel Cash. Dad was a 2-pack-a-day guy. He was saving up for a trip to Vegas. That's how these cigarette companies get you - they must calculate how many packs will kill you, then double that for the number of Camel Cash dollars you will need to cash in for the big prize, so they never actually have to pay! Needless to say, when my father died, I was pissed. Pretty much at everyone, but no one more so than the tobacco companies. At first I looked at their catalog - I had enough Camel Cash for a stereo. But I couldn't do it. It was blood money.

So I used the Camel Cash to manifest a picture that I saw in my head, in the form of a 5' x 5' painting/collage. I patiently pasted almost one thousand Camel Cash dollars to the canvas, one by one. They formed the waves of the ocean, where my brother and I placed our father's ashes.

I showed the painting in several exhibits, and it generated a lot of interest. But I did not price it. It was not, and is not, for sale.

So, I understand the need just to get something out of your system. And this film is definitely that, for me. But this film is not only about me. It is about all the incredible people that I know in this city, and it is about this incredible city itself. Almost everyone I know that lives here has a love/hate relationship with Baltimore. But almost everyone I know who has moved away, has moved right back. There is something about Baltimore, and it is hard to put into words. Or at least, it is hard to put into words alone. Film, in my opinion, is the combination of all media - it is visual, it is literary, it is music, and it is motion. Overall, it is a rythmic combination of all of these forms of expression. It is a challenge.

It is also a business, and needs to be approached as such. I am as practical as I am creative. I'm not quitting my day job anytime soon. But I am working hard, and more importantly, working smart, towards my next career move.

And of course, oodles of fame and fortune and multiple Oscars. :)