Greg Proffit Writing

Category: Arts

the United States Congress, in the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act, defined “the arts” as follows:

The term “the arts” includes, but is not limited to, music (instrumental and vocal), dance, drama, folk art, creative writing, architecture and allied fields, painting, sculpture, photography, graphic and craft arts, industrial design, costume and fashion design, motion pictures, television, radio, film, video, tape and sound recording, the arts related to the presentation, performance, execution, and exhibition of such major art forms, all those traditional arts practiced by the diverse peoples of this country. (sic) and the study and application of the arts to the human environment.[6]

Art is a global activity in which a large number of disciplines are included, such as: fine arts, liberal arts, visual arts, decorative arts, applied arts, design, crafts, performing arts,[3] … We are talking about “the arts” when several of them are mentioned: “As in all arts the enjoyment increases with the knowledge of the art”.[7]

The arts can be divided into several areas, the fine arts which bring together, in the broad sense, all the arts whose aim is to produce true aesthetic pleasure,[8] decorative arts and applied arts which relate to an aesthetic side in everyday life.[9]

  • The Public Art/Private Artist Dilemma: Which Does The Audience Own?

    The Public Art/Private Artist Dilemma: Which Does The Audience Own?

    Acoustic guitar. Private artist creating art for the public. Which does the audience own?
    Photo by Gary Meulemans on Unsplash

    This is a story about the Public Art-Private Artist dilemma–defined as the struggle between what an artist creates for public consumption and the private artist who does the creating. The relationship between creative people (famous or not) and their audience raises an observation, and begs a question. The audience consumes the art produced by an artist, but can it claim ownership of either?

    The issue occurred to me a couple days ago when this tweet captured my attention.

    “Will you ever listen to Eric Clapton’s music again, now that you know he’s a Trump supporter?”

    Come Again?

    The tweet stopped me cold. And it’s had me thinking.

    First, I love Eric Clapton’s music. I have many of his albums, listen to them with joy, and I can even play a serviceable Layla on acoustic guitar. 

    Second, prior to the tweet, I knew as much about Clapton’s political views as he knows about mine. 

    Third, I don’t give a damn about his politics. What I care about is the way the music makes me feel. Who he votes for or thinks I should vote for has no bearing.

    When you write, or sing, or paint, or dance, or act, or play your instrument, I am moved by what you create–exclusively. If you move me so much I internalize what you created, it’s mine now. You made it part of me; the greatest success an artist can achieve. You still own the copyright, but you don’t own the effects.

    The best artists speak to us, move us, and shape us despite themselves. Only an artist knows the inner demons they wrestle to create something worth giving away; and the courage it takes to summon the vulnerability to give it. Creating art is an act of faith performed despite fear of failure and struggles with imperfection.

    So I don’t really care about your non-PC views, neuroses, or other hang-ups. I don’t feel compelled to cancel all your unpopular opinions. I promise to stress about your politics only if you write a political piece. Even then, I’m going to evaluate what you’ve created for me by how it makes me feel, and whether I incorporate it into my life, not by who you vote for, and regardless of whether you hold all the right opinions…mine.

    The shared bond between artist and audience is the art. When you make your art public, I own how it makes me feel. But I don’t own you. That’s private. 

  • “Iko Iko” with Dr. John, Bill, and Mickey

    This is the YouTube video Playing for Change, Song Around the World version of “Iko Iko”. It features Dr. John in one of his last recorded pieces before he passed. Also, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart make appearances in the video.

    I love these. This one made me cry. You know it’s art when it moves you like that. “Hey Now!”

  • Tech Problems

    I’ve spent most of another day trying to get my WordPress websites migrated to another host. I like these kind of computer challenges. There is something satisfying about using technology at a deeper level than the common point and click (referred to by computer geeks and techno nerds as ”grunt and click”).

    On the other hand for those like myself who like to peek under the hood, but who are not full-time web masters, systems administrators, or database admins, sometimes the trial and error nature of computer problem solving seems very grunt and click. This is the nature of computer science. There are many variables, any one of which can pose downstream bugs and problems.

    I realize that the world of computers is a pseudo-world of pseudo-perfection for me. 

    What do I mean?

    Just this: In the real world, or RL (short for Real Life), messiness and imperfection is the rule. Orderliness, predictability, and precision control is the exception. Many things are broken, or at least seem to be so. I almost sunk into a state of nihilism over this reality as a much younger man because at heart, I am an idealist. This world is not a kind place to be one of those. Nothing is ideal in RL. 

    So, years ago, I turned to computers to fulfill my craving for utopian idealism. My first Macs for Dummies Book by David Pogue was a marvel. I was amazed at the simplicity of the original mac operating system. This was back in the days of system 7 on a Performa 538 machine. I liked that in the computer environment, I could use my pointing device, the mouse, to select a digital object and then I could ”act” on it. Noun > Verb. Object>Action. Very, very satisfying. So, to make a word or a block of text bold, I simply selected it, then, once selected performed the bold action either by selecting that action from within the Edit menu, or soon with keystrokes.

    Wouldn’t life be grand if everything was Noun>Verb? Or, perhaps not.

     It wasn’t long before I got into world-builder games like Civilization or Age of Empires, or Sim City. Computer worlds where I can be god and create the exact world, empire, or city that I want. And basically, things just work. Those kinds of games, especially if they involve a hint of historicity and a tech tree to learn and climb are my kind of digital heroin.

    That craving for a niche of perfection is why I enjoy just messing with computers physically, too. I’ve installed RAM, hard drives, swapped out video cards, and all sorts of things like that. When you’re done, it’s almost as satisfying as when I was a remodeling contractor.

    And of course I’ve obsessed over computer games, scripting, programming, database design, and all the other ways I’ve wasted copious amounts of time in front of a keyboard. I’ll let you in on an embarrassing secret: I played the online game Forge of Empires so long (and so well), that I achieved the 3rd place ranking on the US server. And friends, that really is embarrassing.

    Many people play video games because they are more interesting than their real lives. They can achieve more, do more, be rewarded more. At least in the midst of it, the obsession to create the perfect computer world feels that way. 

    Of course, that’s not true at all, once you step away from the screen. Still, computers are supposed to work. Software is supposed to be an emotionally rewarding experience precisely because of its  predictability. When it doesn’t work, it is frustrating!

    For me, a computer problem is like a grain of sand in my brain. I can tolerate all kinds of imperfections and messiness and brokenness in RL, but if my websites won’t load, or if I keep getting a glitchy Reminder notification, or anything like that, I hate it! In the overall scheme of things it’s no biggie. But computers are supposed to be a corner of life that works predictably, that I can control, and that responds to my inputs for the results that I desire. 

    It’s the only part of life where I don’t feel too silly to indulge my idealism. So, c’mon tech support get my sites up and running so I don’t lose that, too. 

    I just fixed the problem! Thank you Google. Thank you WordPress support forums. Thank you God for giving me a mind to be able to pick up a problem and look at it, and manipulate it like a Rubik’s Cube until I can find a way to fix it. After hours on the phone with half a dozen professional techs, I found a way to use cPanel and phpMyadmin to manually disable plugins, locate the MySQL server IP address, edit my wp-config.php file, and voilá!

    …and I’m able to keep my blog posting streak going! Feels good. As close to ideal as this RL gets.

  • GoDaddy-WordPress-Hosting-TechSupport Issues…Uggh

    I am posting today to keep my posting streak alive. 

    Other than that, I’ve been on the phone with tech support all day. About 5 different agents trying to solve the same problem.

    I’m frustrated. I’m tired. My brain feels like mush.

    I’m looking forward to watching a Hurricanes game tonight and getting away from WordPress and websites.

    I’ve had an issue all day with being able to use the block editor to upload image files.

    I get an error message on each of my 4 sites when trying to do it.

    If I can get it figured out, I’ll post more about the issue. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has faced it.

  • For Your Viewing Pleasure, I Recommend The Only Living Boy In New York

    From left, Callum Turner and Jeff Bridges in “The Only Living Boy in New York.”
    Credit…
    Niko Tavernise/Roadside Attractions, Amazon Studios

    Watched a great movie last night with Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, Kate Beckinsale, and a fantastic young actor named Callum Turner called The Only Living Boy in New York. You can see the trailer on YouTube with the link provided.

    This link is a proper review in the New York Times.

    It’s a great story that I will not spoil for you, but I highly recommend it.

    It’s available on Amazon Prime Video, by the way.

    Your’e welcome. Enjoy!

  • My Day In Tech Support Hell: Remember When You Could Just Restart?

    I spent my day on the phone with tech support. This is not the way you want to spend a day. Believe me. Good tech support representatives, especially those working in a  ”pre-sales” capacity should ask plenty of questions to make sure they understand what the customer thinks he wants to do. Assumptions or hastiness make for a bad experience for the customer. That’s me. 

    I have several domains. You are likely reading this from one of them right now. A domain is the part of a web address before the ”dot”. Technically, the domain also includes the part after the ”dot”. 

    All my domains are hosted by GoDaddy. Hosting means what it sounds like. GoDaddy servers (internet linked computers) are where my domains ”live”. GoDaddy is also the ”registrar” of all my domains. They are the frontend business from whom I purchased the domain names, and they handle all of the backend registration details which links the ownership of those domain names to me. 

    I have created websites for some, but not all of my domains. Those websites are all WordPress.org websites. They use Content Management Software (CMS) by WordPress. A huge percentage of websites on the internet are WordPress sites. It is flexible, scalable, modular, and user-friendly. You do not have to be able to code in HTML or pHp, or python, or any other computer language. This is a huge boon. The low threshold to entry means anyone, even you, can become a web designer (with a lot of help from the developers at WordPress and their free pre-designed themes, and simple block editors).

    Reading can sometimes lead to borrowed trouble

    Anyway, I read too much, and this has a tendency to get me into trouble. I read a really cool article advising separating your domain registrar from your website hosting service. I had also read several articles like this one about the benefits of WordPress Managed hosting for performance and security upgrades for WordPress websites. A search of the best hosting services for WordPress Managed Hosting led to this article, which revealed bluehost.com as an excellent provider of this service.

    So, over the last couple of days, I was nine-tenths decided that I would leave my domains registered with GoDaddy, purchase and create a managed WordPress account with bluehost, switch my websites over to the new server and hosting service, then decide what to do about my associated domain specific email accounts, that also are managed by GoDaddy. I learned bluehost had the same type email services, was a little cheaper, and could migrate all my accounts over. 

    The last one-tenth I needed to be comfortable and confident pulling the trigger was to speak to a human at bluehost to make sure I could do what I wanted to do. So I did. At least I thought I had. I got a friendly tech on the phone after the obligatory verbal dance with an automated voice, and I told her my situation. She listened as I explained that I had several domains, and that they all were registered with GoDaddy where I planned to keep them. I told her that my current GoDaddy hosting plan was of the common ”shared” variety. I explained that the plan allowed me to have a main, default domain and under that domain, to create separate, distinct websites as ”sub-domains” that would each show up under their own domain name when typed into a browser address bar.

    What makes for good tech support? Questions before answers.

    She followed along and understood the structure I described. I asked her if it was possible to migrate the entire directory structure using a protocol called ftp from the server at GoDaddy to a new WordPress managed server plan at bluehost. 

    I told her that I understood that the new managed plan would only allow me to utilize the premium resources of a managed plan for one and only one of my domains, the one I planned to be my main blog, where I create and post content, and which I want to load fast for my visitor’s sakes. Yes, she agreed, that’s how a WordPress managed plan would work. I then asked the crucial question: If I copy over the entire directory structure and make all the necessary database configuration adjustments to the ”config” files, will the other websites still work and be accessible even if they aren’t as fast, or as secure as the one I designate to be the ”main” domain for the main benefits.

    ”Of course,” she said. It will work exactly like you described it. This was great to hear, and it confirmed the same answer I had gotten yesterday via online chat with a bluehost representative when I had laid out the same scenario and the same question about website functionality. Great, I thought. I was set to go. 

    But, a good tech support representatives, especially those working in a  ”pre-sales” capacity should ask plenty of questions to make sure they understand what the customer thinks he wants to do. Being friendly is not enough. Telling the customer what he wants to hear is even worse. Create the correct expectations on the front end. If you aren’t sure, say so. If you cannot provide what the customer wants, tell him.

    The process begins – I got this

    Believing I’d been understood, and mistaking friendly for competent, I got a fresh cup of coffee. Then I opened this migration guide and followed it step by step. 

    The process started by downloading every file from GoDaddy to my local computer using a ftp manager app. (The details are beyond the scope of this story). This was pretty straightforward and since it was a download, it took maybe an hour for all of the files to be safely on my iMac hard drive. 

    Then, I used phpMyAdmin to export the unique databases from my existing sites to my hard drive. 

    Next, I created a MySQL database, user, and user account on the new server using the cPanel tools. 

    Then, I imported the existing database files into the new databases I had created.

    Then I modified the wp-config file so it would recognize the new database name and new database user name on the new server. 

    So far so good. 

    Next, I created a FTP user account and login credentials on the new host and connected to it via my ftp file manager. I got connected and uploaded the entire directory structure from my computer to the new site. I was doing in reverse the first step I’d accomplished about an hour before. But because it was now an upload of files, it was waaaaayyyy slower. It took 4 hours to finish. But when it was done, it was done. All the files were there, the file structure was duplicated and in place. I made sure the modified wp-config file was in place an accurate and went to the last step.

    The last step was to modify the DNS records to point web requests for my domain urls from GoDaddy’s servers to those of bluehost. GoDaddy has user-friendly tools enabling me to change the DNS records as a bulk/batch change. All good so far.

    Trouble strikes

    Then trouble struck. At the point I went to the new site to designate one and only one of my domains as the main, default domain for may WordPress managed hosting plan, everything broke. 

    First, I couldn’t validate my login credentials because the email bluehost was trying to send a validation token to was no longer working. (When I changed the DNS nameservers, the email accounts associated with those domains and GoDaddy nameservers stopped working because I hadn’t purchased, set up, and migrated the email accounts to bluehost yet). Then, I couldn’t get the primary url assigned because I had purchased it too recently from GoDaddy. It was going to take two-months to transfer the DNS records for the main domain that I wanted for my primary blog website. Ugh!

    I tried next to get one of my existing sites working and again, No Joy! It was only then that I began to feel frustrated. My solution, more coffee, and another call to bluehost tech support. No worries.

    I wish.

    The next bluehost support person was as friendly as the first, listened to my situation, listened to what I was trying to do, and about two-thirds into describing trying to get several domains linked and working under my new plans, she promptly stopped me.

    ”Huh-uh,” she said, ”that’s not gonna work at all on a managed plan.”

    After a few minutes of grief on my part, and profuse apologies on hers, she explained that the managed plan was one, and only one website. And that if I wanted to use it with my newly obtained domain, it would take two months for the DNS to transfer (absorbing virtually all of my promotional period). She suggested that I open a shared hosting account for the other, non-primary accounts. 

    The sunk-cost fallacy is still a fallacy

    And, sunk-cost fallacy hard at work, I did it. I freaking did it! I got an additional, separate hosting plan. My rationale was that I would at least still be able to separate the hosting from the domain registrar. After I clicked ”buy”, the helpful tech stayed on the phone for me to set up my login for this hosting account. I asked if this would simply append as a new service to my existing bluehost account. She apologetically said that it would not. She said each of the hosting services required their own sign on credentials.

    I explained that I had created an account login, an ftp user and login, and a MySQL user and login for the one domain already. I said, ”Ma’am, that’s 4 logins for one domain. Are you telling me I will need to create that many for every one of my domains?” When she said that I would have to create at least one more set for the new shared plan, I woke up.

    My smartest move was my saving grace. That and good tech support

    The smartest thing I did today was something I didn’t do. I didn’t cancel my GoDaddy services. I got one of their techs on the phone. He was very understanding, very conciliatory, and very good natured not to ridicule me too badly. He told me to cancel the plans with bluehost, get them to release the DNS records, and instructed me how to redirect them back to the GoDaddy nameservers. 

    Which I did. He listened to me. He asked me questions. A good representative, he asked plenty of questions to make sure he understood what I wanted to do. Only then, did he suggest some options. But he didn’t try to upsell me a thing. He simply helped me complete the circuit that I had begun at 7:45 am, close the loop, and arrive back at ground zero, status quo. 

    He sent me an email with his contact info and some recovery instructions. Once you get back to where you started, and get a full refund, send me an email, he suggested. We’ll set up a time for me to walk you through what it is you’re wanting to do. That’s a good tech support rep. And that’s where things stand. 

  • Books

    Books are the next best thing to Experience, and often enhance it with Perspective and Understanding

    I’m putting together a book list. Titles I’ve read that I can recommend to my kids or to anyone. I got the idea after listening to a Tim Ferris podcast interviewing Jordan Peterson during which he mentions Peterson’s list on his website. It is a fantastic list of 100 books.

    I copied the list into Evernote, reformatted it to add a checkbox, and went through to see how many I’ve read. So far, I’ve read twenty-eight of Peterson’s recommended books. His is weighted heavily to volumes by Freud and Jung. Understandably, since he spent years as a clinical psychologist. I’ve never read entire books by either psychoanalyst, but I’m familiar with their work and ideas. I will read their books. I’ll read the remaining seventy-two on the list over the next several years, God willing. Peterson said, there’s a whole education in there. So true.

    A couple of his titles are by Dostoevsky and Hemingway. Two of my favorites, though they couldn’t be more different stylistically. Their works are on my list, too. With an extra two Hemingway’s that Peterson didn’t include on his.

    In looking at my incomplete list, standing now at some 40 titles that off the top of my head I deem to have had the most impact on my life, I’m struck by how many are works of fiction. There are two non-fiction works that have wrought change in my systems of thinking and emotional awareness, but the bulk of the really life-altering books I’ve read are works of fiction.

    Great writers can capture truth and the essence of life or some aspect of existence so wonderfully, that it grafts into the reader. Some character, or some scene can make you see the world in an entirely new, more complete way. And that’s good.

    I have a heartache already that I will not be able to read all of the truly great books I wish to read, but I’m gonna go for it for sure. What’s on your own list?

  • Prelude to a Review of The Overstory…(is that a thing???)

    Ancient Groves Nature Trail though old growth forest in the Sol Duc section of Olympic National Park in Washington, United States – This is what Foresters refer to as “The Understory”

    I love to read. It is the single greatest skill a human can acquire in my opinion. The books I’ve read have transformed my life, and continue to do so. There is something magic about the transposition of knowledge, sensation, emotion, and longing that happens when a skillful author communicates via a form of ancient, abstract telepathy to the reader.

    Some books are better than others. Some tackle subject matter more weighty than others. Some achieve both. The one I’m reading now is on that list.

    I’m only one-third of the way through it and it’s already blown my mind. It actually blew my mind in the first couple of pages by a cosmic connection I’d felt relating to something I’d jotted in my notes as I stared out my picture window at the pairs of willow oaks budding up the perpendicular street centered in my view.

    I wrote this snippet: 

    ”Has anyone ever successfully captured the perfect architecture inherent in the design of a tree?”

    I was thinking of the perfect marvel of engineered branching and load bearing and surface area distribution and how no human architect has ever attempted building anything like a tree.

    Imagine my profound surprise and delight to begin listening to the audible version of The Overstory, by Richard Powers. winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, an incredible story about trees, and how they have impacted and enriched and enthralled and empowered the characters lives. Some of them also received tree messages, so…kinda makes ya think.

     Some of these magnificent spires have been here since the birth of Jesus. Imagine. A thing so ubiquitous as to have become almost invisible. And yet, a thing that we share 25% of our own DNA with, and owe 100% of our lives to. And things without which, there is no anything. No, really.

    I’m becoming more and more convinced that humans, though apparently created last, and ostensibly for the purpose of taking care of our orb-shaped space ride on the outer edge of the Milky Way, may in fact have devolved into one of the least intelligent life forms still alive and kicking on our cosmic home.

    Trees appear to be smarter. They certainly live longer, cooperate better, are more social, and are more committed to sharing their resources to insure their thriving survival together. Maybe we have a still have a slim chance to change that and we can learn enough to move out of the stupidity basement.

    I’ll write more about this amazing book, I’m sure, but I want to heartily recommend it. You will thank me, and trees, if you do choose to read it.

  • It Just Works!

    We all miss ya, Steve.

    Apple used to have the corner on the market of ”It just works” tech. 

    Now, no one does. 

    Apple products and services don’t always work as expected. (If you don’t believe that, you don’t use the Reminders app across multiple iOS devices and on a MacOS device running the latest software.) As Apple began to rely more and more on cloud technologies for linking devices and apps together, the control over the end-user experience that Steve Jobs mastered got further and further from the control of Apple’s engineers and designers.

    And I read a news article that a Tesla on auto-driving mode had run into a parked patrol car. That’s not good. Tesla’s are software with fast electric motors and wheels. But they are reliant upon a network, too. And they’re reliant upon a dependable power grid. If Mr. Musk was in Texas during the recent winter storm that took down much of the grid, he probably wasn’t able to silently tool around very much in one of his Model S’s. And if there’s any other software bug, well, those seem to get discovered IRL when a collision happens.

    I don’t use Android devices because I don’t trust Google. I don’t use PCs because although they will all run a variant of Windows, or Ubuntu Linux, or whatever, each part of the hardware may come from a different manufacturer and the parts don’t always play well together in terms of integration and optimization. 

    I’ve never been a Windows user because of its famous buggy, virus-and-hacker-prone-ness. (I do use it via Parallels on my Mac for one proprietary business software, TurboTax Business which does LLC and S-corp tax forms and only runs on Windows).

    Technology is built on dependencies. One piece depends on the other. An iPhone 12 Plus is just a fancy iPod if the GPE Network crawls, or you’re not near a reliable cell tower, or you can’t charge it up when the battery goes dead. You can build the world’s fastest CPU, but if the RAM bus won’t handle the throughput, or your heat sink and fans won’t cool it, there’s your bottleneck. You’ve got an expensive portable heater.

    For a long time now, the bottleneck has been the Network itself, because all of technology depends on reliable, repeatable network protocols for linking to other devices and communicating. When that breaks, the dependable, controllable world of technology becomes just as frustrating as Real Life. We don’t communicate well in it either.

  • MTV…not so much!

    Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas from the official music video for Smooth

    As a quick follow-up to yesterday’s post on hot and cool media, I thought I’d share some of my opinions about music.

    I belong firmly in the camp of people who believe that MTV ruined music.

    Here’s why.

    Music is about sound and hearing and what happens in the brain when that’s going on. Studies show that music taps the brain’s pleasure centers in a unique way, even triggering the release of dopamine for the anticipation of where the notes are heading. And it has long been surmised that there is a correlation between music and memory in a way that is similar to the sense of smell and its association with memories.

    Video is also about sound, but it is a much ”hotter” medium in McLuhan’s terms. Because of the visual component, any imagination or personal connection that a particular song might evoke, is obliterated once the song is married to a video. The video becomes the vehicle for how the song is perceived, rather than your own emotional and mental state. The video replaces your imagination. This is a bum deal in my opinion.

    I can’t hear Peaceful, Easy Feeling by the Eagles, or Lido Shuffle by Boz Scaggs without being transported to my thirteenth summer. Thank God there was no video, or I’d never be able to associate those songs with Long Beach and the sweet-ache of innocent summer love I had for Ruth Ellen H, and a bus trip to Atlanta to spend a week with my cousin, Rob, and the sultry and out-of-my-league Heidi H…but I hear the first notes of that pedal steel guitar, imagine just how the ”sparkling earrings lay against your skin so brown”, and I’m right back there.

    I love the Santana song, Smooth. It is fantastic, has a great lyric, and what’s not to like about Carlos’ guitar, anyway?  But when I hear it, I see the video with Rob Thomas singing, and the sweaty chick in the window, and the Latinas dancing in the streets of Spanish Harlem. I love the tune, but because of the video, I have zero personal connection to it.

    When it comes to music: 

    ”Give me your heart, make it real, or let’s forget about it.”