Rent

Sarah and I saw the motion picture version of "Rent" yesterday. I've got to admit...it was tough to watch. Don't get me wrong...it's a well-made movie but the subject matter is tough. And it all seems just a bit dated to me. It's all about the bohemian lifestyle in NYC during the late 80's. Being an artist, I can relate and yet, I can't. I didn't go in for that self-destructive suffer-for-your-art kinda lifestyle. I'm a fairly normal person who just happens to be an artist and a talented one at that.
I spent the 80's in art school. Several to be exact. It was quite the experience hanging out with all the tortured would-be creative types. It amazed me that more than half the people enrolled had no business being there. I guess they too had bought into the whole artistic lifestyle thing. I did not. I didn't (and don't) have to be a heroin/coke addict who experiments with alternative sexual lifestyles while living in squalor with a crossdressing voodoo priestess. I didn't buy into it and I did okay. (More than okay actually but I am not here to toot my horn today)
If not for the BS slung around NY during the 80's, some of my favorite artists might be alive and making art today. But as it is, Keith Haring died from AIDS and Jean-Michel Basquiat of a drug overdose. Heck, even a guy I knew in high school and later at Memphis College of Art died from AIDS. The lifestyle that folks were selling back then killed people. They were lead to believe that it would feed their creativity but all it did was feed on them until there was nothing left. So, perhaps I'm a mediocre artist (which I'm not) but at least I'm alive and still working. I may not be famous but I'm breathing and making art. That's a good thing.