...One of the greatest feelings in the world is, after resolutely remaining as asleep as possible while the children across the aisle watch a bad, loud dvd with their father hovering over them in the aisle, forcing everyone who passes to whack me in the head with their rear end (and damn, despite the bathroom being on the other end of the plane there are a lot of passersby) and then waking for real, bleary, dry, hoping against hope that we are more than three hours – halfway – through the flight, and hearing, “Flight attendants, please prepare for landing, crosscheck...”
...here’s what makes a well-paid job: 1) Providing services not available elsewhere (whoring, specialized medicine); 2) High levels of personal danger when carrying out the job (logging, drug dealing, whoring); 3) Lack of willing job applicants (air conditioner repair, whoring); 4) High level of personal responsibility for the service recipient (medicine, whoring)...
...On the continuing theme of Mandy’s Not A Very Nice Person Now Is She, I made an intern cry yesterday. In the middle of an intense part of our job, I sent her to get me something I urgently needed and used a nasty tone of voice. After the hoo-hah was over, I noticed her teary and apologized profusely, explaining that no, it wasn’t her and in fact she had done fabulous work all day, and my tone had nothing to do with her performance and everything to do with my hyped-up state of mind. There were more apologies and a cash bonus later for all as our client was very pleased, and other people who work with me let her know that yeah, sometimes Mandy does that and it’s so not you. Internship Lesson for the Day: sometimes the boss is a bitch. There’s nothing you can do but your job until it blows over...
...On the continuing theme of Mandy’s A Self-Aggrandizing Egomaniac, one of my favorite quotes: “If everyone likes you, you must not be very good.” Discuss.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Bits and Pieces
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9 comments:
Whore interns? I like the idea. You should look into that.
Whoring, whoring, whoring ... can we find another word to convey the same message? Enjoying, enjoying, enjoying
I'd much rather read about you whoring and bitching than self-pitying, darling. :)
Don't let things get you down. Just keep writing. That's important.
Kryptonite.
Our favorite heroes all have a weakness. We like to see them struggle for their success and learn humility in the process. Don't ask me how Paris Hilton gets away with it.
I don't doubt that there is balance in your life, but maybe there is not enough balance (from a literary viewpoint) in the story you are telling. Do you keep Husband out of the story because it would compromise your secret identity?
As for Secret Scientist and his fidelity, or lack thereof, it is his choice to cheat and it is his girlfriends choice to tell him to shove off If she knows. She deserves to know. It is your choice to allow behavior that is immoral by your standards. There was actually a post on somebody's blog some months ago about a woman being pissed at a whore because her boyfriend was sleeping with the whore. I can't remember what the consensus in this community was. Are you keeping to The Swinger's Code? The Slut's Code? The Whore's Code?
I still love your blog in spite of the fact that it sometimes pushes some of my buttons.
Steve
Steve and Tom, I just can't keep silent anymore. I've been lurking on the blog for awhile now, and as a creative professional I've found myself nodding along to Mandy again and again. Balance? Ethics? Morality? We're talking about art!
It so happens that for some (probably most, but definitely not all) artists, the ability to produce satisfactory art hinges on a certain lifestyle. This is "satisfactory" from the artist's perspective - not that of posterity. It doesn't matter if the work is a Michaelangelo or a Van Gogh because it's the artist who makes, evaluates, and judges the choice.
An artist has a need to create (and it is a need, not a choice, in every case that I know of) and it might be that this creation is at least facilitated by sex, drugs, or writing bad checks. He or she might go to jail, might devastate loved ones, might suffer public embarrassment. But the choice is the artist's to make, and I believe that it is a valid one.
-The Artists' Advocate
Thanks Advocate,
Having had some experience in the music business I know that there are different lifestyles associated with creative work. I hope Mandy knows that I don't judge her way of living and that I'm just offering my inexperienced two cents worth of literary criticicism.
About Secret Scientist's girlfriend deserving to know I only feel she should be able to make an informed choice. Wether anoyone informs her or not is another story.
I DO judge Paris Hilton.
Steve
Anonymous (the "creative professional"), what do you mean by "valid"? Sure, as you said, an artist can justify her actions in her OWN mind -- but then, we all are capable of astounding feats of rationalization when it comes to our own actions. What makes that "valid" to anyone who's outside the artist's mind?
Philosopher, that's an extremely good question. So good I had to look it up. “Rationalize: to ascribe (one's acts, opinions, etc.) to causes that superficially seem reasonable and valid but that actually are unrelated to the true, possibly unconscious and often less creditable or agreeable causes.” (Dictionary.com)
It strikes me that, as far as an outside observer is concerned, there is absolutely no way to tell whether anything is a rationalization or not. But, as a jury member, I'd accept Mandy's testimony as pretty convincing.
George (not to be a snarky bitch here), you may be enjoying. I'm whoring. This is a fundamental difference that clients on whoreboards often misunderstand (Gosh, I went down on her for almost the whole time, how come I have to pay for that???). There are a lot of jobs that involve pleasure for the service recipient that are nonetheless work for the service provider.
Steve - so far I've kept Husband out because it's too precious to me to tell. I think I need to put a bit more in about him, though. Mine was the blog about the wife getting pissed at the whore :) We all thought she was a bit dumb.
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