Re: RAT Re: No Subject

["James Lineberger" <jdline@vnet.net>]

well, i dont mean to be hard on anybody who's struggling, god knows, but i
worked in LA for over ten years, writing scripts for the majors, and I
never did one decent piece of work the whole time, and I never saved a
dime, and the whole bundle never freed me to write anything on my own.  It
wore me down and damn near destroyed me.  So much for gigs that let us
"focus" on our work.  To answer Btmsdream, no, i dont want to be supported
while I create.  I just want to create, and if i have to earn money, let it
be money from some other source, in payment for something else.  I'm
currently a night porter at a fast food joint, which is ok and i dont
grouse about wanting to be free to do my art, which is free to start with. 


I understand about your kids.  Mine were the same way.  But nowadays,
nobody fusses too much about the beans and such, since they're all grown
now and out eating their own beans.  So, if the kids get you down, believe
me, this too will pass.

By the bye, a few years back I tried to apply for an NEA playwriting grant.
 Guess what?  I wasn't eligible.  They insisted that applicants had to have
had a play produced during the previous five years.  The one I was working
on was my first in over twenty years.  Despite any earlier "success" or
credentials in the professional theatre and in film, I was shut out.  Glad
now that I was.  They did me a favor.  

I sympathize with everybody who's hungry and tired and needs some cash. 
It's just been my experience that you can't job it with creative work.  

Best of luck, jim lineberger

----------
> From: KSTUARTXX@aol.com
> To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
> Subject: RAT Re: No Subject
> Date: Thursday, June 24, 1999 12:41 PM
> 
> Jim Lineberger-
> 
> what you express is a lovely sentiment. I used to feel that way myself.
It's 
> true that for me, the times when I've done work where there was no
money... 
> etc, were sometimes the most fun... but these days... hell I am just too
old. 
>    I gotta find a way to squeeze blood from the turnip, other wise I
won't 
> have time to be making any art, cause I'll be like, xeroxing at Kinko's
or 
> something for a living. Hunger is pretty corrupting too, and I'm not
talking 
> metaphorical hunger.  All last year my kids were saying..."mom, would you

> just get a real job" and "we don't want rice and beans again" etc.  
> 
> Only in America are we so scared of grants, it's that old up from the 
> bootstraps thing. Of course only in America do we have the insane
PURITANICAL 
> strings attached to the purse. Europe... Australia... (Australia may have

> problems but they are SPOILED when it comes to funding. though now, right

> wing government is slashing right and left) lots of other places build 
> support for the arts right into their culture and I don't think those
artists 
> are destroyed by it. Here we don't, and there's no use crying about it,
just 
> finding other innovative ways to survive... if you can do it by stealing,
so 
> be it.