Songs For The Struggling Artist

There’s an article about Gen X thriving in these pandemic times that came out back in March when the lockdown started and has been making the rounds again recently. I haven’t read it since it came out but I remember it as “We’ve been training to sit at home alone eating pop tarts our whole lives. We’re built for this!” If I remember correctly, it spoke to Gen X’s ability to stay home and keep ourselves busy. Our time to shine! At home! With pop tarts! But I’ve been thinking about this and thinking about this silly tweet that the city of NYC put out last summer where they admonished Gen X for the numbers of cases going up, when it was clear that they did not know who Gen X was. Did they confuse Gen X with Gen Z? On the chart, Gen X lines were sharply going in the right direction. Gen X Covid cases were the lowest on the diagram. I haven’t seen a lot more evidence in this territory but anecdotally, it would seem that Gen X generally has not been hit quite as hard by Covid as other generations, both older and yo

I’m going to talk about snot today. I’ve been trying to formulate thoughts about this abhorrent coup attempt that just happened but snot is a lot less disgusting so I’m going with snot right now. Why am I writing about snot? Well, I was reading an article about the best movie performances of 2020 and they were talking about Viola Davis’ work and said, “Davis has never been hampered by vanity, as past scenes of snot-dripping emotion attest.” I have thoughts. Not about Viola Davis. (Aside from she’s amazing and we’re lucky to have her and she came from the stage so, also, we miss her.) I have thoughts about these kudos for snot acting. To read more of Snot Acting visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 236 Song: You're So Vain by Carly Simon Print by Pietro Rotari via New York Public Library Digital Collections To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or through: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my maili

In the comments on the Gothamist article about 4,500 Teaching Artists losing work, someone said “Do you mean Art Teachers?” Here was a major publication addressing what was once my profession perhaps for the first time and the comments all suggested a complete and total lack of awareness of what the job was. One comment suggested all these out of work artists go join the army. Nice. Nice. And also hilarious. Can you imagine the guy at the recruitment office if 4,500 visual artists, musicians, actors, composers, directors, writers, filmmakers, puppeteers, dancers, cartoonists, choreographers, clowns and more (who can all teach killer workshops) showed up to join the army? That recruiter would not know what hit him. Believe me, 4,500 artists would not be a benefit to an organization that values obedience. If the organization was in the mood to shake things up, re-evaluate, maybe use their resources differently than, say, shooting people, then 4,500 artists might not be a bad idea. If you want an army of creativ

After I became obsessed with Cable Girls, Netflix suggested a show called High Seas (Alta Mar) to me. It was by the same team, I came to discover, and I was quickly hooked. (Sisters solving murders on an ocean liner in the 1940s? Are you kidding me? Yes, please!) I got curious about the making of this show after watching the third season in which a deadly virus was brought on board – like, is this timely by accident or on purpose? When did this air and who made it? (Aired 2020 – made in 2019. What?! And the thing that stretches the bounds of credulity the most is not the ghost, no, it’s how quickly they make a vaccine.) This all led me to another earlier show made by the same team – Gran Hotel. It features actors from both the other shows I watched and it has been a very nice distraction from this pandemic world. It takes place in the early 1900s and features various fun encounters with such new technology as electric lights! Film! Gramophones! Fingerprinting for criminal justice! It’s not as full of women be

Prior to my deep dive into Gen X-ery, I honestly didn’t think about our generation much at all. It was one of the last things I considered in my identity, particularly in my artistic identity. I have a very particular aesthetic and, I’m given to understand, an identifiable one, as well. I would have called that MY aesthetic, not a Gen X aesthetic. Then the stats for my audio drama podcast (The Dragoning, listen wherever you get your podcasts) started to roll in and it was absolutely clear who my audience is for that. In case you can’t see this graphic, it’s a chart of listeners by age, where each column is a different collection of ages. To me, it looks like a hand with its middle finger extended and that middle finger represents people who are 45-59 – that is, most of Gen X. This has not shifted as time has gone by. The graphic looked the same when we had twenty listeners and now that we have 200. If I have a demographic for this podcast, it is clearly Gen X. To read more of Is There a Gen X Aesthetic, visi

I thought I should sum up this bananas year as I might want to remember what it was like for me, being all historical and everything. So I did a little month by month re-cap to finish out the year. * Happy New Year! Cheers! It’s 2020! What a nice round number this is! Maybe this’ll be my year! Twenty Twenty, so exciting. Oh yeah, January and already things are looking up! I’m back in the rehearsal room, getting back on stage next month. It’s looking good. To read more of 2020 Year in Review visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 232 Song: Swinging on a Star  Image by Syaibatulhamdi via Pixabay To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or through: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/ Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis Or buy me a coffee on Kofi: http

Well, well, well. Would you look at that? Howard Dean decided to come for Generation X on Twitter. He claimed we were a moral shipwreck and as evidence, cited all such examples as the recent additions to the Supreme Court, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Well, yes, those people are all Gen X, sure. And Dean deleted the tweet after Gen X roasted him soundly – but of course, as your Gen X blogging source, I cannot let this go by. Generationally, all the conservative dirtbags Dean name-checked, are kind of anomalies. They’re highly visible but they are also exceptions. They are the kind of exceptions the rest of us made fun of in high school. Like, seriously. To read more of Howard Dean Came for Gen X. It Did Not Go Well for Him. visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 231 Song: Ship of Fools by World Party Image - Howard Dean's Tweet To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or through: https://ratethispodcast.com/strug

If you don’t work in the arts, it might be hard to understand why a really brilliant piece of work might make someone more depressed than a bad one. Sometimes, I find it baffling, as well. I mean, bad theatre can be instructive and liberating, if also infuriating, when you realize that it is not the quality of something that brings all the funders to the yard. And good theatre usually checks a box for me. I see something that was good and I say to myself, “That was good. What excellent work everyone did. I might steal that bit they did with the plates one day.” But a brilliant theatre piece has the power to move me, to make me weep and/or laugh and then, not long after it’s over, drop me in the pit of despair. This is particularly likely to happen when the brilliant piece in question is close to my interests or skillset or aesthetic. The more it feels like something I might have made if I had the resources, the more likely I am to end up in a deep hole that I have to write things like this to dig my way out o

On the latest season of Pose, a group of the women go to a beach house. The star of the show stays out late and when she comes home at dawn, there’s a shot of her opening the gate from the beach to the house and despite the brilliance of the rest of the show, it is this moment I cannot stop thinking about. Why? Because the gate has a Magna Latch on it. This is a lock that you have to lift at the top to release the gate. It does not look like others locks. I first encountered one at the gate of my friend’s pool and I swear I stood there for ten minutes trying to figure out how to get in before my friend came to rescue me. To read more of It's Really Nothing visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 229 Song: William, It Was Really Nothing by The Smiths Image of the Magna Latch lifted from QCE Fence - hopefully they won't mind. Maybe someone will buy a latch from them! To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or thr

Warning: Extreme crude-ness witnessed on the street which led me to explore the extreme crude-ness and expand upon it. Be forewarned. There is one crude phrase in this and you’re going to see it a lot. The day they called the election for Joe Biden, (What are we calling this day, by the way? It wants a name, the way there was V day.) I ended up at the spontaneous party on a random corner. People danced. They cheered. They clapped. They shouted exuberantly at passing cars that honked their horns in reply. The street was vibrating with joy. It was an ebullient wonder to behold and participate in. To read more of The S*** My D*** Party visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog. This is Episode 228 Song: Detachable Penis by King Missile  Image by KTPhotography via Pixabay To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or through: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my mailing list: www.emilyrainbowdavis.com/ Like the blog/show

I have cracked it. I understand why so many men are so reluctant to wear their masks. I understand entirely. (There’s quite a bit of reporting about this gender gap in mask wearing. I’m going to lean into some binary generalizations here for effect, but gender is a spectrum and I know these things aren’t true for everyone.) I solved the mask mystery at a café where I witnessed a man in a Batman mask attempting to make a joke to the barista. When she didn’t get it, he just repeated it. He repeated it at exactly the same volume and with the same intonation. I couldn’t hear a word of it myself (I was a sufficient distance away) but I could hear the rhythm and the volume. He tried again but he finally gave up when she said, “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you because of the mask.” To read more of Is This Why Men Won't Wear Masks? visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 227 Song: Sexy - Bright Red Boots Image by Kim Siever via Flickr To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcast

Initially, I was just going to add a little note to my first Tips on Masks from a Mask Theatre Person, a little update, as it were. I thought it was going to be a sentence or two. But I got started and before I knew it, I’d written over a thousand words. So, I guess I had a few things to say on the subject, after all these months of mask wearing. I wrote my initial Tips for Masks a few months ago when mask wearing was JUST kicking in for us in New York. According to my stats, people are still reading it and so it needs a little update. Wearing a mask every single day for six months is a very different experience than throwing one on for the first time. A lot has changed since I wrote that first post and I’ve got to make some amendments and adjustments, as well. To read more of More Tips on Masks from a Mask Theatre Person visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 226 Song: Behind the Mask by Michael Jackson Image from Very Serious Theatre from Messenger Theatre Company To support

Warning: This post is going to be a little bit crude. I find the proceedings in the Senate to be very crude, so this is nothing compared to that – but if crude language isn’t for you, this might be one to skip. Hey everybody – the Heritage Foundation would like you to know that Amy Coney Barrett is NOT a handmaid for patriarchy. I saw a headline from them saying as such when I googled her name and “Handmaid for the Patriarchy” because I was sure someone had already written this piece and found the Heritage Foundation’s headline instead. And we should all trust that the Heritage Foundation knows about these things, right? That Conservative Fundamentalist Think Tank wouldn’t say something like that if it wasn’t true, right? The fact is – The Heritage Foundation, while being a great representation OF the Patriarchy, does not know what the Patriarchy is – and certainly does not understand how Barrett is, in fact, absolutely a handmaiden for it. To read more of The New SCOTUS Handmaiden of the Patriarchy visit t

There’ve been times when I’ve seen people respond to my work with, “You’re just looking for problems.” They want me to look on the bright side. “See the good in the world!” “There are roses and sunshine!” That’s why I decided to write this piece about kittens and fluffy clouds. Who doesn’t love kittens? The problem is – there’s not much to say about kittens except the fact that they are awfully cute and there’s not much to say about fluffy clouds either, except to say that that one looks a lot like a whale. To read more of Kittens and Fluffy Clouds visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 224  Song: The Love Cats by The Cure Image by SimoneVomFeld via Pixabay Here's the link to the mentioned previous blog: https://artiststruggle.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/in-which-someone-i-used-to-idolize-harasses-me-and-i-learn-a-few-things-about-the-music-business/ To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or through: https:

From listening to the Bunga Bunga podcast, I learned that Silvio Berlusconi started as a singer. He was reasonably successful and having a great time when, apparently, his dad shamed him, asking him if he was really going to be a singer for the rest of his life. So Silvio Berlusconi quit singing. Even though he loved it. And became a shady ass real estate developer instead. This led him to becoming a shady ass media mogul and then the shady ass prime minister of Italy. Did that go well for Italy? No, no, it did not. Would Italy have been better off if Berlusconi had just continued to do what he loved and just kept singing? I think so. I blame Berlusconi’s dad for the problems of Italy. I also blame the world that denigrates the arts and deems them not enough. To keep reading Frustrated Artists and Tyrants visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist podcast. This is Episode 223 Song: Waste by Bright Red Boots Image of Silvio Berlusconi via WikiCommons To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts.

You all remember the guy who inspired my blog post about Sticky Benevolent Sexism? (It was a few people’s favorite. It’s about the time this guy asked all the ladies to stand up so the men could applaud us.) Well, I just got an email from an organization that is trying to reckon with its own racism and sexism and this guy is apparently part of some learning group on the subject. In the email, he recommends some podcasts to listen to for this racism/sexism reckoning. I happen to agree with his recommendations so I can’t fault him for his choices. But there’s something about this particular brand of white guy leading this conversation that just makes me want to start throwing plates. To read more of Everybody's Favorite Nice Guy Has a New Gig visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 222.  Song: Not Ready to Make Nice by The Chicks Image by Chuttersnap via UnSplash To vote for The Dragoning in the Audio Verse Awards visit here: https://audioverseawards.net/ To support this podc

I’ve been going to this little sandwich shop in my neighborhood lately. It’s got a garden in the back and it’s usually pretty empty so I can take my mask off and write back there fairly easily. I never went pre-covid because it had table service and I didn’t really want a sandwich. But since I returned to Queens after almost two months away, I’ve been going a couple of times a week. It’s always the same people behind the counter and sometimes they seem to remember me and sometimes not. This last time, it was as if I’d never been there before and it strikes me that with everyone in masks, we are all a lot less recognizable than we used to be. We’re all just these eyes over cloth – and if we change the cloth every day like we should, we look like a different person every day. To read more of I Miss the Smiling, visit the Song for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 221 Song: Smile by Lily Allen Image by Pexels via Pixabay To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice re

We did it. We watched the new Bill and Ted movie. The trailer made it look kind of charming and our Gen X nostalgia for the original was strong enough to put us in front of, what we knew would be, a very silly movie. And it was! They brought back all these cast members from the original. Ted’s Dad. Ted’s Dad’s girlfriend. A hologram of George Carlin. But significantly, despite the medieval princesses’ appearance in the earlier movie, the actresses who played them did not play them in this new movie. Instead, the filmmakers cast two women who are about ten years younger than the original princesses. This made me mad. And curious. To keep reading Bill and Ted's Bogus Handling of Older Women visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 220 Song: Back in Time by Huey Lewis and the News Image by Allodium via Pixabay To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or through: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist Join my ma

While I was polishing up my blog about the power outage, I googled Tropical Storm Isaias to double check I was spelling it correctly. The request timed out but I figured it was just this thing the wifi does in our apartment where it gets moody about the distance between my computer and the router. After bringing it closer and then plugging in the ethernet cable and switching everything off and on again a million times, I had to accept that there was no internet. I found it ironic that I was trying to post a blog about the power of power, in which the power of the internet played a role, and could not because, while I did have electricity, I had no internet access. To keep reading And Then the Internet Went Out, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.  This is Episode 219  Song: Wild World by Cat Stevens Image by TheDigitalArtist by Pixabay  To support this podcast: Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review! Rate it wherever you listen or through: https://ratethispodcast.com

Now that things are starting to open up a little, there are increasingly tough decisions to be made. There are negotiations to be had. There are choices to consider. “Let me know what you’re comfortable with,” someone said as we negotiated how we’d be together in this moment. But comfort is not the point. Masks aren’t comfortable. Keeping at least six feet away from people we care about is not comfortable. Staying in, in our uncomfortable apartment, is not comfortable. But comfort isn’t the point. I am very comfortable without a mask. I am comfortable in close proximity to people. I’m comfortable hugging almost anyone. I’m a theatre person; I’m comfortable with a massage circle. Heck, in the right crowd and context, I’d even be comfortable in a dog pile with face to face singing. I’d be so comfortable in a big theatre chock full of people. That’s my happy place and so comfortable. What I’m comfortable with doesn’t matter. To read more of Comfort Is Not the Point visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog