Notational

alaskamiller:

(via notational)

the tumblr fame experience is an interesting one. like a walk down venice beach and spotting the crowd-gathering geeks doing what they do best: artistry. some have big crowds, some have little crowds; there’s no formula for either. some of the geeks are swallowing chicken heads and thus by the relationship of the lowest common denominator of entertainment, they’re amazing thousands that can’t turn away. other geeks are showing off party tricks, ripping out their hearts; learned from the psychic surgeons. these, too, can amaze crowds. some geeks just figured out how to bend spoons while another has tourette’s limited to 140 characters.

it’s cute. it’s really cute, in fact, that it’s endearing. in our mid-20’s, we’re revealing stuff to others that normal people usually reserve for a pint at a dive bar. our angst, anxiety, anger, loneliness, emptiness, sadness all manifested as words, photos, sayings, websites, transcripts, music, and youtubes. i feel okay knowing that there are others out there facing the world the same way. but the ticking clock is always there. would this still be cute when we’re 30? julia allison is the road sign that shows you the offramp.

one leads you, if you stick with this, whatever this is, to a path where maybe you can earn a pretty coin leveraging your audience of thousands into some book, some show, some petty referral ad dollars. the other road is where you’ll finally get what you’ve been denied: a real world job, settlement on love, kids, and a spot on unhappy hipsters. in five years, a lot of you on here will be making that choice. tumblr isn’t going to be as fun when it’s just a buncha old people talking about cats with funny texts or insidery celebrity gossip all day inside a cafe. or, maybe it’ll be just as cute as when i was stuck in a party where all everyone talked about was mortgage products.

i’m trying really hard to find new content, good content. the people on tumblr that don’t have an audience and they just keep chugging it away, with or without the merit of an audience. they do it because that’s just their personality. and the real artists, the one that persevere and last, whether you have just one person or a million, whether you make money or not, whether you end up being illegit, i wish you resolve. the world needs more unboring artistry that can’t be stuffed into round hole directory categories.