FRANK TALK ABOUT MORALITY MAKES SKULLS SPLIT By Justin Pearson
(Non-live photos by Alex Kacha, live photo by Matt Miller)
phi⋅lan⋅thro⋅py [fi-lan-thruh-pee]
–noun, plural -pies.
1. altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.
2. the activity of donating to such persons or purposes in this way: to devote one’s later years to philanthropy.
3. a particular act, form, or instance of this activity: The art museum was their favorite philanthropy.
4. a philanthropic organization.
Trying to define wether wealthy artists belongs to what philanthropy is said to be, or if they are even artists is a tough one. Take something as simple as the now diluted and watered down to dog crap image of Che. Or lets take it a bit more into the “obscure”, and take the now vague description of what punk was said to be and has since become. I’m not going to name names, but I’m sure we all know of some band, or artist, or public figure that in some way or another comes from money and therefore things just sort of come easier for them. Hell, even throw activists in there while you are at it. I mean, lets face it, in this day and age, I’m well aware that it’s a bitch to come up with the loot to be in a band; obtain working gear, get a vehicle to tour in, a rehearsal space, and then most importantly… time to be artistic. When one has to hold down a job or jobs to pay the bills, you end up cutting into the creative time to create, right? At the end of the week, if I even knew what the hell the end of a week was, I realize that I just worked 6 nights in a row, and do that on repeat every single week. I also work days when I can pull off odd jobs bridging every workday and workweek into the next. So when do I get time to write, or even do little things like this? You got me. But I do it. Maybe it’s why I can’t say that I follow televisions shows or know the cool bars to hit up on my nights off. On my nights off, I end up cramming in all that I forgot to do in the last week, or month, or year. So in my line of work, I stumble upon some who are, well pretty damn wealthy. Not to say that some of them are not talented, because they sure as hell are. But once you look at that talent, sometimes you have to wonder where it comes from with specific key players. Don’t get me wrong; this is not a class issue here. I’m well aware that some of my personal relationships with people, who are so creative, have creativity oozing out of their pores, and they are very wealthy from what they have created. And good for them! But there are a few that I can say smell like cheese, like the moldy shit that makes you look around to see if someone just took off their sneakers. Even the times when someone will buy an artist into his or her realm. Lets take the classical story of Basquiat. I mean the people who purchased his art and essentially sucked that dick could not touch what he had. Is it art? Was he talented? You can be the judge. But people wanted a piece of what they could get create on their own. Sure class struggle, as well as issues of race, gender, and so on can look romantic on paper. And well, someone who is white and boring can only wish that they had darker skin and a soul to match it. But as I said, this is not a class issue and it sure is not a race issue. I’m not looking to travel that road. But when someone like John Lydon wore trash when he was a mere teen, he not only did it because he could not afford the cool whatever trend that most people of London were wearing at that time, but he figured it could be an artistic way of a political expression. I mean every other lower class citizen was saying the same thing, but he chose to wear the problem. Even to this day, in late 2009, people want to purchase clothes with holes in them which are deliberately made that way by some child in a third world country sweat shop for consumerism. Is it “punk” to look “punk” at that point where you can just buy it? Just as some of the best musicians I know of could not afford to get proper musical education, they just stumbled upon some of the most obscure and innovative aspects of “music” all by chance, or maybe it was by the components of their life struggles. Don’t get me wrong, if one can be musically trained, awesome. I’m not even looking to play that “poor me” card either. Fuck that shit. But can one see thought the bullshit in a time where turds are so easily polished? I mean, if so and so has the approval of whatever is socially legit, then is the entity in question legit? Can we call a spade a spade, a fake a fake, and essentially a thief a thief? That is not my job today. I just want to bring up the idea of philanthropy and the idea of crossing that line of supporting the less fortunate into the realm of buying cool… or at times, stealing it. Because at the end of the day, we all know what sucks when you compare the real thing to the fake, right? Well no. And that is the problem.
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I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.