Chicago: Become Familiar with its Distinctive Neighborhoods

I hated school b/c grades seemed so arbitrary. That sounds like I was self-important and above grading, but it was more that I was really depressed and I had trouble finding significance in breathing, much less a letter grade.

I would guess that in ANY career you could advance. I certainly made enormous advances as a waiter from 2001-2007, those advances amounting to more money, easier work, more genteel clientelle, and (sometimes...) more respect as a professional.

pardon me for being frank, but if you are not getting what you want at your current job, then get a new job?

your reaction to not receiving a cookie is not to try? again, pardon me but that seems kinda silly.

Once I figured out that grades were subjective in the arts, they didn't matter much to me. Subjectively chosen awards with monetary prizes, those were more important. And high scores on pinball games and words-per-minute tests.

In business, what people care about is profit and turn-around and stuff like that. So while I'm (very) occasionally commended for doing a good job, and I'd likely be let go if my work was downright awful, my boss is more interested in whether I can get my work done on time. I preferred it when I was rewarded for my intelligence than for my ability to concentrate on something for eight hours a day.

pardon me for being frank, but if you are not getting what you want at your current job, then get a new job?

I never said that. I'm happy at my current job.

I'm guessing that John and I are in the same boat where we feel like our achievements are going to come separately from our day jobs (maybe Nick and Sarah too), and so there can be less incentive to treat them fully as a career.

Why is that? I thought John was more of a hobbyist with the band.

^^^

xpost

hate to say it, but in school you are also rewarded for turning your work in on time and being productive. not in the same way, but it's all part of the game.

the only reason i said you should get a new job is that you don't feel rewarded by yours. that's all.

I'm a "hobbyist" too but I still get more satisfaction out of doing a decent job with creative stuff than doing well at work.

Lord help me if my greatest achievements have anything to do with pushing manuscripts through peer review.

I'm a hobbyist with the band, with my music criticism, and with my crossword puzzle constructing -- all of which add up to more satisfaction than I usually receive from what I do at work.

I will say, though, that I'm a good deal more motivated (and thus satisfied) at work when I'm working on the almanac, since I'm the supervisor on that project and I get to make decisions and go to meetings and stuff.

I guess it can be sort of satisfying to get the really predictable, direct, immediate response/validation that a grade provides.

One of my art professors addressed this B/C he felt that his criticisms were unappreciated; he yelled something along the lines of, You are lucky to get my criticism. "You think the world's going to give a shit that you like to be creative? You're going to work and work and most of the time be lucky if you are met with indifference."

In that case you might as well drink, I guess. Wow. What a graceless way to put what may or may not be a "basic" truth.

John, isn't working on the almanac a sort of advancement?

i would like to work on some armagnac

Yeah, it is, kind of! And I did get a pay raise that seemed like it was related to that. Although I was never sure if I got handed that assignment because I did good work or whether it was because I made an offhanded comment about how much I liked the project.

I thought his speech/tirade was sort of bosltering and a wake-up call to namby-pamby artistes who got offended when he called their amateur drawings "amateur drawings."

I imagine that you are really good at your job and you are reaping benefits from being good at it.

Hahahah yes I suppose I am far far underestimating the effects of namby-pamby art students. Good point.

Yeah, I respect Jesse's prof's statement.

EZ's greatest achievement just came up on shuffle in my iTunes... that achievement being his cover of "Word Up".

Closely tied with my four seconds in Mallrats.

I was also an extra in In The Line of Duty, a TV movie starring Arkin and Turturro. Adam Arkin and Nicholas Turturro, that is.

haha

Adam Arkin is great!

"You are lucky to get my criticism. You think the world's going to give a shit that you like to be creative? You're going to work and work and most of the time be lucky if you are met with indifference."

http://www.hbo.com/sixfeetunder/img/90x94/characters/oliver.jpg

Sorry, that's the only picture of that dude I could find.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/images/alec-baldwin-glengarry-glen-ross.jpg

"You are lucky to get my criticism. You think the world's going to give a shit that you like to be creative? You're going to work and work and most of the time be lucky if you are met with indifference."

in any case, none of the students i was inputting grades for got lower than an A-. they're turning in final projects tomorrow, and he wanted to do the grades today so he was like "just input As for everyone as their final project" which is 20% of the total grade! i wanted to call them all and say "don't do an all-nighter! anything you turn in will be fine!"

xpost-- ha, there's a lot of AIDA in the book i'm working on.

If I can do/see one thing during the day Sunday, what should it be?

I guess it bears mentioning that that professor was reacting to a couple young students who were upset and whiny because the professor pointed out flaws and mistakes in their drawings. Their argument was, "It's art, so how dare you tell me it's wrong?" And his responsewas OTM: "What we are doing here is not art, but exercises that will facilitate the production of art," followed by other stuff including what I quoted above.

I thought he was an awesome teacher, and he is/was our friend Brian's closest mentor.

Oh, here he is http://www.michaelananian.com/

I'm going to remember that line. Thanks.

Sorry I can't give you much Sunday advice. I would probably go window shopping.

The top of the Hancock Tower is my standby for tourists--you get a great view for the cost of a drink, which costs about the same as entrance to the Sears Tower observation deck.

Sundar, name three general things you are interested in or like to do when on vacation and we'll give you the must-do. wouldn't want to send a museum-lover to the hideout to see shellac this sunday at 11 a.m.

Fair point. I'll probably be live music-ed out. Museums/galleries/films are good. Interesting restaurants, places to try microbrews/imports. Interesting architectural sights. I don't really know anything about the Midwest (though, according to Michael Moore, it starts at Buffalo.)

You could take the green line out to oak park and tour frank lloyd wright's home and studio and then go to the hopleaf on sunday night for beers and a pail of mussels.

Oh and in between see 'too much light makes the baby go blind' at 7 p.m. and when it's over at 8 go around the corner to the hopleaf. That would be a fine sunday.

Or you could reverse those, since there's no better time to be at Hopleaf than Sunday in the late afternoon.

Man, neither "I'm Not There" nor "The Mist" are going to fit into my schedule this afternoon. Should I go see "Margot at the Wedding" instead? Not sure if I'm in the mood for an uncomfortable movie, but I liked "The Squid and the Whale" a lot, so maybe I should? Alternative is sitting in a coffeeshop and reading for like three hours at least. Need to occupy myself in Evanston between 3ish and 6:45.

what other movies are playing?

Why do you have free time in Evanston for that long?

*psst dude Margot at the wedding is GREAT*

man, i stayed up waaaay too late working on that mojito remix. it's pretty much done, i just have to mix it.

also, i bought that turntable from a jazz saxophonist/philosophy major and rediscovered some records. who knew that my dad had the best of Steely Dan on vinyl!

Nick?

Nickie?

Read the thread.

My work party is in Evanston tonight and I don't want to drive home and then drive back out to Evanston later so I'm just hanging out here all day.