Hey everyone, so I'm going to do another Q &A.
I really do appreciate when you guys write comments on these posts that I've been putting out. And the other day I asked, I said, "Hey, kind of ask me anything." So I'm just going to talk off the top of my head. Some of these great questions and thoughts that you guys have been writing.
And to start, let's see, Lorraine, she posted one of the questions and it got the most hearts out of any of the questions you guys wrote in the comments so I figured I'd answer her first.
She wrote, "You once said you make a playlist for every character you play. Do you still have these playlists or remember some of the songs? In case you do, would you mind sharing them with us? I was just wondering what kind of songs you would put on a playlist for Tom from 500 Days of Summer, Arthur from Inception, or Cameron from 10 Things I Hate About You."
And yes, you heard correct. For me, when I'm playing a character, one of the myriad tools that I sometimes employ is I put together a bunch of music to listen to to kind of help me get into character, to put it actorly, or just get in the right mood if you want to use more normal language.
But let's see, so for these three that you mentioned, in 500 Days of Summer, I made a playlist. I'm trying to remember what was on it off the top of my head.
You know, it was like David Bowie and Fiona Apple, and other like, cool music like that. But actually to be honest, the music I listened to the most when I was doing 500 Days of Summer was Zooey's music, was her band, She & Him, because a big part of that character was just being so hopelessly in love with this one girl. And so to hear her voice singing like Her, the way that Zooey does on her records, that kind of did the most.
Let's see, Arthur from Inception. That I remember, it was, I didn't make a playlist, I just listened to "The Well-Tempered Clavier" by Bach.
And Cameron, from 10 Things I Hate About You, this movie was shot in 1998 before we made playlists. I could have made like a mixed CD, I guess, or a mixtape or something, but no, I don't think I did.
You know, back in this time, I would travel with a big binder of CDs. It was like one of the most important things that you bring with you, because this was the music you got to listen to. You couldn’t just listen to anything at any time. A rather different musical universe. There were some upsides to the limitations, although I would prefer how it is today, where you get to put on anything you want. As with any new technology, there's always something lost and something gained. But I remember, and I guess this is an example of something lost, because, well, no, like this kind of thing can still happen.
We used to hang out a lot socially, like, all the people that acted in that movie all, whatever, there were an eight of us or something, we hung out a lot and mostly, because we were too young to like go out to a bar or anything, we would mostly just hang out In someone's hotel room. There'd be like five of us or seven of us or three of us or whatever in someone's room. We all had, you know, we're staying in the same hotel and I remember early on we were all sitting around and we were taking turns putting on music. There was a CD player in the middle of the room and most of us or all of us had brought some of our CDs.
You know, this is like a big thing especially when you know it's new (I was 17 years old), so you're like, trying to make an impression of these new people and what song you choose to put on makes big statement. It still does. But I just remember privately agonizing as each person put on their songs, what should I do, what should I do, what should I do, and I landed on putting on The Jackson 5, “I Want You Back” from a CD, one of the first CDs I ever had, the, you know, the greatest hits Jackson 5 CD.
Abbetuck (Arts Activism), is their name and they wrote, "Do you believe there is a role that all arts disciplines can have in restoring democracy in America? (We do).”
Well, first of all the words "restoring democracy" are strong words as if it's gone. I don't think it's gone. I do think that there are people in power right now, they're trying to undermine American democracy and make it so that there aren't as many checks and balances on the people in power, that there aren't as many guardrails there to serve the public good, and that it's easier for those in power to enrich themselves, make themselves more money, and make themselves more powerful through their privileged position of office. That's clear. I agree with you there.
But I don’t believe that our democracy is so gone that it is in need of complete restoration, to use your word "restoring," but I quibble over semantics, perhaps.
The thrust of your question, I think, is a good one, is, "Can art make a difference in the world and in politics?" I think the obvious answer is yes.
Democracy is all about communication. It seems to me that the whole thing about democracy is the government won't just flow from one king or one dictator, the will of the people governs a Democratic government. So how do we know what the will of the people is? Well, it comes from people expressing themselves, speaking, communicating, and art kind of always leads the way in how people choose to express themselves. And I do think that part of why we're living in an era where our government has become so, sort of, self-serving and nihilistic has to do with our pop culture, with our popular art.
For the last number of decades, a lot of the most popular stories, songs, and artists, that's their main thing, is like, me, me, me, me, me, me, isn't it great to be so rich? That's a lot of what you see on TV, it's a lot of what you see on the movies, a lot of what you hear in pop music, and now it's what we're seeing in our democracy.
So, I do wonder about a pop culture that is less about the sort of worship of money and luxury goods and things like that and and more about the more subtle beautiful parts of existence. If our pop culture evolved in that way that maybe way downstream, democracy would follow.
Let's see, here's the last one from Chrissy Regler.
Hi Chrissy! Chrissy is a long time HITRECORDer, feels good to see your name here.
She says “Hey, Joe,”
I'm tempted to try to do a British accent. She's got this like beautiful quintessential British voice, but I'm not gonna do it.
She says “I'm having my first proper holiday,” you can even hear it in her wording, “my first proper holiday, and we're heading to Barcelona in a couple weeks.”
That sounds fun.
“I can't wait! What's the best holiday you have been on?”
You know what I'll say about that? I've been super lucky and I've gotten to go to lots of beautiful places. Some of the most memorable places, maybe I would say, Havana, St. Petersburg, of course Paris. Paris is kind of my favorite place to go, but and there's lots of other places I still haven't been that I really want to go but, to me the truth is, this might sound corny but it's so true, what makes a holiday good is always who I'm with. Always.
I could be going to wherever, to someplace completely unremarkable. And if I'm with people that I love, that's what makes it, that's what makes it for me. It's always about the people. So say hi to your family for me, Chrissy. I've never met you in person, but I feel a long-time friendship with you because we've collaborated on all kinds of art projects on HITRECORD and I'm glad to see you still here following along with this new journal and I appreciate you, and I appreciate all of you who are here doing this together with me and thank you.
Thank you for all your thoughts, questions, write some more questions if this sparks a thought, and I'll try to do another one of these soon, and that's it for now.
Thanks again. 🔴
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