Category Archives: Quote

Contains a quoted phrase…

Artistic Erosion

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Artistic Erosion

Voices.com recently acquired VoiceBank.net.
Now, if you’re not in the voiceover industry, that probably doesn’t mean anything. The upshot is that VoiceBank was a professional clearing house for VO demos and gigs through agencies, whereas Voices is a Pay-To-Play service with questionable business practices that will let anyone with the yearly fee in the door. Not exactly the news a professional VO wants to wake up to.

But let me spell out how it is the continuation of a disturbing trend. Not only in the US, but in many Western cultures around the globe.

One of humanity’s greatest traits is our adaptability… But it can also be our greatest pitfall. It allows us to change when adverse scenarios are thrust upon us. We normalize to them. And that allows us to continue with our lives. However, when presented with a series of ever worsening scenarios, we may adapt so well that we lose the big picture. We forget what it was like when things were better. Therein lies the danger… (more about adaptability here)

In this case, we’ve allowed art, in many forms, to be eroded in our culture. From the defunding of artistic institutions, foundations and museums, to the devaluation of arts in our schools and communities. As a people, it seems we value money, objects, sports, and junk food much more than artistic pursuits.

So, why does this matter? After all, we can get along without the arts, can’t we?

I would argue that arts and science are essential to the continued well-being of any civilization. Art feeds the soul, and science fuels the mind. Both are tied together to create innovation and advancement in society.

By stripping Art and Science out of our culture, we’re left with a teeming mass of consumers… ones who will rely on others to innovate, create, and produce what they are buying. They are easily controlled and ripe for being conned into whatever those in power want them to believe.

The solution lies in our own hands. Create. Innovate. Stand up for yourselves as artists or scientists. Don’t bow to the cut-rate offers and five-dollar sites that are growing like mold online. Have some pride and self-respect for your talents and creations. Spread Art and Science where you can. Dispel hoaxes and nay-sayers.

Becoming a “Great Country” depends on the citizens and what they value. Time to be the change you want to see…

There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.
— “Great Thought” (19 February 1938), published in The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler (1976)

 

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com

 

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George Washington Carver: 8 Rules To Live By

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George Washington Carver


8 Rules To Live By

I’ll be honest: before doing a bit of research, the only thing I knew about George Washington Carver was that he found lots of uses for peanuts.
George Washington Carver
Turns out he was an amazing man. Not only a brilliant, inquisitive, scientific mind, but a strong will and sense of purpose to match.

One of the unexpected treasures I discovered were from a thank you letter he’d written to his students. Usually presented as an excerpt of “8 Cardinal Virtues” as follows:

  • Be clean both inside and out.
  • Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor.
  • Lose, if need be, without squealing.
  • Win without bragging.
  • Always be considerate of women, children, and older people.
  • Be too brave to lie.
  • Be too generous to cheat.
  • Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.

Good rules to live by, and it will serve me well to remember them.

If you’d like to discover more, the National Parks Service has an excellent PDF about George Washington Carver, including the full original text of the letter (on page 24) – available here:
Discovering George Washington Carver — A Man of Character

… and of course there’s a pretty good Wikipedia entry here:
Wikipedia: George Washington Carver

One more parting quote that speaks to me as an artist:

When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.
— George Washington Carver

 

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com

 

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Monumental Independence

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Monumental Independence

On this, Independence Day for the USA, I’ve decided to post some quotes from famous monuments as an inspiration for the future…

On the plaque at The Statue of Liberty:

New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Three of the many quotes from The FDR Memorial:

“In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.”
October 2, 1932

“Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.”
January 24, 1935

“Among American citizens, there should be no forgotten men and no forgotten races.”
October 26, 1936

From the southeast portico of The Thomas Jefferson Memorial:

“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
-Excerpted from a letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816.

A few quotes from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial:

“If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.”
(December 24, 1967, Atlanta, Georgia)

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
(April 16, 1963, Birmingham, Alabama)

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
(February 25, 1967, Los Angeles, California)

“Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.”
(April 4, 1967, Riverside Church, Manhattan, New York)

 

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com

 

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Foolish Fools and the Fools Who Fool Them

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Fool!

Happy April Fool’s Day!

This week’s post is a pithy collection of a dozen quotes about fools.

If you have a favorite that you don’t see here, please add it in the comments…

Cheers,
Joe Kerr

 

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
— William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

 

Who’s the more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?
— Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

 

The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.
— Samuel Butler, Notebooks

 

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
— W. C. Fields

 

They that are fated to be fools, have one consolation, that they are fated also to be ignorant of it.
— Norman MacDonald, Maxims and Moral Reflections

 

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
— Douglas Adams

 

Don’t approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side.
— Jewish Proverb

 

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.
— Anon. (or maybe Plato ;-))

 

A fool follows his own wisdom and makes his own mistakes but a Wise man learns from the mistakes of fools.
— Luelle Davis

 

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
— Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain or ?!?!?
(click here for more info)

 

You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool Mom. She’s pretty nice and she’s pretty smart. If you listen to Mom you won’t go far wrong.
— Captain Penny (click here for more info)

 

Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it.
— George Bernard Shaw

 

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Your Moron-Duh Rights

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You have the right to be stupid.

You have the right to believe that wishing is as good, or better than, doing.

You have the right to be willfully ignorant when exposed to factual evidence that contradicts your long-held notions.

… and I have the right to ignore you.

Rights go hand-in-hand with Responsibilities.

Freedom has consequences.

Change your perception, and your view of the world will change.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.
– William James

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