Pretty

June 18th, 2007Blog0 comments

So I went in to the store to buy this:

And there on a table of new paperbacks, I saw this:

I had to get it. I ended up getting both. Cowboys and Indians.

What’s great is having a trusted stable of authors, bands, film directors, cooking show hosts, etc. — whenever they put out a new product you know that it’ll be good. For some of them I don’t even need to know what the thing’s about — I’ll just go ahead and buy it.

Artists gain this kind of trust from me in two ways. Either they build that trust with a series of works that I connect with (Sherman Alexie, David Fincher), or they hit me with one extraordinary thing completely by surprise. I walk around a bookstore and there are endless possibilities — for disappointment. But I’m always looking for someone whose work I can latch onto like a jawless eel.

One recent disappointment has been the new CYHSY album. I really wanted more of what the debut album had. I guess a good lesson to take from it is that you shouldn’t try to grow up too fast — do what you do well just long enough to build an audience that’ll grow with you.