ErinLaing.com

I watched Music and Lyrics the other day. It’s a sweet film, formulaic but occasionally funny. I’m not picky about the types of films I watch. I’ll sit through just about anything. Sometimes I prefer to watch bad films because it’s much easier to identify how the film went wrong - story wise; what elements were missing, why certain scenes didn’t work etc.

M&L isn’t a bad film by any means and in terms of story it hit every element it was supposed to, when it was supposed to, which is what made it satisfying in that conventional Hollywood way.

There’s a brilliant line in the film. Hugh Grant’s character is putting pressure on Drew Barrymore’s character to deliver lyrics - any lyrics - for a song they are trying to write. Barrymore’s character can’t come up with anything because she’s not inspired and Grant retorts with the line “inspiration is for amateurs!”

I think there are two types of artists. Those that sit around waiting for inspiration to come and those that see what they do as a career and write, draw, create, produce regardless if the mood is right.

Being an artist is a profession and to treat it as anything other than that is doing a disservice to oneself as an artist.

I’ve seen a lot of bloggers doing this (especially the ones who work from home) so I thought I would give it a go.

Today’s lunch: Vegetable stir-fry. (red and yellow peppers, onion, broccoli, egg, rice. Salt, pepper and curry powder for seasoning.)