Chapter 17. Closing Arguments

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Chapter 17. Closing Arguments

Before we set you loose, here's a last-minute fine-tuning of your spirit. How to be confident but not cocky. How to not let rock and roll kill you. How to deal with criticism. How to use art karma, how to network, and how to make people want to go way out of their way to help you. Dealing with adversity. And integrityhow to keep it real and still get paid.

Figure 17.1. The Sick Lipstick's keyboard guy.

Figure 17.2. T-Fairy from Insecto . Photo by Newtron Foto.

In "Rebel Without a Crew," Robert Rodriguez talks about subjecting himself to paid medical research to finance his first film. I had never heard of him in 1986, but I did the same thing that year to pay to press the 1,000 vinyl copies of the only pressing of Bomb's first record, "To Elvis in Hell." I did a government- funded drug study: drinking grain alcohol in orange juice for breakfast alongside intra- venous cocaine(!) at UC Parnassus hospital in San Francisco. I was paid $500 for four days of coming in on an empty stomach at 6 a.m. and getting "injected, infected, and de-tectedand rejected"in a laboratory setting.

Now I know that some people think cocaine is fun. But it isn't really fun when they shoot you up with sub-lethal doses of it. Sure, it feels like God is tickling you in special places for about 20 minutes. But then you come down and feel suicidally despondent and have an alcohol hangover to boot. Then they keep you there for another 7 hours and 40 minutes and bug you and take regular blood draws and don't let you eat or smoke and make you take hand-eye coordination tests and answer quizzes, and you have EKG pads attached to your chest and an itchy EEG wire bonnet attached to your scalp with conductive ooze. ^[1.]

^[1.] Kids: Don't try this at home. These are trained professionals.

Yum. I've suffered for my art. Have you?

This book is for people who want to be heard. And you're gonna have to be willing to make some sacrifices. You don't have to go to the lengths I did. But if you are into music just for money or fame, you're reading the wrong book.

Still with us? Good.

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