BillLindau

column on new artists

Here, There & Everywhere
Giving budding artists a chance
“They knew he had never been on the TV/so they passed his music by.”
-- Joni Mitchell, “For Free”
By Bill Lindau
A fairly young writer had just published his second novel. He came to the local library for a book signing last month, and though the local media had announced the signing, nobody showed up.
Well, I take that back. Three librarians and an off-duty reporter met him. Two members of his audience bought copies of his book, so it wasn’t a total waste of time for him. We didn’t buy his book because we felt sorry for him; it really is a good read.
Both the books looked like really good reads, but only a handful of people came to check him out.
This shows just how tough it is for somebody few people have ever heard of to break into the literary or artistic world.
Many people in Montgomery County complain of how people in Greensboro, Raleigh and Winston-Salem think they’re all a bunch of yahoos. Well, I have covered this county for a year and a half, and I know that’s not so. We have a lot of well-read, artistic and really hip people who deserve to be respected and recognized; I have had the pleasure to meet many of them, and become friends with quite a few. At least two grocery stores in this county even sell Rolling Stone (a real tip of the hat! That magazine is much, much, much harder to find where I come from, I hate to say).
Kelly Swanson, a comic writer and storyteller from High Point, did better this spring, drawing about 20 people to Montgomery County Public Library for the signing of her new book, “Aunt Vyrnetta and Other Stories from Cedar Grove.” But conditions were cooler and this other writer came along at a time of year where everybody loves to be outside. That’s what we figured, when we sat around talking with Jonathan Farlow before he went home. The library staff decided he could try again in cooler conditions.
The author did not wear his disappointment on his sleeve, but it was pretty clear what he was feeling.
The irony of it is, the Montgomery County Public Library has such a great children’s summer reading series. About 200 to 300 children in various summer day programs attend the weekly events, which have included plays and animal exhibits, and children score a certain number of points and earn prizes for every book read.
Unfortunately, an attempt at an adult activity program seemed to go belly-up. The library had a poll this spring about what sort of activities you’d enjoy -- a reading program, free movies each week, etc. They didn’t get a whole lot of response.
As I said, the children’s summer reading programs, “Dragons, Dreams and Daring Deeds!” is splendid. I have enjoyed sitting in on them myself. I even got to participate once, holding a 12-foot Burmese python for children to pet. Now I may not be a fearless big-game hunter, but even though I’d never held a snake before, this prehistoric monster was actually a gentle giant and I wasn’t really that frightened. Half the people I tell about it think I’ve snapped my twig, however!
But I’m getting off track. The point is, it is a shame that we couldn’t seem to find a literary program for adults to match the one for children. I’m not knocking the other activities that go on, but if we want our children to read more books and magazines instead of watching a bunch of junk on commercial TV, we adults have to practice what we preach, to lead by example.
I couldn’t imagine life without a modern novel or a bio of a movie or rock star. No two ways about it. I remember the days when my friends and I would talk about the latest novel by Leon Uris, James Clavell and Phillip Roth all night long. But now, with books becoming more expensive and more people deriving their information and entertainment from electronic sources rather than printed one, I wonder sometimes if it’s a dying art form. Two years ago last month I went into mourning when Leon Uris (author of “Exodus,” “Trinity,” “Topaz” and other novels of international and political intrigue) died. But in all this time I have had conversations about him with maybe five people. And that really stinks.
It is also sad when an up- and coming young artist fails to draw the public attention he or she deserves. A friend of mine, recently imbued with such a joie de vivre, a lighthearted look on life, that he is bursting to share his take on life with the public, has yet to find anybody who will let him present his material. He tried talking to one of the libraries about it, assuring the librarian that you can tell it in front of holy men and small children, but the librarian said there was too much of a chance that, with him being relatively a complete unknown, nobody could come.
This instance with the summer book signing showed just what she said could happen. This aspiring stand-up comic could end up in the same boat, coming in with his shtick, which consists of funny animal impressions and funny stories of his adolescence in then- sparsely populated Moore County, only to face a meeting room full of empty chairs.
I am also sore at one of the local towns for discontinuing a longtime karaoke contest for one of his holiday street festivals. I knew another person who had just overcome his bashfulness and decided to try his hand (so to speak) at singing. He even had a few songs in mind, including “Volare”, the Beatles’ love song “Here, There and Everywhere” and an old hit by Eric Burdon and the Animals, “When I was Young.”
I have listened to a number of talks by Bill Medlin of the Yadkin Pee Dee Lakes Project on cultural tourism as an asset this economically strapped area can attract, and helping new, untested artists show people what they can do could be one of them. You hear of people dying with the music still in them. Well, that doesn’t have to happen with so many of them.
One thing I think would be cool would be to encourage street musicians and artists to do their thing in the Montgomery County municipalities. You see them in the larger areas, especially in Chapel Hill: somebody strumming a guitar or tooting on a saxophone with a cigar box on the ground. They don’t try to bum money off anybody, just sing or play their instruments, and passersby who like it enough can throw their spare change into the musician’s cigar box; if they aren’t interested, he/she won’t pester them. Street artists might ask for a bit more money to paint your portrait, but they’ll let you approach them first. At home I have a charcoal portrait of my sister, from her trip to Spain, where a sidewalk artist in Madrid did the portrait.
I have asked one of the town clerks if the town had a policy on sidewalk artists. She said there are ordinances against exhibit that obstruct traffic or draw crowds large enough to obstruct traffic. She said there are also ordinances against impeding access to public buildings and commercial entrances. You have to apply for permits with the police for such activities. On the other hand, she said she wasn’t sure when it came to street performers, such as one or two individuals with one or two passersby at a time stopping to hear them do their thing. She did suggest the individuals should tell the police what they want to do.
The street artists I’ve seen do not stand squarely in the sidewalk, but more at the corner of buildings, away from the entrance. That way, they do not impede anybody, and the owners of the stores they play in front of don’t seem to have a problem with that.
Now towns such as the size of Troy or Biscoe won’t draw as many street performers as Chapel Hill or Greensboro. But I think if you think you can play music, paint or tell jokes, then you ought to up and do them without having to deal with a bunch of skeptical bureaucrats. Finding a place on the town square or the main street just might be the place to get your shtick off the ground.
It would be nice to know that in Montgomery County, you can trot out your stuff with the public if you feel like it. It won’t cost the taxpayers anything, and if you flop, you’re the only one that comes out the loser. At least somebody gave you the chance. Bombing is better than people not giving a hoot about what you want to show the world.
“It’s a hard world to get a break in,” The Animals sang in their 1965 hit “It’s My Life.” Let’s make it a little easier for some prospective MTV or movie star. They all started out as complete unknowns, too, before somebody took enough of a risk to give them a break. Think about it, folks!
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Contact reporter Bill Lindau at blindau52@yahoo.com or (910) 582-6610.

posted by Bill Lindau @ 11:59 PM