Day: January 27, 2010

One difference between artist/bloggers and mainstream journalists is the former talk about matters of substance and the latter mainly want to dissect your finances. They are worse than your parents: "How do you make money doing that?" they love to ask. This serves two purposes: avoiding talking about your art/blogging, which they don't understand, and reducing your life's work to the common currency of America (money and griping about money).

If the artist/blogger interviewed by the mainstream journo confesses to having a day job, the journo will structure the article on the job and the "dual life" of the artist. (An avant garde musician I know had a Time Out piece called "Avant Garde Musician and Permatemp.")

If the artist/blogger says "I don't know how I'm getting by" the journo will write about the plight of the starving artist/writer in this rich land of ours.

So, if you rise to the level of these folks' attention, how do you deal with their questions to keep them focused on your work? "None of your fucking business" isn't polite, so I suggest joking evasion such as "I'm making in the low billions, thanks for asking."