Mistakes

Don't fear mistakes.. There are none.




Miles Davis

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Hello Diane

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Miles Davis was a great jazz trumpeter who knew music thoroughly. The pianist Herbie Hancock told about one day when they were playing together and Hancock accidentally struck a chord that had nothing whatsoever to do with the music they were playing and Davis played notes around it that brought it into the range of the piece.



Strange things happen sometimes in the performing arts. I once saw a ballerina lose her slipper during a performance. She kept dancing while one of the male dancers scooped it up and presented it to her as if it was a cherished gift of love.



I was doing a play one evening and another actor said something that wasn't even remotely his line. I couldn't respond to him with my scripted line. I had to make one up on the spot that would answer him and still get back to the plot.



During the filming of Dr. Stragelove George C. Scott accidentally did a tumble while pointing at something. He came up with a smile still pointing. Kubrick left it in.



There are always stories of writers setting out to write a story about one thing and ending up with something else because a mistake loomed somewhere and changed the whole idea or inventors who discover something they weren't looking for when they made a mistake in the shop, or the artist who accidentally spills some paint on the canvas and the painting takes off is a completely new direction, or a chemist in his lab mixing the wrong ingredients and discovering a new solution.



Many discoveries can be made by accident. When you make what you think is a mistake instead of throwing it out, stop and consider it. You may have discovered something.



DB - The Vagabond

Never give up.

It Will Work

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

Helen Keller
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Hello Sue
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"Aw, give it up. It'll never work . You'll never get there. Don't even try."

"You'll never raise enough money to do a lame brained idea like that."

"This is the stupidest piece of legislation I've ever seen. Be assured we will vote it down."

"Load it all on the donkey and walk. You don't need wheels."

"Come on. The Earth is flat, anyone can see that. You'll fall off the edge."

"Knock it off Orville. God did not intend for us to fly."

"Man can never go to the moon."

Some people just automatically develop an ornery attitude to any new idea. Can you imagine what our lives would be like if the pessimists and nihilists ruled the world?

I'm an artist, which means I'm an optimist. I have to be. Every work of art whether it's a painting, a song or a poem is like water onto a thirsty earth. Sometimes it's a big splash like the Mona Lisa or a Beethoven symphony. But no matter how small the droplet is it is a bit of refreshment and possible inspiration for the human spirit.

As an artist I roam through the world with a different eye and ear I love music and I hear it strange places. I hear horns in the passing trucks, strings playing through the branches of the trees on a windy day and drums and cymbals in the crashing waves. I once knew a playwright who cold write a play about anything. Give her a mathematical formula and out would come a play about it, with characters and drama. In one remarkable case I knew a high school senior who joined the Marine Corp to learn explosives and then worked doing special effects for Hollywood films.

In every case where an optimist has accomplished the impossible nobody dared say it couldn't be. It was. It is. Because somebody had the courage to know it was possible way back when no one thought about it.

We are discovering the secrets of the stars, finding unchartered lands and opening up new heavens for the human spirit.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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On The Boards

There's one more horizon out there, one more horizon that you have to make for yourself and let other people discover it.

Gordon Parks
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Hello George
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I want to go back to work. It makes no difference how good you are, if you're an artist there is always more to do, more ideas, more expressions, more experiences to describe, more truth to tell, more wisdom to share. The intelligence of the universe, of all creation, is unlimited, therefore there is no limit to the ideas which can be discovered and expressed.

I knew a broadcaster named Chester. He was very good. He was the only announcer I ever knew who could tell exactly what time it was without looking at the clock.

One day he retired. His family had grown, he had a healthy pension and some very solid investments. So off he went into the world of freedom and financial independence. It wasn't long before he was back for a visit and saying that he still had ideas inside of him that needed to come out.

I called my friend Diane last night. She and I did a season of stock together years ago. She is also living in a place, in her case Florida, that she wants to get out of. We talked of meeting up in New York and doing "The Gin Game" together. That would be a sight to see. Another friend, Charles, and I would like to do"The Dresser" some day, another sight to behold.

Me best memories are on a stage somewhere, the only place I ever felt at home. So here I am stuck in a nowhere town and itching to get out and back to New York where the auditions are. But I'm also stuck in a body that doesn't work and needs a complete overhaul. Alas, alack and woe is me.

I started painting in New York because I was encouraged to by one of my art instructors and by fellow artists. I always get a chuckle when I remember an actor I used to know who looked at the price of the paints I was using (Golden, the best acrylic paint in my opinion, and, no, they're not paying me, unless they want to, of course) and said "This is a very expensive hobby." To him anything other than acting is a hobby.

I started writing about 6 years ago. When I became unable to work as an actor because of physical problems, the only thing I had besides paints and brushes was my computer, which was a gift from a dear friend. I wrote a few sentences now and then and posted them. I'm also an avid reader. So I began to jot down quotes, and write comments about them. Then one day Linda in Washington State discovered me, told on me, people started sending me comments and that's how Vagabond Journeys was born, and now there are over 1,700 issues of it.

In my profile it used to say I'm a retired actor and broadcaster, but I realized not long ago that I am not retired as an artist so why should I say so. I am looking at the horizons I have made for myself. Ingrained into the creative process of an artist, like a tattoo, an extra rib or a sixth finger is an intense and controlling necessity to bring those horizons alive and palpitating, waiting for others to discover.

There is one more horizon, and when that is reached, there's one more, and then there's one more and then....

I'm stuck in a neighborhood I don't like, in a town I don't like, rattled with illnesses and no health insurance on a meager income and I think I going to get back to New York and start appearing on the stage, my home, again. Who are you kidding, DB?

Some day soon I'll do it. Watch me.

Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give up
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Guardianship

So long as that strange sad cry rings out over the world, the birth pangs of an artist - all cannot be lost.

Lawrence Durrell
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Hello Jon
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I went to the market yesterday to get a few things. As I was leaving I passed a display of wind chimes. I stopped to try them out, There was one very fancy one made of shells, another of little bells, some traditional metal strips and pipes, and some wooden tubes. I tested them all out, listening to each of them ring and tinkle.

As I did that I noted that I was not listening for the prettiest sounding one or the one that would be most pleasing for my neighbors. I was listening for the sound that I thought best described my own character and personality as an artist. As it turned out I didn't buy one. I was on my crutches with several other items to maneuver. But I vowed to go back today or tomorrow a get one of the wooden ones, with a gentle, natural sound.

Most people would probably not think of it that way. But the world of an artist is an immediate one. As I write this I'm hearing a symphony by Franz Joseph Haydn. That music was composed in the 18th Century. The reason it is still relevant today is because the composer wasn't trying to mimic anyone. He wrote originally and immediately. He took the risk, based on his knowledge and experience as a master artist to say something new, fresh and prophetic. We thank him by still playing and listening to these creations from the true and trusted heart of that original man.

To be a serious artist is not always a joyous experience. It's an obligation. It has uncertainty and anguish built in to the process. There is great sadness over lost and discarded ideas. There is the intense struggle against an empty mind, a vanished imagination., temporary madness There is throwing yourself into the work when it is the last thing you feel you can do (every performing artist know that feeling). And, yes, there are regrets.

Every work of art has a conception, a gestation and a birth. Sometimes it's painless. Often it is not. But when it happens it is, like the birth of a human being, a reaffirmation of life. There are many forces in this world that would silence the artists, make them conform to rigid recidivism and codes of complacent inanity. The struggle is always against neglect, starvation, financial and spiritual, and ignorant disrespect and disregard. We are society's orphans.

So why would anyone be an artist? Because today's artist is the guardian of the world.
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DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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