Friday 30 January 2015

Day 272: Whiplash the Movie: Opening a can of Whiplash

 

Watch the movie first before reading this, Spoiler Alert.

2222 The first scene that shows us what kind of person the conductor is is when he kicks out one of players. From there we can see this guy is an extreme perfectionist.

When Andrew Neimann sits on the drums for a first practice session with the band, it becomes apparent that the conductor is not your everyday average conductor. Terrence Fletcher (the conductor) first utters the words “That’s not quite my tempo” (still give me chills) and we know that shit is about to hit the fan – and man, did the shit hit the fan.

If you already watched this movie you will agree with me that saying the Conductor is a Motivational Speaker is a gross understatement. The guy is borderline Psychotic, but in the end it did give results.

What I did notice about the drummer is that he has a passion for jazz drumming. You can see his room full of posters of famous drummers and his goal in life is to become “one of the greats”. And as the movie goes on you can see that he will do anything to get there. But there is line here, When does passion become obsession? The Kid was actually obsessed to become the greatest and pushed himself (with help from the psychotic conductor) trying to get there.

imagesAlso looking at all the players in the band – nobody there actually enjoyed themselves. They will fearful and worried and anxious – obviously stressed, because if they make one mistake they are out of the band. The reason why they are there is because playing in that band ( one of the top notch bands) they can get recognized and go places in life.

For me what does it matter if judges and people say you are good. What is the point of being able to play the drums faster than anybody else? Sure, if it is a point of doing it for yourself and not for the approval of others it’s fine. But pushing yourself to the limits just for the approval is really limiting to what Music actually is.

Unfortunately in this world competition comes in the way of that. Often times people have a talent, and the only to make money off that talent is to push yourself to the limits to become better than others so that you can be recognized and make a living off music. And that can take the passion right out of Music. In those cases there is not time passion, but in all the others remember: Music should be an expression of yourself. You do it, because you enjoy doing it.

1 comment:

  1. From my perspective and working in the system of input=output=my reality, it has become crystal clear that reality is actually a psychotic hologram and that those who are 'in tune' with the dimensions of this reality and produce output will be rewarded. And those who are brainwashed from birth into a performance setting like in this movie will not even see the point. They will become their skill set and very aware of when they are not 'in tune' with their specific competence. And one can observe this in music, sports any profession. If there is excellence (system wise) there will be single-mindedness as well. Often in extreme proportions. Its at this point we start to compare human beings like that with robots while in fact they are perfect (automatons) in what they do and only when we reverse reality in total becomes clear what is actually happening. Self enjoyment within this takes place outside the office. Its like a separate manifestation of reality. Look at the word 'hobby' (something done for pleasure) this implies that other things are separate from that experience.
    So those of us with a little life and common sense will become aware of those two worlds and within that we are sort of amateurs in two worlds. And I noticed in young children when they play it's just play, self enjoyment and its up to their peers to nurture and manage that fine line between playfulness and performance. I know from my own experience in sports that when you enjoy what you do this single mindedness will develop as well because you are exploring something so specific and personal in what you do and how you are doing it. And with this come new skills and unfortunately the 'positive feedback' from the perspective of being better or very good in what you do. Meaning others are less good and you now you are part of a special breed and within that I allowed myself to feel special and that's where the psychosis starts.

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