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

 

Watch the movie first before reading this, Spoiler Alert.

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.

Also 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.

Day 170 - Finding things to make you Happy

 

Life is full of ups and downs. You must look hard and find the things in life that makes you feel good. Do all you can to feel good -but what does this really imply?

If you want to feel good then it means you feel bad/down. Then what we do is look for things to make us happy and then we are happy for a little while then we feel down again. This roller-coaster ride is not the way to go through life and very impractical.

What I have found a while ago was that I was looking for things to do - specifically something I like and enjoy. I would either watch a cool series or movie or play a game or find something outside to do. When I was done with a movie or a series I noticed that I was feeling down - at the time I did not realize this - especially when there is nothing to watch or do that I like. Basically what was happening was that I experienced myself as being down and instead of investigating the reason WHY I was feeling down what I did was look for something OUTSIDE myself to get me out of that feeling - from a negative to a positive.

What this showed me is that I was suppressing what I felt and hiding it with doing things that I like. Now I am not saying it is "wrong" or that you should not do things that you like - its cool to do so - but it is all about the starting point/reason behind what I am doing.

I am the one who created that feeling of "being down", I created that experience within myself. Within this I am the one responsible for it and thus cannot blame anything outside myself for its existence within me. The same goes for finding things OUTSIDE myself to get me out of that down feeling - this will never work. It works for a little while, but not really because what is happening is that the feeling is simply suppressed - that is why it will keep on coming back and you will keep on feeling the need to make yourself happy.

I created it - I am responsible. The only way to get yourself out of that feeling of being down is to investigate how you created it in the first place. Then forgive yourself for creating it and walk a commitment to stop creating it. That is what the Desteni process is - it is about you taking responsibility for yourself. Giving yourself the power of creation where instead of creating these feelings that bring you down and limit you you have the opportunity to make and shape yourself into a effective living human beings where you are the directive principle in your life. Join us. www.desteni.org