tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post6185378896492511564..comments2023-11-12T13:22:30.358+01:00Comments on andrewjshields: Just Do ItAndrew Shieldshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-55219006411014478262009-03-10T18:36:00.000+01:002009-03-10T18:36:00.000+01:00i tend to think that the michael jordan comment is...i tend to think that the michael jordan comment is somewhat disingenuous because, certainly visual artists, performing at a similar level are definitely not 'just doing it' as part of some internal or external exploration.<BR/><BR/>plus, and i'll refer to recent comments i made about douglas gordon's zidane, as regards performance, i think there's an awareness by sports performers and their crowds (as opposed to viewers) of sport, in this case football, as a metaphorical arena, with the crowd active within in its creation raqther than passice like theatre audiences. again barthes tour de france as epic springs to mind<BR/><BR/>incidentally one of my favourite evocations of sport as art is the film 'the final test' in which a young poet is desperate to meet his poetic hero but finds that all that the older man wants to do is see his father playing his final cricket match.<BR/><BR/>gentle and, in places, unintentionally hilarious, it's rather lovely and available on dvd. i must now buy it!swisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17924594772578153947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20782819.post-71247439014115274022009-03-08T04:30:00.000+01:002009-03-08T04:30:00.000+01:00I think the aspect of "Just Do It" that does apply...I think the aspect of "Just Do It" that does apply to the arts is suggested in the passage from King you quote: one "does it" for its own reward, never knowing what its ultimate value will be for anyone else. In that sense, the exhortation "just do it" does encompass the arts, sports, any endeavor where "not doing it" means quitting, stopping, getting out, doing something else. Obviously, I take the "it" as referring to some task -- whether practicing a sport, the guitar, or taking up a pen to write on a blank page.<BR/><BR/>Obviously, not all who "do it" in that sense will be Michael Jordan or John Asbery or Jerry Garcia, but that's not really the point of doing it. One becomes such a practitioner in part because of the joy or challenge or meaning that others find in what one does.Donald Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391024449222256377noreply@blogger.com