AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... Art Smith!!!!!!!!!
Beautiful post, Art. Tears of joy welled up in my eyes while reading your post. I sit at your knee; you _are_ the master!
This one goes into the archives after I get it bronzed.
Chuck "yur obedient servant" Schmidt SoPas, SoCal
Art Smith wrote:
>
> The only people truly qualified to judge mojo are people with mojo. We see
> and know what is involved in having mojo.The rest of you must go on what you
> see , your emotions based on
> what you think you know about mojo, what you imagine it takes, and what
> others might have to say about it. Every time I make that statement there is
> someone who says "who the hell do you think you are and what the f*** do you
> know". Spare me.
> Having mojo is not magic, takes moderate skill(about like brain
> surgery), and I've paid my dues for nearly 50 years. Now if there's
> another person with mojo who would like to take exception to what I say then
> I'm all ears. I'm not pulling rank on those of you without mojo; but the
> fact is I know more about it than you do.
>
> Major Taylor has mojo. Greg LeMond has nojo.
> Dennis Miller has mojo. Geraldo doesn't.
> Patti Smith mojo. Celine Dion nojo.
> Tucson does. Phoenix doesn't.
> Some people are born with mojo, Picasso. Some earn it like Lance. Some have
> mojo thrust upon them like Todd Beamer on flight 93.
> Some have it and die young, like James Dean. Some have it and don't die
> young and lose it like Marlon Brando.
> Confente's mojo is aided by this site through an awareness of his history.
> It's also pumped up by people who picked up mojo by being around him.
> Jacson Pollock, Jimi, and John Belushi all had mojo and threw it away.
> The Mona Lisa may have mojo but a lot of nojos pretend they get her mojo so
> they can have mojo. This is faux mojo...kinda of like restoring a perfectly
> good bike.
> To worship someone or thing with mojo is nojo. To respect something is mojo.
> English bikes with unusual frames have a whole lot of mojo.
>
> Brian's comments about framebuilders was nojo. It actually gave mojo to J.
> Dunn's argument. But Brian's discussion about mojo was so mojo it cancelled
> out his nojo. If you write me an e-mail about teasing Brian about his
> framebuiler statement telling me to get off this site because I don't
> worship Brian, don't bother because you lack mojo. I respect Brian. Respect
> is mojo.
>
> If I drew an absract portrait of a face, you might like it or not because of
> mojo. But if I attempted to draw a realistic face, and the eyes were
> misaligned, you would be able to see its flaws whether you spent 30 years
> drawing faces or if you were my ten year old son. A person can learn and
> critique an art or craft-- painting, films, writing, wiring a house, even
> framebuilding--without having to have done it as a profession. Some of my
> best art teachers were not famous artists. Some famous artists I studied
> with were unable to teach me anything about their art. If it were me, I
> would be careful in saying that only framebuilders can understand the craft
> of framebuilding. I don't think that only artists are qualified to judge
> art. That only teachers can judge the success of a teacher. My experience
> has taught me that often it is the outsider that can see things in a
> different way. Seeing things in a new light is mojo.
>
> Art Smith
> Phoenix