Just a thought about artists and I guess people in general

It's often that I get annoyed by musicians when they tend to go off in their own music world. You'll be at a show and loving it, but then the performers will just go crazy and do a 20 minute instrumental section that seems to be disconnected noise- hello indie music. I remember one time I was at a show and afterwords one of the people I was with was all giddy about meeting the band (it was Clap Your Hands Say Yeah a few months before they were in Rolling Stone). I asked him why he was being so geeky about it and his response was, "They know music, and that means they know me." I always thought it was the douche-iest thing I'd ever heard, and I still find it entertaining, but I think I get it now.

I do the same thing with art. Musicians get obsessed with sounds (Sufjan Stevens) and sometimes it seems like only musicians like it because they "get it." I have created several paintings that are just about paint. I think every painting should be partly about paint, like music should be partly about the music, but art (in all forms) can't always be just about the medium.

I think it's this line of thought that is helping me appreciate Cy Twombly's art for the first time ever.
Sometimes it's okay to paint about paint, and sometimes it's okay to have a song about music. I imagine that giant bobble-head of a person must have felt the way I feel when I look at a beautiful painting about paint. When I can tell the artist is getting something I get, and in that moment where I'm looking at their art we have a Zion.

Sometimes the art is about the medium and sometimes it's about the subject, but sometimes it's about both. I think a successful work of art can be about the paint alone, but it cannot only be about the subject. If all you want to say is, "Here is the subject," take a picture. I guess it's the same with music. If you just want to say something, a disregard the musical merit of it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0) than just say it, don't even bother with the music.
What I previously saw as a musician-snob trait, I now see as an everyone trait. Scientist do it, visual artists, lawyers, educators, writers, musicians, performers, doctors, salt and pepper shaker collectors- they all have their own shop talk, and they all do it. I guess the point is that I should stop separating the musicians and getting mad because they do what I do in my own way all the time. Perhaps part of my frustration is rooted in jealousy. I want to know what they know, and I don't. But there's hope! I've felt that same feeling of "getting" a brushstroke or painting, only with music! Example: Sufjan Stevens. I really felt like I got what he was saying at his show I went to- maybe that sounds dumb and maybe I didn't get it, but it all fit so well. The lights, the graphics, the music, the lyrics- I was lost in it all and I felt that I knew just where it was going.

I'm falling asleep and once again I've written a disconnected and raw post- enjoy.