Boring Things

    The other day while reading an article on where inspiration comes from I came across pop artist Andy Warhol's famous quote:  "I like boring things".
    As soon as I read that the light bulb blinked on in my brain and I thought, Oh, my goodness, that's me! I like boring things, too!
    In fact, it occurred to me that not only do (or did)  Andy Warhol and I both like boring things, we seem (seemed) to find inspiration in many of the same genre of things:

1. Soup:

For him it was Campbell's in a can,

...for me it's home-made potato (see post from 11/21/2014 for recipe),













minestrone (see post from  11/25/2014),















and  spinach tortellini (see post from  12/12/2025).

   
    2. Shoes:

    For him:

For me: (see post from  4/25/2014 )

3. Coke:

For him:

For me ( see post from  6/11/2014 ):

    And, of course, that most fascinating subject of all:
    4. Ourselves:

      Of course, Andy Warhol was far better and more successful at what he did than I am at what I do.   I figure this is because I suffer from Salieri Syndrome (see post from  1/16/2014), which is when you feel called in all your heart and soul to a vocation you're just not good enough at to make a living from.  Many artists, composers, writers, actors, and athletes suffer from Salieri Syndrome.
    So we go find something to do that we're actually good enough at.
    For me it's teaching piano, which is what Antonio Salieri also ended up doing, even though he wanted to be a composer whose music would be heard forever.  But he couldn't compete with his contemporary Mozart, who ended up being the one whose music will be heard forever.
    However, Salieri didn't do badly as a piano teacher.  He taught a kid named Ludwig von Beethoven.
       But back to the subject of inspiration, which we all  experience now and then, though for most of us our inspiration leads not to fame or financial success.
    Anyway, upon further thought, it occurred to me that, in truth, neither Andy Warhol nor I really find (found) our inspiration in boring things. 
    Nobody finds inspiration in boring things.
    The key is, boring and interesting are such subjective concepts, that nothing in and of itself can be labeled as "boring" or "interesting".  And you can never tell, right?
    Take, for example, that movie, "The King's Speech".  When I saw the trailers for the movie I thought, That looks really boring.  Then when it came out I read the reviews in the newspapers and online and thought, That sounds really boring.  But all the reviewers loved 
"The King's Speech" and everybody I knew who saw it loved it and it got four stars and an academy award so I went to the theater and saw it. 
    And it was really boring.
    But only to me.  Apparently.  Unless nobody's 'fessing up because they don't want to look uneducated for nor liking "The King's Speech".  Or maybe it really is just me.  I don't know.
    So anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that boring is in the eye, ear and mind of the beholder.
    But back to Andy Warhol and me, I think what I'm saying about creative (or would-be creative) types like us is that we're not inspired by what bores us, but by what captivates us, even though what captivates us might be ordinary common things. 
    Which can, after all, be quite captivating.