Friday, September 2, 2011

Altogether now, All you need is Fun (everybody).

A good chunk of the people that talk about fishing are full of a substance akin to the post-Irene slurry currently flowing from the Connecticut river (clue: it is the color of bright shit). This isn't a surprise, as an awful lot of people go fishing. Data shows that the chunk who provide fishing wisdom typically have an angle to their angling, and usually the motivation is money; be they pedaling the best gear, the best way to employ it, or new-found "innovation", all wrapped in a warm, status-conferring hug. Selling shit is what it usually boils down to, whether they realize it, much less admit it, or not. (You can have fun with your own data collection by testing a simple hypothesis: the ones on the make are slow to reveal themselves as playful amateurs by comparison to the real masters, who are established beyond doubt, at least within +/- fairly narrow tolerance intervals to correct for taste.)

So I'm pleased by the fact that the guy who sells more shit than anyone else isn't like that. You don't have to like what he writes - though maybe you should appreciate what is surely good writing - but it's of some reassurance that his humility and down-right good quality continues to win the day (it may also signify that I'm not the one on my way to the loony bin, though rather like a day's fishing, one can't be terribly sure). I don't know him, but I'm thinking he shares a similar outlook to me and a handful of other goons I have the fortune to fish with. Watch the video, read Tom Chandler's splendid interview, then go ahead and ask yourself:

If I'm not doing this for the fun, why am I doing it?





-- Jonny

6 comments:

  1. He certainly does sell a lot of shit (good shit to be sure), shit I'll keep buying. And you're right, if we're not doing this for fun, then what's the point.

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. "If I'm not doing this for the fun, why am I doing it? "

    Once again, Jon: read my profile.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A couple months ago I jotted down 6 words that pretty much summed up the direction I want my life to be in. I've been moving towards it for the past couple years, but it's really taken on new focus ever since I wrote them down. Everything seems to make a lot more sense:

    Live simply. Fish hard. Have fun.

    Now to convince my girlfriend it's possible to live in a camper van with a dog & a bunch of fly gear......there goes the simply part...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent. Gierach is smart and articulate. Great art or not, his writing is compelling. I think he utterly deserves his success.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Like all of you when I heard the original lineup had reunited for "Astronaut" I was thrilled.
    Not quite so thrilled when I heard the disc.
    Granted "Astronaut" had some great moments but that was not the comeback I was hoping for.
    I skipped "Red Carpet" all together due to the reviews from fans and critics.
    Then without even realizing DD was coming out with something new, this caught my attention on our local newspaper.
    Not quite the hippest place to find out about a new DD album but that's it.

    ReplyDelete