The Smiths, Big Night, Extrinsic Motivation

While conversing with two friends of mine last night, the concept of extrinsic motivation came up. I mentioned it while recounting old college stories and how a dear person during those days used to use that phrase every time he had finals or midterms coming up. Extrinsic motivation is never inconsequential and that is because it, more often than not, leads to valued productivity and tangible results.

It was while writing today (and listening to The Smiths) that for some odd reason my synaptic connections led me to think about this film from 1996 called Big Night

I became familiar with it a couple of years ago thanks to this very talented artist I met the summer of 2004. What I love about artists is the amount of inspiration they give me by virtue of their mere presence. To me they are so beautiful and indispensable to my very own creative process. My liking them is mostly need-generated, you see.

This particular artist had a hard time making a living via the art of choice and the blog-featured film of today, i.e., Big Night, was the cinematic text that was used to make the point that one's love of/for one's art of choice is not to be compromised.

I generally watch films on the big screen to be challenged and [hopefully] educated/informed. But after watching Big Night on our rather minimalistic screen and seeing one of the lead characters, Primo, who sees cooking as a pure form of art and refuses to make 'cheap,' 'mass-produced' dishes for the people in the 'new' world, I felt a good measure of emotion.

Watch it. You will enjoy.

 Subscribe to HetPer

 Subscribe to Gendering the Media Podcast