I recently completed my 5th novel. I write pieces for guitar, songs, poetry, essays, and bumper stickers such as MARKETING VICTIMS UNITE and LIBERAL MEANS FREE. I taught writing & humanities many years in Oklahoma colleges & universities and English for 4 years in Saudi Arabia.
My 1st job was table-to-table requests with 300+ songs, guitar & voice. Since then, I've played pubs throughout the US & Europe, taught Renaissance lute at the Academy of Early Music, Verona, played classical guitar at receptions. Now I've come back home to the steel-string guitar.
I've lived in Oklahoma, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, England, Germany, Italy, and Saudi Arabia. I learn and forget languages quickly, but I never forget a cat.
PERFORMANCE: I read poetry at Full Circle Books, at 2 p.m. on the last Sunday of each month. My book of poetry, Guitar & Voice, is available through my church bookstore, 1st UU of OKC. CD in progress. Two of my solo songs are at myspace.com/stevebeeneymusic. (See top friends.)
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ADVICE FOR ARTISTS (in all artforms):
1. You are your own best teacher. Take responsibility.
2. Eccentricity is no substitute for competence. Learn your craft.
3. Cultivate humor. You will need it. "Don't take it all so seriously" (Paul Engle, founder of the Iowa Writers Workshop).
4. Exorcise perfectionism. Crave inspiration. Technique will follow. Technicians make boring artists and teachers. Avoid them in your head and your bed.
5. Artists are whole brained. Most people think 'normal' means left brained and 'artist' means right brained. No, drones are left brained and airheads are right brained. Artists are integrated left and right -- but only occasionally. The rest of the time they are drones or airheads.
6. 'Artists' are not the only creative people. Creativity occurs in all fields more or less. Raising children may be the ultimate art form.
7. Art is about ideas. If you learn a trade or get a science education for employment, fine. But whatever else you do, get a liberal-arts education, in university or not.
8. Artists are entrepreneurs. Don't expect anyone else to appreciate the uncreated. That is your job.
9. The highest art form is each other. Devote yourself to Love, and your life and art will mean something.
10. Think large. "Timid artist" is an oxymoron.
~SB
POLITICS:
I believe in the separation of corporation and state.

PHILOSOPHY:
I believe in Love. It begins with family and friends. Then romance draws us toward our new home. As we grow, we add loves to increase our pleasure and that of our community. The larger our home/community, the more we care about justice. There is no justice without love. Imagine market based courts or legislature! What kind of country would that be? [Wink wink.]
I believe President Eisenhower was not "soft on defense" when he said "... we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." (Farewell Address. Radio and TV January 17, 1961). It was his great conclusion. He was a two-term Republican president, a West Point graduate, and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in WW-2.
We don't have a problem getting along. We have problems being sheep. We don't need politicians or any other public servants to "unite" us, to lull us back into complacency. We need to argue more, not less. It's a duty of citizenship. And the loving to do.

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Education administrators should be on the same pay scale as teachers. Let them manage who are dedicated to education, not to over-sized houses, cars, and egos.
The arts should be emphasized in schools. Their benefits have been well documented to increase critical thinking and integrate left and right hemispheres of the brain.
Team sports should be greatly deemphasized in schools. We are a naturally competitive species. Team sports teach young people to over-value competition and subordination. As such, team sports are anti-civilizing. (I'm not talking about solo sports (track, tennis, swimming, etc.) even when organized into "teams".)
I believe in education to satisfy curiosity and empower creativity and action -- not nationalistic and cultish indoctrination.

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