I saw School of Rock at a Sunday matinee: loved it. Even though the plot was very typical and somewhat obvious, it was done very well. There were a lot of great lines. ("You have to feel it in your head, your brain, AND your mind!") Jack Black and all of the kids were great. It even touched on real-life issues my musician friends face - balancing a rent-paying job with devoting all of your time to a band in the hope that someday you'll make enough from it to support yourself. Of course I can apply that to myself too, as a part-time artist. I still sometimes wonder if I should quit my job and go to grad school and become an artist full-time, which is what I've wanted to be since I was a kid - I'd live in NYC and make art, scrounge for an agent and a gallery, and hang out with people way hipper than me who drink too much and are completely self-absorbed.

Okay, maybe those last few parts I mentioned aren't what I want.

The problem with being an artist is that it's a solitary pursuit. Suddenly you look up from your desk and realize you haven't spoken to another human for four days. I need socialization. I liked my situation in college, with a big warehouse-like space filled with a warren of students' studios, always someone making art on the other side of a plywood wall. But I didn't socialize much with the other (and mostly cooler) artists. I felt too uncool. They all really committed to the role - smoking constantly, drinking cheap beer, taking drugs whenever available, oil paint all over their clothes, scruffy-looking but sexy. I was somewhat scruffy, but didn't drink much, smoke, or do drugs. So I was at a disadvantage.
Luckily, in my final year I found some nerdy artist friends and I stopped feeling intimidated.