Songs for the Struggling Artist
Songs for the StrugglingArtist
I blogcast about Artist stuff. And Arts Related stuff. Also feminism.
- 21 minutes 4 secondsA Blurry Line Between Art and Advertising
It suddenly dawned on me that the image on the stairs was not an advertisement but part of the exhibition I was on my way to see. If I hadn’t known, I’d have thought they were ads for some kind of clothing line or vitamins or something. The images were lovely but the context troubled me. It continues to trouble me so I thought I better write about it to try and work out why.
To keep reading A Blurry Line Between Art and Advertising visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 472
Song: Sidewalks of New York
Image by Pete Souza
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
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On Mastodon - @[email protected]
On Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
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Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
Explicit due to "Shut. The F*ck. Up."
11 November 2025, 3:42 am - 18 minutes 24 secondsMoney and the Little Guys in Podcasting
Usually, I skip the ads on a podcast but I think I had my hands full so I couldn’t hit the advance button on this one episode. I figured the ads would be over in a minute or two. But they just kept going. “Jesus!” I exclaimed, “How much money do you guys need?!”
Not long after, they uploaded a crossover episode in which they tried to solve the problem of how to ask for money.
To keep reading Money and the Little Guys in Podcasting, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 471
Song: East Asheville Hardware
Image of podcast icons I've collected. Links for this podcast here.
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
On Mastodon - @[email protected]
On Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
4 November 2025, 3:04 am - 19 minutes 37 secondsArtists as Planes
It’s possible that I should stop listening to interviews with famous people. I have heard hundreds and hundreds of celebrities explain their successes and chart their journeys and I may have had my fill. All I can think of is those planes with the bullet holes and Survivorship Bias. Are they actually connected?
I started to think about those planes while listening to an interview with Christopher Guest on the WTF podcast.
To keep reading Artists as Planes, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 470
Song: Lesson in Survival
Image via Wikicommons
Explicit due to f*cking around talk.
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
On Mastodon - @[email protected]
On Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
28 October 2025, 2:10 am - 18 minutes 43 secondsThe Difference Between a Play and a Podcast
The other night, I had a short play of mine read at an evening of readings. It’s a very slight piece of work and it was way too esoteric and theatre nerdy for a room full of people who are mostly film folk. I knew it wasn’t going to be a wild hit, the way my previous play had been there.
I know it wasn’t my most successful work but on balance, I received nothing but positive reinforcement and it felt great.
That same week, the first episode of the third season of my audio drama came out.
To keep reading The Difference Between a Play and a Podcast, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 469
Song: Leave It Like It Is
Image by Byam Shaw via Old Book Illustrations
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
On Mastodon - @[email protected]
On Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
21 October 2025, 1:26 am - 16 minutes 49 secondsSending Postcards
Many years ago, when I first started a band, I was instructed, by many people in the know, that the most important thing to do when we played shows was to sign people up for our mailing list. I took this very seriously and handstitched and painted a little booklet where people dutifully wrote down their addresses, with a pen on a ribbon attached to it. We made card stock postcards at Kinkos and sent them out before our shows at places like The Sidewalk Café, The C Note, and one time at The Bitter End. I wonder where that mailing list ended up?
Join the company mailing list.
To keep reading Sending Postcards, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 468
Song: Mail Myself to You
Image by me
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
On Mastodon - @[email protected]
On Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
14 October 2025, 1:37 am - 16 minutes 42 secondsEvelyn Waugh HATED Picasso
I started reading the letters between Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford in the hopes of getting a sense of what a conversational tone of their era might be like. They’re writing to one another at the height of their success. They’re seemingly very comfortable with one another and on very even footing in a lot of ways.
I was just reading along, not particularly struck by anything, just sorry I don’t have a lot of paper correspondence with friends anymore – when these two started talking about Picasso. Waugh loathed him. Or his work. Or both. I can’t tell.
To keep reading Evelyn Waugh HATED Picasso, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 467
Song: Evelyn Waugh
Image by Johnell Pannell via Unsplash
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
On Mastodon - @[email protected]
On Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
7 October 2025, 2:00 am - 15 minutes 4 secondsThis Is Part of the Art
For me, blogging isn’t art making. I think of it as a kind of side gig that helps support the art, both financially and emotionally. This is the business bit, I’ve always thought. Then, a couple of months ago, a play of mine was read in an evening of short plays and films and when introducing the play, I mentioned the source of it, a blog I wrote about In the Boom Boom Room and acting training. There is a direct line between that blog and the play that came from it. Okay, so one time, I wrote a blog that turned into a play.
But it hasn’t been just the one time, has it?
To keep reading This Is Part of the Art, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 466
Song: Rule Number One
Image by Phillippe Leone via Unsplash
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
On Mastodon - @[email protected]
On Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Tell a friend!
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
30 September 2025, 2:22 am - 12 minutes 48 secondsGood Will Is Good Currency
Not long ago, I finished casting the third season of my audio drama. It took a while to do it so I’m sure most of the people who submitted for it assumed they hadn’t gotten it when they didn’t hear anything. It’s been the norm for some time that you cast your acting net into the sea and then never hear anything again.
But it seems to have gotten even more extreme than it was in the days I was auditioning. Now it’s not just auditions you never hear about; It’s also job interviews, applications and grant submissions. Hardly anyone tells you no anymore. And I know why.
To keep reading Good Will Is Good Currency, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 465
Song: Be Good
Image by The Cazpian via Unsplash
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
Me on Mastodon - @[email protected]
Me on Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Tell a friend!
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
23 September 2025, 1:47 am - 17 minutes 12 secondsWe Are the Test Subjects
Not long ago, I noticed that Netflix was trying to sell me on an Angelina Jolie movie I’d never really heard of before. I watched the trailer and maybe because it featured Tony Shaloub playing a prophet, I added it to my watch list. Then I forgot about it.
Last week, I got a notification about several things on my list leaving Netflix soon. This movie was on that list so I watched it. It was terrible. It came out in 2002 so I’m sure it’s not useful to unpack the many ways it made me mad, though I might end up doing it anyway. Stay tuned on that.
To keep reading We Are the Test Subjects, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 464
Song: Girl, You Don't Need Make-Up
Image by Jakub Zerdzicki via Unsplash
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
Me on Mastodon - @[email protected]
Me on Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Tell a friend!
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
16 September 2025, 1:43 am - 13 minutes 52 secondsThe Fitzgeralds' Laundry
Watching Z: The Beginning of Everything, about Zelda Fitzgerald led me to read a bit more about her. I’d attempted to read Zelda’s novel many years ago so I was not unfamiliar with her story – but I hadn’t retained much of it. The TV show was terrible but Zelda’s Wikipedia page made me think. Her Wikipedia page makes a big deal of Zelda’s lack of skill in the domestic arts. There’s a section in which we learn that Zelda didn’t do F. Scott’s laundry and he found all his dirty shirts piled up in a closet. I think we’re meant to find her charmingly inept.
To keep reading The Fitzgeralds' Laundry, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 463
Song: Dirty Laundry
Image of The Fitzgeralds via Wikicommons
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
Me on Mastodon - @[email protected]
Me on Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Tell a friend!
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
9 September 2025, 12:31 am - 17 minutes 24 secondsThe Limits of My Imagination
Recently, I was casting the third Season of the Dragoning and listening to lots and lots of auditions. I’d asked folks to record a small portion of the text for various characters and hundreds of people generously did so. Another hundred or so just sent me their audio reels and, I guess, expected me to imagine them in a part. And maybe that works for people who are looking for a particular kind of vocal quality – but because I’m looking for someone to activate my text, I just kept thinking, “My imagination is not that good!”
To keep reading The Limits of My Imagination, visit the Songs for the Struggling Artist blog.
This is Episode 462
Song: Imagination
Image is by Eric Nopanen via Unsplash
To support this podcast:
Give it 5 stars in Apple Podcasts. Write a nice review!
Rate it wherever you listen or via: https://ratethispodcast.com/strugglingartist
Like the blog/show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SongsfortheStrugglingArtist/
Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/emilyrdavis
Me on Mastodon - @[email protected]
Me on Blue sky - @erainbowd.bsky.social
Instagram and Pinterest
Tell a friend!
Listen to The Dragoning here and The Defense here.
You can support them via Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/messengertheatrecompany
As ever, I am yours,
Emily Rainbow Davis
2 September 2025, 2:02 am - More Episodes? Get the App