Art and commerce and balloons

Maybe I made the wrong career movie back when I decided to become a film critic. Maybe, just maybe, I should have trained to be a balloon artiste instead.

This painful self-reappraisal has been sparked by my exposure to Twisted: A Balloonamentary, an amusing and enlightening documentary that reveals, among other things, that a professional balloon twister can make a surprisingly comfortable living from his or her art. As one interviewee notes: "If you can pay your bills, and have a little to put away every month, and it's all from balloon twisting -- hey, that's great!" Yes, indeed. Sounds like a steadier gig than movie reviewing ever has been for me.