[Incubation] AMH: What happened?

[the happy one]

Posted at http://www.atmyheels.com/2011/08/what-happened.html

---

WARNING: no music to be found in this post.

Astute follows of this blog will have noted I have seemingly not been very
active as of late.  This is for a combination of reasons, but I will be
remedying that shortly.  One thing I *have* been doing is recording shows,
but as some of you fellow recordists know, it's pretty time-intensive to go
back and edit/blend/master/tracksplit/ID shows, and I have a somewhat-bad
habit of doing this for *every* band I record.

And like many people I have a full-time job *and* a family (a wife and three
kids!) to look after...well, often they look after me, but you catch my
drift...whoops, speaking of which...

[a few minutes later, after putting the youngest to bed, and running a
couple of assorted errands...]

Where was I?  Ah yes...

Another reason is I've been mulling whether to explicitly seek consent
before posting a band's shows, rather than the "don't ask, don't tell"
approach I've so far employed.  I think what I will do here on in is put up
the shows and link these to a group's Facebook/whatever site, and see where
the chips fall.

For those of you unfamiliar with the recordist ethos, it involves first and
foremost to forswear ever directly profiting or leveraging said material for
material gain, including hosting banner ads.  Even with this in mind, I will
honor the moral right of the artists I feature to have any performance which
does not suit them removed from public view, whether due to the perceived
quality of the performance or for any other reason.

An additional concern is airing unreleased songs without first being granted
permission.  In fact, that's been majorly factoring into why I haven't been
posting as of late.  I'm not sure how to approach this except by waiting
until the tunes in question have been released...or by seeing if the
particular composition has appeared on YouTube or elsewhere.  If anybody has
any other ideas or approaches...please comment.

I try to be thoughtful and considerate in everything that I do, but realize
there is no pleasing everyone always.  I'm sure I owe some of you some
heartfelt apologies.

And finally, here is my guest list spiel/rant...I've thought about this
quite a bit and decided that I prefer paying my own way into shows.  This is
more to have a policy ahead of time to save me future grief than due to any
incidents in the past.

Here are my reasons:

(1) I am quite well-compensated in my day job.  Quite a few other people are
not, and are struggling to make ends meet and look forward to a fun night
out to see their friends play.  They should get the guest list slots, not
me.

(2) See "recordist ethos" above.  Being invited to attend freely amounts to
material gain, which I am duty-bound to decline.  It also hamper's one
objectivity, not that this sort of enterprise isn't anything but subjective,
anyway.

(3) There is nothing worse than going up to the door and saying that
"so-and-so put me on the guest list" and then discovering to one's chagrin
that there's no record of so-and-so doing so.  I'd rather not have to rely
on the generosity of others to get in, especially for a sold-out
performance.

(4) This is not some pathetic reverse-psychology bid to get freebies.  I
actually *want* to benefit performers and venues by
paying my own way in.  As well as buying the merch on offer.  Especially
considering that I am capturing sound waves for later use.

A corollary to these arguments is being invited by member of a previously
unknown-to-me group to see their band play, whether out a genuine gratitude
for helping to give exposure to artists or to get exposure themselves.  This
puts me in an awkward, no-win situation which is best avoided.  Performers
should follow their own muse, and so should their fans.

I'm inspired by, back in the mid-90s, how Nick Cave responded to MTV upon
being informed that he was nominated for best male singer for their annual
music awards.  Read his reply, here:  http://www.nick-cave.com/mtv/mtv.shtml

We all should strive to achieve and emulate his level of grace and class.

Over and out.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.atmyheels.com/pipermail/incubation/attachments/20110824/41a1a772/attachment-0001.htm>