[Incubation] AMH: What happened

[the happy one]

Here's a bunch of things which didn't make it to the list in the time my mailserver was malfunctioning...

The first is from 8/24:

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

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