From tonysounds@yahoo.com Thu Mar 11 14:26:37 2004
Subject:OT: was $50 gigs, morphed into politics which morphed into economics which morphed into rightwing defense mechanism

Apologies in advance: this is not clone related, but is important to clone players who care about their future. Actually, this IS clone/organ related, so read on at your own risk.

Unfortunately, since the inspiration for this email was chopped, I have to wonder exactly who this is responding to....moi or someone else. If you think I'm blaming Bush for the woes of the music business, I think you need to read my email again. Obviously the factors I describe as being major contributors to the problems inherent in the economics of what we participate in have been in existence for 20 years. (I provided a timeline, but if you skimmed it, maybe you didn't catch it...reading is also a victim of the tv-watching radio listening sheep habits.) But for those who want to blame the state of gigs on bar owners, I simply tried to shed a little light on the realities of their end of this dilemma.

But you're right, more people are working this year than not. (Cheer yay here!) But less people are working than were 3 years ago. (Or is this where we cheer?) Our foreign policy has become a scenario of Machiavelian proportions, with an agenda that is hard to put a finger on, but is propped up by a scenario that, whether you like to hear it or not, has NOT played out. This leads me to 2 conclusions: Bush's team lied about the Weapons of Mass Destruction, or that Bush's team is so inept, they can't find them. Neither is good.

As we near election time, the tactics the Right used to defrock an already buffoonish president (couldn't he just have said "no comment" or "none of your business" or "yes, I did, next question" and saved us all a lot of grief, and prevented the Right from wasting our tax dollars pursuing this actually irrelevant issue of his predilection of extramarital sex?) are spinning back upon them, trapping our leaders with their own words. And while G.W.Bush, Ltd. had probably planned to use the post-9/11 Crusade as his platform, the lack of success in securing, finding or otherwise proving WMD will effectively neuter that bull. The economy and unemployment in this nation will become a bit more important in the absence of thrilling exploits overseas.

So now, we are faced with the all-too-important-to-the-sanctity-of-family-and-country issue of gay marriage. And while they're at it, the Right will add a smokescreen of vulgarity and obscenity removal to further cloud the history of the last 3 years. (As if Janet Jackson's Nipple and Howard Stern were the biggest problems facing our nation.)

But now that I'm done defending my POV, let's get to the real issue: the economics of our business....playing music for an audience and somehow extracting fair value for it.
If we know WHY things are the way they are, we can do what we, as individuals, see what we need to do or can do to fix them. In terms of where we perform music, if you perform in your own town, look at the leaders of that city, town or village, and see what their agenda is. In the case of Lounge Axe, that club was driven under to make room for a parking lot. There have been other clubs in my immediate vicinity that were vital to the music scene, slim as it was, in the southwest suburbs of Chicago (where I grew up, and as a teen, which were the boundaries of my world) that were forced out of business by council leaders who had a better idea for that neighborhood. Well, we stopped spending money in that neighborhood when they took a healthy outlet away from us. My mayor has put schools and the library to the bottom of his list of priorities, because he wants a casino. I live in a middle class suburb and yet my jr high school student son doesn't have a physical science book to
take home because the school only has 43 copies, and they have 148 students. Did I mention I used to play a club 6 blocks from my home, but he decided that it would be better served as a pizza parlor? (which went under by the way and now that section of the strip mall has sat vacant or changed tenants at least 15 times in as many years).

Dont patronize political agendas whose goal has nothing to do with your's, whether its your view on obscenity, foreign relations, the Middle East, abortion, personal freedoms, your right to play music, your right to listen to material the Christian Right or the Marxist Left doesn't want you to listen to, or a neighborhood club or bar that features live entertainment. And absolutely, don't take TV's word for it, radio's word for it, or MY word for it....be a critical thinker and look behind the rhetoric, and decide for yourself.

There is really only one way for you to supercede a club's pay policy, and that is to build yourself a draw that will follow you where you decide to play. Take the crap guarantee, but don't let that guarantee dictate what you make: Exceed the guarantee at the door and make THAT decide how much you get paid. No club owner is going to give you grief for putting your own man at the door to either collect the money or work a clicker to keep his guy honest. If he does, leave. No club owner is going to begrudge you putting 200 people in his club to spend money. Most club owners aren't jerks, and have their own backs against the wall too. They don't want to just walk away from a business they've been trying to build either.

Just remember the story is much larger than the scene you're in, and that there are larger forces at work that are engineering preplanned responses for who knows what ends. This goes for your job, your community, and yes, your government.

Just my 2cents or so...
T

And here's a thought: the bar/club that pays crap wages for musicians (but you play there anyway because the options are not there) and has the chutzpah to charge you for drinks? Don't drink. Don't buy the food. Don't give them any of their money back.


theb3freak wrote:
Just to chime in on the `kin OT political statements. What ceases to
amaze me is the negative rhetoric and blame that the political
machines use to gain power. See how the tv-watching, radio listening
sheep in this country can parrot what they've heard in casual
conversations with one another and actually build an intense swell of
hatred toward one politician as the principal behind all the problems
that we face. All while failing to appreciate what is good in our
society. So many people seem focus on the negative because of this.
And then its all the fault of this person or that group. More people
work than don't even in a bad economy. Even in the best of economic
times, plenty of people experience hardship through no fault of their
own. Politicians come and go, each time promising to cure this ill or
that, when we have far more control over our own fate, even when it
involves hard choices. That is such a stretch to pin ones well-being
on our "leaders". Coming of age in the Akron Ohio (once the booming
tire capital of the world) the late 70s and early 80s taught me to
adapt to whatever environment as best I can, and not be a pawn of
opportunist "leaders". Akron started taking it really hard while
Carter was president. Was it his fault? Not really. NAFTA has not
been good for Northeast Ohio. Are the area's manufacturing losses
Bill Clinton's fault? Not really. Is the gay movement behind the
frequent child molestation cases? Not really. Oh yeah, I could point
to these culprits as contributing in a minuscule way to each of these
situations, but the reality is that s_it happens.

Pinning crap musician fees on Bush and his cabinet - pitiful. Sadly,
BOTH parties have found that the best way to win power is to drum up
HATRED to those on the other side. We saw it when Clinton was in
office, and now we're seeing it with Bush in office, and we'll see it
again when Kerry gets in. Be strong, put aside the political hype
that is constantly thrown at all of us, and use a little perspective.
Neither candidate is perfect, but each has plenty to offer and is not
really that different if you look beyond the hype. Most issues have
two sides, and I can at least respect one side even if I disagree with
their proposal. Neither is a Nazi or Commie. More important, put the
role of government with this president or that in a balanced
perspective. Our system does not lend itself to extreme swings.
Stability ain't so bad when you look at the alternatives. Support who
you feel is the better choice, but respect the other for his strengths
as well. If you can't find strengths in that person and plenty to
like even if they're not your first choice, I suggest you take a long
hard look in the mirror.

Sorry about the rant, but, ironically, insanely one-sided political
rants saden me. I have a fiercely independent streak that on occasion
will offend some, though that is not my intent. Next post will be
gear related!

Regards,

Doug

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