This follows the morning's Big Three power meeting, albeit shaken with sneezes from Diane and hacking from your Diarist. A powerful idea for DGM's mid-term presented itself: more of this in due course.
My morning breakfast cup of Monster Cappucino accompanied the completion of William Patrick Patterson's "The Rope".
David & I have made a decision: Volume One will be 1981-1998 and Volume Two will address King Crimson: Their Days Of Youth. "B'Boom"s from various parts of the world are setting up intercontinental "THRAK"s. "Neurotica" from Mexico City feels and sounds as if it is part of the ProjeKcts world, says David. "VROOOM VROOOM" from Broadway. ProjeKt One's "1 ii 2" is moving for inclusion.
14.34 The Music Room is continuing to vibrate towards The Afternoon Shift.
16.17 We are fitting different possibilities together. Chris has put his head in to tell us that we have a good early version of "Seizure" from P4's rehearsals at Studio Belewbeloible.
18.06 The character of Volume One has changed, grown richer in flavour. Now we are breaking before The Late Shift.
21.16 And now it's That Time Again!
Although the opinion of a Bombastic Dork isn't likely to prompt much confidence in the hearts of Web visitors, to my eyes the Guestbook appears to be becoming richer and more substantial.
We have put a filter on anonymous postings: if visitors wish to make a contribution they are welcome, providing they accept responsibility for their remarks.
Various responses to various comments:
1. Struggling independent artists. Why doesn't DGM have more struggling independent artists? Several points:
i) All the artists on Discipline are indendents and most of them are struggling. That some of them have an international platform for their struggle doesn't alter their status.
ii) Matt Seattle is only one of several artists new to DGM (Mr. McFall's Chamber, Andrew Keeling and Psappha also spring to mind) who are recognised in their fields but all continue to face a widespread lack of support in the record industry.
iii) None of the new artists who have approached / come to DGM have the sense of a "right" to be supported.
A sure sign of the struggling independent artist who has no hope whatsoever of being on DGM is the expectation (again the word!) that an independent record company (any independent record company) support them on the grounds that they are:
a) Also independent;
b) Struggling.
The attitude (I have a right to be helped / supported) mysteriously closes doors, creates invisible barriers between the person who holds the attitude and the appearance of help (of different kinds and qualities). The attitude, with its implicit demand that someone else accept responsibility for what is properly their own work, suggests (to the Venal Heartless CEO of this record company) that here is an artist who is not likely to succeed. It is also a reliable sign of immaturity.
iv) Accepting that some artists struggle more than others, and some are more independent than others, what is DGM's responsibility towards the struggling independent artist not yet established and / or recognised by a listening community?
a) It depends upon which artist we are discussing. If we are discussing someone with whom DGM / RF has no personal, professional or musical connection then our degree of responsibility towards them is somewhat attenuated.
b) But we do have our common humanity and the knowledge that our honest work supports you and that your honest work supports us, albeit in ways that we may never be able to know directly.
v) How does RF / DGM know any particular struggling independent artist is for DGM? Well, because I / we sense and feel a connection to that artist and / or their work. If we don't feel a connection, the relationship is arbitrary. And if we have a connection, how could we not know it?
vi) How does RF / DGM approach their responsibility to struggling artists?
a) Primarily, through Guitar Craft.
b) Extensive personal correspondence and written materials, like this Diary.
c) By being a model for other independents.
d) By the quality of our work.
vii) Advice in the "Frequently Sought & Rarely Wanted" category:
Don't do this unless you have to.
a) If you have to, you won't expect anyone else to support you. The work is sufficient in itself.
b) If you don't expect anyone else to support you, you provide your own fire.
c) When you provide your own fire, this will be recognised.
d) Once this is recognised, an entirely different dynamic begins.
e) Once that dynamic is underway, magically you attract to yourself the conditions you need to sustain your work.
f) The necessary is possible; the optional is expensive; the arbitrary is unlikely.
g) The necessary is an act of service.
2. A Frippless ProjecKct: yes! But it's not Fripp that has to be persuaded.
3. Have I read William Patrick Patterson's "Eating The `I'"? Yes, and now all of Mr. Patterson's books.
4. Hi! Mike Black.
5. Dance oriented work? Radical Dance.
6. Visiting Latin America.
Hernan Nunez, with three close friends and long-time associates, formed a company specifically to take RF / KC ventures to Argentina. The alternative was (shall we say) a more conventional approach to rock promotion utterly unsuited to our way of doing things.
When the Happy Gigster looks at other possibilities for playing in, for example, Brazil (where the government confiscated Eath, Wind & Fire's equipment) conventional promotion in Argentina looks attractive. Hernan's stories of making necessary arrangements for us to work in Argentina are, well, another story.
7. Visiting Poland.
Promotion in Eastern Europe is another, and interesting, story. Business conventions and Standard Operating Procedures come increasingly from the East, as it were. I am keenly aware of (some of) the difficulties fans and enthusiasts in Eastern Europe face, particularly financial.
The King Crimson visit to Poland in 1996:
We flew in, having asked that we were not met at the airport by the media. Our intention was to arrive simply, quietly, and check in at the hotel. The promoter, not unreasonably, hoped for publicity. So, there were no media at the airport - they were waiting for us at the hotel. I am reminded of the phrase "extreme sensitivity to initial conditions".
Once in the hotel I was unable to walk across the lobby, or have a coffee, or eat, without being approached by fans who wanted autographs and / or to ask questions. For these tokens of communion they were prepared to wait for several hours as I sat reading, sensing the ravishment of their gaze as earnest fans hovered in the lobby.
I am not suggesting these good, supportive enthusiasts were unpleasant in any way; nor that they were rude. I am saying that my experience was of constant harassment. So, for the duration of our visit I was imprisoned in my vacuum-with-a-bed-in-it.
The venue was built as a gift for the Polish people by Stalin; the backstage was claustrophobic, a good example of how architecture is able to shape our feeling; the house too large (2,500) for intimate contact and too large for good sound. The performance was not a musical performance: it was a photo opportunity by a "legendary" group in a venue where little of musical value was possible, the weight of audience expectation so tangible as to be crushing. The audience and the performers were all short changed, in my view.
After the show I was unable to walk with the other guys for a drink or meal: there was a strong presence of good, supportive enthusiasts keen to make personal contact. My vacuum-with-a-bed-in-it welcomed my return.
I don't believe anyone else in the group shared my experience of the visit. The other Crims appear to accept, as do most experienced players, that performance conventions have little to do with the purely musical event: photography, recording, ongoing approaches by fans, sonically unfortunate and inappropriate venues, are all part of the lives of Working Musicians.
Poland was little different in these respects to Italy, for example. Or Spain. Or Germany, which is less externally enthusiastic than both Latin Europe and our visit to Poland. Or Mexico City, with the most enthusiastic audience I have ever played to, albeit in an unsuitable venue. Or Argentina, which has more respect for Crimson than anywhere, even Japan, whose strict codes of politeness are now crumbling.
No Polish enthusiast should feel offended by my experiencing of Crimson's Warsaw visit as an undertaking compromised both musically and personally: so was the rest of the Crimson 1996 European tour. But that is another story.
Should any enthusiast reading this, becoming less enthusiastic towards this Happy Gigster's ongoing less-than-happy reportage, suggest that maybe the Unhappy Gigster seriously consider reviewing their life options, I would respond:
i) Have you noticed that Crimson hasn't toured anywhere since 1996?
ii) The review is underway and ongoing.
23.52 Volume One - "Neon Heat Disease" - is a little sucker close to being stomped flat.
"May we have the courage to fail."
