Devil Bug is in retreat. P4's music is contributing to its disempowerment.
P4's relentless forward drive has now entered the Crimson Zone. How is this recognised? David suggests "foreboding". My word is "impending". Both are accurate. To me, this is the sense of an approaching power so much greater than anything we can direct or "control". Only one facet of The Greater Crim, but a distinguishing one. Now we're back to P4 and into "Hindu Fizz", featuring Mastelotto the Beast in full flight.
Report from this morning: Diane & I discussed Customer Relations. One version of this is "the customer is always right", an approach to universal truth which Mr. Raupers Jr. might laud. The Customer Services Department approach to this version of veracity is represented in the following (well-known) story:
"A man riding to work on a commuter train saw a cockroach running along the floor opposite his seat. The cockroach disappeared into an air vent and disappeared. Horrified, as soon as he arrived at his office desk, the man wrote a letter of complaint to the Managing Director of the train company citing journey, carriage and seat number.
Two days later, the complainant received a letter of fulsome apology from the train company's Managing Director, signed personally. The apology also explained that the carriage had been withdrawn from service for extensive eradication treatment, and checks for infestation were now being implemented throughout all of the company's rolling stock.
The rail traveller, mollified & gratified, mentally noted that every company of which he was a customer would do well to respond as rapidly and effectively as this to customer feedback.
While putting the letter to one side of his desk, for later filing, a small piece of paper hitherto concealed inside the envelope fell out. Picking the piece up, the man read the following hand-written note:
`Send this whiner the bug letter'".
My own position on Customer Relations is this:
The Right Customer is nearly always right.
The wrong customer is nearly always wrong.
So, how does a company attract the Right Customer? Essentially, by being itself:
1. Declaring its aims (its raison d'etre);
2. Acting in accordance with these aims;
3. Opening a feedback channel for users / customers;
4. Responding to the feedback: this includes setting clear parameters within which the feedback system operates (e.g. introducing Dan K. as quality filter to the DGM Guestbook).
If the company is responding to a genuine need, the company will survive.
If the company exists to give people what they want, the company will succeed.
If the company provides what is wanted & needed, the company will be very successful.
If the company is only a "bright idea" in the mind of the founder/s, and serves no actual wants or needs, sooner - later the company will fail.
ProjeKct Four continues to disempower The Bug. Few players know the bottom like Tony Levin, and even less of anyone has his dry humour. Whatever Tony plays will be right in its context and, outside of repertoire, I never have any idea of what that might be.
"Deception of the Thrush", P4 style, has T.Lev. playing his "rubber band" bass - the strange little instrument with thick rubber bands for strings. Absurd, of course. In actuality, remarkable & witty & appropriate & surprising. Take that, Devil Bug! Splatto! A disempowering Levin anti-virus bass blast of healthy terror!
18.12 Back in the Music Room after checking the Guestbook. Clonk Zonk Bonk! P4 is werning along & ready for a through-listen tomorrow morning.
"Creative work is serious play."
