Michael Shore, Good Guy at MTV, called me at the Warwick in NY before we left. He has been promoted up and away from the MTV music news department to a new news department addressing more, well, news-type news. Michael is a Good Guy, and as such is an implicit threat to Weasels.
Good Guys in the music industry continue to love music, and to be passionate about it; that is, music has an intrinsic quality which sustains them in their work. Their work typically involves Weasels pratting about sales, "product", and the exploitation of artists ("exploitation" is a word actually used in the industry, to euphemistically denote the "promotion" of its blood supply; but this is a case where language seeks to be true to itself, despite the intention of its Weasel users).
A little known fact about Michael is that when Jerry Marotta was suddenly taken sick at a Peter Gabriel gig, Michael (enthusiastic amateur drummer) became the Peter Gabriel drummer for a night. Tony Levin remembers this, but that is another story. I first met Michael in 1978 when he was a writer for the Soho Weekly News and I was a New Yorker. A Good Guy then, a Good Guy now.
Of the many places I lived in the city (all over) one of my favourites was a walk-up in Hell's Kitchen, at 449, West 51st. Which is by where John, Chris & I stopped this morning on the drive to Philly, for them to get their power dose of morning blast. I used to walk from here to the Hit Factory three blocks away to record Daryl Hall's "Sacred Songs" and "Exposure", among others. In that walk-up one steaming humid night in 1977 a domestic argument broke out in a lower apartment: "Your house?" - "My house!". This argument may be heard on "Exposure".
We drove here without getting lost even once. This must be a plot. But Chris did get lost in the half-block to the hotel car park, after dropping off John and myself at the front. The entrance lobby is a construction site, which is maybe why the post-mature bell-hop was very grumpy.
Around the corner at Chestnut & 19th.: "Enemy Of The State". The new Will Smith, Gene Hackman & Jon Voight high-action directed by Tony Scott is a must for Sister when she returns from China. The plot is even more convincing than "The Glimmer Man" and, although Hackman & Voight may not be reincarnate masters, their acting is sufficiently convincing for it not to matter.
A pre-dinner visit to Borders raised a bibliophiliacal chubby: "In Tne Course Of Performance - Studies In The World Of Musical Improvisation"; edited by Bruno Nettl & Melinda Russell. This is the second recent academic book on improvisation, the other being by Berliner ("The Soul Of Mbira" rattled my bippy fifteen years ago) and which I am currently 100-odd pages into. My second acquisition: "Notes From The Green Room - Coping With Stress And Anxiety In Musical Performance"; Paul G. Salmon & Robert G. Meyer. There is an increasing number of volumes on this subject becoming available, too.
23.12
My t-shirts are dripping in the bathroom, along with several knickers, socks and a pair of jeans. Part of the life of the Happy Gigster - when you have two days in one hotel (I have three here) wash your necessaries in the handbasin.
As part of the next step for Guitar Craft, I telephoned Curt Golden of the Seattle Guitar Circle. Curt was on the very first Guitar Craft course (March 25th. 1985). Curt's sense, in conversation with Frank Sheldon and Steve Ball, seems to be running close to my own. Curt has recently returned from visiting the Buenos Aires Guitar Circle and the Crafties in Chile. Interested DGM visitors may be interested in visiting the Seattle Guitar Circle site.
"How we hold our pick is how we organise our life."
