Robert Fripp's Diary

DGM HQ Much of my

10.10

DGM HQ.

Much of my time is, currently, spent on addressing issues & concerns that are not central, not primary, to my own responsibilities, interests & sense of necessity. Many sincere & genuine enquiries, requests, offers of friendly engagement & appeals for support, accompany the high volume of demand that flows from dopy questions, bright ideas, dishonesty, intentionally destructive acts of varying kinds & witless commentaries that impact upon my personal & professional lives; and the high volume of demand that flows from addressing issues & concerns that are central & primary to my own responsibilities, interests & sense of necessity.

Where possible, I exert myself to support the work of others (noting that supporting the work of others generally involves more debate, discussion & dissension than on my own projects), respond politely to the non-essential, stabilise dangerous eruptions & equilibrate prejudicial oscillations.

Examples of varying forms of distraction:

enquiries to the Guestbook where, with a small application of wit & reflection, the enquiry can be answered by the poster or the answer is already available if sought;

a request for detailed critique of a recorded work by someone who, in asking my advice, would rather not receive it but knows they have the right to demand my time & experience whether I know them or not because they have the right by virtue of breathing on a regular basis;

professional requests for a KC/RF licence that entails major paperwork & bureaucracy & reading standard contracts, designed to mislead the licensor & favour the interest of the petitioner, while granting an indemnity clause in case I don’t have the authority to confer the rights that are being given away for miniscule fee or pro bono;

amateur requests for a pro bono KC/RF licence that entails major paperwork & bureaucracy, without indemnity clause, with request for instruction in how to send a proper licence because the amateur doesn’t know how to – so tell me what I have to do so you can do me a favour!

contributions to many & various recording projects of variable degrees of interest;

Level Two Guitar Craft enquiries, where the answer has already been given and/or is available, but not heard;

bitter & extensive complaints / rants from those who have been treated cruelly by the VHRL, and whose personal talents & merits have not yet been fully recognised & acknowledged in the world;

legitimate business enquiries to DGM but to the wrong person, because personal contact is a way of pressuring the VHRL to exert influence over those who do have responsibility in areas under discussion but whose decisions are not to the liking of my correspondents;

demands for interviews on subjects on which the interviewer has little knowledge;

demands for interviews on subjects where the interviewer has a great deal of knowledge & would like to know why I gave the answer I gave to the same question in 1971;

I’m your pal – even if you’ve never heard of me & know nothing about me – so why aren’t you replying to my lengthy e-correspondence?

I’m your pal – even if you haven’t heard from me for 25 years – so why aren’t you replying to my lengthy e-correspondence?

varying forms of promotion – because artists promote!

fan & audient demands of which & whatever nature because they have handed over their hard-earned pay & have consumer rights!

I’m a drummer – why don’t you want to fly to another continent & work with me on a project that, if I thought about it, I’d know you have no interest in at all?

All these various forms of distraction come down to this: I want something from you.

New Rules Of Engagement:

Arising matters necessary to the operations of DGM Live, Guitar Craft, The LCG, responsibilities to The Greater Crim & matters of personal interest, will be engaged (where possible).

Alternatively I:

Arising matters not necessary to the operations of DGM Live, Guitar Craft, The LCG, responsibilities to The Greater Crim & matters of personal interest, will not be engaged.

Alternatively II:

Honour necessity;

Honour sufficiency.

A statement I have been making to associates for several years, and which has been mostly ignored: the trouble with cooking the Golden Goose is, it doesn’t lay any more golden eggs. I find it astonishing that good people with whom I have close connection seem unable to hear what I say to them.

I am not choosing an easier life; I am choosing a better quality of problem.

12.10  A call to an industry insider, being ousted by a recent merger – he is surplus to requirements. This has been increasingly the trend over the past 10-12 years: music people are being removed from the music industry & replaced by bookkeepers & accountants. Why do you need a studio / art department / experienced A&R or writer-publisher when you can have another book keeper?

15.10  Above my head, Alex is preparing a 1979 Frippertronics bootleg for DGM download; and builders are in the adjoining DGM bathroom. They share my ceiling.

17.54  An afternoon of moving methodically forward, including an e-letter to a lawyer on behalf of the GCIRP.

22.10  An evening computing.

One last call to make.

22.45  A relatively early night…