Robert Fripp's Diary

Friday 16 November 2007

Friday Bredonborough A ferwosty morning

Friday

12.28

Bredonborough.

A fer-wosty morning in extremis here in Bredonborough, where the town’s Christmas tree has been put in place this morning I…

II…

III…

This is big excitement time for the Minx & I, although WillyFred’s feelings on the Seasonal arising are likely to be more muted. The tree is smaller than most years, and a little dwarfed by the mobile ‘phone mast. But this is of no concern: the Christmas tree is here. Decorations are out in the town & will soon be followed with decorations here at Chez WillyFred.

12.43 Bend it like Beckham:: Posted by dubhthaigh on November 15, 2007

I suspect Robert is not coming clean on the new testamentish touchey-feeley episode recounted in his recent posting. He just needs to admit that once the audient touched his cloak, said audient became a sentient being capable of rational thought and deep respect for all living things. Said audient also was cured of dropsy, scurvy and and an inclination to stammer when singing "A New Jerusalem." But I can understand how one might want to downplay all that.

True. I am also available to cure King’s Evil, warts, difficult cases of dandruff, pleurisy & constipation, halitosis, myopia & halting speech, efficacy a given.

12.51The bill for The LCG tour is likely to be around $5,000. There are different way of calculating this, but profit – not.

14.58 Practising.

17.05

Builder’s meeting with Mr. Cheese.

Guestbook arisings…

Wigmore Hall:: Posted by PhilipR on November 16, 2007

You don’t get photographers at the Wigmore Hall; you don’t get surreptitious taping; you don’t get confrontational announcements. One. The hall promotes ’classical’ art music, where the audience is part of the tradition, having been educated into it.Two. In promoting a ’classical’ concert, equal billing - by and large, there are always going to be exceptions - is given to the music and the musicians. On the adverts and the posters and the programme, the audience is told what is going to be played. Three. At the Wigmore Hall, the musicians are seen as conduits of the music and not as purposes of their own. Rock concerts generally treat audiences badly. We don’t know whether we are going to sit or stand; we don’t know what is going to be played; we don’t know the programme or the timings. Playing in ’rock’ venues inherits these conceptions even when they are inapplicable to the event in which one is taking part. At the Wulfrun Hall where I last listened to Fripp, my engagement with the music was compromised by (a) constant conversation and (b) the ridiculous physical discomfort of not only having to stand but of having no defined personal area of standing so that I was constantly buffeted and fidgeted by others. I regret not having had the chance to experience one of the Churchscapes where a third tradition of audience and performace conventions might have been inherited and explored, as it seems from recordings indeed occurred. I should like Robert Fripp to inherit the traditions of classical music and perform at venues like the Wigmore Hall. I enjoy reading his diary and value his comments. A complaint is only valid if is a step along the pathway to a solution.

So, what will Mr. Phillip do to provide a solution?

Mr. P might like me to inherit the performance traditions, culture & business organisation of classical music, but I inherit different performance practices, conventions, audiences & forms of business arrangement. The tradition of classical music is a tradition based on a particular music form (fundamentally the Western tonal harmonic tradition): KC is not this music, although its own stylistic & formal roots have some connection to it. There is a degree of performance-culture compatibility with Soundscapes, but the world of classical music does not view me as one of its own. This is because I am not one of its own.

In my professional life, little is possible in terms of deciding appropriate venues; this written having spent years attempting to do so (with limited success). Often, what is available is the choice between least-worst or least-inappropriate venues on a particular day in a particular city in a specific country, and historically the venue has been decided without reference to KC/RF (although this has changed in recent years, but only to an extent & mainly in the US).

The difference between 2,500 & 2,000 seats is a qualitative difference for me; and it comes with a price tag. Given seats at $30-60, that potentially costs a promoter $15,000 - $30,000.

The Churchscapes cost c. £2,500 over 2 weeks (and I wish Mr. Phillip had been there). The recent LCG in the US will probably cost $5,000. I wish Phillip had been there too.

Solution? Perhaps I should take up plumbing.

So, what is Mr. Philip’s step along the pathway, please?

Some postings to the Guestbook are so exceptional that I am unable to determine whether these are witty commentaries on our fallen nature, jokes, and /or simply what they purport to be. A recent classic example...

I’m not amused at all, Robert and Brian !:: Posted by Wilbert on November 06, 2007

I’ve ordered at DGM Fripp and Eno’s ’Beyond Even’. I received it yesterday. In 2006 I’ve paid and downloaded Fripp and Eno’s ’The Cotswald Gnomes’, as being released only for download.

Beyong Even is the same as the Cotswald Gnomes, thank you very much.

What is happening here?

two different titles for the same music?

why selling The Gnomes in 2006, as being only for download, letting the customers think that Beyond Even will be different? Because "only for download" means: "not in the shops".

Why not telling or warning loyal admirers up front?

Now, an easy reply can be: "Look at the trackinglist, then you will know" .

Well, that’s not a bad easy-reply.

Yes, that is true: from now on, for the first time after 35 years, I will look at every Fripp-trackinglist that will come out, before I buy.

Even better.

Even better I consider stop buying any forthcoming Fripp-cd, as I was starting the be fed up anyway with the sythesized panpipes-sound as well as starting to miss the honoust Gibson Les Paul sound, as it is.

Even better again, then.

Robert: You might have had your differences with record companies. You had reason to, I know.

Mr. Wilbert’s analogy is inappropriate. His position, as customer relative to DGM Shop & Live, is in no way comparable to my position, as artist, to Decca, Atlantic, Polydor, Warners, Virgin, EMI or Sanctuary.

But know I’m the one who feels pissed and deceived.

Mr. Wilbert’s feelings are his own responsibility. Where these have not been deliberately provoked, they are doubly his own responsibility. Perhaps Mr. Wilbert has a right to pissed, although he has a far higher right available: Mr. Wilber’s right as a human being to choose not to be pissed.

Recently, in the BeefWagon on the way to the Carrboro Arts Center for The LCG performance, Mr. Beefy & I visited a Best Buy store outside Chapel Hill. Choice DVD boxes fell into my check-out cart & were paid for, with RF as innocent consumer of these items. Later, when checking my acquisitions of the fine-art variety, I noticed I had been charged $29.99 for a box set from Comedy Central that I had not bought. What a pisser, yes? No. Why not, then? RF had not checked his receipt at the time, therefore had culpable responsibility in the unfortunate prising of hard-earned pay for goods neither wanted, chosen nor acquired. Whether culpable or not, innocent or otherwise, in this unfortunate customer-event, I had a choice: getting pissed, or not. I chose not. I do not have enough energy in a day to address my bona fide responsibilities & personal interests without blowing juice on high-amplitude whingeing & whining at how Best Buy ripped me off. And they deceived me!

So, is Mr. Wilber a deceived audient-consumer? Deceit is intentional: deceit cannot happen by accident. So, I e-mailed the Sidney Smith for his comment, and Sid replied…

I did mention the album being the same as the download way back in the annals of DGMLive news. Certainly this was the focus of much discussion in the online community such as KNews, Planet Crimson, Prog Ears, ProjeKction etc.

And Mr. point _moot commented the day after in response to Mr. Wilbert…

F&E Gnomes CD:: Posted by point_moot on November 07, 2007

Wilbert, I believe that DGM made it perfectly clear that the new F&E CD was the same music as on Cotswold Gnomes...

Ah, yes, here it is...

"F&E CD Release:: Posted by Sid Smith on Wed., Aug 22, 2007 One of DGMLive’s top downloads is set for a CD in mid-October. The Cotswold Gnomes will hit the shops under its original tongue-in-cheek title, Unreleased Works of Startling Genius."

Ok, so the title of the CD version changed since that news went to print, but...

It was also pretty readily discussed in RF’s diary, this guestbook, and various online forums that it would be the same music. And, as you point out, the track-list is there on the DGM shop for everyone to see. Sorry Wilbert, but I really cannot fault DGM for your error.

This is not enough for Mr. Wilbert, however.

F&E release/Gnomes CD:: Posted by Wilbert on November 08, 2007

Re: point_moot November 7....:

Well Point-Moot, you have a point here.

Actually, a very good point: two months’ prior notice.

On the other hand It is more expectable that people do not read all messages on the the Site than that they do read them. I cannot possibly read all the stuff I’m interesting, I simply do not have the time. Besides at the end of August half of Europe is on a holiday, so was I.

In stead: DGM-shop is in my view Robert Fripp’s shop. I find that costumers may expect that the DGM-shop at least makes a statement about the Beyond Even cd, as being a hard copy of the earlier released download-release one year earlier.

I mean Robert -mr. Principle- Fripp of all people, as being a fighter against dishonoust comercial behaviour of Record Companies, should know that the way Beyond Even is described in the DGM-shop deceives innocent and - in DGM’s case- often loyal admirers/ customers. You cannot change my mind about this point.

In the business where I work I cannot say: "well, half a year ago I sent everybody a mail in which I stated .....etc. etc. etc". When I propose a deal or whatever, I have to give accurate information during the presentation of the stuff, not half a year before.......

August to October is half a year apart? Great deceivers please note, deceit is best sprung on Euro-innocents during the second half of August. And expect. That word again, and this time in bold.

Good people, doing their best in an imperfect world, declaring as best they may what that are doing & undertaking, may not be understood. This, perhaps for failing to fully broadcast what is underway; and for those who take an interest in those broadcasts & declarations, for some reason not fully engaging with the information on offer. No blame! This is what it is. We do the best we can, engaging in a spirit of goodwill. Mistakes happen: this is not a problem, only a difficulty.

One example of a boa fide problem is a pissy attitude. One good example of this kind of bona fide problem is Mr. Wilbert’s recent Guestbook trumpetings-from-below. Decent people can work through difficulties, but not pissy attitudes. That’s what an attitude is, and why it’s pissy: nothing is possible, save one strategy - drop the attitude. Then, perhaps it’s possible to engage. Otherwise…

On 6th. November 2007, Mr. Wilbert’s mind cannot be changed…

the DGM-shop deceives innocent and - in DGM’s case- often loyal admirers/ customers. You cannot change my mind about this point.

On 16th. November 2007. Mr. Wilbert’s mind about-this-point has changed…

Fripp & Eno: Beyond Even versus Cotswald Gnomes:: Posted by Wilbert on November 16, 2007

At november 6 and 8 I wrote that I was angry about my Fripp & Eno-purchase, as I discovered that Beyond Even was the same as The Cotswald Gnomes (see the entries). I had bought both within a year.

Thanks to Mr. Sid Smith and the DGM-shop I have received a refund for one of the two.

To be honoust, I did not expect this generosity. I thought it would be a good things to write not only about the anger and what went wrong, but also about the good stuff when thing turn out good.

I appreciate it for taking my complaint seriously.

So thank you mr. Smith and thank you dear Amy of the Shop for being generous !!

Amy of the DGM Shop & Sid are rightly thanked, as they have clearly & cleverly managed to out-manoeuvre the deceitful intentions of the HRHVL, even if not yet persuade him to pick up an honest Les Paul.

DGM is committed to the aims of the ethical company & best practice. The aims of the ethical company are simply stated (cf yesterday’ s Diary): transparency, straightforwardness, accountability, owning-up, honesty, fairness, common decency, distributive justice. At this point, business becomes simpler. These are principles: clear & universal, direct & permitting of flexible responses to difficulties arising in the activities of daily life & commerce. Best practice evolves, and is drawn from experience in following the aims of the ethical company in the world of commerce; this experience is then available for articulation & discussion.

At DGM, there is a third principle, to accompany the aims of the ethical company & commitment to standards of best practice: the No Jerk policy. This protects us from those who do not engage with goodwill, who are themselves so steeped in negativity, or attitude, that little is possible. The No Jerk policy evolved historically in response to former Crimson members & innocent audients-with-rights where it became clear, over several years, that there was no intention to engage with goodwill; even, that negativity had seemingly become so ingrained in those persons’ lives as to have become a driving necessity in their dealings with us.

It is quite mistaken, and not a good thing, to broadcast uncontrolled anger. Better, where we have a genuine grievance, to wait until we are no longer in anger’s grip before addressing our legitimate concerns.

Mr. Wilbert is awarded this month’s Clueless & Mighty Slack award for his contribution to European holidays.