Wednesday, September 4, 2013

What's Killing Live Performing?



Is technology killing live performing. I just watched the "Dave Chapelle in Hartford, CT" video. Respect? What respect? 
True, all comedians have experienced a tough, noisy crowd, but usually not super stars.  Not to mention a super star that just came out of 'hiding'. No doubt, everyone in the audience was probably on their cell phones texting, filming, everything else but giving the entertainer their undivided attention.   

When I was playing a lot of coffee houses, I was getting a bit frustrated. You'd be in the corner playing and people would sit right in front of you, staring at their laptops and ipods with their ear buds plugged in.  You're standing there singing asking yourself, "Why am I here?"  After a while, if I was playing a coffee house which might pay only a cup of coffee and people were ignoring me while plugged into their ipods, I'd just leave after a set.  It wasn't worth the time or tips. I got tired of giving it "my all" in vain.  I didn't care about the repercussions. What was the owner going to do, not give me coffee? It's different if you're paid to do a show, you're professionally obligated to tolerate the crap.   

These days most people live by their cellphones. They carry around their friends, their music, their videos.  You can't pull them away from it.  
If no one is buying music, if no one is coming out to shows, if those who come out are still tapped into their 'world in a pocket' while you're performing, what are the incentives for artist to give you all they've got? Love?   Most musicians love what they do, but musicians are not loving what the audience is doing these days.    

PS. Obviously Dave Chappelle is a REAL pro.  He handled himself with comedic class.

Here's a monologue about some of my coffee house experiences. It's from my CD "Cafe Vignettes"


Sunday, September 1, 2013

Conspiracy Theory #1



You Better Stop! The Tom You Claim May Be Your Own:

The "Man" no longer has to work hard to hold blacks down. Blacks do it all for him. It's built right into black culture.  Violence and more violence. The calling each other nigger in their music and profiting from it. Thugs are Heroes, etc.
The KKK and other such groups are quite satisfied with this cultural shift into African-American chaos. You won't hear them talk about it. The media doesn't report about it, instead the media is quick to report about blacks being sympathetic victims of racism. Why is that? 

For the conspiracy minded, the plan could be simple. Stay mum. 'Let them destroy themselves, it's not our problem if they're too blind or ignorant to see it.'   

Blacks are quick to accuse other blacks of being uncle toms, even if it's just for having an objective opinion. 
Today the term is overused and misused.
It's use only seems to be an effective way of saying "Shut Up!"

The term "uncle tom" has many definitions, here's a couple:


1. A black man who will do anything to stay in good standing with "the white man" including betray his own people.

2. An epithet for a person who is slavish and excessively subservient to perceived authority figures, particularly a black person who behaves in a subservient manner to white people; or any person perceived to be a participant in the oppression of their own group.

- Who does this sound like?

You Better Stop! The Tom You Claim May Be Your Own.