From: AM@highwire.net
"Lane Gray, Czar Castic" wrote in message
news:opsrs65des8955ol@stylgar...
> On Fri, 3 Jun 2005 11:14:09 -0600, AM wrote:
>> Offering the use of equipment as an enticement (for what turns out to be
>> exploitation and abuse) could only be a service to those who wouldn't
>> have their own equipment anyway, if theirs wasn't in the way. This is an
>> issue right out of Marxist theory, where a small number of greedy,
>> capitalistic musicians sieze "control of the means of production" in
>> order to exploit what might otherwise be the sacred, spiritual communion
>> of the "jam," for purely selfish, pecuniary and egoistic gratification
>
> Or because *somebody* has to stump up from about a grand to several grand
> for a PA. If you don't have a house PA, then they're gonna have to find a
> band willing to let theirs get used. And I don't have a problem with them
> saying something like "if I'm not having fun, I'll just pull the plug."
> And I don't see them seizing control of the means of production; your
> hands are still the only ones on your guitar (or whatever you play)
You can pick 'til your fingers bleed (and, believe me, I have), but it won't
make a bit of difference if there's a Control Freak Egomaniac at the mixer
out to strangle your sound.
> And you're always welcome to go find an acoustic jam without that annoying
> necessity of the PA system, or a big ol' picking party.
> Not to mention that Marx has failed everywhere his theories have gotten
> tried. Marx didn't get that you can't trump human nature.
>
>> - - - at the expense of the overwhelming majority and the creative
>> process itself. Most of the individuals with psychological profiles that
>> lead them to engage in this type of activity would also attempt to order
>> you around entirely unplugged in an otherwise empty room, where there
>> could be absolutely no conceivable rationale for doing so, so abjectly
>> compulsive is this behavior in them.
>
> I've never seen that happen anywhere. At the larger picking parties, or
> the jam sessions hosted by the bluegrass societies (there are two regular
> jams in the Kansas City area), you'll find a circle where nothing other
> than Bill Monroe/F&S get played (and if you try breaking out a Country
> Gentlemen tune, they'll either glare at you, or wander off to regroup
> without you - I've seen it happen) sitting just a few feet where the most
> normal thing you'll hear is "With Care From Someone" or "Deputy Dalton"
> just around the corner from the circle you'll most likely find me in,
> namely the one where they take classic country stuff (Carl Smith, Carl
> Butler, ET, Jean Shepard, Hank, Hank, Hank, Hank, Hank, Hank, and Hank
> (all different Hanks, and none of them have a Jr in them) get a bluegrass
> treatment. And they all get along just fine.
What I'm describing is a problem with any "organ"ized, participatory,
musical event in contemporary culture, whether amplified or otherwise,
blues, folk, bluegrass, rock, jazz, or whatever. I'm talking about all the
totally unnecessary horseshit, hierarchical, hoop-hopping of ALL these
events - - - as predicated by the abject psycho-spiritual oblivion of most
of the participants. One does not go to a recreational activity to be
abused by the nearest jack-ass, and entertainment venues should stop paying
such people for such poor service.
What would be so terrible about simply advertising an "acoustic jam night"
without preconception of what style might emerge on a given night or an
"electric jam night" where it would be understood that one would be
responsible for one's own amplification (if one played an instrument where
that was necessary), which usually guarantees everyone his own monitor,
anyway? No hosts are necessary - - -unless one wishes to intitutionalize
injustice.As bad as most of the PA mixes I've gotten have been in such
settings, it could not possibly have been any worse utilizing decentralized
amplification (or none at all) in these small to average-sized rooms.
The advent of the electronic mixer has, sadly, for all the good it has done,
tilted the *politics* of the jam most decidedly and decisively - - - from
democracy to dictatorship.
"!!!DOWN WITH ALL DICKWIT DICTATORS!!!
AM
--
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"Oneness is not achieved through conformity or subordination, but
through the full expression of everyone's unique piece of the puzzle."
--AM, the Synthesist
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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