An Open Apology to Kim

["Rick Walker/Loop.pooL" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>]

Please forgive me Kim,

I am very, very raw right now and in a lot of grief.   My wife and I had
to return to California immediately from the Swedish leg of my tour to be
with my siblings and family after the passing of my mom.  I'm now having
some difficulty attempting to go back and rejoin the tour that I've taken 
so
many months (with a lot of people's help) to
create.  I'm feeling down and a little bit panicky and resenting the hell
out of this memorial day weekend (can't reach anybody official on the 
phone,
you know).

I did take personally what you said and can now see that I misinterpreted
what you said
because I'm feeling so vulnerable right now so please
forgive my oversensitivity.


It's also important to say that I guess I just get a little tired of people
(and not necessarily you, Kim) constantly putting down the people who
actually like to be called loopers.

There is ,of course, always a constant danger of preaching to the converted
of course, but the fact of the matter is thatrallying together as a
community of people with common cause
who are interested in promoting and learning about the thing that they love
is not a bad thing.

you wrote:
". But I don't see how it does much to directly promote looping outside of
that realm."

I actually challenge your assertion that looping festivals don't promote to
people outside of the realm.     I have played to literally thousands of
non-loopers in the 25 some odd
Looping festivals,several looping tours and dozens of solo, duo and trio
gigs that I have
done as a self professed Live Looping Artist.   I calculated that I
performed on local FM radio last year a total of over 12 hours.  That went
to out to thousands of 'normals' (lol)
in my region and over in the South Bay (with several million people within
earshot).
I was interviewed in countless magazine articles and, indeed, we had a long
cover article
on the Metro newspaper which went out to most people in our county (100,000
population)
on specifically the Live Looping Movement.  I've had strong interest from
both national and international electronic music magazines and currently
have a 30 minute television special
rotating constantly on local cable access as we speak.

In my region at least I would never have been able to get 500 people to the
Rio Theatre to see the 1st Bass Looping Festival if I HADN'T used that
angle.   All kudos to the solo bass movement but using that angle with
reporters just fell flat on it's face whereas talking about the metaphor 
and
technology that surrounded that auspicious event really excited the
journalists and I think for three salient reasons:

1) It was new and they didn't know about the technology so it peaked their
interest

2) They were fascinated that we were working so damned hard (and at our own
expense)
to play for FREE as both a gift to our community and as a way of promoting
ourselves.

3) They were really intrigued that such a disparate group of stylistic
musicians (even despite the fact that we all played bass.......even my
sophmoric efforts) had such
a strong sense of community.

this last fact can't be overemphasized:   We have had a really awful time
with the notion
of community in our culture (Northern California at least) sense the end of
the
1960s and people are so hungry for it that they are fascinated (almost
universally when I talk to most 'normals') by the fact that a lot of people
have that feeling of inclusion.


I'm not saying that everyone who uses a looper needs to feel a part of that
specific community (merely defined as the people who think of themselves as
live loopers).
Far be it from the truth.

I smile on everyone who comes to Loopers Delight (whether they smoke pot or
not........LOL)
and recognize everyone's need to be defined the way they want to be 
defined.
Some people have been afraid to be pigeonholed as LOOPERS who I have worked
with and I totally accept that.  To those people I have said,  "Don't 
worry,
I'm justing using that handle as
a marketing device.........which is true to an extent".

Does it really matter that a wonderful and completely unknown in the United
States musician like UK bassist Steve Lawson is known as a solo bassist or
as a bass looper or as merely a looper when he is trying to become well
known (as he surely deserves) in this big country?
I think not.    So on our last tour together, he did self professed LOOP
TRIO gigs and he
did Bass clinics and he played Bass Jamborees (or whatever they called that
show at NAMM).
The point is to promote artistry in a place where that is difficult.
I say Live Looping Artist..................you say potato.  It's all good.

I'm saying that what is,  IS!!!     We have been working hard and there is
some evidence
that it is starting to pay off a little.

I see all of your semantic points and can't really argue with many of them,
Kim.

The big bad world is a tough place to conquer and we're out there 
attempting
to do that
in all of our different ways as promoters, from Peter in Boston  to Per in
Stockholm to
Hans in California to Sunao in Osaka.

How can this be a bad thing?    Why do people constantly get upset that we
are just trying
to promote a community.

If you don't want to be in that community so be it.

If we called ourselves the STRANGE HAT COMMUNITY and did exactly what we 
are
trying to do
I say that the world is a tiny bit better for our efforts and that we 
should
actually be
applauded.   Pardon my sentiment, but my mom would have felt the same way.

yours, respectfully,  Rick Walker