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kim wrote: "Where did you get that from my posts? I think we have a great virtual community of musicians into looping here at LD. Those Loop Festival events are a great real world extension of that online community. I also had a lot of fun at them and felt a great sense of community there. Musicians gather, talk shop, put real faces on the email address, hear people play, etc. Great!" Sorry, Kim, I shouldn't have spoken for you in this regard. Ouch, that's the second time I've had to apologize to you this week. Apologies, again. ************************************************* I also hear your assertion that using LOOPING FESTIVALS is not effective in spreading the word outside of the looping community. In the case of my own home town, Santa Cruz, you are just blatantly incorrect. 1)I'm extremely well known here for my efforts to popularize live looping. I get stopped on a daily basis by members of my community, asking about how the Looping world is coming along. 2) Several live loopers have weekly gigs at restaurants or clubs that cater to general audiences. 3)The last time AmyX Neuburg was listed in the papers she was called "one of the best loopers" without any explanation of what the term meant. I literally jumped up and down when I read it because I realized that here, finally, we have become the norm. 4)The mayor of Santa Cruz declared January 25th, 2003 to be International Live Looping Day. 5)A 30 minute television show featuring live looping is circulating regularly on local cable access, to a potential viewership of over 100,000. 6)Live Loopers have spent a over 20 hours of live performance radio time in the past three years on local and area FM radio.............an unprecedented amount of live time in these days of Clear Channel domination. All of this has much to do with our efforts to promote LIVE LOOPING with festivals. We've had a whole article in the back page of Electronic Musician magazine about our community, prompted by Hans Lindauer's first LOOPSTOCK festival and there has been recent interest from several national and international magazines in our efforts. I can't talk about any of it specifically but rest assured, things are happening. Admittedly, none of this is earthshattering, nor are we on the cover of Rolling Stone or the screen of MTV, but it is a start. Give us a break, keemsabay! We only began this promotional strategy a little under three years ago. It takes time and a lot of hard work. I assure you , though, as someone who has been a successful promoter of music for over 25 years that I could not possibly have accomplished the modest accomplishments that I have made without 1) a hook (LIVE LOOPING FESTIVALS) and 2) a willing community of excited and talented loopers to help out (nothing would be possible without them). Journalists have been fascinated with what we are doing and we have gotten photographs published in newspapers and magazines much faster because I self conciously sold this angle. DJs have had the same response. They have told me that they are attracted to the fact that we are doing something new (the technology end) and something that involves community. None of this hard work may be satisfying you and I'll admit that the gains have been modest, but I don't think I could have booked a 2 1/2 month tour of Europe and the British Isles if I hadn't done all the work that I have done. I don't mean to make this post entirely narcissistic because the story I just wrote is largely about the Loopers who have been so gracious and accomodating and generous with their time. It is just the only story that I can use to combat your assertions that we are completely ineffective in getting the word out to the masses. I have a challenge for you: Instead of constantly nay-saying what we are attempting to accomplish by producing Live Looping Festivals, why don't you brainstorm and alternate strategy to push Live Looping to world of non loopers. We are trying hard to make a change; to make a difference; to make the world a safer place for Looping. Why fight our strategy when you could just as easily figure out a different way to augment us. yours, Rick