Re: N.A.M.M show

[Andre LaFosse <altruist@earthlink.net>]

Michael P. Hughes, Ph.D. wrote:
> 
> At 11:17 AM 12/11/97 -0800, you wrote:
> >NAMM is not open the public, actually. (Frankfurt musik messe is on two
> >days, and boy does it suck.)
> 
> Why?  Because it demands that manufacturers come face to face with the
> paying public, rather than have a big holiday with rock stars and, er,
> people with silicone?

I understand that one reason NAMM has never had a public day is that a
lot of manufacturers don't want the general public to know what price
they're selling their products to retailers for, as that would
conceivably undermine the position of said retailers in a real-life
sales situation.

THere's also the sheer audience issue.  The show there on the weekend
days is a bit of a mess, with all the people milling about.  I can't
easily imagine how they'd be able to regulate a way of maintaining any
sort of order if they sold tickets to the thing to the general
populace.  On the other hand, a lot of genuinely informed and interested
musicians wind up getting shafted becuase they don't have the right
connections, so it's a problem for those of us at the bottom of the
proverbial totem pole.

I was abole to go last year (thanks to the very kind auspices of a
fellow LD subscriber -- I won't "out" him for fear of his recieving
unsolicited letters requesting entry passes, but thank you once again!) 
and personally found the whole experience very disturbing.  I liken the
sensation to that of eating far too much of a really good kind of food
-- after a certain point of saturation, the sight of all of that musical
gear just got to be a bit sickening for me, especially as it dawned on
me that I was surrounded by millions and millions of dollars' worth of
musical instruments, and thousands of musicians -- yet the event going
on had almost nothing at all to do with music.  

Somebody once said, "NAMM is something you should go to -- ONCE."  I'm
inclined to agree.

All just products of my increasingly warped perspective, of course.

--Andre