Re: Pay attention

[ArsOcarina@aol.com]

Hi all, good topic this.

I've always known that I'm about as interesting to watch
as the growth of refrigerator mold. The more I can get
the audience to pay attention to something else the better
-- even if it's only static art on the wall in a gallery. I often
joke about it on stage. There's no avoiding the truth of it.

I've done stuff with poets, dance troupes, computer artists,
animators, slides, video, film . . . everything but trained 
dogs and clowns. To be honest . . . if it weren't for the 
factor of interacting with other people -- mostly the other 
musicians involved but I'd even broaden it to include a 
good, attentive audience -- I'd rather send my laptop or a CD
to a gig and have someone else push the "start" button.

Actually there have been many "concerts" I've attended
and participated in at various college music departments
where that was mostly what was going on. The lights in 
the hall would dim and someone would push play on some
box backstage. Not very interesting to the average 
audience . . . but that's the background I come out of.

And, I was never a good dancer even when I was young . . . 
due to a sort of "fundamentalist" upbringing I suppose 
. . . and I'm certainly not one now. So, all those fancy 
popstar/guitarist body movements are pretty much out 
of the question for this 49-year-old pudgy guitar geek. 

I often feel a pang of regret (or are those chest pains?) 
and wish this were different . . . for the audiences sake. 
But I can't much help being just exactly who I am at this 
point in my life.

And looping gear is expensive enough . . . have you ever
seriously checked out the prices on fancy lighting gear?
Heh, heh, heh . . . if I were seriously in the running to
make this a professional career perhaps "production
values" and "staging" would be more important to me.
But as it is . . . I have other fish to fry.

Or maybe I should wear a funny hat and a red nose after all . . .

See you on the funway!

Ted Killian