Re: Why SHOULDN'T musicians be paid?

["Warren Sirota" <wsirota@wsdesigns.com>]

Thanks, Daryl, I appreciate your compliments and good wishes - it's
not exactly about seeking validation. It wasn't that the Pizza Guy
said what he did that was the problem, it was the way it resonated.

I'll never give up on music, but I gave up on the hope of my artistic
efforts being my principal source of income a long time ago. I'm just
trying to make things (or participate in making things) that I like to
listen to as much as my gazillion other listening choices. If I can
really make that happen the way I want it to, then the chances of
getting recognized for it go up - and make no mistake, I'd not
complain of more - but most of the satisfaction is in the process and
achieving the goal.

On Sun, Apr 20, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Daryl Shawn <highhorse@mhorse.com> wrote:
> Warren, thanks for sharing this stuff. Myself, I feel very strongly that
> musical creativity is absolutely priceless. I can understand the 
>immediate
> impact of someone so callously dismissing your efforts, but hell, you're 
>not
> another pizza boy! And what gave that dude the right to say what he did, 
>not
> being a personal friend for one thing, and most of all not having HEARD 
>your
> music?
>
>  There are a bazillion guitar players, and composers...a bazillion
> writers...a bazillion painters...a bazillion, if you will, breathers. To
> justify waking up in the morning I need to believe that I can contribute
> something, even if it's a droplet in this sea. And as long as I'm still
> getting blown away by other people's music, or get extreme enjoyment out 
>of
> creating some tiny musical fragment that seems to be my own, it's not an
> effort to believe that.
>
>  As for being a retired millionaire with time to do music, well...think
> instead about having lost (that's how I perceive it) the last decades by
> devoting your best hours and creativity to making money. My brother is a
> talented writer who worked for several years on an excellent manuscript,
> which he couldn't immediately find a publisher for. He gave up writing 
>for
> the time being, choosing instead to concentrate on family life and a new
> full-time job. He is continually trying to justify his choices, telling 
>me
> how many writers seems to be publishing their works for the first time in
> their fifties and sixties, after raising kids and/or making enough money 
>to
> retire. This may be true, but it breaks my heart to think of all those 
>years
> spent waiting to create, and hoping to end up with some imagined 
>comfortable
> environment where, finally, one can do their art, starting from scratch
> without the benefit of the years of experience they'd have had otherwise.
> I'm guessing there are a lot of people in this situation who get so used 
>to
> the comfortable lives they've created that they have, in the interim, 
>lost
> their desire to put in the late nights and long hours and sweat required 
>to
> bring forth an original creation. I wish he didn't feel like he had to
> choose one life over another, but instead, found a way to integrate his
> creating even into a life which doesn't afford him that many hours for 
>it.
>
>  Now, can you do better at Garageband than a teenager? HELL HELL HELL 
>YES!
> It's all about the musical ideas, my friend. Browse Myspace, and see 
>whether
> the easy availability of musical tools has made us awash in art of
> undelineated high quality. Is it important or meaningful that you be 
>able to
> do your stuff? I say, again, hell yes. I think it's the most important 
>task
> in the world. Anyone can make money, anyone can be a pizza boy, anyone 
>can
> try to make music, but only a few people have a talent for the original
> creation of the latter.
>
>  I don't have a concrete point here, really just reactions to your
> well-expressed views. Ultimately, I'm just glad you're still playing - 
>and
> for what it's worth, it'd be upsetting to me if you quit.
>
>
>  Daryl Shawn
>  www.swanwelder.com
>  www.chinapaintingmusic.com
>
>
> > Rick, I think the sacrifices you've made in pursuit of your art are
> inspiring, and (what I see the most) your efforts to facilitate and 
>promote
> the art of others. And maybe I was out of line calling you on your 
>phrasing
> and should have just left that to Travis if he wanted to respond. I've 
>had
> my years of sacrifice in pursuit of art, too, and decided that for 
>myself, I
> needed to "focus", if you will, on a "less-focussed" view of life. 
>Perhaps
> the need for money is the universe's way of forcing us to engage with 
>others
> on THEIR terms, and just maybe in one possible broader view of things,
> that's a good thing. We all have a lot of hard choices to make in the
> art-vs-income/time category. In another life I'd take your path. I find 
>much
> to envy in it. But I wouldn't trade right now (well, OK, I probably would
> for a *while*), and I'm sure you wouldn't either.
> >
> > And, I have to admit, my view of my own self-worth as a musician was
> pretty permanently undermined that evening in 1987 when I was sitting
> working on music (for my MFA from Mills, which I quit my corporate job to
> pursue - I would now be a retired millionaire with all the time for 
>music in
> the world had I not done that) in an Oakland pizzeria, waiting for 
>dinner,
> when the 17-year old server kid came by and asked, what was I doing. I
> replied that I was a composer, working on some music, and he said, "oh,
> well, who isn't?" And, you know, despite the obvious differences of 
>years of
> experience and study and dedication, at core I felt that he was 
>essentially
> correct in his attitude. He was me 20 years earlier. It was shockingly
> humbling. So yeah, Rick (tho you didn't say this to me, it felt like you
> did), I don't put that much external value on my own musical creativity. 
>To
> me, that would be like putting value on breathing. If people choose to
> reward me in such a way that allows me or encourages me to do more of it,
> that's a special blessing, not specifically related to anything that I 
>can
> perceive or measure except perhaps better politiking than I can manage. 
>If
> not, well, I'm just another pizza boy doing my best to have fun.
> >
> > To shift to the present day:
> > Now I look around and see that the tools of production have been put 
>fully
> into the hands of the proletariat, and the means of distribution are 
>close
> behind. I think this is a good thing, but highly disruptive (to a system
> already dysfunction to the point of disease). Can I possibly do better 
>with
> Garageband than a teenager with hours every night to surf the web for 
>beats
> and samples? Not likely. Is it important or meaningful that I be able to 
>do
> this? Also, not likely.  So I do two things - I make the recorded art I 
>want
> to make and don't expect anyone to even really want to listen to it (at 
>any
> price, including free), except under rare circumstances, and OTOH I
> cultivate skills (fingerstyle-jazz guitar playing) that are giggable and
> not-easily-duplicable. But, really, gigs are not the true motivation for
> doing the guitar practice, anyway - I'm doing it because I have a singer
> that I love listening to and accompanying, and this is how I manage to do
> more of it.
> >
> > So, I guess the point is that we all create our own survival 
>strategies in
> a world that makes its own inscrutable judgments about which forms of 
>virtue
> will be rewarded, and what forms those rewards will take. And I do wish 
>it
> were otherwise, but it doesn't seem constructive in my life to wallow in
> that wish too frequently.
> >
>
>