Monday, May 5, 2014

On the Impertinence of Being Original

If what you're doing really is original then there will almost always be more people thinking it is impertinent than will think it is good.  That's a big part of what makes it so entertaining to do something different as so many people will be outraged over it.  The purpose isn't outrage but it doesn't hurt either, does it.  Part of the tingle is when someone you probably already don't like thinks your music is absolute crap.  You can get a little bit of arrogance buzz out of it in thinking, well, those dumb fuckers wouldn't get it anyway.  Don't even tell me you don't ever think this, music boy (laughs).

Pol Arida did a Cool Thing yesterday with his show The Originals and it was a great one.  I won't give up three hours unless I'm diggin' it and I was curious all the way through to what would come next.

But!

Was it cool enough.

Nope.

No matter what you do, there's always something crazier so how about adding Maestro Michi Renoir.  I'm not so much an original as I don't play Ninth or Thirteenth chords to creep your internal organs into a state of twittery confusion and the sound is somewhat original but I'm hardly the only person who ever sounded like that so I'd be reluctant to join it.  What I do isn't a technical thing but rather it's about feel.  Like Rod Stewart said, "I keep using the same chords because, fuck it, I like them."

When you start thinking of gradients of originality, it's time to put up your own kit and kick back to listen to someone else play.  That's not why I went, tho.  I was curious and it was a good time.  Cat crashed fairly early and couldn't get back so that was a big part of writing the report.  That way she gets the parts she missed.

People sometimes ask how to represent Second Life outside of SL.  Well, um, represent, cowboy!  (laughs)

I have no idea what demographic reads the blog but I know a lot of people do and most likely the majority of them do not use Second Life.  Hopefully the articles give a taste of it to people and that's specifically why I focus so much on original performers; I don't believe for a millisecond that anyone who does not use SL already would ever go there to hear anything else.  It's just too much of a hassle.   It really isn't too much of a hassle if you want to experience what Second Life really is but it's way more of a hassle than anyone needs when all he or she wants is to hear some song from the radio.

I may be completely wrong and in that case it's on you to represent Second Life in a way you think is more accurate.  You can read from what I've written that it's sincere and I have no agenda beyond giving some information about the performers, well, obviously to remind you it happens at Cat's Art MusikCircus as well but that's hardly a crime.

Something I find highly intriguing about Second Life is the way people relate to each other.  That virtual world is usually more 'real' than what I see on existing social networks which feign a very high degree of 'reality' but are actually people striking all manner of poses to create a different kind of illusion.  That kind of shadow dancing isn't necessary in SL as you accept that you're talking to a dragon and you skate right past any time of evaluation.  Even if only for the anthropology, it's fascinating.

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