Dairy of a Madman

Stumbled across a Google cache of a certain crazy part of my past — well, part of my past’s past, I guess, is more accurate.  And it’s strange how something so peripherally connected to anything can bring back such strong emotional memory.  Emotion Sickness, says Daniel Johns.

And other such nonsense: music is either a passion or a job, to bring it down to the binary world where things are or aren’t.  If it’s a passion, you love it, you have no choice but to do it, and while there are bad nights and good nights, the overall experience is one of pleasure, no matter what the surrounding climate is.  Even the worst nights are, for the most part, filled with something positive that you focus on.  Or it’s a job, in which you are a freelancer, looking for an audience that is interested in paying for what you provide.

If it’s a passion in which you constantly find you have nothing pleasant to hold on to, then you’re a miserable person.  If it’s a job that you have suffered through time immemorial with no supporting audience, it might be time to find another job.

For years I’ve heard that there is nowhere in this town to play music / nowhere that supports music / no audience / etc.  But I’ve also seen bands like Lynam and Vallejo and Downright pack bars out. I know many a musician who does nothing but play — the guys in Roosevelt Franklin, and Stuart McNair, to name but a few.  I’ve played many shows with good crowds who dug the music I was playing. 

If you don’t like what the town has to offer, move on. Stop bitching and whinging, and do something to change, instead of waiting for change to happen. 

But don’t be surprised if this world you live in is a microcosm of the bigger, more real cities.

The only businesses that exist in a city are those that the inhabitants will support.  If a given business has failed time and again in your locale, you are part of an audience that is too small to reasonably support said business.  If you can’t live without said business, move.  If you can’t move, learn to cope.

Currently listening to: Somewhere Over The Rainbow / If I Only Had A Brain (Tuck Andress).

Coincidence?