you can't get by with anything anymore, thanks to the irresistible fetish of instantaneous posting to twitter, facebook, younameit. this affliction runs rampant throughout our world. you can find out what's going on with your interest du jour at any moment. hell, even my mom comments on my occasional status updates within the hour. my MOM.
good old iowa has made the front page again. a guy drove his zebra and macaw parrot to the local watering hole, went inside to get loaded, and got pulled over on the ride home with his pets buckled in next to him. you can't write this stuff.
i am sitting here at my bar chugging a mug of coffee, rocking some serious bedhead, listening to pete rock & c.l. smooth, sporting a beater & basketball shorts, posting my thoughts with accompanying images, and broadcasting it to the entire world. the internet has managed to shrink our world into a 15" screen while expanding our minds directly beneath our fingertips. shit is crazy.
kevin mahogany and his big self came through iowa city back in grad school. i remember that during his masterclass, me & my friends immediately dismissed the giant crooner and swung our antennae towards his trio; kenny barron, ray drummond, and ben riley. kenny said something about how, if you want to make it in the music business at any level, you need to end up in new york city. all of us iowa kids felt pretty lousy about that, but saw his point - how are we ever gonna meet more people who are like minded? the assumption was that all things at the cusp of newness take place in metropolitan areas, and the only way you could achieve viability is to live the dream in the big city. cue the slow exodus of uhaul trucks to either coast with "art or bust" written on the windows.
music has certainly changed with the internet. streaming audio, digital distribution, webcasting, apps, electronic press kits, facebook events, blogs, and (the big kahuna) youtube. creative minds can now put their noggins together in the virtual world. i recently worked with my friend marcy on a project, and technology saved the day. after finishing one of her arrangements, i fired out pdf copies and audio scratch tracks from my office - me in ames, she in new jersey. she stuck music in dropbox for the entire band and emailed links to other stuff. we were able to put this all together quicker and cheaper, and the worldwide web helped make it happen.
my buddy ryan plays fiddle with the indie folk band trampled by turtles. they played a show here in town about a year ago, and he told me then that the band was slow-going and on the verge of taking a hiatus of undetermined length. they booked a couple of bigger festivals in their swan song and posted some new music up on soundcloud. they advertised their tour online, got a couple videos up on vimeo, fans snapped pics on their phones and posted them to their respective social networks, and suddenly the band's popularity rose to epic proportions. their most recent gigs have been on letterman, craig ferguson, and atop the cnn news tower in atlanta.
i am proud to be an iowan and, at the same time, am sheepishly thankful for the internet. my priorities have changed since that decree from mr. barron, and they continue to evolve. i like having a university gig. i like having a house. i like raising my kids, mowing my yard, sticking a quarter in the meter for an hour of parking, watching the sunset over the cornfields, and listening to the quiet. i am blessed to play shows with very talented musicians here in iowa, hidden gems.
dave king once told me, amidst my anguish and disgust with moving to a smaller community like ames, that it's one thing to move to a scene and another thing altogether to move and make a scene. i assume he wasn't insinuating that i throw a tantrum, so i decided to be a part of the solution to creative musical thought in the heartland of america. i do like to go to metropolitan areas and get my batteries recharged. there's really no substitute for that. but my desire/need to relocate has fizzled. i guess the great philosopher treach was right - wherever you go there you are. 0:58, baby.
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