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Looper's Delight
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There has been progress since my last update. 1. more names. Of course, there are more people interested: I have a more complete list of names of people interested which I'll post a little later this week -- see below. 2. chashama. I did make phone contact with Chashama. They were friendly but non-committal. (Which is good -- they probably deny most requests immediately.) I agreed to send PR materials and a logistical plan, informally for Monday. email is fine. More on that below -- but here's the plan I'm hatching. 3. A bigger plan. I am going to propose a three-day meeting here in New York with two nights of concerts in a place where we can keep our gear set up. It will probably have to be on three weekdays... I think that this is a more attractive plan for almost everyone with a lot less stress and tons more fun. 4. group questions I'm going to write up the plans more specifically but first I want to ask some questions of the group. 4.1. help booking? In my current incarnation, I realize that I'm bad at booking. My day job is in an open-plan office and everyone hears everything I do, so I just don't make phone calls. I have Chashama in-hand but if this falls through, which is probably a better than even chance just given the intransigent nature of the universe, we're going to have to scale the thing down and then try to book it into a bunch of places. Any volunteers who are good at this? I didn't have all the facts at my fingertips when I called Chashama and thus I didn't come off as completely professional. I'm going to get more of the facts compiled from you lot (see questions below!) 4.2. Other spots that would allow a workshop. If Chashama doesn't bite, it's not clear that there will be a place that will let us do the workshop in the day and play at night. Any ideas? 4.3. Web design. I can support a website fine on my server. But design is not really my bag. (I'd do something with one of my photos http://clikTrik.com if I had to I suppose... a la http://fortNY.com) Any web designers here (after all the abuse you've taken here recently?) 4.4. PR materials. Do we have any materials about the various California Looper's shows (and what's the exact name?)? How many people showed up? How many players? How long? Who? etc. etc. Any other materials that might help us book a gig? Best list of famous loopers? Short list of names that are interested and a draw? 4.5. VISUALS! How could I forget this? If we are going to do loopy shows, we need loopy visuals. I think I can get people to do this though. If someone who does this is on the list and interested (there is at least one person who might fit this bill) then that would be even better. Don't let me drop this on the floor. 4.6. T-shirts! If someone wanted to make T-shirts... we'd need something interesting though. simple suggestion: a simple design describing the show except that we cut two quite large perfect circles out of the T-shirt "randomly". loops, get it? people like holes in things. a lot of people like a chance to show off their bodies or just to have layers... so they can wear their looper t-shirt and something else cool underneath that that just peeks out... (at least, people in New York do!) 4.7. Outreach to EDP, Electrix, music stores!? If we are going to do a show like this then surely the manufacturers would want to have a little chance to show off their wares and answer questions? Another nice possibility would be loaner instruments for out-of-country visitors? Does anyone want to volunteer for this fun job? 4.9. Co-organizers needed! If we do such a large thing (and I'm still VERY open to having two or three groups get together and play a night at the Knit) I'm going to need help with the organization of this. I can handle the technical logistics well and it will all work perfectly. Serving and managing the website is ok too. I'd love to offload the calling people up and getting people's details and that sort of information to someone else. I have a list... Volunteers solicted! 4.10. Full bands?? I'm of two minds about whether we should allow full bands with a live drummer to play. The moment we introduce live drums, we move the PA requirements up if he's a hard-hitting rock drummer. A jazz drummer -- or any drummer who doesn't play loud all the time -- would probably be fine. Am I being too draconian? 5. Logistical plan for the show. I'm going to write up a logistical plan based on about two dozen looping performers attending the conference (meeting? collective? hang? activity? thing?) perhaps another three dozen drop-ins who'd come to see the workshops and perhaps fifteen formal "acts" over three evenings where we'd advertise and charge admission to the public. the first night would be "random loops" and we could charge $3 and make it an "open loop jam". warn people how terrible it could be. And a three and a half day meeting. We'd have to throw ourselves on the mercy of the venue for the space. But Chashama indicated that they were much more open to weekdays. first day, load in and show. worst Sun, best Thursday. second day, workshop and show, Mon, Fri third day, jam and show. Tue, Sat half day, load out. Wed, Sun We might charge $20-60 to attend all three days and $5-15 for each show? That sort of thing? Of course, if you came for the days, the show would be free. This would give a lot of people who want to loop with others a chance to play and jam in a friendly experimental atmosphere where you can simply stop and fiddle with the gear for a while. and people with acts that they want to push or that might be a draw can play more formally in the evenings. 6. More comments from you are solicited. Am I overreaching? Is it too big a thing? I think it's almost as easy to organize three days as a long complicated evening, frankly. And it will be EASIER to pull off when we do it. I was sweating about the logistics of that quick load-in for one night. We won't need that! It'll be much more of a reason for people to come out of town. If you're coming from Europe or Asia, it isn't worth coming for a single day, but three days is a bite-sized meal -- take a few extra days to see New York and you have a splendid vacation. We'll generate tons and tons of material if we make a point of recording everything and we can have a lot of fun. Doing it for two days -- or three! gives people a chance to stretch out a little bit. In fact, I suspect that three days is the optimum: one day to set up and get to know each other; one day to actually workshop; one day to play. Perhaps I'll try to book that (I mean, three is as easy as two, if you think about it -- there's no difference in the organization) and then if they DON'T like that we can "back off" to two days? Chashama is a perfect location. If we do it on a weekday, we could set up there and perhaps even have loopers SLEEPING there, the ULTIMATE in security! So we could leave all the gear set up for the whole time and not worry about it -- it'd be a riot! (Crime is very very low in New York. You are much more likely to get robbed or killed in London, eg, than New York City! And there are police everywhere around Times Square right now. But you must always take precautions everywhere.) 7. What next? I'm going to prepare a logistical plan. You're going to send me answers to my questions, opinions and just plain abuse. The domain has been purchased and it has been installed on the server, in a couple of days you'll all be able to see the web site though there will be little on it. Someone, hopefully not me, will put html and images to make a nice neat little web site there. I'll get the list of names up on the new site then in an unpretty style like before and then we can turn that into a nice web site. On Monday or thereabouts I'll send the information to Chashama, which will consist of: -- a one page description -- a simple web site (names, description, pr) -- a logistical proposal of how it will work. http://whatGoes.com ............................. extreme NY calendar. http://TomRitchford.com/endOverEnd ... I'm writing a novel in November. http://fortNY.com ............................... Forteans of New York.