VISUAL PRESENTATION

["Rick Walker/Loop.pooL" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>]

Charles Cohen wrote:

"Yanni is soooo good at this  ....    I just can't take my eyes off him !!
... he's soooooo
into it ...   why...  I don't even notice that he's playing pure dreck."



Come on, Charles, it doesn't have to be so black and white when discussing
performance..............of course one's music has to speak the
loudest..........but being interested in presentation in performance is 
just
natural.   75% of our sensory informational input into our brain is visual.
If it wasn't, people could just put on concerts where they just play CDs.
The darkwave scene is notorious for live shows having a singer singing to
DAT backing tracks.................talk about Yawny?    No shit.   lol.

It is just that one of the prime criticisms that I heard (from many, many
non-loopers) of the Y2K2 Loopfest (where 48 loopers performed) was that
there was so much equipment watching/shoe gazing going on that it wasn't
that engaging to the audience.

In a way, we have an uphill performance as looping artists because what we
do has the tendency to seem 'canned' to the unitiated. It can't hurt to
think about one's presentation merely to get what we are doing accepted by 
a
large audience.

I'm sitting out in the audience of those shows going, "that's cool, what
effect chain did that artist use to get that really unusual sound, but most
audiences aren't going to have that interest and I don't think it is 
shallow
to consider this aspect of the live performance.

To me, the most engaging performances at that festival were also
highly visual (all not all of them).  They were also fascinating because
they were so musically creative and satisfying.  John Whooley and Amy X 
were
both doing really cool music AND doing interesting things to
watch.............and you should have seen me juggling beach
balls............scintillating.........lol.

************************
I am looking forward to the day where our burgeoning approach to making
music (using looping) will be seen as legitimate and viable, commercially 
in
the public's eye..........not because
I'm in to commercial music (if you've hear my CDs you know nothing could be
further from the truth) but because this community is full of really, 
really
creative people who have
the capacity to push the boundaries of musical expression in our
global culture.

Wouldn't it be great if you could actually be paid to do your art in 
public?

That's why I started this thread..........just brainstorming ways to up the
level of our presentation to the world.

If you've seen many live looping performances you'll know that
we are not in grave danger of over commercialism or
shallow attachment to presentation over music.  Trust me on this
observation.

If you haven't seen a lot of looping performances, I would like to extend 
to
you the invitation to come perform at the Y2K3 LOOPFEST in Santa Cruz
sometime in the early fall.   You can even gaze at your shoes during your
performance if you come
without a single harsh thought from me..........LOL

yours, Rick Walker