Total Pageviews

Friday, January 21, 2011

Today's thoughts

When I got up this morning, I had every intention of talking about how I became more involved in the SL Music Community as a whole....instead a couple of people brought things to mind that took my thoughts in other directions.  I am a firm believer in the Music Community becoming united and working toward things that help all the different avenues of the music community, the managers, the performers and the venues.  With that thought in mind recently a musician and his manager started a group that was supposed to do this.  At least it was the initial impression that I was given.  Many that I had spoken to about attending and joining in had their doubts as this performer always seemed to have his own agenda and ways that would benefit him...not necessarily the community as a whole.  But people change, so I thought I would watch and see.  What I did see was a community that was coming together but wanted equal representation and structure.  These, in my opinion are very good things.  The initial meeting was held in voice....unfortunately there were no real minutes kept and the only way that anyone could make heads or tails of it was to listen to both the chat logs and the local chat at the same time.  There were some things that after the meeting bothered me, the first being that the owner of the group and I discussed the meeting and through it, he made a great deal of fun of one of the speakers.  I, in turn, commented that though long winded the points the speaker made were very good ones.  Other things that came up were the fact that some people had submitted their opinions of the meeting both good and parts that needed improvement.  I thought this was great, it encourages people to think and helps to build up a conversation between people.  These are great tools for bringing a community together, keeping in mind that everyone will not agree all the time but the fact that it is being discussed is in itself great.  Instead, I saw that person get slammed for voicing their opinion.  This in turn prompted another venue owner to jump to her defense, tell the group off and walk away.  Watching the owner of that group go into another and start name calling and mudslinging, truly made me rethink the professionalism involved.  And the actual agenda behind the owner's motives for this group.  His past history had always been about him and I was seeing that some horses never change their spots.  Yet I bit my tongue hoping that the first meeting truly made eyes open and see the need of what the community was calling for.  Before the second meeting came to being, a conversation was shared with me.  A conversation that stated very pointedly that though the group may have delegates the owners since it is their group, will veto anything that they personally do not agree with.  Side note---people tend to forget that though they can not copy past im's in SL per TOS---copying and pasting them outside of SL is not in violation of anything. 

I still kept my opinions to myself waiting until the second meeting to give the owners a chance to address them.  The second meeting came along and I had promised to give my opinions after that.  It was good to see that a Linden was there and addressed as many issues as he was able.  Thank you Brett Linden for caring.  The owners did address the board of directors versus delegate issues, I did directly ask about the veto issue.  The owners did not appear to have great communication between them as one denied it ever being said, and the other stating that it was said in response to a hypothetical situation.  After a great deal of back and forth another person finally stated it clearer to the owners and to their credit they did state that they would not veto something the delegates as whole wanted.  Other major subjects that were brought up were, who would choose the delegates....again a great deal of back and forth....and I have yet to have a clear cut answer as to how who decides who is a delegate and who is not.  Due to the lack of clear cut direction, I tend to think that it is based on friendships and if they agree with the owner's agenda.  Speaking of which, some of that agenda may have surfaced, as one of the owners took the meeting completely away from the meeting's agenda and decided to discuss the cover charge system.  I disagree with this system as I refuse to ever charge people to hear music on my venue.  I did make a statement to that effect.  I will touch base on the response to that statement later in this blog. It may be one of the few times that I actually cut and paste a conversation as I was so thoroughly disgusted by it.  And I believe that true colors should be shown.   But I am branching....back to the meeting.  The owners seemed to take more of a defensive stand than anything else, yet giving nothing concrete to go on.  If anything, I did hear the owner be blatently rude to many of the same community that they are supposed to be uniting.  One instance that comes to mind was a performer stating that they are used to attending meetings yet nothing being done.....the owner then told the performer that if she felt that way she was welcome to leave.  A wise leader would have responded with that she was right and that is the very thing that we are trying to change, with her help it can be done.  By the way the performer did leave.  The meeting ended with some things being accomplished, the first being that Brett Linden did offer his help in any way that he could within his power.  The second being that we were all aware that the owners would not veto the delegates choices.  There was no date given for a third meeting.

Later that day, the owner decided to vent about the meeting, not seeing where he was being rude.  No it was not directly to me, at the same time though even gave permission for his conversation to be copied and pasted.  I saw the conversation and he had targeted me because I said that BS's would not be a cover charge venue....and then stated that it was not my words but my "tone"  and that I was (please keep in mind this is not a word that I ever use and think it is truly the most disgusting thing a person can refer to a woman as)  
"Tak Still for example... "I
 "I'll NEVER use the cover charge blah blah blah"
 SO true to form
 the WAY she speaks is so.. for lack of a better word.. CUNTY!!!!
 shes most welom to her opinion, but GOD man!!"

Through this conversation I  saw a very demeaning attitude to those that may have passion in their voices, or that feel strongly about something.  I did not copy and paste the entire conversation for a reason....this blog is long now....it would have been twice as long.  I mulled it over for a few days, and decided that I could not give an objective opinion because I felt so insulted and disgusted by this man.  What I do see is a very  hypocritical approach to the very people that he wants to bring together...instead causing more descent than anything. 

At the same time there are those that stay in the group with their own agenda and are using the group to get their foot in the door.  I can not do this as it is extremely unethical in my opinion.  This blog was not meant to bring about the negative aspects only, and I promise there is much more good in SL music than than there is bad.  Overall the people involved are some of the most caring people I have ever met, and the amount of talent in SL is endless.    Some of my very best friends come from the Music community and it reaches into RL as well.  So please do not allow my negative take on this one small aspect to not allow you to see the beauty in SL Music.  Also keep in mind that these are my opinions and not necessarily those of anyone else.

No comments:

Post a Comment