J. LeRoy Self Imposed Writing Assignments 2001

2001.06.15

It is Friday. Next week we have a large conference in Vancouver, BC. I have been getting ready for that, as well as my upcoming gig in Atlanta. One complication is that my circulation in my lower body seems to be suffering from all the computer using I've been doing. So now I can't sit to type or work on music for very long before I'm in pain. Which sucks.

So today I'm going to go do yard work and not sit down. I need to go do some banking for Gray Hill, but otherwise I should be sitting-free.

My daily writing assignments have not been so daily. Such is life.

Last night, John and DigitalCutupLounge had their CD release party in HK. It seems that my collaborations with them are going to increase. The additions to my artistic life are very welcome. Much needed. Sort of an escape from what I'm building professionally which, ironically enough, is also an escape from the corporate world I was a part of for so long. The odd thing there is that my escaping from it has actually exposed me to more of the aspects of it that I was fleeing. The entrenchment, the over-valuing of the process and the under valuing of people and relationships. But, hopefully, that will change very soon.

I want to celebrate people and relationships. This corporate bullshit is tiresome. I understand the need for us to protect ourselves - but the adversarial nature of law is highly counter to my personal nature. Perhaps this is a flaw for me as a business person. I'd like to think not. The frustrating thing is that the folks we are having these discussions with have a widely touted ethic of the value of relationships and entrepeneurism. Certain aspects of their corporation do not seem to be listening to the official rhetoric, however.

Saturday, 2001-06-16 8:41

Been reading Anne Lammott's Bird By Bird which has sat on my shelf for years and years now. It was given to me by a fellow writer. I tried to read it at the time, but it didn't catch. Recently, my lack of money due to starting this new business has inspired me to go and read those books in my stacks that were passed by for one reason or another. Many of these are short story collections which always annoy me. I just get into a character and the story ends. Or the story doesn't continue long enough to establish the character for me. They're just too short.

Dreamed last night that I opened for Arrowsmith and then went to Berlin to play against Autrech. Must have had something to do with the letter A, because I can't think of anything else they have in common - well, Robyn Hitchcock was there (looking quite young) so I guess that with his presence there is no "A" connection. Shortly thereafter I watched a bunch of hicks set fire to an oil slick they'd created in the slough next to their house. It took them quite a while because they were just throwing lit matches into it one by one. The hick who was apparently my guide through hickland told me "Now don't you tell anyone, the government don't like it when we set fire to our oil slicks."

John wrote today that his CD release party was well attended, but the sound system sucked. I haven't responded yet, but it strikes me that most sound systems suck. I think our sound in Olympia worked well the other night because we had a large bass stack. I don't know what the system was like for John - but I don't think one is ever going to get the satisfaction from a live gig that one gets from creating something in the studio if you are going for things like bass response, stereo separation and sound quality.

If anything, you'll at least run into Robert Fripp's annoyance with inanttentive audiences. I'm certain the playing in a club is the ultimate in inattentive audiences - even if they are dancing. Olympia and performance art venues are good for that, I suppose. We did have their attention the other night, which was most rewarding. I expect to be almost wholly ignored in Atlanta. There, the music will be ambient and, therefore, ambience. Not something you are suppose to really listen to. Hopefully the CNN coverage will lead to major galleries in New York importing J. LeRoy and ZXQV to do their ambient music.

I expect to record the whole thing in Atlanta and create a CD or two. Must go build my wife's web site and maybe prepare another track for Atlanta.

27-jun-01 8:57

This is the end of June 2001. I have completed negotiations on a contract which, in the end, does not serve the interests of either party. Initially we wrote a contract that, we felt, served everyone's interests fairly. Counsel for the other side, however, was so fixated on decreasing their legal liability that they rewrote (poorly) every section that they even thought might (just a little bit) cause them some legal liability. In the end, the contract is a crazed mash of sidestepping and has no pretense of being fair, equitable or even remotely friendly. The funny thing is that my side actually gets more from this contract than we did from the original one.

We even tried to warn them that they were doing this. But they wouldn't listen, they were so consumed by their own mistrust of everyone outside their organization that we couldn't even warn them of their mistakes. Very upsetting for me.

I like to deal with people from positions of fairness. I like things to be even partnerships that empower participants to excel. Now I am party to, perhaps even the beneficiary of, a contract that does not deal from any position of fairness or empowerment. It is filled with contradictions, confusion and muddled english.

But the good news is that we are now hard at work satisfying our end of the contract and money is starting to roll in. So we have cash flow, we are starting to glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel.