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The importance of being selfish. - July 31st, 2004 |
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(Posted by me to the Scene Rep forums.)
Man, being completely and utterly self-centered is FUN.
I've shut down MIC, stopped writing my Lineup article for the Static Line e-zine, and abandoned my personal website.
I am currently totally ignoring e-mails from at least 3 seperate trackers who I've either been mentoring or who want me to mentor them.
I've recently discovered a case of song ripping, and the ripped version of the song is currently up on both of my old websites, and yet I'm not lifting a finger to expose or correct it.
I'm not judging for any compos or reviewing any songs.
I'm not currently tracking any new songs of my own.
I'm in the process of downloading hundreds of megs of tracker files from various and sundry websites and listening to them at work, where I can make all of my decisions on what to keep and what to delete based solely on what I think of them, rather than on whether or not anyone else might like them.
In other words, I am being a complete and total net DRAIN on the collective resources of the tracking scene, while contributing absolutely nothing to it whatsoever.
Best of all, nobody is clogging my e-mail box with shit-faced diatribes or writing pathetic, scathing posts about me on message boards because they couldn't come to terms with the fact that I was having a bigger impact on the tracking scene than them because I was actually doing things to help other people.
MAN, is this fun. I should've started acting this way in 1996. I would've saved myself a lot of grief and missed sleep.
See ya 'round, suckers.
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Monthly Invitational Compo closes down. - June 6th, 2004 |
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(This was the final update to my Monthly Invitational Compo.)
May's round of MIC was the final round ever. I'm about to get a big
promotion at my hotel job, which means more time at work and more stress to deal with, especially in the beginning.
Theoretically, I could try to keep MIC going, but it would be quite a headache. And then there are fuckheads like
Vizion
and Sergeeo,
among others, who have robbed the tracking scene of much of the fun it once held for me.
This just ain't fun for me anymore, kiddies. And since I see no reason to (literally!) lose sleep over something
that's entirely voluntary and no longer fun to do, the logical thing is to stop doing it. So, MIC is done.
To everyone out there who's stuck with CMC and MIC since nearly the beginning and has voted consistently and ceaselessly,
and even to anyone who only voted once or even just downloaded a song or two, thank you, thank you, and thank you. You
made this little compo o' mine actually mean something, and together we accomplished a lot. We shone a big, bright spotlight
on some kick-ass tunes and yelled to the world, "Come and get it!" And come they did.
And to all of the musicians who've allowed their songs to run in CMC and MIC over time, massive kudos to you all. Some
of my favorite all-time tracks in my collection have come from this compo. Without artists like Vibe, Butch, Pro-Xex,
Dr. Emok, Iwellius, Sphenx, Argh, Samplemaster, Saboteur, SmarTech, Cdnalsi, FleshDance, Gopher, Nightbeat,
Andreas Viklund, LauriT, Prophecy, Gargoyle, HomesickAlien, Dan Nyman, Benefit of the Boomerang, and countless more,
this thing simply wouldn't have been possible. No matter what genres or programs you move on to, I wish you all gallons
of success, big-money music contracts, platinum album sales and millions of screaming groupies. And if you don't get all
that, then I'll leave you with the fact that in some small way, each of you changed my life, and for the better.
Big congrats to Butch for capping one hell of a CMC/MIC career with a huge win in May's compo. Download his song,
check out May's results, and have a nice life. As radio DJs used to say, see ya on the flip-side.
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Hermit - June 1st, 2004 |
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(Originally written for Scene Zine Issue #15,
which didn't get published until August 16th, 2004.)
"Everyone has enemies, Jack. Jesus had enemies."
-Tom Clancy, "Executive Orders"
Man, this tracking scene is pretty cool! It's sure fun to be a part of, but I don't want to just be a consumer. I want to help! I need to think of some way to contribute to the tracking scene. Hmm... what can I do that would be helpful and useful?
Hey, I know! I'll hook up with a reviewing site and start writing reviews! No, wait, that's not a good idea. If I rate songs too strictly, everyone will yell at me for being such a prick. And if I rate songs too softly, everyone will yell at me for inflating people's egos.
Wait, I've got a better idea! I'll start up a website full of tips for how to track better! No, wait, that won't work either. People will tell me that I'm stifling the creativity of new musicians, and they'll pick fights with me over tips they disagree with.
Hmm... I guess I could hook up with an e-zine and put together a list of good new tracks every month, so I won't have to risk insulting anyone with a negative review. No, actually, that's no good either. Then I'll just have people criticizing me over my taste in music, and artists yelling at me because I left their song out.
Maybe I'll just run a tracking competition, and get a few of my friends to be judges. Wait, what am I thinking? That'll have the same problems, with people yelling at the judges over why they rated this song so high and that one so low, and how they're just biased against trance or gabber or whatever.
Okay, I'll just make it a public-voting compo, so there's no judging-bias. No, scratch that... if I let an unlimited number of songs in, people will complain they have to download too many songs. And if I limit the number of entries, it's just like judging, and people will still complain that I left their song out. And then there'll be idiots who will try to stuff the ballot box and vote multiple times and cast fake ballots to throw off the results. Plus if I run a compo, it won't work unless I promote it. And if I promote it, people will complain that I'm spamming too much.
Okay, forget the compo idea... wait, I know! I have a friend with lots of web space and bandwidth, and he likes tracker music too! We can start an archive and let people upload and store their songs! Nobody could possibly complain about that... unless something goes wrong with the server or the bandwidth slows down, and then we'll have lots and lots of people sending us angry e-mails over how crappy our site is. So that won't work.
Maybe I'll just stick to writing music and releasing tracks. That's sort-of contributing to the tracking scene, even if I'm not really helping anyone else. Or wait, no, then I'll have people criticizing my music, telling me it sounds too much like some other song, or that it's too mainstream, or that it's too weird. And then I'll get weirdo's telling me that if I don't write enough songs, then I'm worthless as a musician anyway.
Now that I think about it, there's nothing I could really do to help the scene without being criticized for it. Heck, I've even done some of that criticizing myself before, but I've never really thought about the harm it could do. Hmm... maybe I could write an article about that for an e-zine and get people to think about how negative they can be. No, I'd better not. People would just criticize me for being so preachy and moralistic or call me a hypocrite, and it's not like it'd do any good anyway.
I guess I'll just stick to downloading songs and avoid any and all contact with anyone else in the scene. Sure, I'll be adding to the bandwidth strain on all these websites, but nobody will know I'm doing it, so nobody will be able to criticize me. Screw everyone else. I'll be happy, and that's all that really counts, right?
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