Re: Laptops

["Travis Hartnett" <travishartnett@gmail.com>]

I prefer to watch someone boring play guitar, piano, bass, drums, or
sing while staring at their shoes versus someone typing at a computer.
 For me, typing and mousing hold zero visual interest.  I'll watch a
video of Glenn Gould playing, with the sound muted, but there's no way
I'm watching a laptop battle under the same circumstances.

If the musician in question has a traditional instrument feeding a
laptop, that's different, although watching someone play guitar (or
whatever) while they stare at a laptop screen is usually less
satisfying to me than just watching them play guitar.  It always feels
like a barrier between the performer and me when they focus on the
screen.  I saw a full band recently that had a lot of things being
triggered off a lap top...which was dead center on the stage, on a
keyboard stand in front of the bassist/keyboardist.  I found it's
placement to be quite distracting, despite how good the music was.

TH

On 6/14/07, Krispen Hartung <khartung@cableone.net> wrote:
> [not addressing Travis specifically, but just the general group]
>
> To be fair here, we could also point out that there are musicians who
> standup and use hardware that can come across
> just as "uninteresting" as some sit-down laptop users.  What's more
> "uninteresting", watching a laptop musician check
> his email all night, or a stand-up guitarist checking the time on his 
>wrist
> watch all night? I'm sure it varies by observer,