Re: Laptops

["todd reynolds" <toddreyn@gmail.com>]

well, as I see it, we've covered these six types of musicians... 

1. Those who use a laptop and who aren't boring... 
2. Those who use a laptop and who bore us to tears.
3. Those who use hardware only and who aren't boring.
4. Those who use hardware only and the blinking lights don't save us from the boredom.
5. Those who use a hard and soft ware combination and who are interesting to watch therefore avoiding the boring thing, but who sometimes have to look at their laptop anyway but not so much that it would bug you .
6. Those who use a soft and hard ware combination and fall into the same boring trap of the other boring folks... 

Does that cover it now?  Given that there is at least one from each group on this list, or if not, in the universe, and given that there are enough strong and disparate viewpoints to go with each person on the list, and given that on any given night, any of us might feel differently about one of those people's performance and technique depending on what we ate for dinner, and finally, having the impression that the best situation here lies in the paradoxical meeting of  it all... i feel the lines starting to blur... 

I know I'm a buddhist, and a californian, but if I say "s'all good"  will y'all laugh at me?

For the record, I belong to club number 5.  (could you tell?)

And I concur with Krispen, and half of what everyone else has said... 

todd

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,
but the point is that what does the laptop have to do with any of this as a
general rule? Nothing that I can see, as I can
easily imagine a counter-example that involves the laptop, or a similar
example that doesn't involve the laptop. I believe
counter-examples still cary some weight these days in the world of reason
correct? So we factor the gear out of the
equation and limit the discussion to the individual behavior of the
performer and the subjective resonse of the viewer.
Eveything in between these two things seems to be incidental.

Kris

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Travis Hartnett" <

>> As an audience member, I prefer that I be able to easily tell the
>> difference between the performing musician and someone checking their
>> email while the output of their iTunes is pumped through the PA.
>>
>> All the laptop performances I've seen have featured a musician who
>> stares at the computer most of the time.  I know there's exceptions,
>> but this has been my experience.
>>
>> TH

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