Re: Laptops

[midifriedchicken@comcast.net]

It seems it depends on the genre, audience, venue etc. There are some top DJs that command huge fees, play to massive crowds and have very succesful careers playing laptops. Crowds love 'em, Girls Blow 'em, and all the while they are simply tapping away at a mac. Go figure.

 

-------------- Original message --------------
From: "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 f ull 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 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,
>