Twit, Twitter, Twiddle Lee Dee
In today’s paper they listed the top ten Twitter All-Stars. Lady Gaga is number one with over 6 million fans following her every tweet. I have 59. Not millions, seriously 59 followers. Admittedly so, I only tweet when I have something important to say and I only say it once in a while. Thus 59. Now if I tweeted everyday and let’s say I let people know when I wake up, take a shower, go to the bathroom and then make some phone calls, who knows maybe my fan base will go up to about 61.
Ok! I’m not a rock star. I can’t sing, well she can’t sing either. Maybe if I change my name to Lord Blah-Blah, I’ll get a few more fans. I can perform in my underwear or nude, that should raise my numbers or lower them depending how you look at it. If people want to see an overweight, balding, aging guitar player perform that way, I’m in! I too can become a super star.
But wait! I may have to stop playing very far out jazz and “God forgive me”, play music the public understands like Pop or Rock or even worse, I would have to play a solid body guitar, loose weight and wear a multi-color wig, tattoos and make-up. Maybe then I can raise my numbers to 101 fans. Hey it’s going up.
Lady Gaga writes her own songs. I compose and write songs with lyrics. When Lady Gaga sings her songs, no one understands the lyrics. When vocalists sing my songs everyone understands the lyrics. Wait! Maybe that’s it! I have to write songs that no one can understand and have singers garble the words, which will make them totally foreign. That’s the key and the answer. I now know the formula to becoming world famous!
Write garbage, play garbage, look like garbage and the worse you are the more the public will love you. Gees, why couldn’t I think of that 30 years ago. You see, that’s what a manager is for. What a wasted career. I could have impacted millions but instead, 59 fans. Hey what can I say? 59 is better than none.
Dom Minasi
Yeah, Dom, but we're the lucky ones: We get to play.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Dom, but we're the lucky ones: We get to play.
ReplyDeleteGood thinking and writing, Dom. Now we are on the same blog site. Go to joanwile.blogspot.com for mine. My latest one -- "STOP THOSE EMAILS" about the proliferation of emails sent me every day on how to enlarge my penis.
ReplyDeleteHello Dom,
ReplyDeleteThe world would be a much sader place without your music. You are one of a kind.
I don't know how I would have gotten through my teenage years if I did not have the chance to watch your fingers fly across the strings. You were amazing and still are.
All your fans in California.
Lucille
Humor is key to survival. Music that moves hearts is key to life. Keep enriching hearts -
ReplyDeletePatricia
Play on Dom and don't worry about the Lady Gagas and all the rest. Just keeping making the music that is meaningful to you and to your fans - - the 59 and beyond - hey, I think I might be your 60th - Your music matters! Keep on keepin' on!
ReplyDeleteDom
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to disagree with the essence of what you say. The public has been enamored for many years with tragedy, death, violence, stupidity, brazen behavior and bad news. The function of art is to counter that. The fact that the negative wins out has always been discouraging but... Our best bet is to do a better job in the promotion and marketing of our art form - the jazz guitar.
We as a group have never done even an adequate job of reaching the public. Since we have a world wide potential audience through the Internet, I hold out hope for significant improvement. It won't eclipse the blatant commercial market but fine art doesn't eclipse cartoons and ballet doesn't eclipse Dancing with the Stars.
Keep creating art!!!
You are so right. I just had to get this off of my chest when I read it. Is this what we have come down too?
ReplyDeleteIt's not what I imagined when I was a kid dreaming of being a jazz player and playing in front of audiences that appreciated the art. But Art is gone and so is mediocrity.
We as a society have reach a new level of 'low'.
Dom
Lady who??? :)
ReplyDeleteMusic is something that comes from your soul. If you are a true musician, your soul shines through and you touch people, move people with the very thing that is such an integral part of who you are. If the 'tune' of your music doesn't reach out and grab someone, or if the words don't have any meaning or make any sense, if the melody doesn't touch someone else's heart.... Well then you were never meant to connect.
Singing does that for me. I'm not American Idol material, but when I sing I am baring my soul for all the world to see. If I can get just one person in my audience to feel how I feel when I sing a song, I've made a deeper connection with that person than hours of intense conversation could ever accomplish.
Real musicians, those who share from the heart, from their soul, they don't need stupid monickers like Lady Gaga, don't need gimicks or smoke and mirrors. They play their instruments (be it guitar or voice or piano or kazoo) with their soul. And if they reach someone else in the process, well that's the magic of it all!
Joanne
PS. You tweet???
ReplyDelete