f your reason for not wanting tapers at shows is because tapers are "not at the show, really" since they're so "distracted" and "distracting", then why do you allow people to photograph your shows then?

i don't find either kind of documentation particularly distracting

but i think show taping is sort of dumb and show photography is not

the reason is: rock show photography takes a moving thing and freezes it as a still image. in the process of doing this, some aspect of that moving thing is revealed. in a good picture, the photo reveals something about the moving thing that the viewer would otherwise miss. the camera can get closer to the subject than the audience can get, it can throw the subject into high relief, it can capture things that the audience member cannot see.

rock show taping attempts to capture the most important aspect of a rock show: the audio. but the tape cannot be louder or more overwhelming than the show. it will not sound better than the show. the audience member is far more likely to hear things at the show that will not be on the tape than vice versa.

earplugs, well, life's more fun w/o them, until you come home from a three-week tour and find your ears ring constantly for two months. then you'll want to get fitted for some decent plugs.

I usually prefer the sound of earplugs, because it seems like most PA systems are setup by people who are deaf, and therefore mix waaaay too loud and with far too much harsh midrange and high end. They don't really bother me when I'm playing music, but that's probably because I don't do much singing.

A few times I've even worn those shotgun ear protectors and a surgical mask, but it was an affectation too cumbersome to keep up.

mb

I wasn't talking about people playing at shows wearing earpulgs, at all. That is perfectly understandable. I was talking about wearing earplugs if you're in the audience.

Snorlax wrote:to see the skinny guy rock back and forth like he's autistic

...and what kind of idiotic statement is this?

i'll bet that your only exposure to an "autistic person" was that fucking movie, "rain man". i'll bet that you saw "awakenings", too, and left the theatre tearfully blessing oliver sacks.

autistics don't rock--they spin, they flap their hands, they use self-inflicted pain to vent their frustrations, they have echolalic tendencies, they avoid eye contact, and a lot of them are mute, or are completely nonverbal. i have worked with autistic children for two years, and out of all the ones i've met, observed, and researched, i have yet to see one that rocks back and forth like steve.

and furthermore, steve is NOT autistic.

it completely deflates your whole argument when you make stupid, base comments like these. it stands to reason that many of your other points are stupid and base as well.

jet

I think if Snorlax would have said "skinny guy rocking back and forth like he has vertigo," this never would have happened.

probably.

jet

Snorlax wrote:If "Shellac" didn't feel that way at least some of the time, Bob wouldn't have wanted a copy of your Halloween show at Lounge Ax for himself, you and Todd, and the people he gave copies to who apparently eventually leaked it to the internet, where everyone who has been dying to hear it finally can.

wait - there's a copy of that? the sex pistols/misfits show? how do i get it? whasahoosit?!

i actually remember being kinda bummed that i didn't get to hear shellac songs at that show. but shellac w/david yow was pretty awesome! i was coming in from out of town, and didn't know about the whole chicago/halloween show tradition thing.

[quote="jet"][/quote]

I thought what he says was kinda funny. It's not like he was really making fun of autistic people.

hey--

even considering what i do for a living, it wouldn't offend me if he made fun of autistic people--that's not the bent i was taking. and i wasn't mad that he was being dismissive of steve's idiosyncracy--it's not as if other people don't rock back and forth...take, for instance, the guys in the ex, or even myself (i have a bad habit of even doing it as an audience member).

what i was griping about was the plain ignorance that snorlax displayed by making such a comparison. for fuck's sake, if you're going to make fun of people, do it in an educated way. when it's more than apparent that you don't know what you're talking about, people stop listening, no matter how good your argument had been up to that point.

that's all i really care about.

regards,
jet.

Jet-

First of all, shut up. Your 2 years of working with a small percentage of a much larger group of people doesn't give you nearly as much experience as you'd like to think you have, so you're in no position to tell me that I am wrong. Case in point:

"The behaviors exhibited by children with autism are frequently the most troubling to parents and caregivers. These behaviors may be inappropriate, repetitive, aggressive and/or dangerous, and may include hand-flapping, finger-snapping, ROCKING, placing objects in one's mouth, and head-banging. "

Now, I may be wrong... but I think it's safe to say that the quote above (taken from the Autism Society of America's webpage) proves me right, considering the collective experience of their 20,000 members and 35 years of existence gives them thousands of years more experience than the two years you have. Is that "educated" enough for you? Maybe I'll add footnotes to my posts from now on just to appease you.

By the way, I have no idea why you felt the need to say "and furthermore, steve is NOT autistic." I said "like". What do you have, ADD or something?