The long walk yesterday took me to places where I hadn't been before, despite their being proximal or adjunct to familiar areas. I discovered the semi-secret 'hood version of Barton Springs, and it looked like a lot more fun. I hope that not many White folks find out about it, because they'll ruin it, popularize it, and oblige the City to regulate it and charge money for admission. About a half mile south of there, I came upon what I thought to be a drum circle – but no, it was far better. I immediately realized that this were a West African man leading a group of drummers, consisting of both Black and White players. I could tell that the leader were African because he was playing as though his culture depended upon it.
There's all this hoo-ha propaganda about "race," again, which the usual political agenda being re-asserted; all this noise about "taking action against systemic racism," which I'm really tired of receiving e-mails about. The only "action" to take is to expose hypocrisy about it, since that hypocrisy is the only "systemic" thing about it. For example, the government of Austin, Texas has, since the 1940s, pushed Black citizens ever outward from the center of town. Within the past decade, its current Mayor has done more than any other to destroy more multi-generationally Black and Mexican neighborhoods on the East Side and replace them with townhome, McMansion, and condo monstrosities for affluent White people. These new developments may have some "minority" residents, but they ain't holdovers from the 'hood; they're not even from Austin, if at all from Texas. The Mayor squawks out of the mouth of his other face about the need for "affordable housing" to "preserve communities," but that housing wouldn't be affordable for the po' folks whose communities he'd led developers in rendering extinct. Anyhow, they're gone; they'll never grow back. Raise property taxes in low-income neighborhoods – then offer tax abatements to re-develop those neighborhoods. Why wouldn't that have occurred to me? Because I have a shred of moral integrity.
It's that same Mayor who bangs on his can to show his "support" of musicians in Austin, while his shameless, assiduous whoring the city out to developers and techies has made it increasingly difficult for musicians to live in Austin. He's of the ilk in Austin now who refer to going out to hear a band play as "supporting live music," which is like calling going to the zoo "supporting live animals." They couldn't be further divorced from or alien to the musical culture that had both formed and reflected the way of life in Austin that became like an animal kept on a preserve as its natural habitat was encroached-upon by development and tourism, and eventually an animal stuck in a cage for visitors to the theme park to pay money to get photos taken with it. It's just a vague nostalgic notion that gets woven into the mythos upon which the city is marketed to tourists, developers and rich corruption/crime refugees from California.
Musicians are now an officially-designated disadvantaged underclass in Austin. Virtue-signaling bureaucrats pat us on the head or begrudge our company when it can make them feel hip – though they do prefer the name-brand variety, because street cred means nothing to their friends. A broad network of non-profit organizations in Austin administers assistance with financial, medical and other resources to musicians. We take the handouts and benefits because we need them; because the bloated expense of living here impairs certain fiscal responsibilities. We'd rather be able to lead a sustainable life with fewer demands upon time and finances to distract from music-making, especially if we're going to be living in a town where there's still no true presence of music industry, without which the stakes aren't so high, so we should be free to just enjoy playing whatever comes naturally to us.
Meanwhile, the techies do all that they can to financially colonize us, and to usurp our ways and means, by presenting us with this platform or that app which is designed to render us more "connected with fans" while compounding our disconnectedness from one another. Ever since Thomas Edison, techies have been inventing means to exploit musicians with revenue streams just beyond our reach, being beyond our realm of expertise, if not our sense of necessity. There is, from music, money to be made, about which some musicians themselves have no idea, and certainly will never see. Now that any monkey with a laptop (taking one to know one) is considered a "musician," the techies manage to con us into their Ponzi schemes by the empty promise of "exposure," with the implied alternative being the threat of none. One musician advised me, "You gotta get your music out there." "But where?" I responded. Everywhere I've turned, I've found techies managing to earn money off musicians who earn none, with the latter spending money to earn no money. Techies ice this hate-cake with charging musicians for "upgrade" features for which there's no justifiable reason to not include along with the "basic" set, apart from ease-of-use and time-saving on the part of the user – and, of course, the vague promise of greater "exposure."
I feel like some Black activist of yore when I say that musicians should learn to do things for ourselves, and for each other; to strengthen our unity for the sake of our community. However, we let ourselves be overtaken and colonized; we let others decide for us who we are and tell us what we want. We fail to play as though our culture depends upon it.
Now feel sorry for me and buy my music.
[This blog post is essentially in song form, here.]