<<I must have missed the corporate bashing bit. Many
corporations sponsor events. What's your point? Are
you saying Carl deserves getting canned because he
worked with the city and sponsors?>>
I guess that would be silly. I did get a little carried away with the
picturesque language to the point of naivete, albeit no more naive than
Richie Hawtin with his "can't we all get along? it's about the music"
spiel. Anyway, with all your guys' responses in mind, I'm left with two
points (and I'll try not to call anybody "the Devil" this round, but no
promises):
(1) Richie asks who could ever replace Carl Craig. I will venture the
blasphemy that his shoes could be filled (in his role at the DEMF I
mean). He deserves massive kudos for being the first to organize the DEMF,
but if he fucked up meeting the obligations of his contract (which you have
to admit is at least in the realm of possibility), then any number of
people could replace him and do just as good a job. I thought this year's
lineup left much to be desired (although like I said before, it's a free
party so one can't complain). If Craig's job was to represent Detroit, he
failed. He passed up a lot of local talent for comparable talent from far
away. Not to mention electro, which is half of Detroit's scene, was vastly
underrepresented. If Craig's job was to represent electronic music, he
failed. Whole genres of music, like jungle and trance, were practically
nonexistent. If Craig's job was simply to book
some amazing electronic acts (without representing anything but himself),
then he succeeded. But hell, I could've come up with just as amazing (and
more representative) a lineup, and, given hundreds of thousands of dollars,
implemented it. And there must be thousands of people in Detroit who know
more about techno than I. It's not like Craig is lassoing up a bunch of
obscure diamonds in the rough from the depths of the underground. Look at
the acts at this event: Laurent Garnier, De La Soul (what is De La doing at
an EMF in the first place?), Carl Cox (despite the no show), etc. This is
hardly an underground affair that would require the cache expertise of a
local label guru. (Admittedly Carl Cox is not the most expensive DJ in the
world, but he is the second most expensive.) I agree that it will be a sad
day indeed if they book a bunch of commercial crap next year. But what can
you do? It's their money; it's their call. Hawtin is acting like Craig's
dismissal is a huge shot in the groin for "the music" (by which he surely
means underground
music--Moby/Oakey/Fatboy/Mr.Rock are music too [barely]), but I disagree
with him. It's nice if corporations want to sponsor our shit, but we
shouldn't expect them to or rely on them to. The whole point of "keeping
it real to the underground" (or whatever) is staying away from big money
and big politics, and Craig gave up his affiliation with these underground
ideals when he signed a contract with Ford, Bacardi, Miller, and whomever
else (appropriately enough the "Pop Culture Media" group). Their charity
is nice, but we shouldn't cry if we don't get it, because that only
reinforces their dominion. Ain'a?
(2) Most people hear about problems like these and automatically assume
that it's the evil corporations who are to blame. Isn't it possible that
PCM is telling the truth, that Craig really did fail to meet his side of
the contract? I guess it's a moot point as long as Craig's suit is
pending, but I've got my money on the corporations. (And if their lawyers
are any good, which you can rest assured they are, they probably programmed
subtle loopholes in the contract so they could legally toss Craig at the
drop of a hat.) I don't know exactly what happened, and nobody really does
(well, a few people might, but we won't hear it until court transcripts are
released). It's all too easy to just assume that this is the result of
foul play on the part of the sponsors. But until the dust settles, I see
no reason to prefer that assumption over its antithesis, namely that Craig
brought this on himself by not playing by
the rules established by the corporations that pay his (enormous) bills. I
guess I'll leave this with the closing lyrics on Craig's finest album from
a few years ago:
"Paint will be spilled with the color of blood
This blood signifies all the minds that will be lost in the revolution
This is not a revolution against governments
It is a revolution against ignorance"
Ah yes, the platitudes of art. Viva la revolution. But first I've got to
do something about this recent and inexplicable urge to purchase a Ford
automotive... I'll have to hit up my friendly neighborhood Ford dealer
right after I finish this refreshing Miller Lite. Tsss. Gurgle gurgle. Ahhh!
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