[Fmpro] One step further.......scab? OT

[Chris Alpiar]

Besides saying that you are offeneded I referred to the eastern european
orchestras as "scab" and you don't like my spelling errors, what exactly is
your point? I suppose you would rather see all the jobs go out of the
country to the lowest bidder, allowing the corporate heads to keep their
bottom line and next quarter's earnings in the black and continue on this
spiral until there is nothing left but a whisper of what was an artistic
form? This trend is the devaluation of our art, business and livelihood. It
is in literal free-fall at the moment and if we don't interject on every
level then we are the ones to blame for its demise and doomed to live in
poverty and all our lifetimes of training and experience be valued equal to
a burger flipper at McDonald's

That is where we are headed, whether you choose to see it or not. The
concept of short term gains without recognition of the long-term
consequences is something that is abundant in our society. It is extremely
prevalent at the moment in the music and entertainment industries which are
in free-fall still from the sudden shift into the download era. And in a
larger picture unfortunately artistic endeavors will never be considered a
commodity or anything more then frivolity to the powers that be. So we must
find a way to unify and decide where we want to collectively be in 20 and 50
and 100 years and figure out what chips we have as a group to lay down on
the table. And as a group make our goals clear and put in place mechanisms
to enforce them. If you don't agree with that then I am afraid you care
nothing for the art of our business and are just another bean counter trying
to make a quick buck with no regard for the consequences of your actions.

If we don't do something soon... In 20 years, maybe less, there will be 1%
of the film score jobs there are today. The value of a composer who spent
10-20 years preparing his/her craft will be equal to that of a minimum scale
computer operator that drags and drops loops onto a timeline. There will be
no more orchestras that have career master musicians, only students that toy
with a dead art like scholars that play with Latin text. Personally I would
rather see the opposite of that! I don't have a complete plan of how to get
there and I don't even know all of the issues involved, but I know that this
path we are on now is one of self destruction. And because everyone is so
scared to lose that next job, and prefer a life of obsequious hob-nobbing,
it needs us now to create a new wave. A wave filled with vitality and energy
and one that wont accept 100k films with oh sorry no budget for the score
can you do it on the back end only? :p Or 400k films that oh sorry we
require a full orchestra recording but we can only pay 5k and force us in
bad positions. 

And lastly it has nothing at all to do with where the orchestras are at or
who sits in the room and plays. It has everything to do with the willingness
of our group of composers to *nod head yes* to unreasonable requests out of
fear. With unity those issues can be washed away.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmpro-bounces+chris=alpiar.com at nxport.com 
> [mailto:fmpro-bounces+chris=alpiar.com at nxport.com] On Behalf 
> Of Tracey Larvenz
> Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 3:03 PM
> To: fmpro at nxport.com
> Subject: Re: [Fmpro] One step further.......scab? OT
> 
> BTW Chris,
> 
> If you're going to take someone to task for their English, 
> I'd take a hard look at your own first.  "Then" should be 
> "than" in most places where you use it.  And I'd be willing 
> to bet you don't have the mother tongue excuse... Inherent is 
> misspelled.  It was fairly pathetic to take shots at someone 
> who speaks English as a second or third language, 
> particularly when your command of grammar and  
> spelling is less than perfect.  How many languages do you speak?   
> When I've travelled and attempted to speak languages other 
> than English, the native speakers were always gracious, 
> accommodating and thankful that I was trying.
> 
> I thought that your reference to European orchestral 
> musicians as scabs was in poor taste.  While it is true that 
> "scab" can refer to non-union players, the common usage of 
> the term is generally derogatory with regards to quality, no 
> matter how you choose to frame it.
> 
> I don't believe that corruption is inherent in anything, 
> politics aside.  It's thinking like that which brings 
> acceptance of corruption and disempowers people to take 
> action against it.  There's a difference between "inherent" 
> and "accepted."
> 
> Tracey Larvenz
> www.melodiousthunk.net
> 
> 
> 
> On Sep 8, 2007, at 3:50 PM, Chris Alpiar wrote:
> 
> > How specifically were you lied to by the UK Musicians Union?
> >
> > I am not saying that the current unions work for everyone, anymore 
> > then Mark's ideals worked in the Soviet Union, but it's the 
> IDEALS we 
> > must stand by and demand or else we just contribute to the 
> continued 
> > spiral down. In every EVERY organization corruption is an inherant 
> > aspect. I don't like to hear you were ripped off, but 
> saying FU to the 
> > whole thing and supporting anarchy will not get you anything either
> >
> >> Dozens of jobs these days for a rock production......  the 
> band, the 
> >> sidemen, the video folk, the sound crew, the catering 
> crew, makeup, 
> >> the guys who travel . riggers/drivers etc...... the folks who sell 
> >> concessions, the folks who sell the tickets, the folks who 
> print the 
> >> tickets, the folks who clean the auditorium etc etc..... 
> I'm sure you 
> >> get my point.
> >
> > Umm if you ever EVER find a rock concert that hires anyone 
> from out of 
> > town much less out of country for anything other then the 
> band and its 
> > entourage please tell me I will come take pictures lol
> >
> 
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