poetic placement of the day: the new york times article about our volunteer corps of local musicians is next to an article about david byrne’s new book “HOW MUSIC WORKS”…in which he writes about me as an example of someone who creatively crowdsources things. bam. also fun to note: when david byrne guested with the grand theft orchestra a few months ago at the music hall of williamsburg, we paid him…in beer.
I have lots of thoughts about this. They’re pretty much on Amanda’s side.
1) I don’t think the goal here was to cheat musicians but rather to give fans a totally awesome onstage experience because come on, we’d all jam with our favorite musicians given the chance. I get that intent isn’t everything, but c’mon, now, dudes, I think a lot of you are missing the point.
2) A huge implication in a lot of the criticism is that Amanda raising $1 million means Amanda is currently rolling in piles of money backstage and refusing to pay people with it. That’s not how it works.
3) Lots of people offer lots of different services on occasion for free. We’re not talking about her plucking out volunteers for a whole tour—that I’d disagree with—but one night.
4) Keyword “volunteers.”
