10.34
Rising 06.45.
Morning Sitting. Morning reading, writing with accompaniment.
I Advance Masked – Day Twenty-Seven...
14.34
Kicking The Wasps’ Nest…
April 2020
The Wasps’ Nest is currently buzzing as volubly as ever with matters that reasonable people may debate (to quote Henry Kissinger). Some of these seem to centre on the reasonable customs and expectations of a promotional event (to quote Doug Tingvall). For a longer presentation of Mr. Tingvall’s arguments, they are on the EGM Diary for 12april2020…
https://www.dgmlive.com/diaries/Robert%20Fripp/rf-diary-april12-2020
… and this is the Facebook page…
https://www.facebook.com/robert.fripp.96/posts/3424738877542118.
I believe this is the first time that autography is cited as being contractually-based, noting that Mr. Tingvall, a not-bad musician-by-night, is a lawyer by day. My own legal background is that of a seventeen-year old studying law of tort and contract at Bournemouth College in evening classes.
In the Anglo-American common law, formation of a contract generally requires an offer, acceptance, consideration, and mutual intent to be bound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract.
I was struck by the notion of an invitation to treat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract#Invitation_to_treat.
One Answer for Mr. Tingvall…
DT: Wasn't the purpose of Mr. Fripp's appearance at the record store to greet fans, take pictures and sign autographs?
RF: No.
So much for mutual intent to be bound, then.
Four Questions regarding a Contractual Agreement for Mr. Tingvall…
DT: …the artist has chosen to voluntarily participate in a promotional event of value to the artist…
RF: What value does Mr. Tingvall believes accrued to me from the event?
DT: …their fans who enable them to make a living.
RF: How?
DT: …we’re not just talking about a legal obligation …consideration is defined as a benefit to the promisor or detriment to the promisee. The act of coming to the record store promotion and waiting in line to meet the artist constitutes consideration to fulfill reasonable expectations in light of the nature of the event.
RF: Mr. Tingvall is a lawyer. Is it his professional opinion that there was a legal contract extant / in effect between the attendees at the record store in Kansas City, and myself, that evening in 1979?
RF: What are those reasonable expectations in light of the nature of the event that I was (perhaps contractually obliged) to meet, please?
I note:
Fan expectations are determined by fans.
The reasonable expectations of fans are not.
The nature of “reasonable expectation” has changed significantly since 1979;
and then significantly since c. 1984/1993/2000/2007/2014.
When KC were playing at Park West in Chicago (I believe either November 2000 or November 2003 https://www.dgmlive.com/tours?liveshow=on) a car of fans followed Pat Mastelotto and myself back to our hotel. As we got out of the car, I was approached for autography and declined. Pat had to stop the fan from following me into the foyer and punching me out.
An (almost) commonplace of fan reportage, for perhaps thirty years, is along the lines of…
Fripp is an exceptional musician.
Fripp is also a terrible human being - because he doesn’t do all the reasonable things that fans want and expect him to, and they’ve already paid for – so get signing!
I don’t recall seeing a post that suggests these two issues are related, and maybe necessarily so.
Back to Mr. Tingvall…
DT: …the imposition to the artist of giving an autograph (again, in the context of a record store promotion) is slight compared to the joy brought to the fan.
I am not sure of Mr. Tingvall’s criteria for this value judgement, but I find the assertion highly problematic and transgressive. Reading Fripp’s commentaries in print and online, consistently over three or for decades, I would have come to the conclusion that the imposition to the artist was considerable, given the cumulative effect was for Fripp to abandon live performance after December 4th. 2010.
KICKING THE WASPS’ NEST…
October 2017
RF: (Re: Dallas Royal Package; October 24 2017 https://www.dgmlive.com/news/dallas-royal-package?fbclid=IwAR2CixMt_kkSKeBRW3fYWWKcTQhqEGrbd-vQ7-ycwUM878AbQ2MswtVisuM). As if with family and friends, a surreptitious snap caught me unprepared. That is, this was not a context in which I had put up my protective shield. I remain surprised at the degree of hurt that I experienced. Some are perhaps unpersuaded, unknowing, uncaring of the impact of their seemingly small acts - It's only a photo! Get over it, dude!
October 24 2017
Bill McKinley WTF are you gibbering about? Princess and the pea...
October 25 2017
Jorge Kulionis Dear Roberto, sorry none of your psychiatrists haven't help you yet. Do not give up.
RF: Some who enjoy KC music are unconvinced that my experience of photography has validity…
October 25 2017
Ash Armstrong
I've been a fan of King Crimson's music since the days of Larks' Tongues and Starless but, as is the case with various other musical entities I like and admire the art of, the personalities involved in making the music can often be pretentious dicks.
Ash Armstrong …I'm in it for the music. Musician's gnomic utterances are mostly just plain silly (sic).
RF: In his second comment, should Mr. Armstrong’s apostrophe be after the s?
Holy Christ, Robert! Is it not enough that your own bassist takes snaps all over the place, and yet the people who support your bands very existence can not? You have been in the public eye for half a century. Pictures are taken. Unless you are sitting on the can or engaged in intimate relations, it can be assumed some one will take a picture of you. Your very contempt at the paying audience members who still follow you religiously, to this day, is indeed a character flaw. I myself have no interest of pictures of you or the band and I courteously follow your draconian concert decrees abidingly. But you’re starting to turn off people who have devotedly fed the Crimson kitty over all these years.
RF: Mr. Bowman highlights recurrent themes:
RF’s disregard of the commercial imperative when engaging with audients;
this interpreted as a violation of professional obligations towards them;
this interpreted as contempt for them;
this interpreted as a character flaw.
What has changed fairly recently is the growth in audient responses, broadly supportive of the view that the supposed norms of current professional Performance Practice are worthy of debate…
Sarah Metivier Schadt: I’ve witnessed this at just about every Crimson show I’ve ever attended, but that first night in Philadelphia I was struck by the sudden connection in my mind: this is no different from a woman saying, “hey, I had a really nice time, I just don’t kiss on the first date,” and the man grabbing her and forcing her to kiss him anyway because she “owes” him. This behavior comes from a place of arrogance and entitlement where there is no room for courtesy or respect. It made me powerfully angry and made our job of sending goodwill to the audience all but impossible for me during the encore. Good thing it was a shortened one.
Sarah Metivier Schadt “Jeez, lady, I took you out and bought you a nice dinner and now you want to keep your clothes on? Are you mentally ill, or just ungrateful?” THIS attitude is exactly the same as THAT attitude. I know the people who need to read this probably won’t, and even if they did, they would probably be unwilling to entertain this line of reasoning, but it’s difficult to stay silent when this blatant lack of basic human courtesy is seemingly everywhere.
Chris Smith My wife's analogy; if you were explaining something really important - and complicated - to someone, and in the middle of your explanation they rummaged about, got a camera out, and started taking pictures: you'd stop talking. It's really, really obvious from stage when someone does this, and it's really, really off-putting. And I don't have much to say, and all of it simple.
Bill Winslow Whether the argument of this comment has any merits, there is an attitude at the bottom of it which seems to regard the purchasing a ticket as a license to take what the artist is not there to give. Fripp does not prohibit photography anyway, but merely controls it. The way I look at it, he is finding a way to have more normalcy on people seems not what a Crimson fan ought to do. If Fripp has quirks or parameters around how he makes his music why begrudge him as much when it comes to his public appearances. End lecture.
Paul Murray In Dallas, there were signs on the stage, two on screens, RF's recorded announcement before the show, and the house manager also made an announcement at the end of the intermission. Yet people still took photos and recorded, including one man who decided to start filming Robert Fripp from the 3rd row during Schizoid Man. I know, because I was the one who asked him to stop, and I was greeted with a blank stare and indignation by someone who clearly had no idea he'd done anything untoward. I'm not sure the biggest KC fan is attributing insanity to the right group of people.
RF: DGM office discussion (Tuesday morning 11august1998) between David Singleton and myself…
What might characterise the "new world" from the "old world" may be nothing more than a change in perception. That is, the "new world" may be the same as the "old world" but seen differently.
Perhaps dopey postings are merely the products of youthful silliness? Not. They are a frequency range. Dopey postings are available to us all, at whatever age and level of experience. They have accompanied me throughout my professional life; in their first incarnation as press reviews and commentaries; in their second through online fanzines; in their current incarnation via social media and online postings.
From a wide point of view, Performance is the Creation in microcosm: pretty much everything is there, within an observable framing and extent in time, to the degree that we wish to participate. Heaven, Hell and what is in between. Performance goes everywhere we do: into areas of celebration, ritual, entertainment and worship; cultures mass, popular and all-parts-of-the-brow.
It is impossible to convey how much Music wishes to be heard.
It is difficult to exaggerate how hard we try to shut it out.
