17 concert

I did not listen to the whole concert, only Dan's piece. I sometimes forget how strange non 12 music used to sound to me, years ago, so I can understand that folks who have rarely, if ever, listened to something as unusual as 17 would find it hard to listen to. For me, the issue now is the music itself; I really don't care what tuning a piece is in, each tuning has it's good and bad points. And for those who find 17 too weird or whatever, it's somewhat amusing, since a lot of 12 tone music sounds way the hell out of tune to me these days, cause it is. But, I would imagine that most people don't even notice that fact.
I told Dan that I thought his piece reminded me of a tune from a strange Broadway musical, and it did...maybe he'll write one someday, and I'm sure it will be a formidable work. What I don't like is comments from folks that are meant to hurt; I've always appreciated it when people comment on what they like or dislike about a piece (or anything, for that matter) in a peaceful way, stating why they didn't like what they heard, and leaving it at that. I've had a lot of reviews myself over the years, and if somebody doesn't like what I do, no problem. There is a way to say that, however, that doesn't try to offend. I think when a person does say something nasty about a piece of music, or art, it says a lot about the kind of person that they, themselves, are. I've had people tell me to my face that they couldn't listen to certain pieces of mine, but it was ok, cause they weren't trying to insult me as a person...they explained how the piece made them feel, which is exactly what I want to know in the first place. And if it makes them feel something that they don't want to deal with, for whatever reason, that's ok with me. I never expect/assume that everyone will like what I do.
Peace in the valley, man, that's where it's at to me. I have most of the assholes weeded out of my life these days, and I try to keep it that way. But, whenever an artist puts their work out for the public to experience, anything can happen...but, I think Dan has a pretty good sense of humor about these things, and I hope Jacob does, too, cause in the field we're in, we sure need it...Hstick
myspace.com/microstick PS...there's pics of the NYC fretless fest up at unfretted.com; click on fretless festivals, then NYC 2006...

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]