Cracks in this fine social scene
Prologue:
This is NOT sour grapes. The MPs barely bothered entering this year(see Pam's post below). I like the MAMAs. This is an effort that literally puts instruments in the hands of young people. I love that Madison acknowledges it's own struggling musicians with an event. Rick Tvedt is a good man. He puts a ton of effort into celebrating the Madison music collective. Props to him and his organization.
The system is flawed. An award ceremony in our little berg is a sham. Simulated self-importance is not our strength Madison. Want to celebrate our quality and diversity and help the city's youth music programs? How about pointing the red carpet toward the School board meetings(and elections) and effecting change at the base level instead of patches on the surface? How about a true convergence of music talent in the schools? I spoke last year on my distaste for music teachers. Now if Clyde Stubblefield or Felicia Alima had visited my music room instead of the weirdos and nut cases that I had for music teachers, then maybe I could be excited about music education in the schools.
Madison's eastside is a mash-up. Where the scent of Monty's meatloaf and lao Laan Xang's green curry mix, lies the Barrymore theater. While lacking the snap of the Union Theater, it characterizes the duality that is the Madison music scenette. This is no more apparent than a glance at the front door Saturday night. A stretch limousine is blocked from parking under the marquis by a BMW boxer twin ridden by well dressed award recipients (without helmets or glasses). A gorgeous blonde emerges from her rusty Chrysler K car, a wagon with "I Closed Wolskis" bumper stickers no less, dressed to the tens in a black evening gown and heels. Mr. Roberts music fans smoke joints and drink PBR from a can with prom dress wearing MAMies.
I have an organization disorder so, I love lists. Here's my yin vs. yang of WAWA2007:
•Miss Madison(from Kenosha?!) leggy and bejeweled meets Mr. Madison (Tyranena tank top, crusty brewers visor, shorts and sandals w/ brown socks!) for a Spotted Cow
•St. Vinnies fedora and Chuck Taylor wearing eastside nouveau-hippy meets black tux wearing tourist in the Youth Award ceremony
•Electronic award winner acknowledges his laptop while MAMA's show production folks curse theirs (too many of that Bob_Westphall_band.jpg file maybe.)
•WORT's Sybil gets Iraq war dig in while Beloit's Blink182 wanna-bees drive up in suvs with Bush/Cheney bumper stickers and anti-abortion t-shirts.
•One of Madison best bloggers meets one of Madison's worst
•660 people voted in the MAMAs this year. That many ran outside to smoke during the Broadjam speech
•Einstein Wireless guy gets bluetooth headset commercial in while gracious Emerson music school teacher bangs her head with the new(used) violin they ceremoniously gave her.
•Both Dog and God get mentioned in acceptance speeches
•Twenty consumer video camera's buzz the event while the real press cover more important events like high school baseball games
•"How about those Brewers" vs. Clyde Stubblefields passionate acceptance speech
•White tux meets Black Carhart overalls at men's urinals
Speaking of duality:
Felicia Alima mentions her MySpace site not once but twice in her acceptance speeches. MYSpace is dead dear. Move on!
The crowd sings happy birthday not once, but twice (poorly) WTF! Let the Gomers play if you need filler
Two DJs in DJ of the Year cat. and no Nick Nice? hm.... (no disrespect to
And down to single jabs:
Was there really only one entry in some of the categories. So one really can buy themselves a MAMA if they plan right?
Do
Does The New Kentucky Quarter really play Rock songs?
Can we finally decree that Rock bands and church choir ensembles have been overdone?
The MAMAs without Blunt just ain't complete.
Noticed that the MAMAs has a theme song for 2oo7. Sounded kinda Love Boaty. Nice!
posted by Robin at 10:51 AM
9 Comments:
Great account! I chose not to attend the MAMAs this year -- not because I am swamped with the diss, and not because I don't support music education, but because I cannot stand the self-congratulatory pomposity that underpins the event. Doesn't the fact that a band can BUY an award undermine the integrity of any award ceremony? Forget merit, you just need $ for recognition, as always. Call me a party pooper, but I enjoyed working last night in Escape Cafe, where, in another room, an open mic was showcasing some truly unique talents.
p.s. On a totally different subject, my blog finally has some content:
www.hoochiekoo.blogspot.com
As Robin said, hats of to Rick for promoting such a worthy cause and being a huge supporter/promoter of the Madison music scene. I like that he's trying to do something other than the typical 3 band benefit/fundraiser show (it shows a little creativity).
Unfortunately, I don't think the size of "the scene" can support a full blown, yearly awards ceremony. There's no denying that we've got a ton of talent in this town. But, we're smack dab in the middle of the "awe shucks, golly geeh" upper midwest were it's culturally awkard to "toot ones own horn."
A few more comments:
1) I wish the MAMAs good luck for the future.
2) I hope they get Blunt back on stage!
3) Wish I'd been there to see Ed Feeny doing the Pete Townsend windmills on stage.
4) Get back to the library!
TDH does and doesn't play electronic music, though the track that we submitted for best Electronic Song definitely fit the bill. Notice that we didn't even bother with the "Electronic Artist" category, do you have to be specifically an eletronic artist to produce an electronic song? Anyway I do agree that many of the categories were a little on the sketchy side. Heck, the instrumentalist category only had 2 nominations...when I went to vote, there were quite a few submissions(more than 2 artists worth)...when the MAMAs had announced the nominees at the Brink Lounge awhile ago, Barb Cheron was nominated 3 times with 3 different songs...NICE!
The MAMAs sure strike me as a giant circle jerk for local egos. I went last year, and was mildly amused and disgusted by what a giant joke the whole fake red carpet-video camera-mic in your face-let's pretend we're not really midwesterners schtick.
The online voting is awkward, there was no flow to the process or the web pages, and if the goal was to raise money and instruments for the local schools, doing a benefit instead of a mutual admiration society sure would have worked better.
People get obsessed over these local awards, and it can ruin friendships, break up bands and pump otherwise nearly healthy sized egos into monsters.
I play music because it's how you keep your head from blowing apart, because it's a conversation, not a competition, and because it makes me happy as hell to make good noises with my tribe.
I don't really understand why pressuring your pals into a cumbersome voting system to slap yourself on the back is so attractive.
The crowd sings happy birthday not once, but twice (poorly) WTF! Let the Gomers play if you need filler
Dude,
It really WAS my Mom's bday and I came up with the idea weeks ago as a very unique bday gift and then Contessa stole my thunder and f*cked everything up for my bit. Oh, well. She'll still love the DVD and if I want I can overdub some quality singing and she'll never know! :)
John
Well, I, for one, find the whole event to be a gas. You can't take it too seriously, if you really want to enjoy it. For me, one of the things I like about it is that it shows how much music is happening in the area. No, not everyone is represented, but I believe it is necessary to opt in to be included, so many area musicians are excluded as a result. I must admit that it doesn't make the local scene look particularly vibrant when you see musicians and/or artists winning in multiple categories. And what's the deal with Primitive Culture winning a "World Music" award? PC is a fine group of musicians, and I don't know what category I would put them in, but I would never have considered them "World Music." You might as well award The Motor Primitives "Classsical Artist of the Year." Yes, there was a lot of back slapping and schmoozing going on, but I don't think most of the participants took it all that seriously. Of course, I could be wrong. However, if the point of the whole ceremony is to put instruments in childrens' hands, I can't help but wonder how many instruments you could buy for the cost of this event. Further, no one seemed to address the fundamental problem facing music education and education in general - THE REVENUE CAPS! Where was the information regarding why this problem exists in the first place? Apparently, the policy was that no "political" statements were allowed, but the Alakrity member in the anti-choice t-shirt wasn't required to change it before going on stage. I suppose it was a flawed event, but I still thought it was a hoot.
At the risk of running on, here's another thing I like about the MAMAs.
When I was young and childless, I used to get out to see music much more than I do now. When my children were young, I actually quit playing for a number of years. Now that I'm playing again, but still a parent, when I'm not out for rehearsals or gigs, I want to be at home, so I rarely get to hear or see other musicians. The whole issue of buying an award is one of which I must claim ignorance. I'm not disputing it, but for me, the MAMAs are an opportunity to connect with old friends as well as to get an idea of what music is happening in the area. Having so many local musicians in the same building at the same time happens only once a year, and I appreciate the fact that they are using the event to help fund music education. I hope it continues.
Ed, you're dead on about the real problem behind the shortage of instruments. The idea that we have to do benefits to supply what our tax dollars should be doing strikes me as ugly.
I'd much prefer to see all this pointless competition and ratcheted up "look at me I'm a talented artist!" energy put into doing a celebration instead of a zero sum competition where there's winners and losers and Broadjam in the middle raking in cheap promo and pushing their business model in an attempt to suck more money out of local musicians.
Maybe it just boils down to why we play music, and how it feeds our monkey brains.
The way it's been done the last two years just seems like a meltdown of overamped ego energy.
It turned me off last year when I went to the awards, and this year an obsession over winning another MAMA by somebody I spent five years playing music with had a lot to do with ending a long friendship and my involvement in a band I liked.
I don't need awards to know when things are right, just a guitar and an amp and a few people to groove with.
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