G U I T A R D E D !

After a luxuriously long weekend in Boston discussing the future of media, where the ad world is headed, and why Tropicana’s package design change failed, I prepare to return to New York eager to put these ideas into action.

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And what’s the result of all this media-blabber?  I’ve quit Facebook.  Again.  I feel how I imagine smokers feel after quitting for the umpteenth time.  Except there’s no real quitting, just deactivating.  Which is Facebook’s way of knowing I don’t have the willpower to hold out when the withdrawals start.

It’s probably a bad career move for a musician to not participate in these new outlets.  But, like my favorite comedian, Louis CK (who recently publicly closed both his Facebook and MySpace accounts), I’ve been feeling like I have to use them.  Admittedly, I got on the boat pretty early - back when you still needed a “.edu” to join Facebook.  But I never got comfortable bombarding friends with gig announcements (when I had them).  Maybe it’s great for networking, for establishing and (dare I say) maintaining all those pseudo-relationships that make the music “biz” go around.  (Please punch me if you ever hear me talk about music as “the biz” or “the industry”.) But I’ve never gotten much (mammon or otherwise) from those sorts of relationships that aren’t founded on anything more substantive than “friendship” on the information superhighway.

MySpace, on the other hand, I avoided like the plague.  From the beginning it smelled like a used car salesman’s lot.   I know it’s useful for checking out new music and knowing about shows and blah blah blah blah.  It just drives me nuts to use it and it’s not a lasting innovation that actually makes the world a better place.  In retrospect, it looks to have been more of a place-holder until something better came along.  Now that Google and Lala have hooked up, finding music is a breeze and any artist who doesn’t post their gigs on their website doesn’t deserve to have people attend them.  Call me hermetic, but I don’t want to socially interact with every band I’m interested in.  Mostly, I just want to hear and see good live music.

The experts and futurists themselves are unsure where this social media beast is headed.  Thus far, the beast appears overfed.  I think a calorie-restricted diet would do it well.  So here’s to feeding the beast only when there’s some bucheron, kalamatas, and a fresh baguette around.  Enough white noise for now.  Until the withdrawals kick in and I reactivate my Facebook account.