Friday, November 19, 2004

LINK DUMP

In which I break still another one of my rules and mention you know who

The letter-writer the Hasidic Musician undresses today is an idiot for two reasons (a) his introductory paragraph is included for the purpose of throwing a little dirt on the customer for being "untraditional" -- as if, letting the bride handle FLOP is something out of bounds, a reason for us to chorus, "well, what do you expect from someone like her."; and (b) maybe, Einstein, if you weren't giving the store away, the customer would have some confidence in your sound. You get what you pay for: remember that?

Al-Jazeera(!) doesn't like Robert Alter, his mother, his friends, his pet cat, OR the new translation of the Bible, Alter recently published. Like we care. Cynthia Ozik, who, so far as we know, is not a Bin Ladin tool, told us weeks ago that, she had looked at all Alter had done, and it was very good. Perhaps on a slow day, I'll run excerpts. Ozik is a treasure.

We're still waiting for the first Jewish Press dvar torah in English, or really I'd settle for any language other than the indecipharable gibrish they most often use.

And today's scoop which you'll see second and third on Protocols and bloghead is this: Yad Vashem to inaugurate an Internet database listing the names of Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

Have a good shabbos. That is all.

6 comments:

PsychoToddler said...

$800 for two pieces isn't exactly chicken feed. She definitely has the right to hear them first.

DovBear said...

It's not chicken feed, but if it really is $700 below the usual rate, I understand the bride wanting to take her time and do a little research. If I were selling $20 bills for a dollar, nobody would buy them. It sounds like the genius letter-writer made this kind of mistake.

Also, the introductory bit about "traditional" Orthodox families doing it one way, but this (implied) low-life bride doing it another, is infuriating.

I hope the idiot starves.

Jack Steiner said...

Nice to see that you figured out the blogrolling bit. ;)

Anonymous said...

I think I posted a response elsewhere in the blog but here it goes....an Idiot you say???? This guy probably gets more gigs by charging less, its called a "buyers market". Do you pay retail at a store too? No, I bet you don't.
I too am a musician and have been doing this more than half my life. I work with alot of the major jewish bands in the NYC area. I also have my own band. True, maybe he needs to have a demo cd, but a referral from a satisfied customer does wonders too. I have it on good authority from speaking to many Jewish musicians, band leaders etc, even non-jewish that you do what it takes to get the client.
His offering two pieces of $800 for a wedding. You have to look at his marketing strategy. Just because one client didn't bite, doesnt mean others haven't. The fellow who wrote the article is someone I have worked with before, and this guy works his butt off for his clients. He told me over the phone that this client he offered it too would have hired him, but she said that the chosson' side had already booked and it wasnt her decision. So, "m'kol m'lamdi hiskalti"

DovBear said...

Yes, an idiot.

He might get more gigs by charging less. But he'd make more money by charging more. Wouldn't you rather do 1 gig for $1000 instead of 5 gigs at $200? This is aleph bays.

Anyway, look what happened. He gave a low price, the woman thought, "hmmm, a low price must mean he isn't very good. I must investigate further." And in the end, he had to spend a lot of time with the customer, and he probably didn't get the gig.

Anonymous said...

Why must you bash this guy who is just trying to make a living? In fact, Ive read alot of your posts on here, you have an incredible lack of respect for anyone who has an opinion that differs from yours.
Learn some tolerance, and maybe some Torah. That may help you learn that you aren't all that and a bag of chips!. You may think he is selling himself short now but just wait till the day you will have to beg and plead with the client to book a job, remember there are now thousands of Jewish bands in the world today.