Yes, Pat, that's exactly what Bruce said that Doug
would be doing now that he's dropping music. And, no,
it's *not* what this is all about.

As Bruce, Bobby, and Jaimie have attested, the music
industry is very rough on indie artists and
entrepreneurs. While we may bemoan the loss of Doug
Powell and others like him to the power pop cause, I
for one don't understand how we can question the
decision of someone in his position to walk away from
it all. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do ...
especially when he's gotta do it for his family, too.
And it seems pretty selfish to me to demand that
someone stick with what's tantamount to a very
expensive hobby that's causing him and his family
financial (and emotional) stress just to satisfy our
aesthetic sweet tooth. That's what I'm getting at with
regard to Bruce's post; he understands, because like
Doug he's in what Jaimie called an "abusive
relationship" with the music industry. But more than
that, Bruce is willing to look at it from Doug's point
of view. Bruce's is the kind of empathy that should be
applauded and emulated.

As for Doug Powell's personal beliefs, I have no idea
why they should be the subject of someone's scorn and
ridicule on Audities. I've been on this list for a
long time, and while there's certainly a lot of room
for disagreement in here about musical matters, it's
pretty plain to me that bashing someone's religious
beliefs has always been considered to be out of bounds
-- especially when that assault is completely
unprovoked. It's pretty obvious that you recognize
this boundary as well, since you acknowledged that
Audities was "definitely not the place to air
religious views". All I'm saying is that you should've
taken your own advice.

Again, by contrast I think that Bruce handled this
well. He said that the basis for Doug's decision might
be "hard to fathom" for many Auditeers, and that it
would "displease a few on this list to hear, or would
at least elicit a groan". But he conveyed Doug's
reasons straightforwardly and honestly and cast no
judgments, other than to say that Doug's courage to
follow his convictions was personally inspirational to
him. Quite frankly, anything that inspires Bruce
Brodeen to keep doing what he is doing is a good thing
that I think any Auditeer should applaud. Heck, how
can anyone begrudge Bruce a pick-me-up for his morale?

I don't know what belief systems other Auditeers hold
(most of them, anyway), and, quite frankly, I don't
want to know. Nor do I think that they want to know
mine. Such matters are almost never relevant to the
musical topic at hand, and introducing them to a
thread is almost certainly both divisive and
digressive. On the rare occasions when the subject of
personal beliefs are relevant to an Audities thread (a
thread about George Harrison's lyrics, say), I would
hope that we could at least treat those with whom we
disagree with a modicum of respect.


Gregory Sager


		
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