Just before Christmas last year while Danielle and I were at the gym, we found ourselves subjected to the inevitable imposition of mass-media domination coming through the hanging television sets, in the form of a reality-based show about one of music's most popular Hip Hop stars' life as a father. This particular episode chronicled his travels to Europe for an awards show with his family, and their disgust over the beautiful foreign cuisine they were served as they pined for chicken wings. In fact, chicken wings were so important to this man and his wife that the fate of their entire trip depended on it.
Nevermind the 5-Star hotel and spa treatments; nevermind the constant doting by their endless crew of assistants; nevermind the respect of the German people when they were being talked to as if they were Americans, and then chastised for not understanding, even though it's their own country. No, the very happiness of these ridiculously wealthy, famous people was contingent solely on chicken wings. And in witnessing this display of arrogance and disrespect, I had never before felt more embarrassed to be a professional in the Entertainment Industry.
I had a very similar reaction when (again at the gym) we saw Oprah Winfrey nod in agreement when basketball legend, Michael Jordan, said on national TV that he doesn't give change to homeless panhandlers because if they can say, "Do you have any spare change, [they] can say Welcome to McDonalds," seemingly oblivious to how many millions of Americans just adopted that philosophy as their own, while also so ignorantly forgetting that a person needs an address and a phone number to apply for a job. Moments like this haunt and force me to question my purpose in life. They make me doubt that working in this industry can result in any REAL good, and they tempt me to put my energies toward a line of work that more direclty affects social change.
But then I remember the love of my life - music. And I remember how I cannot survive without her rhythm and liqiud essence of melody, and the feeling of getting completely lost in a song that you can feel its changes coursing up your spine and through your veins. I remember that power of music and art, and I remember just how much influence we have as Artists to INSPIRE our audiences into ACTION. I often fantasize about travelling back in time to be with the flower-children-college-students of the 60's, in a time when music was at the forefront of an enitre revolution of peace and civil rights.
Today we also are at war, and we are also fighting for the civil liberties of an oppressed group of people, but apathy is the sweeping sentiment all around, and I just don't understand why.
Is it possible that the overwhelming majority of people in our country really don't care? Or is it because our society has become so overrun by corporate agendas that so few really know to ask their own questions and seek their own truths. As Entertainment is our country's biggest export, it's easy for me to believe the latter, which is all the more reason an event like San Diego Indie Music Fest is so important.
San Diego Indie Music Fest was born out of a dire need to give more outstanding independent Artists, Thinkers, and Business People a venue where they can be truly celebrated for their creativity and entrepreneurship, and to also educate the public on what being Indie really means.
Indie means Independent. Put simply, an independent Artist is one on a "small" record label, as opposed to a much bigger corporate-owned one. As an example, we often use the analogy that you can go to Wal Mart to buy a gift for someone, or you can go to your local Farmer's Market. The Wal Mart option supports the already huge Corporate-owned super-powers. The Farmer's Market option supports small, "independent" artisans and business owners, those who make our city unique, vibrant and alive. They are the ones outside the strip mall, billboard, TV commercial-reality we are constantly bombarded with.
Indie Artists are small business operators whose music is found in places outside the mainstream outlets. The reason for this, is Indie Artists don't have access to the millions of dollars the Major labels spend on their Artists for the advertising and PR used to get music played on Big Radio, in chain stores, on the Starbucks & Borders compilation CDs, placed in TV, film, etc. That doesn't mean, however, that Indie artists are any less deserving of being heard. In fact, in the industry today, we will argue that there is much stronger music in the Indie realm than in that of the Major labels - music that is bolder, that pushes the envelope way beyond the monotonous and monopolized mainstream. ~Alicia Champion
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Just over a year ago Alicia and I were sitting in a local café, telling the story of our Festival, which is to say, our vision... which is to say, one of our most cherished missions. Dressed up in our business best, we spoke passionately, step-by-step
making our case to this local proprietor about why his investment of support in what we are building would manifest in a multitude of positive results for him and the greater community. I painted a picture of that community where independent shops, cafes, record stores, musicians and artists were thriving and vigorously protected, even cherished by the people around them. Feeling great by this time in our presentation, as I always do when I envision that world with all its color, personality, and interconnectedness, I was utterly shocked when this local Indie business owner replied to our shining vision with a very flat, but emphatic, "That'll never happen". Thrown, I asked what he meant."Money drives everything, and eventually every city will be owned by the big corporations. Nothing can beat the march of capitalism, it's just too strong."
This argument, that money drives everything, has been handed to me many times before, and this time, I was prepared. Not only because our vision IS cognizant of "money" and the many ways a citizenry can fight with their dollar for what matters to them, but because I have been paying more attention over recent years to a little thing called History, and it has filled me with a renewed sense of passion and clear-headed understanding of what is possible. I told him that if that were true, then women would have never won the right to vote in this country. He replied that this
example was irrelevant, as it was a social issue, not an economic one. "OK, I said, then how about the abolition of slavery in 19th century England? An entire empire was being fortified on the backs of millions of human beings whose labor cost next
to nothing." The abolitionist movement in England started with only a tiny handful of people who had a clear vision, and unshakeable determination to see it manifest. And it did. After that, the debate was over.
I don't look back on this and see someone who was cynical or negative in nature; I see someone who, by the look of his beautiful café, had every desire, backed by every ounce of hard work, aimed in the direction of success for his Indie business, but who could not help but counter our enthusiasm with the socially accepted, conditioned apathy of the day. "I work towards my vision because not to would be too depressing, but nothing ever really changes for the better in this messed up world, so why should I let myself care? Why go out on a limb? Why hope?"
My answer to this is a loving suggestion to turn off the TV, and look outside yourself. Open a few books, find a mentor who will share some personal stories of historical struggles... if you can't find a mentor, read "The Espresso" newspaper, rent some documentaries... there are more examples out there of justice won and hard-earned victories realized than most of us can imagine. And the plot always starts to uncurl from sweet, to revolutionary, when the visionaries move out of apathy, and into Action.
In Solidarity,
~Danielle LoPresti |
