[ED: As Blip Festival approaches, we are adding additional voices to the blog, detailing the festival from all possible angles. First up is TCTD writer and musician Lazerbeat. Enjoy!]
When I was a kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, my father traveled to NY. He stayed a few days, did the tourist thing and returned with a back pack filled with candy and those little medals you could get stamped out of coins at the Statue of Liberty. Always been most curious about the city and Blip seemed like the perfect reason to visit. In 2008 I was best man at a wedding in Seattle and a year earlier a deranged landlord had foiled my plans. 2009 is my first Blip festival, my first trip to NY and with any luck my first trip through US customs without getting “special treatment” in one of those nasty little rooms.
Before the festival begins, just pause for a moment, think about what is happening. People are converging on New York for the 4th year running, motivated purely by a love of our kind of music. How wonderful is that? Nobody is getting rich off this, no major label is strip mining the “Next Big Thing” for profit. Its us, we did it, music fans writing and performing for other music fans.
I fly out on the 14th and shall begin reporting in earnest on open mic night. With luck I will have a slightly unique perspective being new to the festival but with a little background knowledge of the scene. Hopefully I can report on proceedings without falling back on “epic” or “destroy” but we shall have to wait and see.
One final word, my thanks to Nullsleep, Bit-Shifter and Mike Rosenthal their team for putting Blip 2009 together.
See you all in a few days!
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