The Bane Of My Existence
After working my ass off on creating requested proposals, menus, emails, writing press releases, making calls, soliciting sponsors, etc., for an event this month I've been working on for over two years (!), I just got blown off via a curt email: "Marty, the team decided to wait until next year on this one! Thanks ..."
Are you F***ing kidding me?!?!? That's it? No reason given? Unfortunately, I do know the reason, and it truly sucks.
First off, in my experience, next year = NEVER. Nobody ever "keeps this on file" to do it again next year. It's right here, right now or nada.
Second (besides budget, and that at least is a valid reason to cancel), here's the main reason we get blown off, disrespected, used & abused regarding the live version of The Rock & Roll Kitchen: almost nobody in this world believes that a chef could also be good at playing music.
An even more interesting commentary on people and our culture of labels, and putting everyone in their proper category: Nobody ever assumes the food will be bad, or that I can't cook; but almost everyone assumes that the chef will be a "hacker," or the music will be a gimmick, and not strong.
Granted, there are plenty of chefs who do hack away at playing music - good for them; But that ain't me. I've been a pro player most of my life, and I can keep up with anyone, in any situation. For that matter, there's a lot of pro guitarists who can't keep up with me.
I guess it doesn't matter that I only use fantastic musicians in my kitchen band - either famous or not, they're all badasses, and we always sound good on these fun, simple "food tunes." Folks, we're talking musicians like Chip Znuff, Jim Keltner, Tower Of Power, Ginger Baker, Tony Dale, Tim Beattie, Scott Page, Lee Sklar, Professor John, Paul Coscino, Dennis Webber, Rich Perez, Graham Czach, Todd & Paul Sucherman, Lawrence Juber, to name just a few.
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone came up at a festival and said something to the effect of "Wow - you guys sound better than the REAL bands." Well shit - why wouldn't we?
On the opposite side, it's interesting to witness folks hearing my tribute band who look at me funny when I tell them about a cooking show with a rock & roll band. So what the hell is a Rock & Roll Chef to do?!?!?!
Are you F***ing kidding me?!?!? That's it? No reason given? Unfortunately, I do know the reason, and it truly sucks.
First off, in my experience, next year = NEVER. Nobody ever "keeps this on file" to do it again next year. It's right here, right now or nada.
Second (besides budget, and that at least is a valid reason to cancel), here's the main reason we get blown off, disrespected, used & abused regarding the live version of The Rock & Roll Kitchen: almost nobody in this world believes that a chef could also be good at playing music.
An even more interesting commentary on people and our culture of labels, and putting everyone in their proper category: Nobody ever assumes the food will be bad, or that I can't cook; but almost everyone assumes that the chef will be a "hacker," or the music will be a gimmick, and not strong.
Granted, there are plenty of chefs who do hack away at playing music - good for them; But that ain't me. I've been a pro player most of my life, and I can keep up with anyone, in any situation. For that matter, there's a lot of pro guitarists who can't keep up with me.
I guess it doesn't matter that I only use fantastic musicians in my kitchen band - either famous or not, they're all badasses, and we always sound good on these fun, simple "food tunes." Folks, we're talking musicians like Chip Znuff, Jim Keltner, Tower Of Power, Ginger Baker, Tony Dale, Tim Beattie, Scott Page, Lee Sklar, Professor John, Paul Coscino, Dennis Webber, Rich Perez, Graham Czach, Todd & Paul Sucherman, Lawrence Juber, to name just a few.
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone came up at a festival and said something to the effect of "Wow - you guys sound better than the REAL bands." Well shit - why wouldn't we?
On the opposite side, it's interesting to witness folks hearing my tribute band who look at me funny when I tell them about a cooking show with a rock & roll band. So what the hell is a Rock & Roll Chef to do?!?!?!
