Robert Fripp's Diary for Monday, 20th June 2005

Robert Fripp's Diary

	Monday, 20th June 2005

20.38

Hotel Acceptable, New Haven.

Tom & Tony & I left our Hotels at 09.00 for Starbucks & a discussion of last night. John & Biff met us there with the Budget truck & we set off in convoy, dropping Tony at the station. On the Long Island Expressway to the ferry, Tom & I were driving behind an 18-wheel truck that veered gently in its lane, unfilling us with confidence. As we pulled by, I looked into the truck's cab & saw the driver driving - with his eyes closed.

Ferry across the Long Island Sound to Bridgeport…

Hell Is That Way, or Toad's Is Over There…

Our Budget van is at the front of the queue…

We are at our New Haven hotel for four nights. The view from my first room looked over an expanse of flat roof and tower block. I changed to this:

View I…

Look down a bit & this is almost the view from my first room.

View II…

Look up and over to the left a bit. View III…

Much better.

Gentling, practising & e-flurrying. One of the features of life on the road, even un-touring, is that when one's name appears in a particular town old friends, acquaintances, professional hustlers & the curious (a partial list of interested parties) seeks to make contact. Commonly, this is accompanied by the expectation of my time, attention & free tickets. In response to one forwarded e-letter seeking contact…

i have not read …'s letter. this is exactly the letter that i do not want to receive before a specific performance: someone demands my attention. this is only one of the many demands made upon me which, taken together, undermine my capacity at the event. my standard instructions to all those around is this:

please do not give me messages. the person who assures you that robert "would really like to have my message! he doesn't mean me!" is precisely the person & the message i do not want to contact or receive.

the question i ask is this: will this message / person support the performance? if my attention is being demanded, and attracted away from the playing, the answer is no.

Another arising of the day: dishonesty within the music industry. This is not the large-scale theft & exploitation which attracts attention when made public (and free of gagging orders) but the hum-drum day-to-day life of the Happy Gigster.

Three superb guitar trios have emerged from Guitar Craft. In chronological order: The California Guitar Trio, The Big Time Trio & Zum. Both the BTT & Zum were at the recent GC course in Los Molinos, and played several performances during & after the course. The promoter, Sr. David Calvano, was keen for RF to attend their interviews & take part in photos with them. That awful, heartless man declined.

A feature of most advertising & posters for performances by GC related performers, throughout the world, are the names Robert Fripp and King Crimson. This does not support the work of any of the performers. The response by promoters is conventionally you want to sell more tickets, don't you? The answer is: only if the audience is coming to see & hear the particular performer. It does no favours to the players if audiences hand over their hard-earned pay to hear KC faves & get Piazzola & Bach instead.

So, how about this?