Help me write an email to my MP about live music in Victoria

I'm writing an email to my local member of parliament Lindsay Tanner, asking him to clarify his policy on live music in Victoria. I think the below is a good start but I'd like it to be better; if you have any feedback can you leave it in the comments?

I keep talking about live music being a 'good', and I don't know if it makes sense. What I'm trying to say is, there are things in society which we recognise as intrinsically valuable, and we try to limit negative impact upon them from other things. An example might be the right to vote, or access to education, or healthcare. I'm trying to argue live music is an important part of Melbourne's culture, that it's intrinsically valuable and we should take it into account when any kind of legislation is being introduced. Am I being clear or unclear? I can't tell.

Feel free to use any bits of it in an email to your own MP, if you like. If you're not sure who your local MP is, Open Australia will take your postcode and tell you who they are. I'm in Carlton, so mine's Lindsay Tanner.

The Accord I mention is here: NEW ACCORD TO SECURE THE FUTURE OF VICTORIA’S LIVE MUSIC SCENE

The quote from Paul Kelly comes from Marching to the top because they want their rock'n'roll from the February 24 edition of The Age.

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Hi Lindsay,

I'm a Carlton resident and a musician. I'm pleased by the Accord Tony Robinson announced yesterday, which seems to stop live music venues from being classed by default as high-risk with respect to violence. I'm disturbed that it took the closure of several important music venues to bring the Accord about, though. I'm disturbed that the Brumby government seems not to have a policy on live music in this state which recognises its value.

The Victorian live music scene is a good in and of itself, internationally recognised for its energy and vibrancy; it should be protected as such, and the potential impact on the Victorian live music scene is one of the things which should be considered when debating any kind of legislation. It's an important industry and an important part of our culture both locally and nationally: many iconic Australian bands started their careers in Melbourne pubs and bars. As Paul Kelly said at yesterday's SLAM rally, "I didn't learn to write a song at school - these places were my university".

While the music scene is energetic and vibrant it is vulnerable if its value is not recognised, and if it is not treated as a good. Sydney had a comparable music scene in the 1980s; it's now a fraction of the size. This happened because a culture of live music wasn't treated as a good, and a combination of changes to licensing laws, noise complaints and the introduction of poker machines drastically reduced the number of live music venues.

No-one in Sydney set out to damage their live music culture. They simply failed to properly take into account, when various pieces of legislation were changed at different times, the impact on the culture of live music. I'd hate to see the same thing happen here.

I've been a Labour voter and I'm uncomfortable about voting Liberal but this issue represents my livelihood and my culture. I'll vote for whoever has the best policy for live music. What is your policy?

Battlesnake invisible in Google

(The following probably won't be that interesting to anyone who isn't in a band or doesn't care where their page shows up in Google)

So, I'm used to my band Battlesnake not showing up on the first page of Google searches for "battlesnake". But today I decided to see just how many pages away we were from the front page. I gave up after about page six or seven. We basically weren't there at all.

Part of this might be our fault: we've changed URL a few times. First we were http://www.myspace.com/battlesnakeaustralia, then Gus changed it to http://www.myspace.com/battlesnakemusic. This led to some confusion. Once we'd sorted that out, I followed the Imp Of The Perverse and changed it again, to http://www.myspace.com/battlesnake. I figured whatever confusion it caused in the short term, long term it was better to have something easy to remember.

But anyway: not showing up in Google is a bit like not really existing. I use Google to find pretty much everything. If I could Google my keys when I misplaced them I would. It's become an extension of my nervous system.

What to do? I understand why we're not near the top, but I don't understand why we're not there at all. The new URL is all over the place by now. The problem with things as they stand is that someone needs to know our URL to find us. Without that, we're invisible. But speaking personally, I probably Google a new band name once a week at least, some name I've heard on the radio and want to check out. If someone tries to do that for us, they find nothing.

What gives?

In which I renounce lowercase

Ok: I haven't written here for a while. I like writing but it was distracting me from making music, and I wanted to focus on making music again. I feel ready to try writing more and seeing if I can keep the two in balance a bit better this time.

A couple of things will change, though.

First, I want to use this space to write longer pieces with a bit more thought in them. This doesn't mean every post will be long, but that I'll use this space to develop longer arguments. That's the dream, anyway.

Second, I hereby renounce the use of all-lower-case. It's a habit I got into. The problem with said habit is it makes you look eight years old. Some people can manage to make intelligent arguments in all-lower-case and have their intelligence be apparent despite it. (Darrin Verhagen is the first person who springs to mind here.)

I have a feeling I am not one of these people. There's no real problem with that, except that I'm interested in moving debate forward on a few topics, and it's easier to do that when one is taken seriously. And it's easier to take someone seriously when they don't present themselves like an eight-year old.

gothic death

A band I started in year 12 high school.

sound candy: you can strap it to your dog!

via ../mediateletipos)))

so much awesome, so little time

link (via poor mojo newswire, a great great blog i just discovered last week)

zoetrope turntable. or turntable zoetrope?

have a look at this bunch of zoetrope-style animations atop a turntable. you can hear the builder explaining it in the background, seems like it relies on the shutter speed being just right.

it's very lovely.



found via binary load lifter