Friday, July 6, 2007

Doubledown's Decision regarding SLCC & Phreak Radio - updated

Here's what I've decided to do:
I, Doubledown Tandino, ain't gonna go livin' by no contracts no mo'.

I had agreed to play the SLCC, and now, apparently I have not agreed to play yet because I have not signed the contract. Do I even need to tell anyone I'm dropping out of performing at the SLCC, because I'm not even 'in' yet to drop out. But... yeah.... here's what I'm gonna tell them.

I may, or may not show up at the SLCC. Don't plan for me to be there. I may come to Chicago, I may come to SLCC, and I may just perform somewhere else in the great city. So, please take me off the lineup of performers and the lineup of the social/music panel, but if I am there, I'd be happy to DJ some music for Stroker's party, & I'd be happy to get up on stage and talk about music and the dj scene in SL.... but I'm not going to sign any contract to do that... and I'm not going to sue Phreak Media, no matter what they do.

In all honestly, I am still in support of SLCC, I am in full support of Nethermind, Flipper, Nexius; I think of them as good people and I'm glad someone is taking it on to try to create a SLCC. It's haaard work putting together a convention, and you learn from mistakes. My own professional real life event production experience includes creating over 3000 events. I took at an attempt at creating one convention once ....and failed. But we live and learn. The SLCC creators surely realize a convention like this takes professionals that do convention production as their profession. That is needed along side with the people who have the ideals of the event (nether, flip, etc). Conventions are hard to pull off right. And I applaud the effort. But.. at this point, I just am not at a place in my life where I want to tie myself to the SLCC. Maybe I will come, maybe I will DJ if you want me to, maybe I'll throw a party in my hotel room, who knows, I have to trust my gut... I just don't wanna feel stressed. And I don't want to be committed to anything but my girlfriend and moving to Florida. Its the SUMMER OF DOUBLEDOWN!!! WOOOO

signed
Doubledown Tandino

----------------------------------------------
Below is Taken from The SL Live Music Blog
http://blogs.talksecondlife.com/slimwarrior/2007/07/02/contract-ha-dont-sign-it/

This is in regards to a contract recently sent out to the musicians scheduled to perform at the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC 2007).

I commend Slim Warrior for bringing this issue up immediately in her blog. All of the musicians have been commenting there, so feel free to leave a "yeah that sucks" comment here, but leave your important comments for her blog.

Slim Warrior:
"It seems I am not one of lifes natural bloggers.. or maybe it is just because one blogs when one is inspired enough to do so, (or has time)
These times happen when perhaps happy, downright outraged or mostly general chit chat.. This particular post falls somewhere between sheer horror and outrage and also perhaps under the ‘hysterically funny must be joke of the day’ time.

I am of course referring to the SLCC. Many musicians who perform in Second life have been asked to perform at the convention, myself being one of them.. of which I am truly delighted to be part of.
SLCC = Chicago.. I live in London.. rather far away, so not wishing to wait until 3 days before to book a flight, last week I duly filled in various online forms (having racked around I dont know how many sites to find the best deal)
and Voila! I hand over my hard earned money (saved up and saved up) and grin to myself as I now have flights and hotel booked for the duration of this Wonderful event. Mucho excitement

Imagine my horror when inworld ( and via email) I receive the following erm… document.. I’ll call it document for now.
it was named actually as ‘SLCC Audio Release Form’."

The Contract:
*****
I hereby grant to Phreak Media, LLC and its legal representatives and assigns, the irrevocable, perpetual, unrestricted, global and exclusive license to broadcast, record, distribute, and/or publish any audio in which I am included, on

August 24-26, 2007 at Second Life Community Convention and related events, Chicago, IL for any purpose, without compensation. I hereby release Phreak Media, LLC and its legal representatives and assigns from all claims and liability relating to said audio. I further waive any right to inspect or approve the live audio and/or audio recordings or any printed or electronic matter that may be used in conjunction with them. I acknowledge that I am at least 18 years of age and competent to sign this release. I have read this release before signing, I understand its contents, meaning and impact, and I freely accept the terms.

This agreement shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of California.

Name (Print_____________________________Signature___________________________________
Email Address _________________________________________
Second Life Avatar Name (Print) ___________________________
Date ______________
****

Slim Warrior continues:
"Having read through several times, just to make sure I havent MISREAD anything, I immediately IM the sender with” You have to be KIDDING me!, upon which I get the reply to follow the discussion on a google group… so I rush of to peruse the postings only to have yet another shock upon then reading the following statement…..

“If you feel that it is either unfair or something that you cannot abide by in exchange for performing at SLCC, I understand and will accept your resignation from SLCC’s music lineup. I really hope you don’t feel that resigning is necessary, since all of this has been created in good faith with everyone’s best interest in mind. Phreak is, however, a business, and they are hoping to recover a small portion of their costs.”"

READ MORE HERE - and make sure to follow through the comments.

-=====================================

More on the story at Second Life Insider here

More on the story at Cylindrian's Blog

More on the story at Eric Rice's Blog

More on Tao's Blog

More on Second Thoughts

More on Matthew Ebel's Blog

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Come on, Doubledown, wake up and smell the coffee here. You need to realize from this experience that Flipper and Jennyfur and Taco and the rest are NOT good people. They are not operating in good faith. They are trying to hijack the community and its content for their own interests.

Please, become part of the force that overthrows them. You wouldn't sign this contract because it's unlawful and unnecessary; so get others to do the same and get it REWRITTEN. Use your considerable RL experience in organizing venues and events to FIX THIS. Get these idiots to stand aside and do the 6 things needed to get this right in the next 10 days.

And if you can't do that, do more than just show up in your personal capacity and don't DJ; boycott the thing.

http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2007/07/an-accident-goi.html

Unknown said...

Well, although I accept your passion for me being the leader of the revolt (I'm picturing myself with the half face painted blue from Braveheart) I'm not your Mel Gibson.

...for some reason I found the metaphor above to be hilarious and I'm laughing out loud.

To be honest, I have no negative feelings towards Nethermind, Taco, Flipper, Phreak Radio, or the SLCC.
I really hope things get worked out for 07, and wisdom is used for 2008.

I applaud it when like-minded individuals that are passionate about something want to create a meet-up, gathering, covention... but it the event cannot be produced by non-professionals only. A convention production team needs to be in charge for any large scale mass event like this.

This is the core reason as to why conventions work and why they fail.
A professional event company needs to work alongside Nether, Taco, Flip, etc.

You would think (while sitting around a kitchen table just hanging with friends) that renting a hotel conference room, lining up a bunch of 10foot tables for booths, and getting some people to speak on stage and play music would be easy.... ....when the goings get going, we find convention event production can be much more than that.

I applaud the SLCC committee for their efforts so far. SLCC07 is just not at a level or state for me to go this year.