My new guitar!
I won it in a contest. It’s autographed (and doodled on) by the members of the “baroque pop” group Evelyn Evelyn – Amanda Palmer (of the Dresden Dolls, a band which I have heard of but don’t know anything about :/ )and Jason Webley, neither of whom I had heard of before… though they both seem like interesting characters. As soon as I have listened to their music, I will let you know what it sounds like. I don’t know yet because they sent me two vinyl LPs of their album, but failed to include a CD or MP3 download code… and my record player is currently in another dimension.
Anyway, the guitar is a Wildwood Artist Deluxe acoustic-electric from the company Daisy Rock. I’ll be honest, I was a bit apprehensive when I saw that the company’s mission was about making “guitars for girls” because it seemed to say that girls aren’t tough enough for “regular” guitars. However, upon pulling this baby out of her case and taking her for a spin, my opinion changed completely. One of the reasons I had been playing my other guitars less frequently was because they were pretty tough on my fingers – I have smallish hands and when I don’t play guitar constantly my fingers get out-of-shape, which can make pressing all of the strings down on a 12-string guitar more than a bit difficult.
(Yes, they doodled ALL over it.)
But the Wildwood has a very narrow neck, so my fingers can easily press down all the way across; it has a smaller body so it is more comfortable to sit down with, and the strings are very easy to press (but not too easy!). Most importantly, the sound is great and much, much better than I expected from a company with “daisy” in the name.
I’m very grateful to the giveaway organizer, VenusZine (which is also a pretty cool magazine, guitar or no guitar), the band and Daisy Rock for my beautiful new instrument.
Lesson learned: don’t judge a guitar manufacturer by its flowery logo.
(Disclaimer: this is not a product review; it’s simply me gushing about my new toy. I wasn’t asked or incentivized to write an opinion about this gorgeous guitar or the music.)
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This post is about FREE FOOD! (I suppose that would have made for a more attractive title…)
Why, yes, I would LOVE some free Rice Krispie treats, please send them my way!
If you had a chance to watch Rip! A Remix Manifesto (you know, the movie I wrote about a couple days ago?), you will have learned a little bit about an alternative form of artist compensation – the “pay-what-you-want” model. If you didn’t watch it (and why not?!), you should know that at least a handful of popular as well as not-so-popular musical artists have seen some success with this model.
I’m not here to debate about whether or not it can actually work for everybody, since tons of other people on the internet have taken up that discussion already. Today I’m interested in whether or not the pay-what-you-want model can do for the tangible world: stuff that isn’t MP3 files or downloadable TV episodes.
I was a little amazed today to read about a Panera Bread restaurant location in St. Louis which allows people to name their own price for the food that theyget there. Yes, food is available for free at the restaurant. When you walk in the door, a greeter politely explains that it’s not a soup kitchen and that there are suggested prices listed next to menu items to give you an idea of what the food costs.
As it turns out, the people who can afford to pay a little extra for their food don’t mind doing so and do it quite frequently – enough to make up for those who actually cannot afford to pay full price and still keep the business afloat. Yes, a handful of jerks take free sandwiches even though they can pay. But for the most part folks are being honorable when they go sandwich-hunting. Panera will be donating the store’s eventual revenues to a charity, which seems like it could be one of the reasons that people are willing to be a little more generous.
So this alternative economic model has jumped the gap between the digital and physical realms, which I’ve always had a difficult time envisioning. Will it work in the long term? I have no clue (though with my imagination running rampant I’m inclined to say “probably”). But it’s sure an intriguing experiment!
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