Today I posted this email to the Shetland Times and so far they have censored it so the control runs deep does it not? It was my response to a man named Colin Hunter's comment, "Cloud Coo Coo Land".......here it is. I am happy to see this debate. My vocation is guitar education and I have been at it for almost 20 years teaching workshops in London and as far away as Tokyo. I moved to Shetland in June because I like Shetlands music and my family is Scottish. If you think playing guitar for 44 years would help you to find a way into a guitar festival here then think again. Funny thing is I have been jamming with Brian Nicholson for almost 2 months and when I contacted Shetland Arts several times without an answer I finally got an email from Bryan Peterson saying he was finalising a list for the Guitar Festival and he would consider me, and I could visit “Our Guitar Guru†Brian Nicholson. When I said I had met Brian and he was asking my advice on playing American Jazz, Bryan asked for a way to “know†about my music, I mentioned this thinking it would be enough. That was July 27. A few weeks later I emailed again. Nothing. Finally I sent a CD with music from my CD. Still being ignored as of this writing. That does not bother me that much. What I find disturbing is that a young inexperienced non-musician would have the power to decide a line-up over a guitar festival in the first place. Maybe this explains why he is teaching a “Pro Tools†course for adult education (pro tools is the new computer way to record music and hiring a hack to do it is not hard) is Bryan’s part time interest as well. Which is it Pro Tools computer music or Shetland Arts Music Officer? As for my disease here (I have also been ignored by this lot on a Blues Festival, and the arts programme you mention Colin so the response you received seems fitting) I can only put it down to something akin to the Time Magizine article “The Death of French Culture†in 2007, and how government subsidy sucks the oxygen out of creativity in France today. Check it out. Signed, W.J. Yockey (***Mod Edit - Merged and moved to somewhere more appropriate***)
