We WANT your announcements/links about great places for D.I.Y.'er's... SEND us your links... e-mail to rotcod@tm.net   Another thing that's REALLY important for (all of ) you to remember is - WE review ALL your works!  Snail for submissions is:  Zzaj Productions, c/o Dick Metcalf, 5806 B Armour Dr., Lacey, WA 98513  So TELL every artist you know - SEND that Zzaj yo' STUPH!!!!!!!

Allsound.org - Beautiful Sounds and Difficult Music. > > Allsound.org is a Slashdot-styled news and discussion forum covering the > gamut of experimental, fringe and avant-garde music and sound. Allsound > covers (in no particular order): Electronic music (in all of it's myriad > subgenres), Free and Jazz Improv, New Music, Avant Composition, Sound > experiments and installations, Noise, Out/Post-Rock, Tools and Gear, > Aesthetics, Performance approaches, relevant Software (MAC, PC, and > otherwise), Homemade Instruments, Circuit Bending, Broadcast/streaming radio > and video, and more.  Allsound is updated every weekday. > Stop by http://www.allsound.org and let us know what you think.  Thanks, > --Eric Cook     ecook@allsound.org     Editor, Allsound.org

Greetings,

Just letting you know that the new and improved and accurate version of the
WOOWEB is up and running.  The site features details, photos, links, an
online store, and shockwave music samples of  all of the Cds from the
bands: W.O.O.REVELATOR, W.O.O., WORLD OF TOMORROW and FRIENDS OF MESCALITO.
Videos and MP3s will be added this spring.

So stop by and surf around, let us know what you think!

See you at the ABC No Rio benefit on Sunday, Feb 11 at 6pm.

All the best to you,

Bonnie Kane
W.O.O.DIRECT
http://www.wooweb.com
info@wooweb.com

The new issue of NCM is out. Featuring MANY reviews by David Cotner and some
by E. Wordsworth.

http://www.newcreativemusic.com

Next Issue: The end of February


*******************

Thanks,
Jeff and Keith
--
jeff@pfmentum.com
keith@pfmentum.com

http://www.pfmentum.com
http://www.newcreativemusic.com

Hi Rotcod,
Here's my reply to Ken's cc:
Happy holidays and all that rot!
C
---
Hi Ken,
Thanks for your note and kind words about my page; indeed the whole thing is a misunderstanding. You see, I had no idea that Shawn was hosting a radio show called the Sonar Map. If I did, I would have chosen another name! I did try contacting Shawn over

 the years, including calling the station in Eugene, where the person who answered the phone told me that she had never heard of a program called the Sonar Map.

If you want to wade through my side of the sordid tale, I've included my responses to Shawn below for your own private perusal. Shawn's responses are his own and you can get those from him if he wants you to see 'em.

Shawn is rightfully incensed, and I want to make the situation right. As an acquaintance of Shawn's, and, now by dint of contact, mine, I want you to feel free to send me your thoughts about the whole mess. The last thing any of us needs is waste time f

ighting over two words.

Chris

=========================


Hi Shawn,
First, my apologies for the laggard response. I've been mired in publishing the Dec/Jan Tentacle since mid-November.

You may or may not remember me much, but you might recall I'm fairly detail-oriented and somewhat long-winded, so I hope you'll pardon my lengthy reply.

When our mutual composer pal told me he knew you and gave me your phone number, I got quite enthusiastic. I hadn't heard anything from you since December of '97 and the several subsequent emails I sent you were never answered, hence my eager message on

your machine. The last I heard about you was from a friend of a friend of a friend who said you had gotten married (which I already knew) and moved away (which was news to me but might've explained why you didn't answer my email about the Olympia Experi

mental Music Festival in Feb '98). I didn't think my source ("my ex- knew that Sonar 'zine guy...") was too reliable, so I called information in Eugene.

Since you signed your emails with it, I thought, like an idiot, "Mediaclast" was your real last name, so my call yielded no listed or unlisted number and proved fruitless. When Sonar Map #4 (or a note or an email about its status) never showed in early

'98, and the pages on efn.org were never updated, I assumed the Sonar Map was no longer going.

In any case, it was never my intention to piggyback my radio show on the Sonar Map magazine; I'm anti-copyright myself, but I made sure to credit you for the name (see http://www.eskimo.com/~foont/sonarfaq.htm In Netscape you can use "page info" to see

that the page has been up for awhile) albeit incorrectly.

Frankly, I would have never (re)started a magazine called the Sonar Map; after all, my lone review, Seattle distro, and one brief article made me at best a minor contributor. The 'zine mentioned to you was the Tentacle (also on-line at http://www.tentac

le.org/ and available as a weekly email edition) a bimonthly magazine which you may have seen - the Tentacle Ink edition is distributed from Victoria, BC to Eugene, OR and many points in between. If you haven't seen the magazine, I'd be happy to send yo

u a clutch of complimentary back issues.

Anyway, when I was offered the chance to do a radio show of adventurous music, I thought "the Sonar Map" would convey (and encourage me to maintain) the same open-minded adventurousness found in the magazine.

As you said, I did contact you about using the name for a radio show, but I assumed that your lack of response meant that you had disappeared or weren't doing anything with the Sonar Map. You didn't reply with a "No," so I figured that even if you were

around, because you dug my anti-copyright "Three Camels for Orchestra" and worked hard to promote experimental musics, you would have given your blessing to use the name for a radio show in the same exploratory spirit of the magazine. You see, I had _no

 idea_ that you were hosting a radio show called the Sonar Map. If I did, I would have chosen another name!

But the plot thickens. A year after I started my radio show, a dj friend of mine found two Sonar Map radio shows on the EEG database. I re-checked the Sonar pages on efn.org and found no mention of a Sonar Map radio show; our archived email corresponden

ce contained no mention a radio show either. Weird.

Yet when I looked it up on the EEG site, sure enough, we were both listed. There was no Sonar Map listed on the KWVA pages (it is now), but small stations don't always have accurate web pages, so I called the station anyway and asked if they had a show

called the Sonar Map. Whoever answered acted as if I was crazy ("Sona-wha?") and said "No". Now that I've put in 2 years at a community radio station, I know better than to take a lone volunteer's word as gospel.

When I left the message on your machine in early November, you are right: I did not mention the Sonar Map or much else besides my cd, but as a starving artist calling long-distance, you can understand my brevity. I did not mean it as a token effort. If

I thought you would be angry, why would I have called you? I have been far from furtive and made several good-natured efforts to contact you for your blessing.

Like you, I have been working hard to promote adventurous music; aside from hosting the radio show for two years, I have co-published the Tentacle magazine (I'm the "Ship's Sturgeon"), organized several experimental music gigs (including a 7 day festiva

l in May of '99) in Seattle, and mastered a couple of cds for some fellow impoverished musicians for free.

I understand your request for me to stop using "the Sonar Map" but I too am attached to the name and have some history with it. Last August, I decided that after 100 broadcasts I should register http://www.sonarmap.net/ and put pages with my music, writ

ing, and news of what I have been up to, including releasing a cd, "N30: Live at the WTO Protest November 30 1999" on the sonarmap.net label. The cd has been out for awhile and is supposedly set to be reviewed in several music magazines over the next fe

w months.

Unfortunately, there's not much I can do about a cd that has already been pressed, released, and sold to distributors, so perhaps we can make the best of a situation fraught with misunderstanding? I understand that you might be stunned and angry, but I

believe that Good lurks in even the worst situations.

What do you think about pooling our efforts? Distributors prefer labels with multiple releases and I am more than happy to share my press and radio contact lists with you. I envisioned the label releasing pressed cds and limited run CD-Rs of unusual mus

ic by unsung musicians whose music would otherwise never leave their homes. I have experience mastering cds (both experimental and, alas, mainstream) and would be happy to help you with your cd.

By working together, we could accomplish a great deal - even working autonomously in parallel - more than either of us could do while working alone. If my cd gets good press, it may make the road easier for both of us.

Chris


letter #2

Whoa! I obviously misread your letter and saw friendly bewilderment when I should have seen veiled outrage.

I honestly can't remember whether I noticed the ads for your radio show in the 'zine. Keep in mind that the last Sonar Map 'zine I read was in the summer of '97. I was offered the show a year later in the summer of '98. Even if I saw an ad for the show,

 I probably forgot about it. I would not have been so boorish as to email you asking to use an already-taken name for my radio show! I wish you had replied to my email back in '98 and just said "hey the name is taken" - none of this would be a problem!



I did not, as you say, wait until a month ago to contact you. My last email details my efforts. When you came up in conversation, I _asked_ for your phone number and finally had a new way to contact you, I called you promptly to make contact and hopeful

ly get your blessing.

Regardless, I should have also written to you too, though as you can tell, I am email-based person and figured the fruits (or lack thereof) of my emails and phone calls - especially to your radio station - would be sufficient. As I mentioned in my last

email, my source - a musician I happened to be talking to at the Oly Experimental Music festival in the Summer of '98 and whose name I never knew - seemed dubious, hence the phone calls I made to information.

Rest assured that I never registered (or trademarked - that takes some dough) sonarmap.net as a business. As for making a buck off the name, I haven't and won't. Although the run of N30 cds is just about sold out, I am still thousands in the hole and wi

ll be for a long time! Like you, I create adventurous music out of love for sound, not for money.

The past cannot be undone, so enough explanations. I doubt you care about my side of the story, which, considering that you feel deeply wronged, I don't hold against you. I want to set things right and end our misunderstanding. What do you think of the

following?

Will you grant me the next month to gradually change my radio show's name and implement a new one?

I will stop using the sonarmap.net domain. It will take a few weeks to set up a new webspace, as my host is gone until the new year.

I will not use sonarmap.net or anything related to that combination of words for anything - except to rue this misunderstanding!

RETURN to Zzaj Productions MAIN page!