I suspect that BS probably does not deign to reading the weeklies so I gotta tell him....
They
DID run a pic (courtesy Christopher Wyant) of Hayseed!!! This will certainly qualify him next year for hours logged in service of the publicity committee.
There's also a crowd shot on page 15 of TOP that features a gent down front and center who may or may not be The Fierce Lime. Prob not though as there is no beer mug hoisted in the upraised hand.
Couple points of contention regarding the article itself:
Participation in the entertainment committee does not required invitation and is open to the public. Years ago it was by invite but that has been abandoned for some time. If anyone tells you otherwise then consider this your invitation. Members come and go as they plz from year to year. In my time I've seen prob 20 or so members come and go w/in their first couple years (a testament to how much fun it can be!). There is no tenure, so to speak. After your first year of participation you will be regarded as an equal. Newbies are sometimes asked to sit back and "take it all in" so that they can get a feel for the process but there is no exclusion on any part. It is true that the selection committee is not currently seeking new members: the fest begins tomorrow. The only time meetings are closed is once the selection process has begun. Selection is reserved to those who have regularly attended meetings leading up to the application deadline. The meeting schedule can be demanding. Usually people simply don't stick it out.
Sometimes in print, or online, or at clubs or parties, a member will make personal comments taken as the word of the committee. The article's very first quote from an EC member is just ridiculous. We'll take it in two parts:
"It's a private party that we invite people to come to for free."
Comfest is certainly not a private party and I can't imagine anything that would inspire such a declaration.
"It used to be to be that we didn't even take applications. We just picked people. If we didn't know you, you didn't play."
I'm not sure who the "we" are but there have been applications ever since I've been involved and this quote is from someone who is new this year. I've heard tell of a time when coughing up an 8-ball and getting your knees dirty somewhere in the block just south of E. Blake and High St could have created some sway but those times (if the stories, no matter how romantic
, are to be believed at all) are LONG behind us. This line helps nothing. The only message I glean from it is "Aren't you applicants lucky? At least now you can put in an application before getting snubbed". It is true that at one time there were no applications but at that time the scene was small and the fest was MUCH smaller.
I don't intend this to come across as division among the ranks. People just need to mind how things are said and in turn mistaken as gospel.
The whole guilt-by-hippie-association is pretty tired too. And the "i hate comfest" part about smelly volunteers? Well maybe if you'd pick up your own newspapers scattered around the park that would take care of itself.
Please volunteer, see y'all this wknd!!