shut yo mouths and donate your half to the house

I say stuff this lame ass full of beer tokens and let the drunks rip him apart.

i work at Espresso Yourself and help run it with my father sister and bandmate. my name's ben and i've played my share of other venues around town.

anyway...

The email is nothing to be offended by it is simply an invitation to play at a place that has been helping the arts for three years now. we have all donated countless hours giving up and coming bands a place to rehearse, record, try out their new material. The door split is no different (actually more fair to the artist) than many venues in town where you can bring in hundreds at the door and end up with a very small fraction of what came in. the 50% split is not undeserved, i am the usual sound man and i spend a majority of my shift behind the board making sure things sound right. the door split usually just covers my hourly pay.

you've heard of the "production fee" at many venues to pay the sound guy etc. and the rest of that goes into new microphones and monitors to make the musicians sound even better in the future.

we have provided free demos and live recordings to dozens of bands, and we pay a lot of our OWN money and spend a lot of our OWN time making sure we have one of the better sounding systems in the city.

we have also let bands come in and use our space to track drums and other instruments free of charge.

i assume most of you know nothing of what goes on at our venue and are taking the email the wrong way. we admit our mistake, but really we're just trying to be helpful here no offense was meant on our part. anyone who has dealt with us can tell you our heart's in the right place. so you got it off your chests but no need to smear our family business any further, come check it out for yourself and base your opinion on that.

cool?

dont think the issue is how much the coffee shop in powell supports the "arts"

Got it.
don't be offended.
simple invitation.
You help the arts for three years.
Got it?
Cool?

You just cant be more clueless can you.

I had put my pitchfork away and gone home. This thread was destined for oblivion.
But you had to come in here and kick the bee hive.

Your right... It was nothing to be merely offended by. Now I am OUTRAGED.

So I invite everyone to join me now...


And http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-torch-for-less-than-a-dollar-:-/

So to make it clear for you.

ITS NOT COOL

Using the Comfest name to promote your failing coffee shop isn't cool.

EVERY CF volunteer from Bands to trash pickers should be offended.

Peddling influence which you probably really don't have isn't cool.

Promoting the perception that bands playing your crappy little venue have an advantage over others DEFINITELY ISNT COOL.

And being indignant and self righteous about is even worse.

I am definitely not going to be playing EY. I am going to encourage my friends NOT to play there. And I am going to encourage my friends to have a look at this thread and then decide whether or not to visit your shop again. And if I had the time, I would look through your music schedule, call everyone I know on it and... You get the idea asshat.

Oh... and RR
Thanks for the offer, between pretending to play music, my real job, and getting the hell out of the snow I am booked for the month. Maybe some other time. And I would prefer to keep my sock puppet on for now. You may be nice and harmless but I am sure others on the committee aren't so much.

You should write a letter
how to write a letter of outrageousedness

i am no advocate of pay to play, or any gross things like that.

but i can say i have been to expresso yourself...i think.
if its the place i'm remembering
they do like things like piano recitals, choir perfomances, and trumpet solo's for little kids during the day.

fantastic intel.

so it's, like, maybe a real place and you might've been there.

Now I know.

i am sure expresso yourself would pay you to never have paper airplane play there

for the sake of the COMUNITY

so true.

all the people on the street (not at our show) would be dangerous

Who the fuck is going to play at a coffeeshop in Powell?


better yet, a coffee shop for extremely well off hippies.

i watched a bunch of children feel awkward in front their parents. I was there my little brother was playing his trumpet there.

you got me zing.
so edgy and cynical you are mr. paper airplane.

That's the spot Wes't. High ceilings and Beatles Pictures near the bathrooms. It's in the part of Powell where the poo-poo smells like the interior of a new Audi. Nice folk from what i've experienced. they don't take credit cards...apparently they don't take shit! Music Royale has a few music teachers that hold their recitels there.



he had it right brooooo.

you stop to smell your fingers a lot don't you.

...just thought it was a funny post.

context on how like they support the arts.

my feeling is this place is a local community hub...
and this is an instance on some typical business owner ill-advised powermove
tried squeeze money out of somewhere they shouldn't
dood sent out an email with an unawareness of what is unethical in a market.

not defending it. people need to aired out on things like this so everyone knows whats acceptable.

benny, let me help u

people get your band like they get your jokes

(hint they dont get either))

ramirez you know we friends so i got your back that was a good one

you know what i be doing

Waaaaaahhhh

You're outraged?? Really?

What a queen....





Jesus, someone is completely lacking in self-awareness. To accuse others of self-righteousness, while acting as though denying this venue your music is some sort of death-blow to their business, would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

Clearly, that e-mail should not have been sent. Point made and repeated to a ridiculous degree. It was an obvious gaffe, hence Ben's apology. An apology, it should be noted, that was attached to a plea to stop trashing his family business and his father personally. It wasn't indignant nor self-righteous, and if you weren't so desperate to protect your previous comments validity, you would see that.

By the way Comfest isn't exactly the most sacred institution in the world, it's just Comfest. It isn't like the pope sent out an email imploring underaged children to surrender their virginity to him so they can go to heaven. I've played Comfest before, and it's alright, but nothing to get your panties in a bunch over.

that's exactly what outrages me!

but they pay BIGTTTTT!



makes sense. I'll see you tomorrow night.

there was actually no apology.
go back and re-read it . . .

Hey look, it's Ben's bandmate.

omg omg this thread is friendship farm gold!

Keep the hits comin!

So are you guys seriously offended, or are you just enjoying the opportunity to anonymously gang up on a stranger over something as unimportant as comfest?

Shittomg on something as sacred as Comfest is like shitting on the chest of Christ, also known as something I would do for money.

As BastardSuperstar pointed out. No real apology. Lets review. An apology goes something like this usually.

I did _____ wrong. I admit it. I can see how you might have been hurt/offended. I apologise.

Instead we get...

Im ben and I play around town. (the son of the person who wrote the email)


You have no right to be offended. (because I am important)
The email didn't mean what it actually said.
I/we are important.




It's your fault you are taking the email at face value, Again it really didn't mean what it says. (but wait, it was sent to me, presuming we already played there before so How can that be?)


Almost an apology, we didn't mean to offend you by....
Offering to evaluate you for comfest(at no charge) IF you.
Play our venue, bring your friends to spend their money, and donate your half to the house.
And are you really authorised to make such an offer, seems not according to RR.

Oh and stop smearing my dad...
Generally I think of a smear as something untrue.
Oh, and btw please stop pointing out what my dad did. He hasn't apologised but just forget about it (because as I mentioned earlier, it really isn't our fault, its yours for believing what it said, did I mention important.)
Oh, and if you have any complaints about EY don't mention those either. (wouldn't want to smear anyone)

cool?

Or NOT

And for the newest sock puppet, I don't pretend that us not playing will make a hill of beans difference. Perhaps a few less dollars from me personally, but you guys are clearly flush so a few bucks lost to Starbucks is no big deal. But other bands changing their mind might.
Taunt me a second time and I might just be motivated enough to start making some calls.