Open letter to the person who took my camera on Saturday night

The pictures on the camera's memory card -- of IAJE Day 4, including the closing Charlie Haden concert -- mean a great deal to me. I will give you $75 (which is what I paid for the card), no questions asked, for the safe return of that 2GB SD card, provided the photos have not yet been erased. Or if you want to help out an impoverished jazz musician, who really needs that camera to take pictures for this blog, by returning both camera and card, the reward is $100 -- again, no questions asked.

Meanwhile, I'm not much for blegging but if any Secret Society readers have enjoyed my photos and blogging from IAJE, or any of the music I've posted, your support is always greatly appreciated:

Comments

[Chris]

1.

Oh man, that really, really sucks.

[matthew eli wengerd]

2.

So sorry, Darcy. Best of luck from Florida.

[mrG]

3.

I really wish I could offer real tangible support, the sort that you'd just go out any buy a new camera and think nothing of it; you are doing really good stuff with the Secret Society and with this blog, and if I could command them, I'd have every music student within a thousand miles hitch-hiking up to pay whatever fee for your next show, because it is vital and important they experience what you've done there.

But I'm still using a digital camera from the last century. That's just our lot. If it's any consolation, I heard an Albert Ayler interview yesterday where he said that the better you were, the harder it was to "make it" because people will see you, think they can copy you, and they'll be reluctant to admit that they can't. Only, they come back for more, and that means you have something special they can't just synthesize in their basement.

What I can do, though, is to testify. I tell everybody about what I found here. I tell them how you strung together a first-rate and original big-band experience out of pure hope and hard work, no angel investors, no serendipidous lineage, just some guy who had that impeccable intent ;) When Jimmy Haskell asked me about musician blog websites, I pointed to yours as an outstanding example of how a composer can make his ideas known easily, simply and cheaply; so there's one well-connected old-school California composer who knows your name. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't, and I know all too well it doesn't get you any closer to a new camera (or even a nice cheeseburger) but I hope it doesn't hurt ;)

[DJA]

4.

Thanks, Chris, Matthew, Mr. G. I'm mostly upset about the hundreds of lost pictures, and not being able to share them here. And of course, I am deeply grateful to you all for helping to spread the word about the Society.