Jefferson Airplane - "White Rabbit" & "Somebody To Love," legendary performances like the Monterey Pop Festival. Starship - performing on the Star Wars Holiday Special with a guy (not Grace Slick!!) singing into what looks like a neon dildo - "We Built This City" & "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now."
Where am I going with this, you ask?
Fair enough. I am distressed by news of an impending name change. I fear that it signals a creative nadir of something that I once cherished.
Y'see, I didn't always work for an organization whose mission is to prevent and end homelessness. For a decade I ran an organization that tried to improve the quality of life for homeless children.
It was such a small organization that I was involved in every single facet of it. It was such a part of my identity that when someone spoke of it by name I felt like they were also saying the name I was born with.
And I was fine with that because it was a solid name, a righteous name. A name that conferred vitality and a directive. I was there when this name was born out of necessity and I tried to live up to that name 365 days a year.
As I made what I hoped to be a graceful exit, I seriously considered getting that name as a tattoo. Boy am I glad I didn't act on that impulse!
Yesterday I learned that with the help of a consulting group, it has been decided to replace this name that has served the charity well for 14 years.
First of all - FUCK that consultant and to hell with the entire field of consulting. If I never work with a consultant again for the rest of my professional life I will not regret it.
Consultants justify their existence by presenting themselves as agents of change - whether that change is needed or not soon becomes irrelevant. They predicate action fueled by the insecurities of people made to fear that they are clinging to some outdated model of success.
This is nothing new. Committees love to cede decisions to an outside expert rather than lead and risk having their convictions challenged.
The only time I could see clear to hiring a consultant is if his name is The Wolf and I just accidentally blew someone's brains all over the back of my car.
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| Now, you've got a corpse in a car, minus a head, in a garage. Take me to it. |
But to add insult to injury - the new name is a genuine headscratcher on the WTF-scale of Huh?!?
It isn't going to be publicly revealed for a few months so I don't want to ruin the surprise (and I guess I hope it isn't too late to turn this camel around). But if you want to hear it, just get a hold of me.
I was talking about this with my composer buddy SW and his first lament was that the departing name even had a nice octave progression.
The whole ten years, saying it every time I answered the phone, and I had no idea that there was an octave progression at work.
To me it just had a "nice ring to it". Now I feel stupid to admit that because the mission of the organization is to bring music education to underprivileged children that wouldn't otherwise get it.
This new name that is coming down the pike is just a brick. A part of my past is dying and in case you couldn't tell I am not happy about it.
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