False Hope
by Denise Sawicki on October 9, 2006
So the guys' band had a show on Saturday and it went really well. A bunch of people came up to say they did a good job, and the headlining band (another local act) really liked the music and wants to do other shows together. And they even got paid!
Also, a guy came up and said he is from a nearby Indian reservation and they have a radio station and they are looking for unsigned artists to play on their station and will pay $550 to each artist. He said he liked The Cedars a lot and wanted to play them and would call the next day to arrange a meeting to sign some papers. Well Darrell, knowing that people NEVER call when they say they will, asked to have the guy's phone number too. Predictably, the guy did not call, so Darrell tried to call him, and the number was out of service. This irritates the hell out of us. Nobody *ever* pays that kind of money to Darrell and he works his butt off to make music. He was astonished enough to get $50 for his show on Saturday! He said if the Indian fellow would really have paid him $550 he would feel that his life finally had a purpose and he was finally proven to be good at something. I guess we live in a fantasy world but this is a BIG HUGE DEAL to Darrell...
(I know I should say "Native American", I'm just a bit irritated at the concept of political correctness (a separate issue) and at this situation in particular :) )
Now frankly it was a little odd to have someone offering to pay to put him on the radio.. most people wouldn't bother to come to a show of his for free, it is too much work for them to go through. I don't think it's right but that's how it seems to be. I think he deserved a little recognition finally. Now, the guy said he was very drunk that night so he may have lost the number or he may yet call another day, who knows, but we're not holding our breath. And why was the phone number out of service? Did the guy not pay his phone bill or did he intentionally give us a non-existent number, or what? Why would someone intentionally mess with us like that?
It reminds me unpleasantly of the days when I was trying to go on dates and a guy would say "I'll call you right back" or "I'll call you Friday" or whatever and then I'd never hear from him again. Look, if you're never planning on talking to someone, don't say you are; it's better to have no hope than crushed hopes :-) Sigh....
By the way, I just noticed Amy asked about the meeting with the girl. It was OK. I've gotten like 1 email from her since then so I don't know if she wants to keep in touch at all. I think I am not enough of a feminist for most girls to want to be friends with me :)
Five Replies to False Hope
Aaron Shurtleff | October 10, 2006
Man! I thought it was only girls that did that to guys! Glad (...kind of) to know that I'm not the only person that happened to.
That is a crappy situation though. I wish I could say to tell Darrell that success shouldn't be measured like that, but if I were in the situation, I wouldn't want to hear that! Easier to give trite advice than swallow it, I suppose.
Kris Weberg | October 15, 2006
Native American's not just used for political correctness, it's used for the sake of saving confusion. After all, my mother's an Indian...from India. The word "Indian" only means the one thing to me.
Denise Sawicki | October 16, 2006
Yeah I know, I normally say it that way as well, having known a lot of India-Indians at school. I haven't actually met that many Native Americans so the issue hasn't really come up much. When combined with "reservation" people tend to know what the word refers to...
Jackie Mason | October 18, 2006
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Jackie Mason | October 9, 2006
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