I have played
for six people,
thirteen people,
twenty-seven hundred people,
confused bartenders,
and springer spaniels
whose commitment to artistic inquiry
was superior to many festival programmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The posters promised
AN EVENING OF EXTRAORDINARY MUSIC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My manager,
which is occasionally me,
explains these things
using the language of algorithms,
branding,
audience development,
and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I sit at the piano
and none of those words
know where the entry point is for <\/p>\n\n\n\n
the most meaningful improvisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some nights
I imagine the parallel universe
where I accepted the television contest,
smiled more,
played fewer departure chords,
and never mentioned
politics,
or mortality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps there
I’m signing someone’s keyboard
outside a bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead,
I know the first names
of theatre technicians
from Nelson,
Regina,
Gimli,
and Powell River.
I know who owns the upright
with the sticky G-sharp.
I know which church basement
has a historical display that amazes.
This knowledge
will never appear
on Spotify for Artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The internet insists
that success is scalable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Music insists
that one person
crying quietly
in the third row
counts as an event
the accountants
have no column for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stopped arguing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The audience arrives
one at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes bring friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes don’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes buy the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes apologize
for not buying the book
as though we had survived
a minor war together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strange part is this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not because I believe
next Tuesday
the algorithm will awaken
wearing a halo
and carrying a cheque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I keep going
because somewhere
between the gas station coffee,
the soundcheck,
the broken piano bench,
and the applause
of seventeen strangers,
the universe occasionally leans over
and whispers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Nice try, fool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do it again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have playedfor six people,thirteen people,twenty-seven hundred people,confused bartenders,and springer spanielswhose commitment to artistic inquirywas superior to many festival programmers. The posters promisedAN EVENING OF EXTRAORDINARY MUSIC. My manager,which is […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-touring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}