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How Not to Prepare for a K&D Guest Appearance

Dennis Báthory-Kitsz

January 12, 2000

Hello Friends,

K&D just got back from a road trip where we met and interviewed sixteen composers. The interviews were all pretty darn good, and we're going to be delighted to broadcast them over the coming months.

But we do get cranky after a 700-mile driving round-trip and many out-of-pocket dollars. Yup, artists are self-involved. So are we. But we hope that K&D is a kind of cooperative venture, where everyone has a good time while having a chance to thrash through some of the questions about our art form in front of a "live" audience.

So I have to admit being annoyed by one guest -- not the content or his accomplishment as a composer, but the kind of total self-involvement that lost our enthusiasm. It made me think about the K&D approach and how that approach makes it possible for us to continue to do this project without additional burdens -- time, cost, psyche.

It's hard to quantify, but here's the story (names but not gender changed to protect the innocent) and how to keep yourself on our "wow we can't wait to get that guest back on the show" list! This is a case study in what not to do!

So did this guy do anything right? You bet!

That's it. We've had worse (though not in recent memory), and we have certainly embarrassed ourselves over the years. That's why we have a guest section in the K&D newsletter that tells everyone how to send us music and text and photos and everything else. We want to do this show and site, and want to want to do it. You can keep us enthusiastic if you don't ask us to chase you down or label your stuff or edit your archive.

Thanks for that. I just had to have this little tantrum. We felt, like, just so used...

Dennis