..... Lord Litter's Last Loutishness .....

12/16/2019

Preface

Sorry, I simply can't keep my mouth shut. But this may well be the last time, here at the once wonderful ELECTRONIC COTTAGE. It is about time to make some definite statements.

Once upon a time it was a thrilling and inspiring moment to follow the ELECTRONIC COTTAGE link, the one I have on my link list. The link list that takes me to my carefully choosen positive parts of the internet, the internet that in general became a dirty world of horror, pain and exploitation. I had found some nice, informative, truly independent isles to visit. One was ELECTRONIC COTTAGE.

Today a visit to ELECTRONIC COTTAGE leads to a feeling between sadness and being reminded on the negative. Lets face it - the original ELECTRONIC COTTAGE was murdered by FACEBOOK.

The very moment the EC FACEBOOK group was established, ELECTRONIC COTTAGE started to die a quite sudden death.

A generally accepted attitude towards social media should be known. More and more articles in the normal mainstream press define what would have to happen, to make social media a positive aspect of human society.

It is recognized that the current state of social media is spreading hatred and and even homicide. Every picture sent to grandma via FACEBOOK supports and consolidates this state. Every move in FACEBOOK may kill something outside of FACEBOOK. Either a politician, as it happened in Germany, or a small alternative online magazine, as it happened with ELECTRONIC COTTAGE.

As usual, those responsible do not react, so the situation gets worse and worse. Remember 50 years ago it was already obvious that we have to change our behaviour towards the nature of planet earth ... nothing happened - it continues to be exploited.

I just always have to move on. I'll delete the ELECTRONIC COTTAGE link from my link list. I don't want to be reminded on the negative of today on a daily basis - I'll keep looking for the positive minded alternatives.

There is always a alternative - I wish more people would realise and act. I'm moving on ...

If you want to find out what the world lost, visit this link at archive.org's Waybackmachine - https://web.archive.org/web/20190404123255/https://www.electroniccottage.org/

General

I receive more and more unpersonal bulk mail. Zillions of *very important* musicians and labels with new releases offering download for airplay. I'm not going down that road.

Instead I'll adjust my work to the many good/timless quality physical releases I received in recent years that I still regard as *new* releases.

So if you send a physical release (which I know is a financial effort!) you can be sure it will get a very long time of *promotion* here - any sound, any style.

A good example of what happened to the so called *independent / alternative* scene in recent years, is the development of *The Indie Bible* ( https://indiebible.com/ ), which was a great idea in the beginning. I remember the CD David Wimble (who later founded The Indie Bible) sent in 1999. A fresh, unique, non-fashion folky sound. David realised that it would be very important to have a source to give the *indie* musicians contacts needed. Venues, labels, radioshows etc. The first editions of the Indie Bible reminded me on my own address collections I sent out in the 80s/90s. It all was very sympatico and I wrote articles for the Bible for free.

Look at the Indie Bible today - a big biz kind of internet venue, that keeps sending countless reminders on biz related subjects. The more I received this, the more I was repulsed from this developement in the now *so called* indie/alternative world.

I fully understand that you all want to make your music heard (and sell it) but as usual something is going very wrong these days. Everything seems *bigger/better/more/more/more* orriented, which always was a misslead way.

I'm not really judging anything here - if you want to go *big*, there seem to be ways on today's internet. If you want to go *personal* with your music - come to me.

Radio

I stopped cooperating with KWTF.net. After some incidents that made a closer communication important, I tried to establish this ... and it did not work at all. No real cooperation possible without any communication. So after producing a weekly show for the station for 8 years, they became the biggest disappointment I ever experienced in the *alternative underground*.

So I decided to start producing a monthly second hour for Radio Marabu ( http://www.Radio-Marabu.de ). A reliable station in Germany. I'm cooperating with them since the early 1990s. This second hour will often have a special *theme*.

Plus there is sure still the more bizarre/experimental_ish Lord Litter's Radio On Berlin show ( http://www.Radio-On-Berlin.com ), which gives me space to explore.

All shows will be also made available via archive.org - https://archive.org/details/@lord_litter

Music

My own (solo) music is still on some kind of almost hiatus. It seems after 40 years I perhaps need some kind of break ... but ... then it probably just slowed down a bit. Forthcomming is a release with Didier Leboz - it will be an electroacoustic concept work about the update times in german langugage. We were in Das Freie Orchester (DFO) in the 90s. I joined the band the day the wall came down in Berlin ( DFO movie: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_freie_Orchester_(Film) - DFO music with and without me: https://soundcloud.com/dasfreieorchester ). Plus I have produced all kind of experimental_soundscape compilation tracks for cassette/cd-r releases for labels like STAALTAPE ( http://staaltape.com/ ).

PS: After sending out parts of this with my emails, I received some very fine in depth reactions by a small dedicated crew - the *alternative* is alive. You know my email address - I'm here!

17 Comments

Wolfgang Dorninger link

12/16/2019 10:10:12

Dear LL!

1631/5000
I loved EC from the first moment and I thought about what content I wanted to contribute to it. Fortunately, Hal liked my idea for an edition of self-soldered sound tools. I always read the articles on train journeys. I found a lot of things extremely exciting, some things less, but not a single article bored me. What a cool platform.

I use social media because I can't afford any other public. Facebook is like a drug that you have to be very careful with. But it has advantages, but also countless disadvantages, which do not allow a sensible planning of publicity kits, because facebook always changes its guidelines for its own good. I keep telling myself that I will leave Facebook after the next project. Again now. Let's see if I can make the jump.

I am very sorry about Electronic Cottage, I will also publish one or two articles of my edition, provided I have time.

I can understand all of your arguments, you are not a nerd. I value your attitude very highly because you prefer a different form of communication. I thank you for that.

I also understand Hal's attitude because he no longer wants to and cannot do this effort. And facebook is really performative high speed. But unlike EC, Facebook no longer posts articles, but links and news. Good too, but not enough.

Will send you a packet with the latest music again. Stay tuned!

Only the best Wolfgang

Neal Retke

12/16/2019 18:13:02

Well, you certainly raise some good points - One of which is the general idea of institutions / organizations to evolve in the direction of entropy - This is true to my experience as well. One important thing you also touch on is the idea of how the choices we make in this world have far reaching ramifications, perhaps even more so in the light of technology. I hope you don't think I'm making light of any of this, because those are both very valid & considered points of view that I fully agree with -

That being said, I use FB dispite it's drawbacks, and in lieu of other methods - To dig on my personal history a bit, I remember the waning days of mail art as " A Thing " and I'd developed the habit of writing quite elaborate letters to friends & fellow creatives, fancying myself a part of a creative era that really was long gone - The responses were fewer & further between until it reached the point of my wringing my hand in frustration, and indeed giving up - This was the cause of my loosing touch with a large number of people from many years -
Fast forward to early social media, and I made contact with a handful of people via LIVE JOURNAL - In using this, I was charmed with how creatively people seemed to be using it in ways that felt familiar to mail art - International contacts, interest groups, etc - After a while on that ( And probably via that, though lost to the sands of time ) there was the starting of a groundswell to Facebook - Which in the early days was a maelstrom of creative energy for me - I'd made contact with many personal creative heroes, and in fact an early " Hook " to FB for me was a famous creative reached out to me with a friend request, right out of the blue ~! WOW ! In addition, there was a movie that was made about me due to Facebook - I'll spare you the details, it's easy enough to find-

Having said that, I've also had to call the police due to FB ( I'm not a particular fan of Police, the individual was doing an elaborate suicide hoax, which is about as much fun for me as you'd imagine ) and had other unpleasant experiences on FB to the point where I'd have an on again/ off again relationship with it -

Moving to the current times, I have kind of hit my stride with it. - I don't get too personal with the information I post, and only really pay attention to Real Life friends or people who are doing something of particular interest. If I find myself inclined to argue about anything, I back off -

It's not the fact that FB has been different in any phase of my relationship with it - Although it has grown by leaps & bounds ( And will die & fade away by time, a process I believe is already happening ) it has never been anything other than what it was -

Anytime I've suffered from it, it was due to my reaction or the way I was using it - Same regarding any benefit -

It's not that the negatives aren't there, and it's not like most people are not aware of at least some of them, but it is a matter of picking one's battles -

Referring to the choices you mention, you make a choice to stay away from it - Which is fine. You have by doing so avoided the negatives. But I ask you this - What have you done to replace the positives ? Perhaps in your case you are fortunate enough to have a balanced system of communication with people who are willing to join you outside of this - And I feel like I do to some degree, but desire personally to offset it with FB because of the people & projects I've been able to create there. I know I could do it in others ways, off line, on other methods, ect, but to me I'm more interested in creating my projects than creating a more ethical system in reaching these many people at once. Which may sound selfish, because it is.

In real life I try to be an ethical person, and in many ways I am - I don't eat meat, I practice several forms of kindness, ect - Don't need to virtue signal, because in many ways I am a very selfish person. I own a car, don't minimize my footprint as much as I could and so on. But that's what it's like living in human society - You need to choose what you can tolerate as far as negatives go. I Agree to your point there are so many negatives out there. I also agree that we can change them - But not all of them, and not all alone. I've opted out of changing the world on that scale ( Selfish again) because it seems to me that - Like many forms of social work - One you start really doing that, that's all you can do. It's endless, dealing with such things.

I'm not sorry you're leaving EC, but am that you find it so frustrating & seemingly feel so betrayed by this - It's nothing to do with EC, it's down to how people use it. The site lived out it's natural span - I was an active participant myself, as you can tell by the articles I wrote & my general level of activity here - Also, I'm one who right away went to FB EC because that was easier to me. At some point, FB will implode at that will join EC proper in a digital graveyard - It's all

C. Goff Swami L. III link

12/16/2019 13:40:44

Mister Lord!

No need for you to be "sorry" for your sentiments or your departure from the Cottage. I myself had brought up the immediate effects of the "Facebook" Cottage back in May, and despite the various encouraging comments made at the time, it seems my observations did indeed predict the situation we are now in here. This is all ok, since it was Mr. McGee who brought this site to us in the first place, and it was his good intentions that brought us all the wonders that you reference here in your post. I thank him for holding his effort together for as long as he did. The experience was quite positive for me, allowing considerable sharing of ideas and histories. I imagine the same was true for all participants. And, despite the sparse activity now, the site still exists for discussions such as the very one we are having now.

As for you, Sir Litter, my interpretation of your response (for whatever that's worth) is that you, like so many of us truly "underground" artists, are predisposed to NOT "following the pack" - no matter who or what that "pack" might represent. Independent thought is indeed one of the best qualities that we uncomforming artists possess, methinks. It is, in fact, absolutely necessary for you to follow your own muses and share your philosophies with the world -- otherwise, who on earth would you be?

Last thing here, I'll throw in that I recently released a compilation album of pieces, which were largely spawned by my interactions here at the Cottage. Frank Audiffre, Ditlev Buster, Jack Hertz, John Bennett, LOB (Instagon), and, of course, Mr. McGee himself, are all somehow a part of this collection, and it couldn't have happened if the Cottage was unhere. For those interested, dig in at the link below. And happy 2020 to one and all!

https://archive.org/details/Treadmilagros

Bret Hart

12/16/2019 14:43:24

LL, I respect your right to choose how to interact with & communicate via modern technology. I have weened myself from it in many ways, as well; with a goal of getting to a frequency similar to when I was a kid in the 70's with a landline telephone. Those with whom we/I have fruitful relationships will still be there, even after we fade some from digital networking. I get your regular emails and enjoy them all, and the internal links lead me into new places. - BH

Lumen K

12/16/2019 17:10:34

I will speak for myself here, and a lot of people may not like what I say. Facebook is terrible. I spend too much time on Facebook, and it almost always makes me feel worse than when I got on. Still, I spend too much time there.

Time is precious. I have a limited amount of it. Only so many heartbeats to go. If I have wasted my time on Facebook, it is my own misspent time and effort thrown into a bin of ephemera, trivia, and momentary pleasure or rage. I should have stayed here on EC and invested more in this platform. Facebook spam is a blight on humanity. My opinion.

OK, now, why do people go to Facebook? Because the platform makes it so easy for you to post things. It is much easier than EC, which is, I have to say, already pretty easy. But Facebook is easier, and people can say happy birthday to grandma while checking out the latest EC post. Cool! So convenient! My attention is divided. Do I really stop to appreciate grandma as a person or really listen to, observe carefully, and think about that EC post? Maybe. Often probably not.

I did spend more time thinking about and interacting with EC posts here, when I was doing so. One reason is that I was not watching all of the flotsam and jetsam of Facebook refresh on a regular cycle, complete with videos, advertisements, and all the latest from friends and family across the globe. Attention is precious. You cannot effectively divide it. Something will suffer. The tyranny of Facebook and the addictiveness of the platform cause other things to suffer.

I don’t care if anyone disagrees with me. My words will not persuade Facebook fans and not even myself. But let’s be clear: decisions about the mind’s focus will be made, and there will be casualties.

Finally, I find the notion that Hal McGee has a toxic personality hilarious in the extreme. That is so far off base that it is hard not to fold over in hysterical laughter. Hal creates a cool community and of course he will be punished for doing so. Humanity can be so perverse.

Rafael González

12/17/2019 08:22:56

Well written Lumen K. I completely agree. We should all get more involved in the project, we let a single person do the hard work and when this person become tired we call him toxic

12/17/2019 05:35:27

My opinion is this: If you want EC to be like at the beginning, this depends on you too. In fact with your new article you have set us in motion again

Chris Phinney

12/17/2019 08:31:28

You can publish what you want here. Now you just have to do it yourself. I myself will when I have something I want to write about. Unfortunately I have nothing to say right now. Lengthy articles worth readinhg. I shall whenever I have something thats substantial. Worth reading. Until then. I shall not.

Lord Litter link

12/17/2019 10:22:59

It would be an obvious lie to say I'm not interested in the reaction to my last post.

Many thanks to everyone for sending food for thought!

It's really interesting and unmasking that all my posts related to *Social Media* cause a very extreme reaction.

Almost all the points that came up in the feedback confirm my reflections in one way or another, I won't go into anything here again.

One thing, however, once again became abundantly clear: The damage has been done - proved by a comment from Hal: "ELECTRONIC COTTAGE ... It will here for those people who want to go to the effort to create, edit, and publish their own articles." The underground I remember would have gone wild with creativity by having such a possibilty. Today a "this is my new ME please *like it*" seems to have replaced this - this is very, very poor.

The negative that the so-called *Social Media* (as it is now) brought into the world cannot be outweighed by the positive aspects it is capable of.

*Social Media* (as it is now) gave hate, fascism, homophobia etc etc an uncontrolled worldwide platform. Since I have been against these phenomena all my life, I cannot overlook this and have to say it again and again.

Recently I was spreading this with my emails and playlists:

>>> 50 years ago
Quite recently I saw the final episode of IT TAKES A THIEF, a spy tv series that ran from 1968 to 1970. The final statement was this:

"The ecology crisis has to be told and retold until it does some good. He is right - it is no exaggeration to say, that we are rapidly making this planet uninhabitable for human beings. Just a moment - you know that and I know that and you can be very sure the government knows it - so what are you trying to do? Scare everybody?"

... that was 50 years ago ... what have the people in charge done since then? The "profit comes first" attitude, ruins the world still. <<<

Facebook was founded in 2004. That was 15 years ago. Still there is no real attempt to do something against the obviously extreme negative of *Social Media*.

In the early 1990s we had the first very obvious fascistic based crimes in the *new* Germany. Via *Social Media* this became a very strong movement in Germany, which now has an own party in the parliament. (an obviously fascistic party in the german parliament!!!) Now 30 years later, the officials give in that we have a fascist problem in Germany.

All this I simply can't overlook when I talk about Facebook. My whole life I lived for something else - that always has been part of my *alternative/art* life - I'll keep on ...

PS: I don't know how often I said this - I don't blame anyone here (especially not HAL, who did so many things for us) for using Facebook - I just want to make aware. If you feel *guilty* go blame yourself.

12/17/2019 12:39:54

Another excellent post from Lord Litter. How does one react to it? One way to react is to become very angry because Lord Litter has said something very provocative and negative about something many personally love. Another way to react is to step back from one's personal feelings about the subject and ask, "What are the merits of this argument?" Pushing either way to an extreme will end in a lack of action in response to Lord Litter's implicit admonition. That is OK because one does not have to agree with what he is saying.

If I take this very personally in a negative way, I will reject Lord Litter as an irrational hater of social media or simply say that he is wrong, however much I may respect him. If I take this in a very abstract and impersonal way, I may agree with him to an extent, or even fully, and say, "Oh well, this is all academic, and there is nothing I can do about it; now back to Facebook." I may also find it mildly interesting and ignore it.

My way will undoubtedly be to consider it and then return to using Facebook, although I do not think that ultimately the consequences of my choice are merely academic objects of thought. I think there is something potentially very important in what Lord Litter is saying, although I believe this partly because I am drawn to read into his words and come to much darker conclusions.

There is a real danger in cyber-existence. That danger is the loss of humanity. The invention of literacy brought its own augmentation and distortion of human relations in that we could no longer rely on the product of face to face interactions alone to conduct the business of social and political ends; we had texts imposing themselves and requiring different kinds of skills of production and interpretation to carry out the same work. This change in technology changed the human community. It made the modern state possible and it made warfare on a grand scale possible.

The computer and internet are a much more radical order of transformation. The problems inherent in relying on swift, ephemeral electronic communications with the barest threads of emotional signaling and an almost total absence of the body make real community very difficult indeed. Struggles for attention and power have been multiplied exponentially. Common purpose is difficult to maintain, and people fly off in their own directions all the time.

Lord Litter sees in this environment the tools to promote fascism and many other nasty things. I suspect that he is onto something there, as unlikely as it may seem to some of us. In this cyber-world we have to contend with the fact that so many choices are made for us by algorithms and their programmers. We also have to contend with the fact that people are liable to be more paranoid within this system. So there is a real tyranny exercised against us within the structure of the online world, and then we react to these structures by becoming paranoid toward the people with whom we interact.

Consider the figure of Hal in this conversation. Hal started the online EC Community. He did not take a vote, no one elected him to this position, and yet he took it upon himself to provide a sandbox with certain rules. There is nothing exceptional about this, although it is a generous and cool thing to do. Yet he is attacked here as though he is doing something tyrannical. "How dare you do anything?" is the cry from certain people.

Why such angst in all of this? Why are we drawn as a group into such a visceral reaction and into conflicts that threaten to tear us apart or reduce us into primitive caricatures of ourselves? I submit it is because we are unable to rely on the cues humans developed over millennia to deal with each other as embodied beings. Systems that are abstracted away from these in-person interactions become the breeding ground for superstition and paranoia. A situation as simple as which place to hang out online is now a conversation about fascism and toxic personalities.

So, I do think Lord Litter is onto something, and at the same time I think the problem, which in this time and place becomes one of labeling and even, in some cases, becoming fascists, narcissists, and toxic personalities is, at its roots, the problem of evolving away from humanity as we know it in ways we instinctually feel very uneasy about. Some of us will choose not to evolve along these lines.

Fast communication is often poorly thought out and poorly expressed communication. We shoot out words, but do we contemplate the implications of what we are saying? In the past the persons who spoke without thought, the ones who did not understand the weight of words and the dangers inherent in using them were called fools. The internet has managed to make fools out of most of us, on account of the unfortunate convenience of pouring out words at a rapid clip.

I am whistling into the wind here. This will not likely change. People lose jobs over poorly considered emails. People's reputations are destr

Hal McGee

12/18/2019 00:36:27

Thanks to (almost) everyone for your thoughtful replies. I have posted in the EC Group at Facebook, requesting new contributors for the EC website from among the EC Community members who up until now are only active at Facebook. Perhaps we will get some new contributors! I hope so! Like I said before, the EC website is alive and will remain in operation.

Each person needs to use the Internet in the ways that suit them best personally. I originally created the EC website as an alternative to Social Media, for those who wanted an alternative, and/or a venue for the publication of articles and essays for which Social Media sites are ill-equipped. I created the EC website as a Community Service Project. It was and is my gift to the alternative/underground/DIY music and art scene. It is not the most ideal format, but it is the best that I can do within my desires and capabilities.

I appreciate the deep thoughts that the community members have expressed pro and con regarding Facebook and Social Media in general. The EC Group at Facebook will continue. Regardless of what anyone says or thinks, it is valid. We have a lot of fun there and we make a lot of connections and contact each and every day. We have created our own island or oasis in a dystopian sea, as I think Bert Vanden Berghe put it (or he said something like that).

I do not think that it will be profitable or necessary for us to have any more posts here at the EC website about how shitty Facebook is. I get sick and tired of negativity and bitterness, and it gets nobody anywhere. If you don't like Facebook, don't use it! I don't buy all of Lord Litter's arguments against Facebook.

Anybody who thinks that Cassette Culture and DIY Art and Music have not ALWAYS ridden on the back of technology created by multinational corporations is sadly mistaken and naive. We used cassettes in the 80s in ways that cassette gear manufacturers did not imagine that anyone would: to create our own music! Do any of you individually have the technological means and know-how to create your own tape recorder and cassette tapes? It's not impossible, of course. But in general these are mass-produced items that require a high level of technology to produce. They also require money, and lots of it, to produce. Circuit benders are recycling mass-produced consumer electronic items and altering/modifying them in ways that their manufacturers could not have foreseen or quite frankly care about.

From here on out let's accentuate the positive. Concentrate on creating positive outcomes, joy, and fun. I have had my fill of negativity. Negativity is cheap and it just makes us miserable. Do what you need to do to make yourself personally happy. Try to be tolerant of others and their beliefs.

Finally, a Contributor at the EC website (who is not of Facebook) has requested that I remove all of their articles from the EC website. I shall do so soon.

12/18/2019 17:52:07

Very well written, I will not talk about FB again

12/18/2019 05:51:05

Hi,

>> From here on out let's accentuate the positive. Concentrate on creating positive outcomes, joy, and fun. I have had my fill of negativity. Negativity is cheap and it just makes us miserable. Do what you need to do to make yourself personally happy. Try to be tolerant of others and their beliefs.<<

Yes - I understand and I really appologize for bringing all this up again ... one last reply...

I'm really sorry I simply can't create an own resort and forget about the rest..I can't live like that: >> We have created our own island or oasis in a dystopian sea...<<

I think the difference between using a cassette recorder, which brings profit to the manufacturer and using a device that brings hate and negativity to the world is pretty obvious.

I really can't understand why the obvious difference between everything before the so called digitalisation and everything after, is not obvious to everyone.

Anyway - have your fun on your island, which is already in danger of drowning in the rising sea (the oceans are rising because *noone* did anything for 50 years) ... and again I appologize, for being a zynical pest...and I mean it.

PS: I regarded this as an discussion between inspired underground artists - if there is no place for this here - ok, I give in .. I think it worked. Only one of them fell completely out of the role and really should be deleted without any further thought.

PPS: Sorry, one last assumption - nothing else will happen here because everyone will continue to succumb to the addictive structures of social media. Working, thinking, spending time outside of the Social Media world is not intended by the algorithms. Proove me wrong - that would be wonderful!

cheerz 'n beye
LL

Bill Northcott

12/18/2019 12:33:52

I'm not going to pretend I understand everything regarding the 'social media', but to me, Facebook and its toxicity isn't much different from any other environment - even in the 'real world'. People can be toxic anywhere. It's much more difficult to keep a positive outlook and encourage each other to be their best selves, no matter where you are.

12/18/2019 17:46:00

Wise words! I agree completely!

12/18/2019 12:45:41

Having said that, it’s a good idea to read the terms and conditions of whatever social media platform you use. I looked up MySpace the other day.... I guess they really don’t want anyone using that site!

12/19/2019 04:32:09

Dear EC Community!

An alternative to the beast(s)!

Do you know Mastodon?

Mastodon is free, open-source software. There is no advertising, monetizing, or venture capital. Your donations directly support full-time development of the project.

https://joinmastodon.org/

servus.at - the artists driven server in Linz, Austria runs Mastodon as a save alternative to facebook, twitter, ...

me: https://social.servus.at/@fadimat

I can ask servus.at for a mastodon instance for Electronic Cottage. Any interest? If servus.at can't do it for me/us, there is an alternative: Masto.Host.

https://masto.host/

I think that Lord Litter will join in to Mastodon too (open source, free, ...), me too, and hopefully many others too.

Just tell me who of the EC Community will join in and I'll ask servus.at for a Mastodon instance.