[HANASHIR:6709] Re: We Want Your CAJE Reports

[NBudin <NBudin...>]

Alice has made many interesting points (as have you all). The arena was a 
"HORRID" place for music. It is a basketball arena, after all. And the 
opening night sound (never mind the speeches, etc.) was awful. But in 
fairness to the sound crew, the sound got perceptibly and increasingly better 
each night and by Tuesday was it was excellent *for that venue*, especially 
in comparison with Sunday. I send thank-yous to the hundred or so 
enthusiastic people who came out to see me, Cantor Wally, and Rick Recht 
perform that night. Which brings me to another point...

...which I will preface with the statement once again that I am grateful to 
have *any* venue in which to perform at CAJE, and that I understand the 
nature of "competing" venues and therefore don't worry about the things I 
cannot control, such as how many people decide to see me perform or go to 
another event (I, myself, have missed friends, or other acts that I wanted to 
see because I cannot be in two places at once). I have no animosity toward 
people who don't show up in my venue -- I just give the best performance I 
can for the people who _are_ there...

...However -- and I realize that planning and coordinating the evening 
entertainment, months in advance, *off-site* must be a daunting task -- I 
think more forethought and care must go into the planning, especially 
matching people with venues. Look at Tuesday night: how did it come to be 
that Sounds of Torah, which included many of the (for lack of a better term) 
"big names" in Jewish music, and included nearly twenty performers (I think 
it was around twenty?), end up in the playhouse which was full to 
overflowing, and I (and Cantor Wally, and Rick Recht) ended up in the 5000 
seat arena with less than a hundred people in attendance? Again, I'm not 
complaining about the attendance, but where is the forethought to matching 
venues with corresponding events? I'd have preferred to have been in 
something like a coffee house where a hundred people are a strong and 
significant driving force in my performance, as opposed to getting swallowed 
up by a large, echoey, arena. I'm sure there were other instances of this as 
well. I know we can't predict the future, and that we don't always have 
choices when setting up venues, but I do believe we can get to know the acts 
a little better and make some judgments that will better serve the performers 
and the audiences.

Maybe something like Sounds of Torah would be a better closing night program? 
No competing venues, we could all see it, so many of our own "well 
established" and newer CAJE performers participating.

Every campus is unique and has its own spatial challenges. My sincere thanks 
to all of the Mazkirut who put in countless hours of planning, preparation, 
troubleshooting, etc., to give us places to play our music, to bring our 
messages out to the masses, to further our careers, only to have us pick it 
apart bit by bit. I hope I am being constructive and positive in my 
suggestions in an effort to make CAJE the best experience it can be for all 
of us. For your consideration...
Toda Rabbah.
Noah Budin
Singer/songwriter
Cleveland, OH
NBudin (at) aol(dot)com

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