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Right Work

uploaded: Sun, Nov 20, 2011 @ 3:29 AM

by	gurdonark
Featuring	KarmaHackeR
length	2:51
Recommends	Recommends (24)

I like to listen to the radio to a weekly program by a fellow named Neil Sperry. Mr. Sperry hosts a Sunday morning garden show. Local people call in, and tell him where they live, and ask about problem or goals they have with their lawn gardens.

Where I live, in north Texas USA, there is a narrow list of plants that grow here extremely well, and a long list of plants that do not grow well here at all. Some plants cannot take the heat, and some plants cannot take the cold.

When someone calls in after a discount store sells her or him a plant better suited to Canada, Mr Sperry lets the caller know that the plant is not right for here. When someone calls who wants to plant a tropical plant, then Mr. Sperry tells them it will not survive our winter—it’s not right for here, either.

I like that Neil Sperry has found his “right work”, the job he was meant to do. He runs his radio show, he prints a magazine and a calendar, and he uses his advanced plant education to help people make their gardens look great.

I like the murmur of voices and the
way the common humanity folks share comes out in questions about yaupon holly trees and the best way to handle buffalo grass.

So many times I hear of music-making in commercial terms only: “how do I generate income streams?” or “how do I sell more copies?”. This is not at all a bad thing, and my hope is that artists become little small DIY businesses, able to sell and earn a living from their works.

But to me, the idea of “right work” goes beyond sales. It’s about providing the music to accompany gardens of dreams. I see a rightness in sharing, even though its revenue model is all internal rather than commercial.

I’m delighted that I was assigned Hepepe to remix, as I’ve enjoyed many of his songs and remixes over the years. He and I were both frequent contributors to the original, and,sadly, long gone DiSfish netlabel. He has helped to re-start a new form of DiSfish to renew the planting of new songs.

Like a Sunday morning radio garden show, this song aims to be simple but to answer questions phoned in from the ether.