There’s something special about a labour of love.
By it’s own description, you do it for more than the immediate reward outside of personal satisfaction.
I have so many labour-of-love projects that it reads like a laundry list.
I’m only now realizing that the acronym of that is LOL Projects. Certainly, the world of paid journalists and talents are laughing out loud at me while I toil away at these things.
My list of unpaid fun: (I love lists)
CBC Radio Windsor – Weekly Culture Column
Squeezebox Podcast – Weekly podcast
Show Up Podcast – Indefinite publishing of weekly cultural interviews
CJAM Radio Show – “Not In My Backyard” – Weekly Windsor/Detroit cultural conversations and interviews
The Ampersand (National Post Arts & Culture Blog) – RARE blog posts about Windsor cultural folks
TomLucier.com – Duh. This blog.
There’s clearly several of these commitments on the chopping block.
Jhoan and I have a child due to arrive in late February. God knows I’ll be super-obsessed with my new role as Dad, and that these free projects will disappear indefinitely or forever. But in the interim, I still need to feed my wife and child during her year off, and hopefully save money throughout the life of this new, perfect person.
This reflection catalyzes all kinds of realization about other talented people in my life, community, or professional circle.
Jamie Greer has recently sworn off writing about music. This is a tragedy. Plain and simple. He’s the most knowledgeable, intriguing, and hilarious music writer anywhere near these parts. And he’s stopping. I used to be in a position where I would try to light a fire under him, and push him to keep it up. But now, I don’t blame him.
He’s been writing for little or no money, for far too long. And he deserves to be paid well for his contributions.
With the recent six-year anniversary of Phog Lounge having gone by, we set up a projector and flashed photos of Phog regulars from years gone by. While nostalgic, this was a tragic reminder of how many gifted people we’ve lost to the big cities around the world.
As much as we want to keep these gifted people within the city limits, we will continue to bleed talent if we don’t pay for it.
This all leads me to an understanding that you can only do so much for free before you begin to resent those that profit (in one way or another) because of your willingness to give.
2009 was a year of free. From me to others. February marks the end of that gifting. It feels exciting to prepare for that end, but super-sad because of the fun that will be missed in playing a role in the Windsor cultural community to the level that I have tried to play.
Without being compensated for the efforts I feel that I’ve developed sufficiently beyond where I was in 2008, I will be respectfully saying no to most projects, unless they call to me on a one-time basis for something I love.
And to finish this piece, I’d like to shortlist a group of at-risk contributors who I fear Windsor is also at risk of losing when they eventually hit that wall of frustration from non-compensation. These are off the top of my head. Basically, these are people who I’m aware of and who I think are underpaid (or not paid) for what they do in Windsor’s cultural scene:
Michael Poirier (film)
Jolie Inthavong (film)
Sean Tighe (film)
Murad Erzinclioglu (music, art, film)
Owen Wolter (photography, reporting)
Gus Morin (you name it)
George Manury (music)
Dan Bombardier (art)
Stephen Hargreaves (reporting, music, art)
Okay, getting depressed. I’m stopping.
Question to leave you with.
When do you know you’re giving away something you shouldn’t?
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My personal experience is that when I give and give and continue to give and get nothing back I feel empty. As long as it is feeding me and I feel satiated I continue, and when I don’t – I stop.
Tom – you are a super talented guy who also has the special ability to recognize, promote and present other talents to the masses. I haven’t a doubt in the world that you will achieve many wonderful (and well paid ) roles in the years ahead. When passion and enthusiasm underscores one’s work, everyone can feel it – the love, the sincerity and the eagerness. I also have no doubt you (and Jhoan) will be parents extraordinaire, and in that magic time of having a new one, your own, we’ll miss your marvelous meddling, eavedropping, teaching, curating of music/arts, and your artmaking too. But it’ll be grand to see the little Tommy-Jho drooling, giggling, babbling and taking in all those special energetic things that burst out you like a natural. All those you mention are special talents and people too, and we know there are more. You’re right, all of these artists and organizers you mention deserve pay for their contributions. We all know there are plenty more. Being indie is a hard road, but it makes for the BEST life experience, and the BEST workers in the long run. I have a sneaking suspicion the indie world is gonna bust loose larger and more lucrative than ever, and you will be a big part of that.
Exactly.
I’m there with a lot of these things…for a few reasons.
Right now, getting people to keep me aware of their events, so that I (we) can promote them for FREE is like pulling teeth.
If I’m not enjoying it, it’s time to move on…
Thanks Mom.
What a sweetheart you are ME.
It’s a time of major change for me, and I’m going to make sure that I have the funds, TIME, and removal of resentment for this baby!
Yeah dude, it’s frustrating to no end to be doing all this reporting for absolutely nothing. I’m terrified that I actually will crash and burn one day; trying to put that in the back of my mind is the only medicine.
This holiday break has thrown me off the Windsor Visuals blogging loop, but that’s only because I’ve been toiling day and night on a new project that might turn up some revenue, but who knows.
Your involvement will be totally missed, but your son/daughter will benefit from having an awesome, hip dad. But hey, you’ll be back sooner than later, it’s hard to stop doing the things you love, even if your pockets are empty
When you find the answer to “When do you know you’re giving away something you shouldn’t?”, let me know hahah. God knows I’ve been struggling with that one forever.
It’s the final and most challenging part of doing business in this city: monetizing.
I’m not knocking the value of how you’ve contributed to this community. You’ve made so much happen for me, my band, and my career. Sometimes though we have to take our creativity to our financial models. The reason indie artists stay indie artists (speaking as an indie artist) is because we are stubborn. Focusing all of our energies on making creative masterpieces, we miss the boat on how we could potentially make some money from our talents.
I say its the final and hardest part of the business model, because a truly passionate person is never after the money. The money only matters when you don’t have it. But we don’t have it, and it’s for that reason that artists need to be creative in how they make money.
But it’s also true that it isn’t always the fault of the artist. Windsor is a funky market: $10 to go see a random silver city flick is more exciting than catching two all night local shows. I don’t understand Windsor consumers, and probably never will. I personally believe its a lack of faith: if it comes down from Toronto it seems professional and full of potential. Little does are city see, we have some of the best acts in the country playing for free WEEKLY!
Happy you made this post. It’s a well needed call to artists to start CHARGING and to be creative with how they plan on CHARGING as well as a call to consumers to start PAYING for their consumption!
I hadn’t considered the unique position that Windsor’s cultural organizers are in like this before… Monetarily supporting local creativity is easy enough (though, tragically, under-occurs) when there’s a physical product to be had, a printed skirt, a CD, a piece of art, but when it comes to giving back to the people who tell you who’s music you need to be listening to, what events are happening… it’s a bit of a quandary. I wonder, if the means of giving back were more obvious, would it happen? But maybe that’s a question yet without answer.
i check the live music posters in other cities – the cover is twice as much and people do their live music there
for sure.
just sayin
mesm – windsor definitely undercharges on a lot of things, like cover for live shows. maybe it’s because we’re too nice to expect people to pay more, or it’s because we know everyone is poor, lol. but i bet if cover went up to say $15 for a show of local musicians, a lot of people would be outraged and not go.
i sell prints online and i feel like i’m raping my costumers when i charge $20 for four prints, but i don’t want to give my art away either!
money and art is a weird thing to learn to balance out.
the best thing you can do is to do what you can, not what you think you should do.
Just a note to say that as a lurker I have benefited from your energy in promoting positive attitude over the past year and I want to thank you. Truly. Not once did I feel that you were writing & sharing just for me or I would have spoken out before now.
And therein lies your answer to your question Tom: “When do you know you’re giving away something you shouldn’t?”
Answer: It is when giving no longer gratifies you but costs you more than you get back.
So don’t give up. Discover where your heart needs to wander. And it sounds to me that you have a very special place for your heart’s desire coming soon. Can’t blame you for that one bit.
Nice post Tom,
but I do have to ask why you were ever doing things for people like the CBC and the National Post unpaid? I totally understand the labour-of-love thing and wanting to make a name for yourself, but what are the chances of CBC or the National Post paying someone else a proper wage for content when you are giving it to them for peanuts?
This is the Windsor way of doing things though, isn’t it? Anywhere you look, people are busting their ass to give their art away for free and at the same time wishing they were getting a proper amount of money for it. I’ve played plenty of gigs at the Coach and Horses not getting paid enough to even cover the after-gig Golden Griddle bill. It was plenty of fun though, but then I realized (with the help of a few unnamed people) that my punk/indie aesthetics of refusing to charge at the door was screwing over other bands that wanted a living wage off of their talent.
If the people on your “at-risk list” want to continue what they’re doing, they’ll have to find a way to actually live off of their labour-of-love, and to do it a notch above the people that are willing to do artsy things on the cheap. I think that’s the big challenge, but I think there’s enough smart people like yourself in Windsor to figure this out! Government art grants are very cool, but they’re really only as sustainable as the Stimulus package is for General Motors. But right now, the only alternative for a lot of people is moving to a city that has enough money and enough people willing to part with that money so they can continue to do that labour-of-love.
I have a LOT of respect for anyone in Windsor (or any other city for that matter) who is doing their labour-of-love and getting paid enough to continue to do it. It’s sad to see that a lot of your projects are on the chopping block, but good luck with the child thing dude.
Mike, the reason behind WHY I worked for free…it’s simple really.
There are those out there who KNOW how badly you want into the business, and that you have charisma, and a following…and they legitimately don’t have the money, or they’re predators.
My situations were simply cash-strapped, according to my contacts, and I believed them. Still do.
But I was able to build up an awareness of the business, the skill needed to do this professionally, and the chops to do it for paying outfits.
What I fear is that these companies are digging big talent-holes. People are sticking around for the pay ONLY while hungry, creative others are chomping at the bit, working for free, getting frustrated, and them writing them off forever afterward. These outfits are going to suffer eventually when they don’t have the wherewithal to recognize the hunger and talent in these people they are isolating and discarding (indirectly).
Windsor, as a city, is a place where this is happening all over the place, and people then get the idea that this kind of thing is the identity of the ENTIRE CITY. So they leave.
My concern is for the city, the people who are gifted that stick it out, and for my child who will (as of now) grow up here.
When do you know you’re giving away something you shouldn’t?
- As soon as you ask that question.
I know what you mean….
Having spent the past many years of my life volunteering for local groups and organizations, I have my own sort of feelings about giving so much time for nothing as well. It’s taught me to open my eyes more and learn from my mistakes and generosity.
The early years of a child’s life are so golden, so I don’t blame you for changing your priorities. You can’t get those early years back, yet they are so important. I hope you can step away from other things and give more time to your family. It will reward you more than anything I believe.
it seems we all have this dilemma of giving away our time for free. even with owning a small business we are consistently providing our time and energy for free to people and other businesses because we so desparately believe this city has the capacity to be great and we all want to ensure that it reaches it’s potential. we all know who the bright stars are in this city and that they are all seriously underpaid, if even paid at all. i struggle with the issue of payment consistently but i find myself believing in something so much that i’m willing to do it for free. it’s a consistent up and down hill battle with myself. do you continue? do you end it? is it worth your time? not really sure what the answer is but in the end you need to do what is best for you.
if you love the things in this city, the local arts, theatre, restaurants, etc. then you need to support them or they go away. simple as that. but i’m quite certain the people who read this already know this.
Thank you for this Tom. Sincerely.
Because of all the unpaid work I do I’m stuck in an unfullfilling 9-5 desk job, sneaking on the internet to read and write back to your blog (which explains why I haven’ t seen this post until now)
We love what little work we can get in this city but … my future favours capitalism since this mouth needs to eat. The unfortunate truth is that this city will lose incredible minds and talents likely due to the nature of our work; we do it for the love of the craft, and while it’s nice to make a little extra on the side, people are preying on the knowledge that we’ll do it anyway because we love it. (We’ll be even more flexible if you’re our friends.)
Now… unpaid fun is being taken for granted in this city, and people just don’t appreciate or understand that amount of time that it does take to [for example] put together a crew, drive out and film, and then go home to log, capture and edit all the footage. There are only so many favours you can do for your friends before it’s time to say, ‘Hey, pay up!’
I’m going to keep moving on ‘Free Fun’ for as long as I can, and for as long as interest is still there… but there’s going to come a day when I can no longer practice what I love in favour of a dollar (or two)
Where to start? There was a statistic in the 90s that stated there were more people in the world that wrote poetry than read it. Sometimes I feel like one of those lone poets writing for an audience of one. I guess the only way an artist can justify charging for his work is if someone is willing to pay. I don’t know if everything I do is worth money, but certainly people have profited from my free labour.
As far as charging at the door, I don’t know the answer to that either. I have close friends that pay double the cost to ’support the team’, and I have other friends that refuse to pay $5.00 to see a film I’ve produced.
As stated above, people have no problem blowing $11.00 at Silver City, or $100.00+ on clothes at the mall, but can’t scrape together two bits for a local craft.
One way to fix this is to go ‘Windsor only’, and keep our money within the community. On the flip side, we can’t force people to pay for music, art or film that they don’t enjoy. I would say its not an anti-Windsor prejudice they have, but an anti-Indy they have. We really need to leave our couch, and pay a bit more attention to our neighbours, instead of what’s on the U.S. tele.
I am no expert, and I’m not very well-traveled, but I have never been to a city with the complete and utter lack of community that Windsor seems to have. Until 2007, when I really started getting out into the Windsor art world, I don’t see a city spirit, a city identity, or city support. In fact, I would say that until visiting Phog Lounge, I didn’t even know there WAS a community. This is not ass-kissing, its the truth. I have made more contacts, and become more aware of the connectivity of our town in the last 3 years than the previous 30 years combined.
I have no idea what the solution is, or when it will come, but I do know that we can’t give up, because there’s no one else to do it for us!
Tom I feel like I need to preface this by stating this isn’t directed at you specifically, so don’t think I’m taking a pot shot here. But this has always been my personal philosophy.
I feel like everyone starts out doing things for free, labour of love, or whatever you want to call it. If it’s exceptional work, and usually only if it is, people will then begin to pay you to do it. So if someone has been toiling away for years doing passion projects and is frustrated by not being paid what they feel is adequately, it’s probably time to stop looking around wondering what everyone elses problem is, and ask some serious questions about the merit of your work. It’s really that simple. I know there are certain extenuating circumstances regarding economy and all the rest of it, but what it boils down to, and for example the reason Chryslers’ in the shitter while Honda is doing well, is that people aren’t going to pay for something just cause it’s there or cause it’s local, but they will pay for quality because there’s a value. And it’s not just a local thing… like Windsorites don’t pay cover for bands and stuff. Take Michou for example, they go all over the place playing shows, getting grants and garnering a lot of attention from beyond Windsor, and it’s not because they’re local or this or that. It boils down to them being talented artists making good music. They probably played and continue to play shows where they barely make a buck, but if they stick it out they will be rewarded because there’s value there, they are talented, people will pay to hear their music just like they do for other successful artists.
It boils down to talent. I gotta believe that if you have it, and work hard enough, eventually you will be rewarded. I can’t imagine there’s a Martin Scorsese or a David Cronenberg sitting on the couch in Tusan who can’t get paid for his work. Talent will win out every time.
So in your case Tom, maybe you put in a couple years getting paid jack at National Post, but then someone at MacLeans reads your work and says we should get this guy over here doing a Cultural Column, then you start to get paid accordingly as your talent is recognized and in turn monetized. But if you didn’t have talent, that call from MacLeans would never come. Again, no statement about you as a writer, just using you as an example.
Thanks for the opinion Sean.
I do think you overlook the ability of those in power to take advantage of EXTREMELY talented individuals.
It happens in every city, every market, every artform. There are TONS of gifted people who don’t receive their worth, because those who hold the purse-strings are blind to that talent, or just plain manipulative.
And am I to understand that you just don’t have talent because no one’s knocking YOUR door down to pay you?
Just wondering of you’re self applying this criticism?
For argument’s sake.
And, for the record, Michou’s success is a reflection of their hustle, connections, and adoption of new technology and ideas. Their talent is a necessity, but the other stuff is what’s pushing them ever-forward.
I definitely apply the same principles to myself. And I personally and am in the beginning of my career. And no, no one is beating down my door yet, but I do have things on the horizon. And I do believe I have the talent and will get where I want to go, and I’m willing to put in the work. However, if 3 or 4 years from now I’m still in the same place I am today, then it may be time to think about if I am worth what I think I am. You seem to be misconstruing my point in that I am not saying if your not getting paid well your have no talent. I’m saying if you have talent, eventually you will be paid for it. But first you put in the work. And if you put in the work for years to no avail, than perhaps your work is not what the majority of people would deem valuable.
In regards to Michou, yes they have a great hustle, which has helped them tremendously, but at the end of the day, if they didn’t have the chops to back it up, they wouldn’t be where they are or where they’re going.
I know it’s the net and things can be misinterpreted very easily, but I do sense you’re a little ticked about what I said. Again I say I wasn’t saying you weren’t worth getting paid, I was saying that if work is of quality, eventually you will be paid to do it.
Fully agree with you Sean.
Not mad over here…
I do, however, believe that when a corporation asks you to work for them…headhunts you…they need to pay for those services that have obviously deemed valuable enough to come asking for…
When you’re an “okay accountant”, you don’t work for free.
You don’t get better at accounting, and THEN get a paycheck.
But with writing, photography, design, film, music, we’re all expected to give it away until it’s deemed valuable in the greater community.
I disagree with this predatory system.
yes yes totally, in those situations definitely, matter of fact check out the blog clients from hell… that gives a great idea of the value put on creativity and artistry by the gen. pop. I was speaking more generally, but I totally agree, a corporation should pay you according to industry standards, but then when we get to the point of talking about talented people being lowballed by companies, we need to address the fact that while I might charge $800 for a 30 second commercial, some dick will do it for $150 bucks because he has a camcorder and iMovie… and many people won’t think twice, and go for the $150 guy and not know the difference in quality. And then this is compounded by people saying ah yeah that was good, for a local company. Or that was a good record for guys from Windsor, or that was a good film for something out of Windsor… If we hold everything to the same standard of quality, like how does that commercial look compared to TD bank commercials, or how is that record vs. TV on the Radio, or how is that film vs. Memento, only then will quality be recognized and become something distinguishable and desirable to everyone. I think?