But when I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, I was met with the shock that after 5 years of intense strain on every level and after burning through a shitload of money, I was no more qualified than I was fresh out of high school.  I’m not saying it was a waste of time.  There are experiences I had that are invaluable and I wouldn’t trade.  Sure, I’d learned a lot and yes, that particular institution turned me into a solid musician capable of rehearsing a very tight band, but they hadn’t taught me anything I needed to know *outside* the rehearsal space.  There was no accounting class, nothing about intellectual property laws, nothing of any practical use at all.  Furthermore, the jazz program was stuffed into a handful (that’s ONE handful) of offices in the basement of a building that was removed from the rest of the music school, almost as though it was the shameful secret being swept under the living room couch so no one would see.  And I remember being laughed out of the classroom when I approached a music history professor about writing a research paper about Elvis Presley.  This was a music school that was still very much stuck in the 19^th century (if that) and would have much preferred if the 20^th century with all its pesky electronics, guitars, amplifiers, blues, jazz and rock and roll had never happened in the first place.

After graduation, I remained with my job at Barnes & Noble, selling music (it was about all I was qualified to do).  I started my own rock band and began performing around town.  This experience, along with having recorded an EP/demo yet to be released taught me that I knew nothing about the industry I was so passionate about making a career within, and illustrated exactly how lacking my degree was.  I knew nothing about the business side of the industry, which became my role within the band in addition to my musical roles.  After three years, I moved to Chicago and began pursuing a Master’s degree at Columbia College in Music Business Management.  It was here at the tail end of my first year that I encountered Martin Atkins.

Even from the beginning, Martin’s class was refreshing.  There was no syllabus, no rigorous assignment schedule, no useless papers to write, no set topics for any given class period.  Instead, Martin came in prepared to teach whatever we wanted to learn about (generally within the broad topic of the class) and whatever real-world thing that happened to occur that day.  And honestly, the real world, no bullshit knowledge he passed onto us at Columbia was more valuable than most of what I’d learned the rest of the year.  I’m not saying that what I’ve learned at Columbia is useless – far from it.  I’m simply saying that there are things that anyone hoping to establish themselves in any artistic industry should do that are often overlooked and even shunned by these big institutions.

And so I went after one of Martin’s summer internships.  And later, he was cool enough to include us in r3. I’m incredibly excited for this.  We’re still being taught about things like marketing and intellectual property, but we’re also doing shit like we did this week.  I spent the last 2 weeks setting up a gallery show that we’re sending to Baltimore (at the Metro Gallery) this weekend.  This involved spending a good chunk of Friday (when many folks were going to barbecues and enjoying their Fourth of July) some of Monday and all day Tuesday setting up a gallery preview show here at the r3 building.  This is something I can legitimately say that I set up and was largely involved in.  We’re building a studio at Reggie’s Rock Club, by far one of the best and coolest clubs I’ve ever been to (and I’ve seen my share). Their business model ALONE is stunning and very exciting. We’re learning how to screen print our own shirts.  We’re coming up with a marketing and business plan for an independent artist (Indie Artist X) that this artist is actually going to USE. This is real world shit that’s actually happening that we’re actually part of and working for, not sitting in some stale classroom reading about it. And you know what? I might actually be able to build one of those ever elusive “career” thingies out of what I’m learning here at r3.

Real world shit.  Academia can’t compete with an experienced, established guy showing you, “This is how it’s fucking done,” and it knows that.  Academia can’t compete with people who actually put you to work and educate you through real, usable experience.  Academia’s pulse is weak, and it’s breathing is slowing.  In fact, it’s already gone.

Long live education.

-Lisa

7/10/09