By James Jorden
With one of my favorite opera productions returning to the Met tonight, I’ve been considering lately what makes Willy Decker’s Traviata so fine, so satisfying, and so worth a return visit. (more…)
Archive for March, 2013
Then is now
Thursday, March 14th, 2013Lessons Learned From Crowdfunding
Thursday, March 14th, 2013By: Edna Landau
Dear Edna:
I am Associate Professor of Piano at a university music school in the U.S. and enjoy reading your blog very much. I also encourage my students to read it. For a number of years, I have been researching piano compositions written by female composers and I have now collected enough music to make a cd recording. I realize it is unlikely that a record company would release the cd and cover the expenses so I’ve been thinking of producing it myself. I know that others have undertaken such projects through crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and I am happy to go that route. However, I am wondering if there are things I should know up front to avoid making any mistakes and to maximize the effectiveness of my campaign. Any advice you can give me would be most appreciated. —- Stephanie B.
Dear Stephanie:
Thanks very much for writing to Ask Edna. Your project sounds perfect for a Kickstarter campaign. The good news is that Kickstarter’s website is extremely comprehensive and very helpful. All of the guidelines are carefully spelled out and considerable advice is offered about how to set your financial goal, the ideal length of time for your project, establishing rewards for different levels of giving, and more. It is important to remember that with Kickstarter, you must succeed in reaching your goal; otherwise, the dollars pledged will not be collected. However, you can contribute some of your own money if you come up a little short. You also cannot change your financial goal or the length of the campaign once it has begun. I have spoken to a number of people recently who mounted successful campaigns (all exceeded their goals) and they confirmed that they learned virtually everything they needed to know from carefully studying the Kickstarter website before launching their project. I did get some additional insights from them which you and others might find helpful.
Oboist Matt Dine organized a Kickstarter campaign to fund a recording project he had dreamed of for a long time: Me, Myself and Albinoni. The recording will feature him playing both parts of two of his favorite Albinoni concertos, written for two oboes. He limited the time frame of his $18,000 campaign to a month because that is the optimal time recommended by Kickstarter. He succeeded in raising $20,343. He told me that he was intensely involved with the campaign every day, to make it enticing to contribute, and advised that anyone contemplating this fundraising approach be prepared to make a proper time commitment. It is necessary to support the campaign with regular communication via e-mail, Facebook and possibly Twitter, to keep the momentum going. He tried to make his rewards as inventive as possible and also took advantage of his skills as a professional photographer to offer free photo sessions in the higher reward categories. He noted that Kickstarter strongly recommends posting a video but he hesitated until the last ten days because of the work involved and his concern about the quality meeting his own standards. When he did it, it creatively reflected the unique nature of his project (I encourage you to see for yourself how) and he raised $3000 in three or four days. He thinks that the video played a major role in reaching his goal before the deadline. He pointed out to me that a perfectly acceptable video can be made with an iPhone, if necessary, and that most people have friends who know how to edit if they don’t. When Matt exceeded his goal, he adjusted his plans so as to use an even better recording venue than planned. He strongly suggested that when setting up the campaign, think your project budget through very carefully. Remember that in addition to the 5% fee that Kickstarter takes, there will be an additional charge of at least 3% from Amazon.com for processing payments. You will also have shipping costs when you send backers their rewards.
I also spoke with bassist Ranaan Meyer, who is a co-founder of Time for Three, and mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer who gave further input about their Kickstarter campaigns. Time for Three wanted to produce a music video with a strong positive message for young people. Their goal was $15,000 (they had additional funding from a private source) and they raised $18,410 in less than a month. They worked with a few consultants, including viral marketing and social networking expert Jaime Campbell Morton, to help them present their project effectively and to assist them in knowing how often to post and send messages via social media and drive traffic to their Kickstarter page. They also hired a videographer to assist in the making of the promotional video on the Kickstarter site. All of these investments paid off once their music video was produced. Their audiences increased by as much as 300 per show, they gained many new Facebook fans, and hits on the Time for Three – Stronger video on YouTube currently number over 93,000. Ranaan stressed the importance of sending out the rewards in a timely manner. He also made the point that the Kickstarter experience is not just about raising money and “see ‘ya later”, but about building a community that is dedicated to you and your projects. Susanne Mentzer, who successfully funded a recording of never before recorded songs by Pulitzer prizewinning composer and octogenarian Carlisle Floyd (who will supervise the sessions), also spoke of the importance of acknowledging and thanking your community. Since every donation showed up in her e-mail account and a spreadsheet on Amazon.com gave further detail about the donor and the amount, she made sure to thank at least the larger donors right away. She admitted to me that she found the prospect of creating the Kickstarter video a bit daunting and that if she were to do another campaign, she would solicit outside help and aim for a higher quality outcome. She reiterated the importance of constantly getting the word out through social media or, as she called it, “shaking the trees”.
I should mention that Kickstarter is not the only game in town. There are other crowdfunding sites such as RocketHub and Indiegogo. I have not personally investigated RocketHub but there would seem to be two advantages to Indiegogo. If you are not successful in reaching your financial goal, you can still collect the monies that were pledged; however, the fees you pay will be slightly higher than if you achieve your goal. In addition, it is possible for your backers to get a tax deduction if you have a charitable foundation with 501(c)3 status as the payee, or if you use a fiscal sponsor such as Fractured Atlas. (Fees for this will also be a bit higher.) I spoke to Paul Murphy, who is a member of the Artists’ Committee of The Declassified and who was integrally involved in their successful Indiegogo campaign to launch the music collective. They sought to raise $20,000 and raised $25,115 in six weeks. The monies were used to cover basic expenses such as a professional website, marketing materials, office space and accounting and legal fees, as well as costs related to events that took place in the launch week. The campaign led directly up to the launch week and was significantly helped by an article about The Declassified that appeared in The New York Times. The size of The Declassified (over 40 members) gave them a built-in network of family and friends that got them one-third of the way. They put a lot of thought into their video and making sure they had a point person to keep their written and video messages consistent and compelling. They focused on clearly and concisely expressing who they are, what they do, why they are excited about it and on inviting people to be a part of it. You might find their rewards interesting, inasmuch as it can be a challenge to offer benefits to donors when you don’t yet exist! When the campaign ended, and following their launch week, they sent out a newsletter to their network and Indiegogo campaign donors to thank them and share the exciting news that they were singled out by Indiegogo as a model campaign.
This may be far more information than you were seeking, but I hope this column offers useful tips to a broader community of musicians, as well as encouragement to pursue their dreams, based on the significant success of many others who have preceded them.
Musical America will be issuing a Special Report on Fundraising and Sponsorships on 2 April. The report is free and will be located in the Special Reports area of the web site.
© Edna Landau 2013
Another Taxing Question
Wednesday, March 13th, 2013By Robyn Guilliams, Esq.
Dear Law and Disorder:
There seems to be some clarification needed regarding income earned by non-US artists we represent who perform in Canada. We act as the agent for the artists, so payment is always made to us. If an artist will be performing in Canada, but payment comes to us in the US before it is sent to the artist, is it still subject to US withholding (potentially 30%)? If an artist earns money in Canada and the payment comes to us as agent for the artist does that income get recorded in the 1042S that we provide the artist at the end of the calendar year? I am hoping you can provide me with an answer that I can forward on to my colleagues. Thanks, you guys are great!
The 30% withholding rule is applicable only to payments of “US source income”. For compensation of personal services (e.g., fees earned by artists for performances, master classes, etc.), the test of whether or not the fees are “US income” is the location where the services are performed. Fortunately, this makes it easy to determine when the 30% withholding rule applies! IRS Publication 519 states that:
If the income is for personal services performed in the United States, it is from U.S. sources. The place where the services are performed determines the source of the income, regardless of where the contract was made, the place of payment, or the residence of the payer.”
So, your nonresident artists who perform in Canada (or any other country outside the US) are NOT subject to 30% withholding. They are subject to tax and withholding in the country in which the services are performed. Even if payment for a Canadian engagement comes to you in the US, that payment will be considered non-US income, it is not subject to 30% US tax withholding, and it is not reportable on a 1042-S. However, while your artist won’t have any US tax obligations for the Canadian engagement, he or she may be subject to Canadian withholding and tax.
__________________________________________________________________
For additional information and resources on this and other
legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com
To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.
All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.
__________________________________________________________________
THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:
THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!
The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!
The Beauty of Buglisi
Saturday, March 9th, 2013Note: This review marks the continuation of a series dedicated to showcasing the best student writing from the Dance History course I teach at The Juilliard School.
By Zoë McNeil
Although it’s been 22 years since Martha Graham’s passing, the Buglisi Dance Theatre continues to perpetuate her legacy. The company, seen February 9 at The Joyce Theater, was founded by a handful of former influential members of the Graham Company. Jacqulyn Buglisi and Donlin Foreman, its founding choreographers, seek to reflect Graham’s dramatic aesthetic in which emotions, characters, and movements are boldly etched.
Buglisi and Foreman’s work features Graham’s signature gestural and movement vocabulary, such as cupped hands, contractions (in which the spine forms a concave shape) and split falls (in which a dancer executes a split and a contraction as she sinks to the floor). Today Buglisi, the company’s sole artistic director, reinvents Graham’s ideas through her distinctly romantic voice.
Of the six pieces presented, the highlight of the program was Buglisi’s 2001 work Requiem. Originally inspired by the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi’s portraits, Buglisi shifted the work’s focus after the 9/11 New York terrorist attack.
"Requiem" by Jacqulyn Buglisi
Breathtaking from the start, Requiem features chiaroscuro light by Clifton Taylor that cascades onto the stage as if from the windows of a cathedral. The five illuminated dancers rest atop five black boxes, positioned in a V formation. The stirring chorale music of Gabriel Fauré permeates the space. Despite the subtle and nearly statuesque nature of the movement, the dancers’ cohesive energy and emotional intensity makes Requiem appear kinetic. Each movement and gesture initiates from the core of each female dancer. When the dancers slowly descend from the boxes to the floor, their richly hued asymmetrical draped dresses, designed by Jacqulyn Buglisi and A. Christina Giannini, appear to grow larger, like a painter expanding color across her canvas.
Terese Capucilli in "Requiem"
Terese Capucilli, a member of the original cast of Requiem, navigated Buglisi’s choreography with elegance and passion. Her dancing is captivating for its deeply human approach. Capucilli doesn’t look like she is acting. Her aura of tragedy feels real.
Another impressive piece was Prelude, performed by Ari Mayzick and choreographed by Donlin Foreman. This 1997 solo epitomizes the essence of male vigor and power. Mayzick’s impeccably sculpted body is used to demonstrate his complete, physical control. In the face of Foreman’s physically demanding choreography and specific theme (overcoming struggle), Mayzick didn’t resort to dramatics; his dynamic dancing did all the talking. In a series of spirals that descended to the floor, Mayzick transcended gravity with some remarkable suspended, standing balances on one leg.
In Rain (2004), the first work on the program, Buglisi’s environmental activist voice is expressed. Inspired by her trip to the Venezuelan rainforest, Rain is a commentary on the magnificence and vulnerability of nature. The entirety of the dance takes place behind a scrim, designed by Jacobo Borges, that projects images of nature’s elements, such as waterfalls, oceans, rocks and trees. The performers appear to float in this environment, becoming visible and then shrouded by the scrim. The music, composed by Glen Velez, Villa-Lobos, and Mahler, alternates between the percussive energy of drums—as if one was enveloped in the beating heart of the jungle—to the softer quality of the piano. Overall, the dancers give the impression of being in the rain, of embodying the ever-changing nature of water through sections that alternate between solo, duet, and ensemble performing. Though the scrim creates a boundary between the nine dancers and the audience, the performers’ energy and strong technique transcend it.
"Rain" by Jacquilyn Buglisi
It’s no surprise that Buglisi Dance Theatre has survived twenty years. The company’s works possess theatrical range. The dancers are top notch, and Graham’s important legacy continues through the voices and spirit of her progeny.
Zoë McNeil is a first year dance division student at The Juilliard School. She is studying the Graham technique with Terese Capucilli.
I Love Youth Orchestras
Thursday, March 7th, 2013by Sedgwick Clark
NOTE: MY BLOG IS NOW POSTED ON THURSDAYS AT NOON RATHER THAN WEDNESDAYS.
Why? The kids aren’t jaded. No repertoire is too daunting. Their enthusiasm nearly always makes up for any momentary technical shortcoming. One skips concerts at Juilliard at his or her peril and often encounters first-rate conductors that the Philharmonic has neglected. Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute just announced a new summer training residency for students from 42 states. Beginning in late June, they will train at Purchase College (N.Y.) and be conducted in their first concerts by Valery Gergiev, with Joshua Bell as soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony and a new work by American composer Sean Shepherd complete the program, to be performed at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, and in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and London (dates tba).
The ensemble’s name, “National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America,” reminds me of a thrilling concert I heard in London in 1977 by the National Youth Orchestra of Britain. Pierre Boulez conducted one of his signature programs: Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta; Berg, Violin Concerto, with Itzhak Perlman as soloist; Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring. Afterwards, he couldn’t contain his excitement at having conducted The Rite with 146 players. I counted 16 double basses and equivalent numbers in the other string bodies in MUSPAC.
The Berg boasted large orchestral forces as well, but with Boulez’s impeccable ear Perlman soared effortlessly throughout. I had heard Boulez conduct the concerto twice before in concert as well as on record twice, and in each case he downplayed the Viennese dance rhythms in the first movement – but not with Perlman. I saw the violinist at the Aspen Music Festival later that year and asked him how he had gotten Boulez to loosen up. With typical Perlmanian cheer he flipped his right arm in the air dramatically, saying with a grin, “I said, Pierre – dance!”
Some readers may find it odd for me to be essentially reviewing a 36-year-old concert performance, but I just wanted to recall how satisfying a student performance can be. Those British Youths roared through Boulez’s interpretation of The Rite with far more fire than in either of his Cleveland recordings or a later London Symphony performance at Carnegie. I heard several concerts during that three-week stay, but damned if I can remember any of the others.
The critics raved, cluelessly expressing astonishment that the young players were so adept in such “difficult” music – seemingly unaware that the complex rhythms and dissonant harmonies were second nature to their generation. I would like to look forward to the National Youths of the U.S., but for some reason they won’t be playing in New York, just rehearsing in Westchester. Maybe next year.
Chicago’s Legendary Dale Clevenger to Retire
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony begins with a trudging funeral march before bursting out into a wild allegro that climaxes as six French horns whoop up the scale. For over 43 years that rip-roaring moment in a Carnegie Hall performance on January 9, 1970, with the Chicago Symphony under Georg Solti, has remained vividly in my mind. For years thereafter their concerts would be the toughest ticket in town, and at the end of this season, the man leading the horn charge will retire. Dale Clevenger will have been the Chicago Symphony’s principal horn player for 47 years when he moves on to teach at Indiana University. His was a level of artistry I’ll never forget.
Looking Forward
My week’s scheduled concerts (8:00 p.m. unless otherwise noted):
3/11 Carnegie Hall. Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano; Warren Jones, piano. James Legg: Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. Barber: Three Songs, Op. 3. American Songbook classics by Ray Henderson, Cole Porter, Edward Confrey, and Irving Berlin.
3/14 Carnegie Hall at 7:00. Orchestra of St. Luke’s/Patrick Summers; Renée Fleming (Blanche), Teddy Tahu Rhodes (Stanley), Anthony Dean Griffey (Mitch), Jane Bunnell (Eunice), Andrew Bidlack (Young Collector), and Dominic Armstrong (Steve). Semi-staged performance directed by Brad Dalton. André Previn: A Streetcar Named Desire.
Taking the Next Career Step
Thursday, March 7th, 2013By: Edna Landau
To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.
I have always had great admiration for people who stay in the same job for long periods of time and who feel no need for change because they are presented with regular opportunities for learning and growth along the way. Typically they are in an environment where their contributions are valued, they have a voice in developing new projects for their company or institution, and they are appropriately rewarded financially for their performance. However, I have seen others who stay in a job that increasingly makes them feel unhappy and unfulfilled because they think that they only know how to do one thing, they wouldn’t be happier somewhere else, or they lack the courage to try something new. Contemplating this subject, I decided to speak to two colleagues who have made a career change in the past few years and now both work for radio station WQXR. Graham Parker, its General Manager and Vice President, and Martha Bonta, Executive Producer, Live Events and Special Programming, both came to the station after it was acquired by New York Public Radio three and a half years ago. Parker was the former Executive Director of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Bonta was Vice President, Artist Manager at IMG Artists. Mr. Parker told me that he hadn’t been looking to leave Orpheus and always imagined that if he did change jobs, he would remain in the orchestral world. An e-mail from Laura Walker, President and CEO of New York Public Radio, came totally out of the blue. When he first glanced at the job description, he saw some responsibilities for which he felt well qualified and others that would be new to him. He had coffee with trusted colleagues to see how they viewed such a move and also ran by them some statements that he planned to make in his interview. Initially, some of them were quite skeptical but by the end of their time together, they seemed totally convinced. This gave him the courage to take the next step, even though he had never worked at, let alone run, a radio station. He did have artistic, financial, board development and strategic planning experience that was very relevant to his possible new position and that, in the end, mattered more to his employer. In addition, having developed new initiatives for Orpheus such as commissioning new music and launching live broadcasts at Carnegie Hall on WNYC, now the sister station of WQXR, Parker seemed the perfect candidate for the new visionary leader that Ms. Walker was seeking. She laid down the challenge of expanding the station into a multi-platform media company and he enthusiastically embraced it.
Martha Bonta stressed to me the importance of evaluating one’s skills and leveraging them appropriately as one contemplates a new career direction. When she left IMG Artists in 1998, where she had been Booking Manager, to take on the title of Director of Artistic Planning and Touring at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, she was able to leverage her booking experience to obtain the job, which also presented an attractive opportunity to work in the area of artistic administration, including programming and producing concert series. Five years later, she leveraged the artistic administration skills in gaining a new position at IMG Artists as Vice President and Artist Manager. When she joined WQXR in July of 2011, her mission was to help shape their extensive live broadcasts and develop a diverse range of programming for live performances in the Greene Space, the station’s intimate on-site performance venue which has quickly become a “hot” place to hear the best young and established talent in riveting programs. Within six weeks of her arrival at the station, she programmed and produced the first 12-hour marathon of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, drawing on production experience gained at the Chamber Music Society. She told me how exciting it was to see the large crowd that stretched far around the block, consisting of many young people who were coming to hear an extraordinarily gifted group of pianists, none of them “household names”, especially as she knew that many were “brushing shoulders with classical music for the first time.” WQXR’s offerings at the Greene Space may also be multi-genre in nature, as in the case of an event on March 18, 2013, which features Bill T. Jones, The Orion String Quartet and dancers from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Ms. Bonta worked with the dance company in a special project during her tenure at the Chamber Music Society. They are also long time clients of IMG Artists.
In sitting over lunch with Graham and Martha, I couldn’t help but be inspired by the irrepressible enthusiasm, excitement and optimism with which they seem to greet each new day at WQXR. While understanding the need to be financially prudent and not move in too many directions too quickly, they embrace a vision of the station continuing to grow organically in ways as yet unknown. What new channel might be added to the already successful Q2 and Operavore, which is dedicated to attracting new audiences to opera? They are invigorated by the opportunity to share the best of New York’s diverse and rich cultural offerings with the widest possible audience. What advice would they give to others contemplating a new career direction? Martha suggested not giving undue significance to every word of a job description and concentrating on the capabilities you have that could prove very attractive to your prospective employer. Graham concurred and even indicated that he loves hiring people “out of skill set”, even though it may take courage to do so. He also said that if someone wants to get into a new field, they should have the courage to reach out to people who might be of help. “Everyone will be happy to let you buy them a cup of coffee and if you prepare your time with them wisely, they will generally be more than willing to help you make new connections.” He stressed that relationships are key, and that everyone is well advised to stay in touch with people who may have helped them in previous jobs or who they greatly respect. All of this seems like sage advice from two people who distinguished themselves in earlier positions and who have assumed possibly even more rewarding roles that allow them to help shape the future of a dynamic and treasured radio station, which introduces new audiences to classical music on a daily basis in a manner totally consistent with our times.
To ask a question, please write Ask Edna.
© Edna Landau 2013
The Mechanics of Mechanical Licenses
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013By Brian Taylor Goldstein, Esq.
Dear Law and Disorder:
Does all music (if not in public domain) require a mechanical license to be recorded? I don’t quite understand when it is needed and when a person could pay a statutory fee and move forward without permission.
Yes, anytime you want to make an audio recording (whether you want to go into a studio or record live performance), you must obtain a “Mechanical License” from the publisher or the copyright owner(s) of the song or music you wish to record. A “Mechanical License” is the permission issued to a licensee (typically a record company or someone recording a cover song for their independent release) granting the licensee the right (ie: permission) to make and distribute an audio recording of a specific composition at an agreed-upon fee, per unit manufactured and distributed.
If the music has never been recorded and publicly distributed before and yours will be the first recording, then you will need to seek a Mechanical License directly from the publisher or copyright owner(s) who are free either to refuse to grant you the license or charge you whatever license fee they want. However, once a musical composition has been recorded and publicly distributed, the U.S. Copyright Act provides for a “Compulsory Mechanical License” to anyone who wants to record and distribute the work provided certain statutory requirements are met: (1) You have to provide notice to the publisher or copyright owner(s) of your intent to claim a Compulsory Mechanical License; and (2) you must pay the applicable Compulsory Mechanical License Fee set forth in the Copyright Act. The Compulsory Mechanical License Fees are set by the U.S. Copyright Office and are updated every few years. Currently, the rate is 9.1 cents or 1.75 cents per minute of playing time or fraction thereof, whichever is greater, per united manufactured and distributed. (Distribution includes both physical copies (ie: CDs) as well as full downloads. Different rates apply for limited-use downloads, ringtones, on-demand streaming.) Provided these requirements are met, the Mechanical License must be granted…the publisher or copyright owner(s) cannot refuse…that’s why it’s “compulsory.”
However, before you start drafting your Grammy-Award acceptance speech, there are few restrictions to keep in mind:
1) Compulsory Mechanical licenses do not apply to dramatic works, such as operas, film soundtracks, ballet scores and Broadway medleys. If you want to record one of these, you will need to seek the Mechanical License directly from the publisher or copyright owner(s) who are free to refuse or charge whatever they like.
2) Compulsory Mechanical licenses are available for audio-only recordings only. If you are making an audio-visual recording, such as a DVD or video, or anything involving visual images, you will need to obtain a “Synchronization License” directly from the publisher or copyright owner(s) who are free to refuse or charge whatever they like.
Compulsory Mechanical Licenses can be obtained through the Harry Fox Agency (www.harryfox.com), which represents most U.S. publishers. Mechanical licenses can also be negotiated directly with the publisher or copyright owner(s).
_________________________________________________________________
For additional information and resources on this and other legal and business issues for the performing arts, visit ggartslaw.com
To ask your own question, write to lawanddisorder@musicalamerica.org.
All questions on any topic related to legal and business issues will be welcome. However, please post only general questions or hypotheticals. GG Arts Law reserves the right to alter, edit or, amend questions to focus on specific issues or to avoid names, circumstances, or any information that could be used to identify or embarrass a specific individual or organization. All questions will be posted anonymously.
__________________________________________________________________
THE OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER:
THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE!
The purpose of this blog is to provide general advice and guidance, not legal advice. Please consult with an attorney familiar with your specific circumstances, facts, challenges, medications, psychiatric disorders, past-lives, karmic debt, and anything else that may impact your situation before drawing any conclusions, deciding upon a course of action, sending a nasty email, filing a lawsuit, or doing anything rash!