On July 3rd of 2026,i was contracted to play 45 minutes of original acoustic guitar pieces as entertainment for an event being hosted at the Northwest Nature store.Upon my arrival,i set up my folding chair and began my set.Within a minute or two,my employer(not Nature Store employees)materialized out of the rather large crowd,gave me my fee,plus a geneous bonus,and said ,"Do your thing Brother Harry",and disappeared back into the crowd.I began to play again when i noticed a group of several kids(12-13 yrs.old?)setting up musical equipment 30'or so away from my location.All of these kids were openly staring at me with dirty looks on their faces.At a loss,i kept playing acoustic guitar as i was being paid to do.After a minute or so,one of the kids started playing an electric/acoustic guitar and i immediately began playing complimentary,tasteful,leads in an appropriate walking minor scale,rather than continue with my piece,so as not to be dissonant or discordant with a fellow musicians efforts.(even if it was some inexperienced kid,as i am a consumate professional with 40 years experience under my belt).At that point i noticed an adult that seemed to be involved with the kids,also giving me extremely dirty looks as i continued to do my job.As this man approached me staring sourly,i addressed him in a friendly and professional manor,informing him i would be happy to just play accompanying acoustic guitar to whatever the kids were going to play so as not to be a distraction or source of disonance.This male adult cut me off mid sentance by informing me in a menacing bullying manor that ,"UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE YOU TO PLAY ANYTHING WHEN THE KIDS ARE PLAYING".Shocked at his rude aggressive and Highly unprofessional attitude,i calmly began to inform him i was not some random busker,but instead was a paid professional there to do a job.Mr.Luz(i found out his name later),cut me off again with the same statement regarding my purpose at the event.Luz walked off to his car,and within a minute was back,standing over me,telling me again not to play while this kid was playing,to which i responded,"What are you going to do dude,beat me up?!"Luz smirked and replied,"No ,but you are not going to play".Throughout this entire interaction,all 3 or 4 of these kids are watching this,still with looks of disdain and hostility on their faces.o told him again i had been paid to be there,tried to ask him if he knew my employers for the event,all to no avail.He said "I dont care",and walked back to where the kids were at.Instead of causing a scene and potentially embarrassing both myself,and my employers,i packed up my guitar and went home.I informed my employer via text what had happened and they assured me Mr.Luz would be addressed.Well,i come to find out this fellow Felipe Luz runs an organization called Gateway Music Collective in which he is supposedly teaching these children how to become professional musicians!?If you are a parent of any of these kids he is "mentoring"you should know that this person is a complete and total bigot,not to mention a garbage teacher of musicians etticate,whom is poisoning young minds with misdirected unprofessional behaviour! I myself,am a veteran pro musician with credentials that include writing music sound tracks for Sony Music Corp. Playstation video games,National touring credits,and Internationally released album music writers credits for a world famous punk rock band from L.A. as well as an ASCAP'd published songwriter.But because i am 55 yrs. old,with a bleached 10" tall spiked mohawk,am covered from neck to fingernails in 30 yr. old lousy tattoo work,and have teeth that look like a beat up picket fence with boards missing,this "teacher"of other peoples children felt it was ok to bully,menace,embarrass,and humiliate a fellow musician IN FRONT OF SAID CHILDREN,because he was too ignorant to even ask or listen to anything i said.Instead he set an example for these kids,that judging a person by their physical appearance is perfectly ok,and furthermore,looking different equals a lesser person whether they are a fellow musician or not.MR. LUZ YOU ARE TEACHING OTHER PEOPLES KIDS TO BE BIGOTED,HATEFUL,AND IGNORANT,AND I FULLY EXPECT A PUBLIC APOLOGY FROM YOU BEFORE I CAN BE FREE OF THE HUMILIATION YOU CAUSED ME WHILE I WAS TRYING TO DO MY JOB.To do anything less only furthers your lack of professionalism. read more
