Cowboy Mike never called, so there is no early morning recording session. Throw in the midday torrent and there’s no rehearsal either. It looks like another great day at home, which is not too bad around here. Part of the reason is during the summer one has to statistically deal with a higher ratio of locals. That means a higher probability of Canadian-like conversations with numbskulls who regard everything they can’t follow with extreme suspicion. If it don’t make instant sense to them, why you must be lying. And there is so, so very much they can’t follow.Planning shows in June, I still can’t spring for my own recording mixer. Innumerable matters must fall into place before I can leave for Colorado and I cannot take a chance of running short of cash meanwhile. So be prepared for all kinds of non-financial events between now and July. I think if you enjoyed this blog so far, it’s fairly certain you’ll be satisfied with the rate of new data input.
An example of such events might be recording new backing music for my videos. According to Ray-B, what I produce has youTube potential. I suppose he means the inclusion of titles, subtitles, charts, credits and he explicitly said the music tracks. I know there is money in just composing those but it’s like writing a novel. The effort does no good unless you know who to sell it to before you begin. I’m suggesting the book and music industry is built by people who know if they wait until after you complete your work, they can pretty much screw you around as much as they please.
I’d love to spend the now empty month of June 2012 by creating music tracks, but instead will probably experience yet another holdover of being born poor. Without the money to buy the mixer, I have plenty of time to do nothing. But if I get the money, so many other things will need doing that I may not have time for backing tracks. It’s karma, you never have both the spare time and the money.
Did you catch the Facebook Fizzle? The IPO that was supposed to bring in a hundred billion, more than MacDonald’s, more than IBM, more than GM. Ker-poof, hardly a ripple. Too much hooplah, and if you ask me, a signal that the Facebook formula has worn off. What? Oh, the formula. Facebook is based on the fact that a lot of latecomers to the Internet overspent on computers and misery loves company. It gave people who really don’t know what the hell a computer is for the chance to connect to millions of others in the same boat. But the fizzle shows there is a limit to how much and how far that goes.
Then Cowboy Mike finally called. He brought up Facebook on his own, saying the company has no assets and its entire value is based on hype. Good point. It is the biggest bubble and he says it will be the biggest bust when people figure out their investment dollars aren’t backed up by any assets. Mike wants to create Assbook.
With Assbook, everybody has an account where they tell you who they think are asses and why. He figures the asses of the world would not be able to let an hour go by without checking on themselves, that they know who they are. Actually, Mike has much of the detail figured out to a surprising extent for a non-programmer. Then people vote on it. This would, he insists, get rid of David Letterman and Sarah Palin.
His view of American society is each person is a monkey holding on to the backside of the monkey ahead of them. “How else,” he asks, “do you explain the popularity of Britney Spears?”
I asked him if, in his mind, we followed that line all the way back to the last monkey, what we would find? We reflected momentarily and replied in unison, “The Hippie.”
Then later Cowboy Mike did call. After a decent bingo and a nearly 40-minute drive I finally found Willy’s. Never knew it was right there. The only sign visible from the approach is “Subway”. Willy’s is a prime location for a decent country band. Older crowd, big dance floor, free pool and open 24/7. Mike had two guitar players, one of whom I gave my business card, the other complained I didn’t take his picture. I said older crowd, not more mature.
ADDENDUM
For years I’ve toyed with the very idea of publishing books for others. But I did not have the float, that is, enough money to carry me until one gets a hit. Nor do I understand the promotions, bribes, exposure, costs, and the rest. But I would know about producing a quality product that’s at least been adequately proof-read.
Let me say something about video at this point. I will use youTube as the standard here and when I first heard of it, I made some assumptions. One was that a whole generation of computer savvy amateurs would flood the bandwidth with slick little videos that eclipsed anything I could produce. And just maybe those videos exist out there.
But they don’t appear much in the topics I research. Crappy home recordings, dull jam sessions, obviously staged humor, and an awful lot of the same old same old. I wouldn’t sign my name to a lot of it either. I’m going to look for better-produced examples and see which amount of effort, text or videos, get more hits for the effort.
Yet, if you forget that effort, videos are an easier option. People are more likely to click a provocatively titled five minute clip than read a book. I know shadow marketing is done, but was it planned that way or did it evolve? I would set out to build an audience of any size to whom it would subsequently become easier to sell other media. My “Ruby for President” production brought hundreds of hits on my other sites. That’s why it was tried and had it been thousands, the outcome would be different.
There aren’t that many advantages to having done this type of project before. The bulk of any success lies in the promotion. One should still take stock and I already know what to avoid. Like gung-ho-ism or choosing a topic so grand that initial success cannot be followed-on. Throw in ad-libbing and winging it. Guys who do this, they are on to you. And get a lab coat. It looks official and only the queers will notice how many consecutive days you can wear the same shirt.
An easy conclusion is that political opinion fits the mold. No matter how opinionated you become, nothing can be quantified. A likelier option for me would be economics. I already have opinions about silver and money and unlike the youTube blowhards, I’ve put my own money to the test. George—did you get that?
One thing I am really unimpressed with is youTube product that lacks editing. People prop a camera on their desk and upload whatever comes next. Even in my most primitive recordings, I managed better than that.
For that reason, I would like you to review the following video, keeping in mind the topics and pointers just mentioned. This video was meaningless filler, a lab project. Please don’t analyze it for entertainment value, but rather analyze it for the difference being made by the titles, background music, scene transition, and the storyline of two different scenes even in such a short presentation. Did they make ordinary clips the more interesting? Did you watch more closely? Did it make you think? Do you feel you learned anything at all? Would you watch it again?
