Back in the beginning of this year was my first encounter with Austin, TX and this little music, film and multimedia conference called SXSW. I guess a few people know about it since it’s been around for like 20 years. I’m well past doing a retrospective of it at this point, all but for one major thing. While I was there, I met a bunch of bloggers, mostly thru and ex-Yahoo! named Ernie. He’s this really funny gay Asian blogger @ErnieAtLYD who seems to know everyone. So, I’m hanging out with these bloggers during the interactive part of the conference, and then all of the talks that I sat in on during the music portion of this 11 day trip are all talking about blogging to reach your audience. Well, I’ve never been that great at math but, well, I got it…
So that week, I started a project. Ya see, I’ve actually been blogging for 5 years. In 2004, I hooked up CDBaby and the mp3s were downloadable and all that. I mean, just look at my web site and you’ll see what I mean. That was a lot of grunt work for one person to do. But, the sales sucked because I wasn’t doing any PR.
November came around and I decided to go to this conference called Road Rally. My Mom had been trying to get me to sign up with this service called Taxi which helps musicians and composers get connected with music placement peeps in Film and TV. These people are really hard to get to, believe me. I’ve tried. So, the service costs a chunk of change, and my first CD, “Rhythma” didn’t really have those “hits” on it. It was more for the music person who’s looking for masala instead of cheese. But with “Between the Lines”, I was feeling really confident that maybe I’d get the CD to the right person at the right time, and something unexpected and magical would happen. That didn’t happen, but I’m used to that it wasn’t a big deal. Anyhow, I popped into a talk that this woman Ariel Hyatt was giving. She runs this agency called Cyber PR and helps artists with online representation. I really like listening to her speak. She was really fluid, confident, and excited! She was one of the few things I walked away with from the conference and felt like there was something I needed to pursue.
So, when I got home, I went to her web site and was hunting around and came across this book called Music Success in Nine Weeks. I looked at the contents and thought, yeah yeah, I’ve heard this before, social media is where it’s at, you need to connect with your audience online, flickr, twitter, facebook, myspace… I’ve done all this. My first twitter account is REALLY old… my first post was on Mar. 5th, 2007. In internet years, that’s like 40! And MySpace? How about 2005?! That’s old and gray in internet time, for sure. I’ve gotten luke warm results from MySpace, mainly because I don’t really care for online socializing. I’m in this weird demographic that has the knowledge but would rather be hiking. I mean, really… I’ve been working on the internet for a living since 1996. That’s when I built my first web site for the company I working for, Haptek. I do this stuff all week long. Do I really want to devote MORE time too it to engage people that I can’t even see? I digress… Back to Ariel. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do things that aren’t the most pleasant to get the best results. I understand this. And there was something about the book, and something else about Ariel’s enthusiasm that struck me. Plus, it seemed like, “Hey, I know this stuff. How hard could it be to just dive in and give it a go. So, I bought the book
Now, we’ve nearly finished our journey around the equator and back to my dream blog. Ariel is all about blogging. She’s all about exposing yourself, well, within reason of course, she’s all about getting sh*t done. So, I’ve somehow beaten my nerves into submission, and decided to finish getting my blog online. I went thru 130 dreams and privatized that ones that I don’t want the world to see, and am putting the rest on my sleeve. I’m ready to jump in, eyes open and nose plugged, and see if the world is ready for me, and if I can handle the world’s criticism of my dreams, thoughts, and awkward taste, all with comments turned on!
So, if you’re ready, I’m ready. That’s why this is a big day for me. Strange, that too me, who’s already had a career in movies and television in front of the camera, released two CDs, and played music for the public for some 20 years, this is a bigger deal, for some reason. I guess because there’s no poetry or script to hide behind.
There’ll be three categories for my posts: My Dream Journal, which will be censored to protect the innocent (if there’s anyone left), Life in General, where I’ll share my garden pictures and maybe some tech stuff, and my Rhythma Music blog, which in the next 9 weeks will be getting the most attention. You see, Ariel has started a contest for 3 months of her undivided (well, maybe a little divided) publicity attention. All I have to do is chronicle my experiences with her book in my blog. So, expect that I’ll be doing my first 2 posts this week because I’ve already had the book for 2 weeks. Expect more soon.
And now, I big you adieu. If this were Twitter, they’d hang me.
Rhythma Music | Comments Off on What a Big Day This Is!
I was walking around in Mervyns… You know, the average American family store that was bought you by Kole’s, or they went bankrupt, I’m not sure. It’s a pretty familiar store too me because I’ve been shopping there since I was a kid. It was never chic or hip, but that had good durable clothing, the kind that my dad used to wear when he was fishing or working on the car.
So, I come upon a sales clerk and I ask him, “Will you shred my wallet for me?” He assures me that they don’t have any such service. Now, this wallet is pretty new. I’ve only owned it for a little over a year, and buying it was a very big deal because I had the previous wallet for about 18 years. Yes, it was old. Yes, it was falling apart. It was made of brown leather and it said Harley Davidson on it. It actually had holes in it and I’d re-stitched it more than once to keep things from falling out of it. Don’t ask me why I kept it for so long, but I did. The fact that I’m actually asking this guy to shred my new wallet is odd, but what’s more odd is that I want him to shred it’s contents as well; driver’s license, credit cards, you name it. I have to do a little convincing but I finally get him to agree and I hand him my wallet and he walks off.
I’m walking around trying on clothes and it doesn’t take me long to realize that I don’t have any money to buy anything because I’ve just given my entire and wallet complete with contents to a sales clerk. I decide to leave but walk over to the cash register just in time to see the cashier pushing my wallet thru this massive shredder that looks like the end/beginning of an escalator. Sho’ nuf, the wallet goes right thru and it shred into a bazillion pieces. Here’s where I just go off the deep end. Just for kicks, I start screaming at the cashier, waving my arms and pounding on the counter, telling him what an imbecile he is for shredding my wallet and berating him for having no intelligence, and “How could anyone be so stupid to shred someone’s wallet?” He’s really nervous at this point, probably ready to pee himself, but he’s able to squeak out, “There’s a security camera and the guard will be arriving shortly.” I take this as a signal to end my charade and leave the store, exit stage right.
When I get out to the parking lot, I realize that my truck is parked REALLY far away. So, I start running as fast as I can, not because I’m running from anything, but simply because I have this huge amount of energy to burn. I’m sprinting thru this parking lot and I’m running up on ramps and dodging people, looking out for cars, and enjoying this freedom and strength that I have. I see my truck up in the distance…
Dream Journal | Comments Off on Shredding My Wallet
I was put into some sort of concentration camp or slave trade in India. I don’t know how I got there but I had nothing but the clothes on my back, what little there were of them. I was forced to work from sun-up to sun-down picking out of the fields. One day, there was a large group of workers that would be going to an alternate field and I was at the tail end of the group which meant that I would be finishing up the previous job and have a little time to relax in the shade of a large storage building. As I was doing so, someone I knew suggested that I follow him to a location where I might be able to escape with him. He led me to the shore of a subterranean lake or river and told me to get in. I soon realized that this was some sort of septic system and as we floated along, flotsam and jetsam from humanity flowed along with us. I kept my head above water so as not to co-mingle my intake with the waste. It got darker and darker and I had expected that I would be able to keep my friend near me but we didn’t tether together and I soon realized that I was alone and rushing faster with the current toward the center of the current. This turned out to be a sort of spring that came up about 4 feet from the surface of the water. I could tell that there was a lot of sewage spewed up thru this thing and I would be wise to avoid it. I somehow was able to will myself away from this strange fecal fountain and as I did, I was thrust onto the shore of this strange subterranean land. To my astonishment, there was an elevator. I was wet, and probably a bit soiled, but I got into the elevator and went to the other floor that it stopped at, there were only two apparently. I stepped out into a round room in a building. There were tourists and some tables where sales people were peddling their wares. One of the booths was for American tourists, especially those of the younger party set, so I went over there to see if I could get some information on how I might retrieve my identity and proceed when I had absolutely nothing, no money, no identification. I remember feeling a bit self conscious about my appearance but knew that there was nothing I could do about it and I needed to make the most of it.
Dream Journal | Comments Off on Indian Slave
Demon SkyNovember 29th, 2009
I was a some sort of gathering of people and I left on someone’s scooter. I was riding thru this little industrial area on a curve and it felt like the breaks were failing and I was going too fast. It made me nervous since I was on a curve and there were quite a number of people around so I decided to stop and take a look at the breaks. Next thing I remember, I was talking to the woman who owned the scooter and she was remarking that she too had a bad experience with the breaks.
I went to one of the warehouses in the area and people were being moved from one warehouse to another, some sort of accommodation. I went inside one to see how the arrangements were working out and when a stepped back outside, I saw a huge trail of smoke ascend into the sky. I followed the trail and saw that it had become a demon of some sort. It wasn’t too intimidating until another trail of black smoke ascended in into the sky after it. This culminated into a huge ferocious demon that looked like a gargoyle. It swallowed the first demon and as it did so, a huge rope of fire ascended into the air and encircled the demon. I wondered if this had anything to do with the harboring of the people.
This took place in dreamland by the wash behind Ventura Blvd. I remember ending up there at the end of things.
Dream Journal | Comments Off on Demon Sky
I was in the back seat of a car that George was driving. To my right was someone else, possibly Anthony. We were going to drop him off near a hospital or doctor’s office. He got out of the car holding an iPod I think. We were looking for a place to turn around and it was near a gas station. I looked out the back window as we were backing up and I saw this girl with at the gas pump drinking the gas and dousing her body with it. It was really weird but I didn’t get freaked out until I saw another guy doing the same thing. Then I was like, “George, let’s get the hell outta here. Something’s not right.” So rather than turn around, George continued forward. Then he got a call on his cell and stopped to take it. It was from his doctor’s office. They had told him that they needed to remove his trachea but that they thought he could grow a new one from some other point in his neck. He replied that in his medical condition, they needed to be more realistic about what healing abilities his body actually had.
Dream Journal | Comments Off on The Gasoline Drinkers
I was in a large dirt lot amongst some trees somewhere… There was this huge construction made from some sort of large iron grid. There was also a huge crane. A group of people were trying to figure out how to build this puzzle like artistic structure but they weren’t sure how the pieces went together. They would hoist the pieces with the crane and attempt to place the pieces in a logical fashion, but at times, they were wrong about how they went together. When they stopped for the day, it was around dusk. I was walking around naked and stopped at one place near the corner of the grid. There was a man that reminded me of Hagrid from Harry Potter. He was perched pretty high up and as I looked up at him, he asked me how much food I ate per day, probably commenting on me being thin and muscular. I replied that I ate about 40 ounces of food per day. He said he ate around 50 but that it was too much at his age because he couldn’t work off the weight as he looked down at his largish belly.
Dream Journal | Comments Off on The Construction Puzzle
I dreamt that a young woman named Jenny was just chosen as the new host for Kevin’s spirit.
Dream Journal | Comments Off on Kevin’s New Host
I was in an upstairs apartment that I didn’t recognize. There was a scuffle near the foot of the stairs and a man ran in and said there was something chasing him. He went to shut the door behind him as he came in but a black panther burst in a jumped on the couch in a sort of sideways position. I grabbed a couple large knives, one in each hand. I stayed a bit behind the cat to make it difficult for him to pounce on me while I assessed what the best way to stab it would be if he did pounce. Then I decided to intimidate it and raised me hands and roared. The cat seemed a little nervous so I repeated this with more zeal. I scared the cat and he jumped and ran into the hallway where there was a bedroom at each end. There was no door on the entrance to the hallway so I quickly gathered as much furniture as I could to block the cat in while I called for someone to come over and tranquilize it.
Dream Journal | Comments Off on The Black Panther
I was in a garage talking to Kevin’s dad and another man. The man was telling Paul that he should consider getting an older Cadilac. I looked at Paul with that, “been there done that” look to which he responded with a similar knowing expression.
I went into the man’s house. It was very large and beautiful on a large estate that also had an arboretum. He had invited me there to meet some other musicians. I was standing in the doorway noticing that how I was dressed was very odd for me. I was wearing slacks, a sweater and a blazer. I walked into the house. Four black men walked in with instruments. They looked like very accomplished jazz musicians. I felt a little intimidated by their slick manner of dress, their dark skin, and their stature. They walked thru to another part of the house. A woman walked in and asked me to come into the arboretum.
I followed her back thru the house into a large white room with sitting objects aligned in a circle. There were regular wooden chairs, and small cushions and flat pillows arranged on the floor amidst many small statues. The statues were of deities from around the world and different religions. Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, etc. None were taller than 20in. They looked to be made out of wood. I sat my guitar down and started to rearrange things to make a seat for myself.
Dream Journal | Comments Off on The Arboretum
I was with a group of reptilian creatures. We were traveling and stumbled upon a location where there were workers in fields. It was mid-day and as we walked along, we realized that we were on some sort of plantation. Then we saw the guards. They were also reptilian but we knew they were not friendly too us and we went to hide down in some ditches and under some structural items. The guards came closer and a couple of us decided to run for it. The guards immediately went after them but I stayed put. The guards came closer looking for more of us and I was really close to being seen.
Dream Journal | Comments Off on The Reptilian Escape
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