Friday, October 13, 2023

Bandcamp Friday... the Thirteenth

Well, this doesn't bode well. Two weeks ago, Epic Games, which had purchased the online audio distribution platform Bandcamp back in early 2022, surprised Bandcamp's employees by announcing that over 800 of them would be laid off and the platform was being sold to Songtradr, a music licensing marketplace.

Needless to say, this did not sit well with the Bandcamp staff, whose union has launched a petition for recognition by and negotiations with Songtradr's CEO. The artists and fans who've come to love Bandcamp over the years are also uncertain about their future with the platform, however. And yes, I'm among them.

Bandcamp gives its artists an average of over 80% of their music and merch sales, making Scrooges of Spotify and the other music platforms. On Bandcamp Fridays, that average goes up to over 90%. Between the platform's artist-friendly generosity and its fan community, it has long been a favorite of musicians. Epic didn't make any changes to the formula, but Songtradr has said that "[b]ased on its current financials, Bandcamp requires some adjustments to ensure a sustainable and healthy company that can serve its community of artists and fans long into the future."

So, yes, even though today isn't actually a Bandcamp Friday, it feels like it's Bandcamp Friday the 13th. It remains to be seen what those 'adjustments' will be, but independent artists can scarcely afford to lose as good a friend as Bandcamp has been to us. Here's hoping Songtradr doesn't break its new toy.


Sunday, July 23, 2023

Better

I've been neglecting this 'blog... but, no, really I haven't. Fact is, I know barely anyone reads my posts anyway, and that's OK. Living life is better than writing about it anyway, as much as I enjoy writing. So I've been doing some of that, and hopefully you (whoever you are) have been as well.

There's been some travel. My trip to Egypt last year was incredible, of course; this year began with the traditional visit to Brazil, though I spent less time there than usual. Gina and I spent a relatively warm February weekend in Cape May, then decided soak up some sun in Key West for a few days in April. We did a little tour of New England over the long Fourth of July weekend, spending a night in Boston (where no one at Cheers knew our names), another one in Portsmouth, NH (where we had a delicious breakfast at La Maison Navarre), a short, rainy jaunt through Maine culminating in scrumptious lobster rolls with a lighthouse view... and two nights in beautiful Vermont. We did some kayaking, admired a waterfalls, visited the Ben & Jerry's Factory (well, we arrived just before closing, but we still managed to get some ice cream and peruse the gift shop and the Flavor Graveyard), held some baby goats, and just loved the hell out of the Green Mountain State. And each other.

Catsitting in April, dogsitting in July... I lost an aunt, my mom's sister, suddenly in May. I got to see a friend and former colleague, along with two current colleagues from Egypt and two from the US, with Gina at a great Turkish restaurant over Memorial Day weekend. More of my attention has been spent on Netflix (and Prime TV, and Apple TV+) of late, but it's probably safe to say that I still watch less TV than most of my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. I did get Gina into "Black Mirror" after showing her the "Joan Is Awful" episode, and she and I are making our way through "Peaky Blinders" together (just finished season 2). And then there's the car situation.

A week before we embarked on our trip to New England, my old Corolla was totalled in a three-vehicle collision on Route 17 in Paramus. Fortunately, I wasn't injured at all, though the crash did pop up in my mind's eye randomly over the next week or so, including a few times as I was drifting off to sleep. Loads of fun. Gina went on a few test drives with me, and I'm happy to report that I'm now zipping around in a Pontiac G6 (which I've named Gisela), and I really enjoy this car, in a way that I never quite did the Toyota. Don't get me wrong, it was a dependable vehicle, but it just didn't spark joy the way the Pontiac does.

Pontiac G6 in Lyndhurst, NJ
In hindsight, getting a pic of my car at Lyndhurst's
"Kingsland Explosion Memorial" might have been tempting fate, but...

All in all, things are better. Yes, I did put out a new song in May, "Spark Rekindled." My music output has slowed down rather a bit. You're welcome.  ;-P   If I wrote songs, or 'blog (or social media!) posts, solely for feedback and commentary from others, I'd have stopped a long, long time ago. I do have a few unfinished song ideas I'd like to finish, and I'm considering re-recording a few tunes for an EP, but there's no rush at the moment. I'm still getting a little more comfortable with the ukulele, and it might be fun to switch over to that for a while once I'm done with the other projects. We'll see.

In the meantime, there are two months of summer left as of today. Enjoy 'em; I plan to!

Saturday, October 29, 2022

All the Old Paintings on the Tomb, They Do the Sand Dance, Don'tcha Know

I made it to Egypt this month. My employer, Microwize Technology, now has a team working in Cairo, and our CEO promised the rest of the management team and me late last year that if we hit a particular milestone in sales this year, he'd take us to Egypt (well, those of us who don't already live there). We did, and he did!

It was great to meet in person many of my Egyptian colleagues, and to check out the gorgeous office space we have in a modern area in Cairo. We got to see some incredible beaches, from El Alamein and Alexandria on the Mediterranean to Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea. We admired the exhibits and the mummies at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. We also cruised down the Nile River and visited several ancient temples and the Valley of the Kings along the way, with time for a hot air balloon ride in Luxor (what a view!) and a sailboat ride from Aswan to lunch at BenBen Hotel. And of course we went to the Giza pyramid complex, where I got to ride a camel.


I enjoyed all of it, the amazing views and the terrific food and the fantastic weather (16 sunny days with no rain? yes, please... and yes, I did return to the US with a tan), the camaraderie, the chance to run my fingers across hieroglyphs carved over 3,000 years ago and to dip those same fingers in the waters of the Nile. I've always been interested in ancient history, and to set foot in places that were so pivotal to Egyptian, Greek, and Roman history, to Amenhotep III and Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, left me feeling awestruck.

Modern Egypt is quite the marvel itself. There is a lot of construction going on, with infrastructure and improved transit a goal of the government. (Traffic in Cairo and Alexandria is, it's, well...) The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP27, is taking place in Sharm El Sheikh next month. Don't worry, guys, I turned off all the lights and water faucets before I left. Of course, none of this really masks the fact that the country's human rights record and freedom of expression leave a lot to be desired, or the fact that its president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is a retired military officer autocrat intolerant of dissent.

Speaking of retired military officer autocrats intolerant of dissent, Brazil's version, Jair Bolsonaro, will hopefully have his grip finally peeled away from the country's neck in tomorrow's election. His mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, his disinterest in the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous population, and his ignorant yet inflammatory rhetoric have led him to be nicknamed the "Trump of the Tropics." I don't know that his opponent, Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva (no relation), can right the ship, but I have much more faith in him as a leader and as a human being. Yes, he was found guilty of corruption and money laundering, but the convictions were later annulled and the Supreme Court ruled that the judge who oversaw his corruption trial was biased. Even with that recent history, he's the preferable candidate to someone who admires Brazil's former military dictatorship. #ForaBolsonaro!

The reports of Twitter's becoming a free-for-all hellscape have been greatly exaggerated. I am wary, to be sure; Elon Musk is capricious and prickly. But all the pearl-clutching and running for the exits is just silly, and even if he did want to burn it to the ground, that doesn't mean that he'd be able to do so. I'm not deleting my account(s) anytime soon. Let's just wait it out and see what happens, shall we?

So bummed to hear about Jerry Lee Lewis' passing yesterday. We shared a birthdate, and I actually got to see him do a show at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill on our mutual birthday in 2017. The Killer was another prickly man, and hardly a hero, but few could rock a piano, or embody rock 'n roll, like Jerry Lee.

All right, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to watching episodes of "iZombie" and "Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities."

Thursday, September 29, 2022

National Coffee Day AND My Birthday

Yep, another year older today. Gonna get a free coffee from Dunkin', and maybe a free donut from Duck Donuts, so there's that.

Truth be told, I'm not bothered by birthdays. No, not even mine. It hasn't been the easiest year (and you're right, this is my first 'blog post since New Year's, no one seemed to miss 'em much), but it hasn't been 2020, either, and plenty of fun times were had and great trips were taken and amazing memories were made. With more to come shortly.

Two years ago today, I released "She." One year ago, she, the woman I love, gave me a left-handed ukulele for my birthday. Less than two months later, I'd started putting together some ideas for a new song that would include some ukulele. Several months after that, with no lyrics or even a title yet, I put this up on TikTok as a teaser. (Yeah, I'm on TikTok now. No, I haven't done any challenges. Yet.)

A title did eventually come to me: "Spark Rekindled." And I've written the lyrics, though they're subject to change; while I've figured out most of the music, there might still be some tweaking to come, which could require additional tweaking to the lyrics. Overall, I'm pleased with what I've written, which is, of course, about her, or rather about us.

Having dithered over said lyrics, I finished them last night. There are a few lines borrowed and/or repurposed from other songwriters (feel free to look for them here), and even from myself, but mostly they're new and true. I enjoy throwing words together. I really do. These took me a while because there was a lot I wanted to say, and I wanted to say it well. I could easily double the length of the lyrics, but nobody needs that, and it would probably halve the quality of the finished song. Which, yes, I do still need to finish. (Sorry to keep you waiting, honey.) In the past, I've tended to record songs pretty quickly once I've figured out the tune and the words. This one has been slow-brewed, and poked and prodded a bit. Hopefully, I'll get that recording by the end of the year, and then there are two or three other ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while that should really get outta there.

Anyway, whether you wish me a happy birthday or not, whether you like or listen to my music or not, I wish you a good day, and get yourself a free coffee if you can. Oh, and check out this AI-generated artwork from DALL·E 2. Sign up for your own free account if you're into that kinda thing.

An impressionist guitar with a coffee mug amid birthday celebrations


Saturday, January 1, 2022

Christmas Cookies and COVID Cooties

2021, you really didn't need to take Betty White from us, too. That was just adding injury to insult (and injury).

My year wasn't all bad, by any means. It did have some bad moments early on: namely, the debacle with getting the right kind of COVID-19 test within 72 hours of flying to Brazil with my mom in January, and then having the Lyft we were taking to the airport get T-boned and totalled ten minutes after we'd been picked up. On the other hand, a sushi-filled Valentine's dinner with my love, and then a spa day with a couples massage at SoJo Spa Club two weeks later, were both awesome. My employer, Microwize Technology, moved its Paramus headquarters to a smaller but sexier suite in the same office building. We attended our first (and only, thus far) pandemic wedding together in the spring, and were relieved to do some outdoor dining and drinking down the shore in the summer. I fed many, many squirrels, both on my own and with my mom. I've invested a wee little bit in cryptocurrency, Ether to be precise. My girlfriend and I had a weekend stay in Cape May, taking in an amazing meal and a fun railbiking experience. I managed to get to the New York Renaissance Faire and see some friends. Writing/editing/proofreading for a healthcare-oriented quarterly magazine? Check. She gave me a ukulele for my birthday, and as I'm learning to play it, I've started incorporating it into a new song I'm writing (having written and recorded another new one earlier in the year). She and I watched "Squid Game" and were fascinated in spite of ourselves. Finally took in my first in-person concert (the Indigo Girls) since - gasp! - February 2020 with a friend, and did some hiking on Pyramid Mountain with another. A second spa day? Yeah, we had to. In fact, I think this is going to become a regular thing for us. I got to see some old grammar/high school friends for the first time in over a decade, attended another friend's pandemic 50th birthday party, got Christmas cookies from yet another friend, and got to see my honey on Christmas Eve before heading to my mom's. The company is doing well, and the rest of the management team and I may be visiting our affiliated company in Egypt together next year. I even got around to starting "Black Mirror," and you were right, Ahmed, I do enjoy it, a lot.

But yeah, there was pain and nuisance and death in 2021, too. I lost family in Brazil, on both my mom's and my dad's sides, some I hadn't gotten to know well (or at all) and some I knew very well indeed and miss dearly. My girlfriend and I suffered a wasp sting each (from the same wasp, I'm certain) within ten seconds of each other. That attractive new office space is also louder, which sometimes grates on me. The Web hosting service I'd been with for two decades lost my trust and my business by not delivering prompt and honest updates when a planned server migration turned into two days of down time for my sites, and longer for some others; the sticking point wasn't the down time, however, it was the lack of communication and transparency on the part of MacHighway, and so I pulled my sites and started over with someone else. The old friends I saw late in the year for the first time in forever? It was unfortunately because we'd scrambled to get to Florida to visit the deathbed of another of our friends we hadn't even known was battling (and succumbing to) cancer, though at least we did get to see him one last time. Cancer sucks, losing friends and family members sucks, and though it's been six and a half years since the first loss I really felt, it just does not get any easier. The list of people I miss grows longer... time to try reconnecting with those I can still reach.

What's that? Oh, yeah, the COVID cooties. Well, after three doses of the Pfizer vaccine with nothing but a sore arm each time, and making my way through over 20 months of the pandemic unscathed... I got scathed on Christmas Eve. 😳 Though neither of us knew it at the time, my honey was infected when we saw each other that evening. She started feeling sick the next day and tested positive soon thereafter, by which time my throat had started feeling scratchy.

So I've been quaralating (quarantining/isolating) this week and will continue to do so for the next few days, though I'm happy to report that we're both starting to feel better. I actually had a flu experience once that was much more intense but over a shorter period of time; nonetheless, this was bad enough, and I don't doubt that it would've been worse had I not been vaccinated. I still don't like trap music, though, so I never lost my sense of taste. (Also, I'm certain that those Christmas cookies helped me survive, so thank you, Rhonda!)

Got two worthy causes before I sign off, in case you've somehow gotten through the holidays with a little cash and charity to spare. One is to help South African students finish high school (the organizer, Nicol, is a friend who grew up in South Africa herself): https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-south-african-students-finish-school. Movin' right along, the other seeks to restore the car from "The Muppet Movie" (see what I did there?): https://www.gofundme.com/f/restore-the-muppet-car. If you can donate to and/or share either of these GoFundMe campaigns, it would be most appreciated.

I hope everyone is safe, healthy, and happy, or will be so soon if you're not right now, and I wish us all a better New Year in 2022. 🎉