Most people don't have any concepts of a plan of an idea what the hell a phone app is. They were hiding all the cats and dogs on National Taco Day. Why are National Coffee Day and International Coffee Day just two days apart? Someone's not drinking enough coffee, or maybe too much. What's that? The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check!
Bandcamp Friday
Anyway, International Music Day just passed, too... Now that I've gotten all of that out of my system, I'd written previously (almost exactly a year ago, in fact) about Bandcamp being sold to Songtradr. While there was a lot of concern at the time about what would become of the music platform beloved by independent artists like me, and dismay at the layoffs that ensued, things seem to be going OK for now, and in fact today is another Bandcamp Friday, when music fans can buy music from indie artists (like me!) and Bandcamp will waive its usual revenue share so the artists get that much more. Needless to say, I haven't hopped off the bandcampwagon yet, but I've been hearing lately about a "collectively-owned successor" in the works called Subvert. While I've never made much money from my music, and I don't expect that to change now, I am intrigued by Subvert's admittedly lofty goals, and I'm looking on with interest.
What else... Gina and I spent two nights in Beach Haven on LBI in July, and saw the "Footloose" musical at the Surflight Theatre there, which was a lot of fun. We ended up going back in August to see "Titanic," then took a trip out to Foxburg, PA and enjoyed both the Foxburg Inn and Foxburg Wine Cellars very much. The two of us brought her dog Bailey with us to Vermont over Labor Day weekend, a relaxing getaway we all needed. Gina and I saw "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" last month, and it was such a great movie! I took her and her daughter Hannah to the New York Renaissance Faire for the first time, and I suspect it won't be the last. And another trip to Vermont, to glimpse some of the amazing foliage, is imminent...
I haven't upgraded to macOS Sequoia yet, but soon. I did update the ol' iPhone 12 Pro to iOS 18.0 (and now 18.0.1) with no hiccups; I'm thinking it's just about time for a phone upgrade, though. At work, we've been incorporating more AI into our routines, as is probably the case with many of you, but I hadn't played around with it too much on a personal level... until last week when one of my colleagues, Monica, let us know about Google's latest toy, NotebookLM. I decided to feed it two of the pages from my Website, and this (after I did a little editing, and added some music and visualization) is what it created. Just a little bit spooky.
Vosita
Oh, and speaking of work, Vosita Healthcare is giving away a Cybertruck for Kids in December, and I'm in the promotional video! Check it out, and see more details at https://go.vosita.com/win.
That's no temporary moon, that's a spa- oh, my bad, it is a temporary moon.
I'm asking my local(ish) friends to join me on my birthday, Sunday, Sept. 29th, at the New York Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo. Yes, it's a drive. No, it's not free, or cheap. Yes, the weather is unpredictable. But, hey, I'm gonna go (though if the weather looks like it'll be particularly unpleasant as the date approaches, I might switch to Saturday instead), and I'd really like to see friends there, too. Doesn't mean we'd all have to spend the entire day together, but it would be nice to be able to hang out at various points during the afternoon.
OK, the Vixens En Garde are sadly not appearing at the NYRF anymore, but I do enjoy this pic of me surrounded by bodacious babes with blades... Anyway, please consider comin' out for my birthday. You don't have to buy me a drink or any food on a stick, just show up. And let me know!
I seem to have made an unconscious decision to make my life as much of a blur as possible lately. Maybe I want to get everything in before the impending Politipocalypse... In July, I went to three parties (despite knowing fewer and fewer people at each subsequent party), took in a few musical performances, saw "Ghostbusters" and "Star Trek Beyond" (both were very enjoyable), and trekked back out to Coney Island for some beach time. Made several batches of guacamole, too! I've got Dead Sara, the Boston Comic Con, Goli, the Prophets of Rage, and AFROPUNK lined up for August. September and October will see me attending a few more shows, including Amy Schumer the night before my birthday and Billy Joel the night after, Lindsey Stirling, Tania Stavreva, and Hinds, and hopefully a trip or two to the New York Renaissance Faire. And there'll be another trip in November... Still working on my album in the middle of all this, of course. I'll Live is still comin' along, and I still anticipate releasing it before winter arrives.
In my last post, I'd asked if any of my musician friends and acquaintances would be interested in contributing a seven-second section of music and/or vocals to "A Blur," the song which will close the album (as opposed to "A Blurb," which will open it). I got one response. I love all of you, too. Heh. Regardless, I dig the way the music is turning out. From the pop punk of "Blond on Blonde" to the mellow jazz of "Too Loud to Be Eaten with the Naked Eye," from the surf rock (with electronic undertones) of "Down the Shore" to the holiday pop of "Christmas Lonely," from love and loss and life to politics and penguins and... giant giants, this album will run the gamut. The "Hate Theme from 'Waiting for X'" and "D.V." will finally see the light of day, and there'll be a new recording of the Aimee Mann-inspired "That's Just What I Am" and my own version of Greta's Unmentionables' "The Bite." I'm looking forward to getting this music out, and I hope you're looking forward to listening to it. I've also been trying to drum up interest in an outing during Labor Day weekend to the Renaissance Faire. I always enjoy going, even alone, but I know some of my other friends are fans, too, and I think it'd be a lot of fun if a large group of us converged on the place and spent some time there together (and some time apart). Only one response to this so far, too... well, and also the one person I know who's at the Faire all the damn time anyway, so I know I'll see her. Heh-heh. Some days, it gets wearying to do almost everything alone. Some days, it's hard to go to the party knowing that you're the odd man out. Some days, it'd be nice to have someone sitting opposite you at that table for two. Some days, friends seem so far away. And you ask me how I'm doing... the unfortunate truth is that I'll live. ;-P
Today is the International Day of Peace. Of course, conflicts are raging (or threatening to) in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, the South China Sea, and other parts of the world, and the United Nations, who designated the day, is fairly powerless to do much about it... It's also the last day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere... and, additionally, the date on which Laura and I were supposed to have been married last year (which is just a few days after the date on which we first started dating). Yes, I can't help but remember things like that. A year ago today, instead of going to the Zeppelin Hall Biergarten for what we'd planned to be a fun and casual ceremony and reception, I found myself traveling alone, first to the New York Renaissance Faire, where my BulletHole Heart T-shirt made a little green fairy sad, and then to Lovers Leap State Park in Connecticut, where I had one long, hard think about dying as I gazed down at the Housatonic River from the cliff.
The leap
A year later, I'm more balanced, and... well, I wouldn't say I'm happier, exactly, but I suppose it'd be fair to say that I'm a bit less unhappy. Laura and I are on friendly terms again, and even got together for a fun day in New York City last month. Still, September's hard for me now, between those two anniversaries and my birthday. I never viewed September 29th with any trepidation, and age is still just a number to me, but I'd let myself get used to the idea of having someone to spend that day with from now on... So I channeled some of my angst and ennui into finishing the lyrics to "The Discontent of My Winter" and writing the music and lyrics to "SeptSomber." I recorded a short demo of the latter a week ago:
and I finished recording the actual song with my Kona acoustic/electric... today. How's that for keeping busy? I've started working out the music to "Discontent" as well, and hopefully will get that song and another done before winter truly arrives. Of course, I'm keeping busy in other ways, too. My new iPhone 6 arrived on Friday, and since it'll be at least a few months before I get my hands on an Apple Watch, I decided to get a Jawbone UP24 band and start monitoring my activity again. In just under two weeks, I'll be running my first "normal" (non-obstacle) 5K in Bay Head; gotta hit the treadmill again later this evening... I went back to the Renaissance Faire two weeks ago; while the plan had been to get a group of people out there together, all but one of my friends (Barbara) ended up not making it. (Well, Judie, too, but she was going to be there regardless. ;) We had fun anyway, and I even got a picture with Judie and the Vixens En Garde.
Judie, Atalanta, Athena, me, and Calypso
Thanks to a friend who ordered concert tickets, then found out that she wasn't going to be able to go after all, I'll be seeing Paolo Nutini at the Apollo Theater on Tuesday night (still trying to find a likely lass to accompany me there), and Lydia Loveless and Xenia Sky at Webster Hall a week from tonight, hours before my birthday. October brings Within Temptation (a band Laura turned me on to) at Terminal 5, while I'll catch my first Bob Dylan concert at the NJPAC in November. With any luck, I'll manage to see my musician friends Mart Rivas and Goli in New York soonish, too. And, considering everything else I've accomplished this year, I'm going to take a real stab at NaNoWriMo again in November. If I focus, I can do it. So, yeah, my life's not quite what I'd thought it would be, and I'm not quite the same person I was a year and a half ago, but I feel like I would like me if I met me. The struggle goes on.
