Some movie talk for today, three films in particular. First of all: Roma. I believe Alfonso Cuarón has come into his own with this picture. Fans of his previous work may feel he had already arrived (Children of Men is a masterpiece, yes) but bear with me. The lengthy single takes that Cuarón is known for often overshadow his movies — reviews of Children of Men always mention shots like that famous car scene, and bringing up Gravity elicits talk of its 17-minute opening scene. There are plenty of impressive long takes in Roma, but Cuarón has settled into a lyrical style with his camera where these scenes draw you in rather than drawing attention to themselves. Cuarón alludes to this in a must-read profile in The New York Times:
“ … what they’re calling technique in film — and I’m not talking about commercial movies — isn’t technique. It’s language. When Tarkovsky makes decisions about framing and about how to move the camera, they’re not technical decisions, or even stylistic ones. They’re requirements of the language that he needs for his filmic experience.”
I loved Roma, and the Tarkovsky shout-out isn’t far off (there’s a bit of Fellini, among other masters, in there, too). Regardless of the camera’s ‘language,’ the personal story told in the film, with a powerful social and political undercurrent, is affecting. This one got under my skin.
On a less intimate note, how disruptive would it be if Netflix took home an Oscar? There’s a discussion to be had about Netflix and other streamers as the present home of bigger budget ‘art films,’ as theaters continue to lean hard into the superhero/event movie paradigm. Amazon’s been supporting upper-tier indie film a bit longer than Netflix (though their commitment has been questioned), and HBO seems to be ramping up their indie
But I did see an ‘art movie’ at an actual theater in the past week. We visited Enzian Theater, our local, long-running independent film establishment, for The Favorite. I admit I was lukewarm on The Lobster — it fell apart for me in the last half — and though The Favorite does not entirely convince me, I liked it a bit more than that previous film. It’s fun. Despite the other high-profile stars, it’s Olivia Coleman’s movie, isn’t it?
I don’t go to the theater that often and this recent experience opened some thoughts as to why. Maybe it’s just me, but I am often distracted in a theater and find it difficult to ‘get into’ the movie. I enjoy completely losing myself to a good film, and occasional murmurs and coughs and – in the case of the Enzian, which I do love – servers walking around take me out of the story. But I don’t think movie-goers have changed as much as we’ve changed as watchers. My huge TV, subwoofer-enhanced sound, and distraction-free home environment spoil me, and I can’t imagine watching the swirling images of Roma any other way. This home theater preference is a significant problem for non-event movie studios and theaters, which is why the support of Netflix et al. is increasingly essential.
I’m not sure if Shane Carruth would accept any Netflix money, though. With Primer and Upstream Color, Carruth took independent film-making to a whole new level as the sole engineer every step of the way: writer, director, producer, composer, lead actor, and so on. He was even one of the distributors in the case of Upstream Color, selling hi-res downloads of the movie from his own site. It probably wouldn’t matter if these were lousy films, but I find them wonderful, elusive statements and completely vision-driven. Scott Tobias wrote a terrific new piece on Upstream Color for Polygon:
Upstream Color exists just outside the realm of comprehension, which isn’t a bug but a feature, designed to keep the mind circling back to it like some unscratchable itch that flares up every once in a while. Some filmmakers like to give viewers something to solve but it takes an audacity to leave a few ellipses and risk riling up the sleuths. […]
There’s plenty of room for speculation over [the movie’s] questions, but unlike the mappable timeline chicanery of Primer, they’re unmoored and abstract. Carruth has full command of his effects in Upstream Color, but he doesn’t seem interested in directing viewers toward specific conclusions more than general ones.
If that seems like a description of your kind of movie, then seek out Upstream Color. It’s fantastic and fantastically done.
As for Shane Carruth and his next project — The Modern Ocean perhaps? — there’s been radio silence. In the meantime, Carruth can be found doing side-jobs like his beautiful score in the first season of TV’s The Girlfriend Experience, or his lead acting role in The Dead Center. Fans may be frustrated that he’s in front of the camera more than behind it, but I see Carruth taking a cue from John Cassavetes. In time, the side hustles will fund his next project, allowing continued independence and an unbroken vision.
That’s an actual photo of this morning’s sunrise. For reals. As Kimmy Schmidt says, “Hash brown: no filter.”
I soft-launched the new blog today — which means I let my ‘friends’ know about it on Facebook — with an expanded version of yesterday’s tribute to Pete Shelley. The reaction so far is positive. David even thinks I’ve got a “good blog name.”
I was posting mini-blog posts on Instagram (or, ‘status updates,’ as I was calling them, inspired by Warren Ellis’s experiment) to get warmed up for the daily blogging routine, which I’ll explain tomorrow. Once I get going here I’ll probably stop the Instagram posts — or maybe not? This is a work in progress, and I’m happy to change it day-to-day.
We watched Hereditary. That’s a crazy movie. Crazy good, too. Terrific score by Colin Stetson. I like how its nuttiness is on a slow simmer for most of the movie, and then in the last fifteen minutes the nuttiness pot boils over and messes up the stovetop. It reminds me a lot of Kill List, a movie you should see if you haven’t (and, like Hereditary, best watched without knowing anything about it). Am I the only one who thinks the hidden subtext of Hereditary is a warning about the dangers of smoking bowls in high school?
I got the notion to watch Hereditary because Terry Grant AKA More Ghost Than Man created a Spotify playlist of his favorite modern film score selections. It’s a fantastic listen, from top to bottom:
Here’s a paragraph I like from the article Twenty-Five Years After His Death, Frank Zappa Lives On in Playboy (insert ‘reading it for the articles’ joke here):
Zappa always flirted with Modernist string music, but he really married the form in 1983 with the release of London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I, his fourth project to employ an orchestra. The album inspired revolutionary recording and editing techniques to take on an orchestra, but when asked if he expected to make any money off the concerts and tapes he flatly said no. “Why then do you do it?” a TV reporter asked him at the time. “I came here to spend money on an English orchestra to record my music so I can take it home and I can listen to it. And if somebody else likes that kind of stuff I will make it available on a record so that they can hear it,” Zappa replied.
I’m not the biggest Frank Zappa fan (his appearance on Crossfire is my favorite work of his), but I have loads of respect for the sentiment of making the music you want to hear, and if someone else comes along who’s into it then bonus time.
I’m obsessing over the look of this blog. That’s what I’ll be doing most of the weekend — working on a blog. The theme is called Alia, and the developer has been a sweetheart, kindly answering my constant questions with helpful nuggets of CSS code. I think this place is looking pretty good so far.
Stepped outside yesterday afternoon and happened to look toward the easterly sky, and caught the tail end of a SpaceX rocket as it left the atmosphere. We’ve got a great, unobstructed view of Cape Canaveral launches from our house, even though we’re just under 60 miles away. The sky was cloudless, so I wish I had seen it from the beginning. Is there any way to receive alerts for impending rocket launches from the Cape? There are a couple of iPhone apps I’ve tried that supposedly do this, but they don’t work — no notifications received yesterday. (Dec. 18 Update: the iOS app LaunchTime did send a notification an hour before today’s aborted launch.)
Read a fine profile on Phillip Glass in the Washington Post, titled If You Think You Know Who Philip Glass Is, You Probably Don’t. From that article:
Glass also addresses the fallacy that all he does is play the same chords over and over. Certainly the language he developed, unhelpfully labeled ‘minimalism,’ involved subtle variations of similar patterns. But, “It never repeated all the time,” Glass writes in his memoir, “for if it had, it would have been unlistenable.” The chords are constantly shifting and changing; that’s the point.
Some amusement here at the label of minimalism as ‘unhelpful,’ as most approach the categorization head-on.
Last night we watched the documentary McQueen (streaming on Amazon Prime): fascinating, heartbreaking. I learn a lot from documentaries about creative people who I previously knew nothing about.
I’ve started slowly working my way (and it will be slow) through Quietus’s ‘Albums of the Year’ list, a yearly tradition. I’m at 100 and enjoying the album Lekhfa by Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh … we’re off to a good start. (UPDATE: now I’m on to 99, the latest Simian Mobile Disco album, which a treat as well.)
- This month’s theme was motivation, or how to get it back or track. After weeks of eye complaints and restraints, and back-to-back travel from Nashville to Edinburgh, it was a challenge to rediscover my productivity mojo. I spent way too much time rearranging my Omnifocus set-up, thinking about morning routines, and optimizing for capturing a deep work mindset. The first couple weeks felt like slo-mo, a lot of running in place, not getting much accomplished. Of course, the secret is to dive in — perfect Omnifocus set-up be damned — and start. I’m finally at a solid daily clip, which is good as I’ve decided on some ambitious goals over the next few months.
- Related to my motivation pit, current events (especially here in the US) have me down. I know I’m not alone in how this affects the work mood. Some of my peers talk about moving to another country, but I think a better solution is to create my own (mental) country. Distance me from the news, outside influences, current events — build a creative utopia of my mind. Focus on making things to make the world better. I can’t do my best work and be helpful if I’m curled up in a ball worrying about the state of things. I had already done this to a degree (this article by Ryan Holiday is an inspiration) but there was some leakage, especially from Twitter. David Moldawer says Twitter turned his phone into a ‘depression machine’ and I can relate. Though I’m not leaving social media (but tempted, see Jaron Lanier), I’ve decided to treat it as a one-way street. I’m posting, but I’m not reading. If you @ me, I’ll look and probably reply, but that’s as far as my interaction goes. And no more social media apps on my phone or tablet. Not in my country.
- On the other hand, I’ve rediscovered Day One and Pocket and have enrolled in the subscription plans offered by both. Pocket has added highlighting on mobile devices (please add this to the browser version soon!) which makes noting and cataloging sections of interest in articles a breeze. Then I can shoot those articles into Day One, add the highlighted text and appropriate tags, and I’ve got fodder for blog posts or future reference material. I’ve also started journaling daily in Day One as paper journaling was a personal bust. I really wanted to make a paper journal work, but I find more inspiration in an electronic platform (and I start each entry with a photograph of that morning’s sunrise over our lake, which motivates) and writing by hand only reminds me how awful my handwriting is. Even I have problems deciphering my scrawl. I’m happy with this set-up, and am even moving my digital commonplace book out of DEVONthink and into Day One (no slight intended on DEVONthink … it’s a terrific Evernote alternative that I’ll use primarily for business purposes here on out).
- The Timucua Arts Foundation and its White House concert venue are Orlando treasures, and I wish your town had them, too. Combine with local arts collective Civic Minded 5 and our city is regularly treated to mind-expanding music in a beautiful live setting. The Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Zeena Parkins performances were recent, legendary treats — and this month brought the Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit all the way from Scandinavia to deliver an incredibly intense set of explorer jazz. The stage at the White House is small and intimate, which made this unit seem larger than it already was: two drummers (creating a lovely stereo field), two bass players (alternating between stand-up and electric bass), an accordionist, a brass section that included tuba, trumpet, trombone, and three saxophones (with occasional switches to clarinet and flute), a guitarist (percussive, noisy, great), and an electronics/laptop dude who stepped in front to manically conduct the band at one point. It was as impressive as it sounds. Any time there’s a Civic Minded 5 promoted show at the Timucua White House, it’s a mandatory event.
- I reconnected with Dave Tomaselli, whose Statra label I used to promote at 8DPromo. He’s now working with Paperchain, a technology company worth checking out. There’s a promise in their model of tracking and advancing royalties, and I’m even more intrigued by an imagined future of automated royalty calculation and payout to artists, creating a solution for labels that are allergic to and unreliable with accounting (which is like 98% of them).
- My client Buddhist Army released the vinyl 12” version of Arthur Landing’s Spring Collection EP this month and it’s making some waves. Gilles Peterson played a track on his 6Music show, and Test Pressing published a quick interview with Arthur’s Landing founder Steven Hall.
- What I Read This Month:
- What I Watched This Month:
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamar Story
Logan
Silence
Dunkirk
A Quiet Place
The Terror - What I Listened To This Month:
IF Music Presents You Need This: An Introduction To Black Saint & Soul Note
Arp – Zebra
King Tubby & Prince Jammy – Ghetto Dub
Kamasi Washington – Heaven & Earth
Agitation Free – 2nd
SQÜRL – Paterson (Original Score)
Alessandro Cortini – AVANTI
Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bon Voyage
Skee Mask – Compro
Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights - A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:
Poppinuts 001 – Eno
Synthedelia: Psychedelic Electronic Music in the 1960s
Djs Having Assistants Picking Tracks For Them Is A Dangerous Move
Inside Vaporwave’s Floppy Disk Micro-Boom
How Did A Major Label Manage To Lose A John Coltrane Record?
A Brief History Of Our Addiction To Loudness
Detroit is Techno City, and Techno is Black
Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics Explained
Speak & Spell: The Toy That Talked Back
Legendary Experimental Composer Jon Hassell Is Still Dreaming Up New Worlds
The Futuro House: Spaceship Living On Earth
The Legacy of Conny Plank
Has 2018 Killed The Pop Star?
How Headphones Changed the World
Remembering The Engineer Who Created Rock’s Unmistakable Fuzz
Why No One Answers Their Phone Anymore
How David Bowie Invented Ziggy Stardust
No Hope, No Fear: Industrial Music In Zagreb
- Continuing the story from last month, I spent the early part of May nursing my wounded eyeballs and anticipating a new pair of contacts to help correct my keratoconus. For the past several years I’ve used hybrid lenses for my special vision needs, which were prescribed early in their development. My new eye doctor (who is fantastic btw) recommended a more recent contacts tech, these intimidating scleral lenses. I say intimidating as they are much larger than my hybrids, and they are hard enough to tap on (while the hybrids were mainly floppy, only hard in the center). The first few days with the scleral lenses were hell as my right eye was still somewhat injured and not happy about this unfamiliar lens. Lots of pain in the first 48 hours or so. And removing the contacts with a mini-plunger was a whole new thing for me — I could use my fingers to take out the old contacts — and that took a bit of getting used to. But I am pleased to say that after a few weeks of trial and (lots of) error I am on board with the sclerals. They are comfortable, and I believe I’m getting better, clearer vision than before. The eye saga continues.
- Good thing I got the eye issues worked out as in the second week of the month I was off to the MusicBiz 2018 conference in Nashville. This is probably my favorite industry conference, partly because it’s amicable and casual, and partly as it’s in the always fun city of Nashville. I took in a lot of panels, with Monday’s offerings being the highlights — the ‘Legal Summit’ panels were all educational, and the new ‘Podcasting Summit’ panels, hosted by Jim Griffin (my favorite panel moderator), were excellent. The issues of music licensing in podcasts were covered in depth, and I appreciated the dive into the weeds. I hung out a bit with Craig from ReverbNation and Mike D. from Chicken Ranch Records (who I’ve known since my stint in college radio when I was like 19) and caught up with longtime friends/Nashville residents Jamie Blaine and Terry Grant. I also floated around some new ideas as to where I’m taking 8D Industries, and everyone I used as a sounding board was receptive and encouraging. Stay tuned.
- As I’m getting ready to leave for the airport Mike D. asks, “do you have time for a drink with Tyler Mahon Coe?” Thus, on my way out of Nashville, we stop at a local dive bar and have a great conversation with Tyler, who hosts the brilliant Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast (as well as the hilarious Your Favorite Band Sucks podcast). I wrote about Cocaine & Rhinestones in last month’s entry, and Tyler’s show helped me get through the worst days and nights of eye trauma. It was cool to be able to let Tyler know this in person and to relate my podcast-inspired experience listening to Neil Young’s On The Beach for the first time. Tyler was as knowledgeable and cool to talk to in person as you might imagine. I’ll continue to follow his work, and he’s planning some exciting things.
- I’m only home from Nashville for three days, and then I’m off to Scotland. This was a long-planned vacation with my spouse and my mother, to be tourists and explore the history of the Scottish east coast. My mother has ancestors from the region (and, of course, so do I), so she was interested in seeing it all. We had a fantastic time — I recommend Rosslyn Chapel and Sir Walter Scott’s house if you’re visiting and want some history. I also had time to find my old friends Jaco (Jaco & Co) and Iain (Funky Transport). It’s been too many years since I’ve spent time in Scotland, and this vacation inspired me to plan regular visits once again. My favorite home away from home.
- What I Read This Month:
- What I Watched This Month:
Nostalghia
A Man Escaped
The Wages of Fear
Borg Vs McEnroe
The Farthest: Voyager In Space
Dying To Know: Ram Das & Timothy Leary
Magnus - What I Listened To This Month:
Cluster – Qua
Brian Eno – Music For Installations
Mary Lattimore – Hundreds of Days
Deutsche Elektronische Musik - A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:
Questlove’s “Creative Quest” talk at Google
When America’s Hottest Jazz Stars Were Sent To Cool Cold-War Tensions
Pirate Radio Stations Explode on YouTube
How The Kent State Massacre Helped Give Birth To Punk Rock
Ornette Coleman – The Atlantic Years
My Dad Painted The Iconic Cover For Jethro Tull’s ‘Aqualung,’ And It’s Haunted Him Ever Since
Yuri Suzuki’s Musical Appliances Are Designed To Enhance Your Mood
Glenn Branca: Punk Composer Who Turned Minimalism Maximal
Elliott Sharp Remembers Glenn Branca
- I started testing a new music marketing consultancy package that I plan to unveil next month. The process in a nutshell: I interview the client and audit his or her online assets and overall presentation. I create a report with my initial insights and recommendations, and we get on a call to discuss and brainstorm. I follow this conversation with an expanded, final version of the report containing actionable tasks that the client can immediately implement. We then have a limited email exchange to go over any questions about my recommendations, and I’ll follow-up a month later to check on progress. The client is also welcome to schedule regular brainstorm sessions and audits to keep the process going. The goal is to set the client up for the next stage in his or her music career, whether it’s for an upcoming release, a tour, or just a professional ‘polish’ to become more attractive to the likes of record labels, promoters, or managers. I can work this magic for recording artists or labels — or both, as was the case with the first client to go through this procedure, the talented techno producer Deepak Sharma of Hidden Recordings. I’m excited for what this will bring and the people I’ll be meeting and advising.
- Two new releases I’m assisting with that you should check out: Arthur’s Landing – Spring Collection EP on Buddhist Army; and More Ghost Than Man – The Courage To Lie To A Dying Man on Westerns With The Sound Off. Also, we’ve received vinyl copies of Nirosta Steel’s The Dry Ice Remixes (featuring remixes by Sleazy McQueen), and these should be hitting the cool record stores at the very beginning of May.
- I’m always testing new systems to improve daily productivity. This month I’m trying out Cal Newport’s Daily and Weekly time-blocking scheme. In the past, I attempted time-blocking using a calendar app but found this to be too rigid. For example, there was no room to extend a task ‘on-the-fly’ for a few more minutes when nearly finished, and it was difficult to change a schedule if confronted with the unexpected. These issues, combined with nagging calendar alerts, stressed me out more than increasing effectiveness. Newport’s system allows some ‘float,’ is refreshingly paper-based, and it’s easy to rearrange the calendar if things get out of whack. I also like the idea of a Weekly Plan reminder in my email inbox. It’s become a game to have that reminder email be the only thing in the inbox at the end of the day. The early results are encouraging and, if it continues to work, I’ll do a blog post about this and the rest of my productivity system.
- Great discovery: Kanopy. If you’ve got a local library card (and you should), then chances are you will be able to access this streaming movie service for free. You’re limited to five movies a month, and the selection is strong, including more than a few Criterion classics (French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, those samurai movies I love …) and recent independent offerings.
- What I Read This Month:
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
Wait But Why: The Elon Musk Post Series (which is basically a book) - What I Watched This Month:
Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web
Wild Wild Country
SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock
Journey To Italy
and @garydvisualz took me to my first 3D blockbuster, Ready Player One - What I Listened To This Month:
Gwenno – Le Kov
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto – Glass
Mariah – Utakata No Hibi
Kenneth James Gibson – In The Fields Of Nothing
The wonderful ‘long’ versinon of Wire’s “Outdoor Miner” - A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:
Anil Dash on what it’s like to be a ‘non-celebrity’ with 500,000+ Twitter followers
An interview with the mayor of the curious, Orwerllian town of Scarfolk, UK
Planet Earth as described in the 116 photos aboard the Voyager spacecraft
This video of Brian Eno getting giddy over his Ultra-Harmonizer in 1994
Ten moments in the history of Cocteau Twins … some which were new to this longtime fan
That time Sterling Morrison left the Velvet Underground for an academic life in Texas
- I’ve brought on a couple of new clients for publishing representation: San Francisco’s Sleight Of Hands (check out their excellent cover of “I’m Not In Love”) and Nathan Maners. There are others in the works. Exciting times here at 8DSync.
- I’m also working on two new projects in an advisory role: an upcoming EP from Arthur’s Landing titled Spring Collection; and a single from Terry Grant’s More Ghost Than Man project, taken from his stunning 2016 self-titled album.
- A major project this month was the launch of Snax’s PledgeMusic campaign for the vinyl version of his excellent Shady Lights album. I was closely involved in putting this together and enjoyed collaborating with Snax and the PledgeMusic team. This company has a great crew working behind the scenes. If you are a fan of limited edition vinyl in a deluxe package or solid electronic funk music in general, then I implore you to check out Snax’s Shady Lights campaign.
- Eagle eyes may notice that I’ve removed the Services tab from this site. I’ve decided to do fewer label services projects and focus more on music publishing, licensing, and consultancy. I’ll be revamping things here over the following weeks, and will be offering a new way that I can help independent labels and self-released artists determine and implement innovative strategies. Stay tuned.
- The weather is warming up in Florida. We’ve already hit the mid-80s a few times, and we’re not yet out of February. I’m torn between being worried and overjoyed. Regardless, I’m resuming my Lake Holden paddle board sessions, a highlight of my day and the preferred way to meditate and think.
- What I Read This Month:
- What I Watched This Month:
The Square
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
BPM (Beats Per Minute) (my favorite 2017 movie, I think)
Phantom Thread - What I Listened To This Month:
Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Music 1970-82
Palta – Universel
Pendant – Make Me Know You Sweet
Patrick Cowley – Afternooners
San Mateo – Breather
The House In The Woods – Bucolica
Kuniyuki Takahashi – Early Tape Works (1986 – 1993) - A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:
Seth Godin has a fantastic new weekly podcast titled Akimbo
If you make true crime documentaries then act quickly to acquire the rights to this tale of the Worst Roomate Ever
I like the writer Steven Johnson, and I’ve been wrapping my head around blockchain, so I found this article fascinating: Beyond The Bitcoin Bubble
Artist Winston Smith designed all those Dead Kennedys album covers I loved as a teenager. It’s a pleasure to find out he’s a pretty cool dude, too.
- In addition to strengthening a daily journal habit that began a couple of years back, I’ve decided to plunge into Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman’s The Daily Stoic Journal, accompanied by a reading from The Daily Stoic. I’ve been casually studying Stoicism (indeed, taking part in what’s become a resurgence), fascinated by its intersections with Buddhist teachings. The most profound learning comes from action or reflection, so Holiday’s prompts to journal on these philosophical teachings are themselves an encouragement to dive in further.
- This leads to a change in my morning routine. This month I’m experimenting with waking by 6:30 AM and quickly making a cup of strong tea (usually a teaspoon each of green tea, black tea, ginger, and MCT oil). I then read the day’s entry from The Daily Stoic and meditate for 20 minutes. After my quiet meditation, I journal in The Daily Stoic Journal, write at least a page about what’s on my mind in my blank journal, and then plan out my day in the Panda Planner (something else new I’m trying out). Then it’s coffee time, light breakfast, and the start of my workday. So far so good, and I’ll report back if this routine changes in the next months. (update: the Panda Planner is a great idea, and it might be perfect for you, but it turns out it doesn’t quite fit into my routine.)
- Speaking of meditation, I highly recommend Kevin Rose’s Oak app. It’s free and useful for meditators at any level, though I still recommend Headspace if you’re just getting started. After using Headspace for a few years and becoming comfortable with meditation, I find that Oak’s unguided meditation feature is perfect for my needs. I’m enjoying the app’s breathing exercises, too.
- I started 100 days of Seth Godin’s The Marketing Seminar. This is my second time through this program. The first time I didn’t finish as I got sidelined by things that needed attention in my personal life, and overlap with my intense four weeks in altMBA (which deserved 100% of my attention). Now that I’m fully focused, The Marketing Seminar is impactful, and I’m having a great time and learning a ton. It’s making me a better writer, too, as it’s kindly pressuring me to write all the time. (I highly recommend The Marketing Seminar and altMBA … feel free to contact me if you have questions about either.)
- As part of a goal to ramp up a writing practice, I’m going to try my hand at writing record reviews (or short essays about records I’m listening to). Maybe this will also give some virtual ink, and a shiny new search result to a few overlooked album releases as I’ll be focusing on the mostly unrecognized. Here’s my first effort.
- This month I spoke to a copyright class at Full Sail University and sat on a couple of panels at this year’s Music Placement Conference. Both were terrific and fun experiences, and I enjoyed talking with (and hopefully inspiring with encouragement) the students, songwriters, and music industry types I encountered. I’m aiming to do more speaking and panel appearances throughout the year.
- My friend (and fellow altMBA alumnus) Dean Caravelis interviewed me for his fantastic Outrageously Remarkable blog. It’s a straight transcript, so I come off a bit ranty and stumble through frequent run-on sentences, but I believe this conveys the enthusiasm and excitement I feel when I talk about these subjects. I also don’t think I’ve ever publicly told that Mike Watt story.
- What I Read This Month:
- What I Watched This Month:
I, Claudius
Wormwood
The Florida Project
A Ghost Story (loved it)
The Disaster Artist
Call Me By Your Name - What I Listened To This Month:
Art Feynman – Near Negative
The Gentleman Lovers – Permanently Midnight
Hiroshi Yoshimura – Music for Nine Postcards
Ebo Taylor And The Pelikans
Goran Kajfes Tropiques – Enso
F ingers – Awkwardly Blissing Out
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection of Music From the Arab World - A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:
How to Be a Responsible Music Fan in the Age of Streaming
Jaron Lanier on The Ezra Klein Show
See With Your Ears: Spielberg And Sound Design
Another Green World: How Japanese Ambient Music Found a New Audience
How Kraftwerk’s Classic Album Computer World Has Changed People’s Lives
Legend of the Fall: Mark E Smith Kept Swinging to the End
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