Finally settling in to the new pad. Spent NYE rearranging the office to provide a little more breathing room and fungshuinality. (That’s a new word I just made up)
Traffic for Unamerican has tapered off. Still getting dozens of people a day, which is amazing considering it’s been over a year since the song was released. Decided today that I’m going to make a daily practice of sending an email to an organization/website asking them to post a link to the movie. I’ll keep track of the results on a page on the Unamerican site.
Feeling a little overwhelmed and a lot excited about my music career in ’06. Now that my living situation has settled down (*ahem*) for the duration, I’m feeling more space/time/energy opening up to focus on that. AND, there’s an insane amount of stuff to do. Book gigs, record, publicity, press kits, marketing plan, produce CD’s, sell ’em, get ’em on iTunes, etc., write, rehearse, develop the iTeam, create a webtool for us to use, podcasting, and the list goes on and on…
I’ve also commtted to writing/rehearsing AT LEAST 90 minutes a day. I’ve found that even a couple days of not playing music has an effect on my chops. So I’m gonna keep ’em sharp.
Sometimes I procrastinate going to sleep. It’s now 10 ’til 1 and I should be going to sleep. I’m tired. But for some reason, I thought it was really, really important to write a blurb to say hi with a few notes of updates. I don’t really know who reads this, or how regularly. So it often occurs to me like some kind of exercise in uncertain self-expression. Like writing an earnest message and posting it on the bulletin board of a deserted gas station on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere.
Huh. Just spent 15 minutes or so looking for that picture, too…
Anyway, by way of updates: I’m renting 2 smaller rooms in the Richmond, one of which I’m using as an office/studio. I’m about 2/3 complete with my next EP. I’d hoped to have it out by Christmas, but since I’m relying so much on other people to help with the project, I can’t really move it along any quicker.
Besides, I’ve been working my ass off these last couple of weeks (a VERY good thing for a part-time hourly guy) and moved. For the 6th time this year. So one of the voices in my head says “Dude, give yourself a break! OF COURSE things are gonna take longer.” Another says “Whatever, guy. Deadline’s a deadline and ya missed it.”
I guess both are true, and I’m learning all kinds about what it takes to make a record.
The Semper Fi video is also delayed. ‘Nother case of being reliant on the good graces of others. And another lesson in patience and letting things be the way they are, despite having done everything I can think to do to move things forward. Except maybe start earlier.
I have to keep reminding myself this is a process which will continue to refine itself and grow. Kinda like a baby. Interestingly, there’s been a 16 month baby boy at a job site I’ve been working. Kid walks around, can pick things up, recite animal sounds but is *just about* to start speaking undertstandable language beyond “Shreeeeek! and MaMa”. Feels kinda where I’m at in terms of where I am in the art and science of making records.
I’m really excited about next year, though. this one’s been pretty rough with explicit non-progress as compared to the phenomenal (no other word, really) first year. Maybe it’s the odd years when shit happens. Even years are just… y’know, even. Not so great, not so bad. But the ODD years. Yeehaw!
Ok, I think i’ve put off sleepin’ long enough. More later – when I finally get around to it…
When I play the Fillmore, though I’m not sure exactly when. The guy who booked me just called me (at 2 in the morning) to say that the lineup had changed. Don’t matter to me. It’s the Fillmore, yo. And it’s gonna be blessed.
Tonight I got a new mix of a new song and it sounds SWEET. I’m sending it out to all the people who’ve supported the Semper Fi project as a thank you. Feels good, AND I’m looking forward to the day when I can spend more than a few hours in the studio producing a song. the whole process is a total blast for me and feels like some kind of Absolute Fulfillment. Definitely what I’m supposed to be doing.
Got connected with a lot of people I haven’t seen in a long time. I went to a community potluck and feasted with fifty friends. It was RAD. Came out to find my car broken into. Fortunately, I’d not YET picked up what is undoubtedly my new favorite thing – a 1950-something Martin acoustic guitar, on indefinite loan from a dear friend. It’s an instrument with an amazing story and I’m honored to be its guardian for a spell. It’s simply exquisite and I can’t wait to learn how to play it properly. I think there’s gonna be a LOT of practicin’ goin on.
I have found a waystation on the great Journey of Homelessness I’ve been on for the last year or so. Actually, in light of things in the southeast and the rest of the world, to call it homeless is really unfair, ’cause I’ve managed to have shelter and food and water that won’t kill me. But I’ve found two rooms in San Francisco for really great rent on a month-to-month situation with a really cool young woman landlord/tennant/housemate. I’m SUPER excited about getting an actual recording studio set up and having more than a shelf of space for it. I’m even going to have room for a couch in a room completely separate from my living space. I’m extremely grateful for being so blessed, that’s for sure.
Anyway, there’s broken glass shattered in my back seat and I think someone went to the bathroom in my car while it was parked in the Tenderloin. I keep getting these rather unpleasant whiffs of… well, I’m not too sure.
I’ve been having it that I need to have a Demo ready before I can move on with pushing my career. It’s kind of your calling card to the music industry as a starting performer/songwriter. But y’know, the more I think about it, the more I’m bailing on the idea altogether. Mostly ’cause my primary focus is developing direct relationships with people who like my music. If I can find enough of those people who like my music enough to buy it from me to make a living, it’d be “Mission Accomplished”. I’m not looking to be famous. I don’t really care about ever becoming anything more than a father and a life partner in an amazing family that’s supported by me living my life’s purpose.
So I’m bailing on getting a proper demo together, and instead am just going to keep working on making and selling music until all that happens. In the meantime, I’ll let the body of my work speak for itself. And right now it’s lookin’ a little anemic with one song and all, but overall, it’s on a really great Life support system.
I love the idea, too, of demonstrating the possibility of making a living on one’s own talent and using the Internet to successfully create a viable, independent music business.
Besides, I’m in the business of selling my music, not my potential.
You know what would be really interesting to see right now? Notes from Vice President (former and if, say, impeached or convicted, also likely future oil company executive) Cheney’s meetings with other oil executives when talking about our energy policy in secret in 2000. And why IS that such a secret that a bi-partisan Senate committee couldn’t review it in chambers?
After all, Senators are briefed about all kinds of secret stuff. Heck, Trent Lott says that Senators were briefed about secret CIA torture camps. Or rather, the original story about the CIA’s secret prison system contained information that was given to Republican Senators and most likely leaked by a Republican Senator. Which is not to say you should trust everything Trent Lott says.
I say if they can be trusted with information about black site “We don’t torture” prisons, can’t they be made privvy to notes about conversations about gas prices and oil supplies and stuff? I suspect that the public hearing Cheney’s pitch to the energy companies would be the last straw for an already fragile administration. Should Karl “The Master Manipulator” Rove get collared or otherwise “resign” from the White House, I predict all hell will break loose. Mostly ’cause Cheney will be distracted with Scooter’s heat and the administration’s plummeting public support and unable to bring the hammer down on anyone who stands in his way.
The levies are full, that’s for sure. Couple more leaks and they’ll surely bust.
The bigger question is whether and when we’ll finally realize we’re addicted to oil and actually do something about it. (the “addiction to foreign oil” phrase is such a thin deception. Over 60% of our oil is “Foreign” oil, and there’s no way we can domestically produce as much as we consume)
I wanted to do some population research, and I remembered that the CIA has a “World Fact Book” online. And if the CIA doesn’t know the ins and outs of pretty much every country we have a footprint in (and how many is that, I wonder?) WHO WOULD!?
So I went to the website and found some good links to follow. Didn’t see a dataset one could download, which was sort of a drag. When I backed my way to the Factbook homepage, I noticed something I didn’t at first. Does it bother anyone else that the CIA World Fact Book homepage is designed to look like HAL9000?
Rehearsed with Alex (bass) and Jason (drums) tonight, getting ready for our recording session on Sunday with Rus and Gabriel. Gabriel mastered the “Unamerican” EP, and produced the “Semper Fi” single at Hyde Street Studios. Fun for sure.
Just moved this week, got my stuff out of the latest sublet and into another storage unit. Am crashing in Leslie’s roommate’s room for 10 days while he’s away on a work party. Week and a half to find a place to live. This is getting seriously old.
Additionally, I’ve been fighting a cold for the last few days. Just finished watching “Born Into Brothels” and I take back every bitch and moan I’ve made. So easy to forget just how good we got it here in the Good Ol’ USA.
I’m on the Celebrity Wait Staff at “Stars on Staff” for the Music In Schools Today fundraiser tomorrow. I’ll try not to cough in the Mayor’s soup.
Had another one of those moments of broaching a wall of fear today. I’ve been wanting to play on Haight Street (I live a block away), and today I got my act together (literally) and put together CD’s, an email signup book, Generate Kindness stickers and my guitar. Since life’s been so hectic and fast-paced lately, I’d not created any kind of marketing stuff. So I did the simplest 1sheet in Word ever, put it in a plastic sleeve and hit the road (for all of a block).
As I got ready, I was getting more and more nervous. I’ve never sung on the street before, and I was worried that the cops would shuffle me away. Actually, I didn’t care about that. I WAS worried that they’d fine me. I already owe the city plenty for parking tickets.
I could feel myself trying to slip away – to take a nap, or to “do it some other day”. I pressed on, knowing that today was the day, and I was either going to do it or just give up the whole music thing for being a wuss. It’s funny how the unknown can invoke such fear.
Interestingly, that very notion was the subject of a deep, connected/ing conversation I had with a friend who’d stopped by. We both have been in similar places in our lives, and it was really warm and wonderful to share insights and experiences.
Anyway, I stood on the corner of Cole and Haight in kind of a last-minute haze of fear-driven ambivilance. Teetering on turning around for a moment. Of course I knew I really didn’t have any choice. But I’ll say that I spent a lot of time trying to figure out where the “best place” on Haight Street would be that would give me some visibility, some traffic, and some cover from the cops.
I’d walked by the Peace hotel at Belvedere and Haight lots, and love the place not only for it’s prima facie message (“peace, people”) but also it’s meta-message: it’s possible to make a living making peace. Seemed like the place to be.
I walked over to the building NEXT to the Peace Hotel (still wasn’t ready to step up) and started contemplating setting up next to it so I wouldn’t have to go in and talk ot the people at the desk who might well tell me I couldn’t. Though honestly, I can’t think of a more appropriate place on Haight Street to be playing my songs.
Anyway, I decided I was being a big wimp (or more accurately – an inner, football coach-like voice yelled “quit being a pussy, Rhett!”) and I leaned toward the front door of the place and before I knew it I was looking at two young women at the desk. I asked if I could sit outside on the steps and play my guitar for a bit, and they said sure. “As long as you’re good”. I smiled and walked outside, emboldened with a merchant’s blessing to play on Haight street.
I kinda laughed at myself as I nervously set up my plastic-wrapped onesheet, arranged the CD’s, stickers and stuff like that. I started playing “Everyday Superman” and it was the first note that was like cool water on my fiery cheeks. At the end of the second song, a friend I’d met years ago and have had sporatic contact with walked by.
The experience of playing on the sidewalk with a ton of people just walking by was pretty amazing. It was an interesting view of Human Being that one doesn’t normally encounter. All the times I’ve been people watching, it’s been a more or less passive activity. But interacting with people as a street performer is pretty interesting.
It was totally amusing to pass out Generate Kindness stickers, too. At one point I stopped playing and offered stickers to every person that walked by. By now, it was after sunset and the traffic on the sidewalk had reduced considerably. Clusters of people passed every several seconds instead of the earlier steady stream. Some people refused. It was funny –
“Generate Kindness?”
“Harumph!”
I dunno. Guess you had to be there.
I talked to the inkeeper who gave me her schedule and said it would be cool for me to come back, so I’m gonna. Should be good.
Wow. Pretty chunky week of stuff. Working backwards: just finished a lunch with a couple/friends who I love and miss. It was a too short reunion (lunch meetings are great for the quick check-in, but these two are gems and always leave me happy AND wanting more). Big ol’ kick-off meeting for a construction project I’ll be working on in a management capacity (read: note-taker and errand-runner, but believe me, I’m not complaining. I need the work, and I love what I do).
Last night, I finished the mixdown of the “(I Know Why You’re) Semper Fi” song. Vocals and piano. Given the amount of tim and money I had to work with (“not much” is the phrase that comes to mind), I’m REALLY happy with the results. Helped Michael (a best friend) move about an hour after I got home from a 2 day trip to Kansas to visit family. My littlest sister had a baby and the delivery had some complications which had me feeling more than a bit concerned. In the absence of information, I tend to make stuff up, and it was not looking good. Plus, my sister Allison (Hi!) was in town from Okinawa, so there was a critical mass of siblings forming. Seemed the opportune/approriate thing to do. Had a really tough time leaving my mom. She’s getting older, and is facing another back surgery. She’s in a lot of pain, and I just wish I could give her a break from all the stress in her life.
4 days away from having to move out and no place to go just yet. I’m looking at a place tomorrow morning that has been sort of our hope and glory. It’s a cool house in Berkeley with a backyard, basement and garage (rare items in San Francisco) and a block from one of the coolest shopping/cafe districts in the East Bay. If it doesn’t meet my needs, I’m gonna get ANOTHER storage unit and move all my craap into it and couch surf until I can find a permant home. I’ll tell you – this sublet hopping has been exhausting (this is my 4th move this year?!) and I’m ready to plant roots.
Pretty excited about the Semper Fi completion. Gonna get singles out to a few radio stations, hopefully get it loaded up to i-Tunes so people can actually BUY it, and work on getting the video released by Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I’m a celebrity waiter at the Stars On Staff luncheon for Music In The Schools Today, a charity serving 10,000 kids with music instruments and education. I’ve been talking to the ED there about some cool program ideas that I might get involved in next year.
This is definitely one of the most challenging periods of my life. I’m trying to find a place to live and move into within the next two weeks (this will be my 4th in a year), record and launch a web video and earn enough money that I don’t keep dipping into overdraft “protection” (at 24% interest, it feels more like extortion, but I guess it’s my “choice”).
I love living in San Francisco, and can’t imagine living anywhere else (I am looking in the East Bay). But two bedroom apartments START at $1600/month. I keep seeing 2Br’s for 3k-5k. I guess there are lots of people who make enough money to afford that. Waaayyy beyond me, though, that’s for sure.
I just talked to the animator for the video and he says he can’t make the Veteran’s Day deadline, which while I understand and support his reasoning, still sucks ’cause when is a *better* time to release an anti-war song that also honors our troops? Fundraising has not gone as well as I need, either.
I’m ready to take to the streets and start playing for change. Seriously. I’m actually looking forward to that, ’cause Haight-Ashbury is two blocks away from my current place. The person I’m subletting for comes back in a few days and is cool with sleeping on the couch in the front room, and I’m feeling worlds of pressure to find a home so I can get on with the business of making music. It’s all feeling a little, ok a LOT overwhelming right now.
I’m just a walking ball of stress. I look and feel like shit. This year has been pretty exhausting. It’s addded many strands of grey to the noggin, too.
