Here’s a business someone should do: Software/service that integrates to add video to an email. The email contains everything it needs to play back in an email browser/client.
User case – Grandpa wants to send a video email to his granddaughter in college. In Yahoo Mail or Google or anywhere, “Send a Video Greeting” or something. Make it supersimple to send v/e-email.
User case – a resume consultant wants to charge a fee for reviewing someone’s resume. They do a split
User case – musicians selling online videos
User case – churches doing remote ministry
Make it easy to send and receive v/e-mail, someone, please. If you know of someone already doing this, please let me know – I’d like to start using something like this.
It’s been a rough week. A breakup, work pressure is huge, a misunderstanding with a key partner for the Missing Project, realizing I’ve pretty much entirely cut myself off from connection with community and I found out tonight that The Missing Song didn’t even place for the FindGINA Missing singer/songwriter contest. I felt/feel really proud of it and I guess there is part of me that wants my music to be recognized and acknowledged.
It’s kinda like feedback from the Universe/God that I’m on the right track, doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Otherwise, why would “the right path” seem to be so challenging and slow? That’s how it’s felt lately. Of course, I also haven’t taken a vacation or really more than a day or two off in probly the last… um… Could be something there.
Thing is I find it hard to not be either thinking about or doing something towards making my dream real, living my purpose and having some positive impact in the world. Since choosing music and committing to making a difference, I kinda can’t turn it off. Pretty much every news story is like pouring gasoline on the fire under my ass.
And I should also shut the hell up. There are a lot of people who are actually doing the fighting of an insipid, seemingly endless war who aren’t getting the benefit of pursuing their dream right now, and won’t for at least another 5 years. Thousands will never.
At the same time, I feel patriotic – i love my country, I love the people in it and fighting for it, and I feel like the freedoms it embodies are being restricted and I feel I have a duty to say and do something about it.
But how does one do that in today’s world? Indeed, we live in different a new time calling for a new way. I chose songwriting. I hope someone chooses speechwriting, and I hope someone chooses producing films and that lots of people choose to run for first-time office in their communities. I hope lots of people start or volunteer for non-profits. There are so many great organizations doing great things in the world and they all need help in one way or another.
I hope someone chooses to write poetry only a few people see, but who are then inspired to write songs and make movies and enjoy freedom in all its forms. I hope someone chooses to write a blog only a few people read. I hope someone chooses to create a website that totally revolutionizes the way we connect to one another, socially. I think the possibilities to make a difference are endless, and that what it’s going to REALLY take is everyone doing something. So do something!
My upstairs neighbor has been blasting his/her stereo a lot lately. The other day, Chris Isaak was on repeat for like 2 hours. I like Chris – I’ve even played music with him (granted it was at a private party and we were the backup band for an 8 year old lead singer – I played the pots and pans. Chris was on guitar, natch). But two hours of the same music was a bit… unnerving.
Today it’s the theme song for Friends. Over and Over… I like the Rembrandts, too – I interviewed them for a TV show I hosted back in the day. But I think they’ve got a lot better music than the overplayed Friends theme.
So I’m blasting SomaFM to drown out the muffled “I’ll be there for youuuuu, nuh nuh nah nah nah…”
Curious that I’ve had some personal interaction with the artists that are now occupying my space rather uninvited.
I got the National Center for Missing Adults’ latest newsletter and was struck by a number of things. The fact there was a newsletter at all was like getting a jolt of oxygen. The Center has been threatened with closure as they wait for the government to pay the promised staffing costs to respond to Katrina. In one of the disaster’s brighter moments – the National Center for Missing Adults helped resolve 99.8% of the missing persons cases it responded to. They’ve been waiting for $4 million from congress for I don’t know how long. I think that’s about 12 seconds in Iraq. Maybe if everyone could just take an couple of deep breaths…
The Executive Director, an abduction survivor, had mortgaged her home and the Center was working on an all volunteer basis. All the news about the Center was from October/November last year, when it seemed like they were going to have to shut down their doors. Anyway, that’s why it was so refreshing to see a well-produced 4 page newsletter. Not to mention, the content was moving and inspiring.
The other thing I was struck by was the choice to include a quote from Mahatma Ghandi, “Be The Change Ypu Want To See In The World” I’m 100% down for that, but for some reason a National Center of anything quoting Ghandi, caught me a little off guard. On the other hand, it was just perfect (except for the typo), totally spot on. Yes. Be The Change. I got all inspired (again) by that. Gets me every time, actually, thinking about Ghandi. Or Dr. King, or Jesus or John Lennon, for that matter.
There was another quote on the back that also struck me: “Working together, incredible things can be achieved”
I dunno – there’s a way that feels really good to write. I just played my 4th Fillmore gig, this time at Poster Room at the Ani DiFranco show. It was, like most of my music stuff lately, kind of intense and wonderful. I played a decent first set, but was in a totally whacked headspace.
First, I’d eaten very little all day. I was sorta frantic getting a CD of The Missing Song printed. I burned the song onto CD and the label was a recent studio shot with a few sentences about the project. I felt it was pretty alright for a rush job.
But my cheap-ass printer couldn’t manage to correctly or consistently print a single one of 20 sheets of high-gloss cd-labels. Frustrating to say the least, when you’re packing your gear for a gig you’ve been looking forward to for a long time, and you can’t get a single decent CD printed. Over and Over…. OMG.
I really, really wanted to give one to Ani – who I’ve long admired for her musical activism, her truth-speaking and her independence as an artist. And I’m eager to share the project with anyone I can. Especially other cause-related musician types. Especially well-connected ones.
I’m clearly not as deep into her has the fans who were at the Fillmore, though. It was inspiring and really kind of heart-rending, too, to see her totally owning that room. It was insane. Girl power, indeed.
I had a “Golden Opportunity” to give my CD of the song, too. I’d just put all my stuff down on the stage in the Poster Room, which is where the Fillmore feeds the band, the crew, the roadies, the drivers and the cleanup crew. (But not the Lounge Act, which made my low blood sugar even more depressed.)
Anyway, Ani was there with her family and band, and I totally did not want to intrude. But she was like 10 feet from me and my CD. I heard her say she was going to warm up, she stood and left the table to go back to her dressing room. My golden moment shined for a few seconds and then disappeared into the shadows of the Fillmore balcony.
I honestly don’t know what happened. On the one hand, I was there to do a job, literally – play my best set ever. I had 20 minutes to set up and sound check, and the guy who ran the room was sitting right next to the stage. I also felt apprehensive about being an opportunistic self-promoter. I definitely did not want to “barge into her space.”
I froze and that was that. I tried a few other trajectories throughout the night to cross paths with her, but it didn’t happen and I left the Fillmore with the CD I’d signed for Ani DiFranco.
I was bummed.
Anyway, the first set itself was OK. I was already exhausted from an insane month at work, on an empty stomach, and having just failed to act decisively at a moment I’d actually manifested/imagined prior coming to the Fillmore. Oh, and I forgot my set list. This all does not add up so well for a rockin show. But my friends were there to support me (paying $54 for tickets!), I wolfed a very tasty burger between sets and kicked ass for all three songs of the second set, if I don’t say so myself.
I was one line away from finishing Unamerican when a tattooed dude walks in from the hallway crossing his throat with his hand and hyper enunciating something I couldn’t quite make out, but it was clear enough between his gesture and the rising sounds of a roaring crowd in the main room.
I didn’t finish the song. (Mustn’t upset the authorities!!!) I had one of those after-the-fact epiphanies today that I should have just stood up and sung the rest of it a Capella. But I didn’t… Guess what I’m gonna do next time someone cuts my mic in the middle of “Unamerican?” All respect to not bleeding into Ani’s set, which had already started, but I could’ve finished the song. I don’t really feel guilty about that (anymore). Instead, I feel optimistic and grateful for the learning/growing experience as a musician. Like I said, it was intense and wonderful.
Lessons Learned: – eat before a show/bring food – don’t work so hard at work to the exclusion of music – have a songlist of all the songs I know ready. Ideally a fakebook or something. – checklist of “everything Ian needs for a gig” – when the moment comes, stand up and say something, even if you feel stuck, scared, or unworthy. – everything is continually perfect.
I just uploaded some photographs from a portrait session I had with my roommate, Michael Rauner. I’m also doing an editing pass on a video I just saw for the first time – me getting boo’d for singing the National Anthem at a MoveOn Anti-war rally. I’ll have an introduction to the video posted shortly and the video itself as well. Total trip. I just got a new MiniDV video camera, so I’ll conceivably be able start uploading performance bits and home movies and such.
I guess I broke a promise to myself about not getting on the computer tonight, but I’ve got to share a couple of experiences that happened to me tonight. I’ve been spending a LOT of time online, for work, and I’ve really been needing to prepare for the Ani DiFranco show on Tuesday. I’m really looking forward to it, and work has had incredible demands on my time, energy and focus. As a partner in a company doing great work in the world, I feel like my time, energy and focus are still pointed in the same general direction as my music, and consequently, I’m feeling like I’m doing the best I can to make a difference in the world, one way or another.
Anyway, tonight I had two incredible, mind-blowing experiences I’m still trying to wrap my head around.
#1 In the park near my home, they were having “Movie in the Park” (Big Lubowski) and there were about a hundred people. I was actually walking home and happened to walk by the park, curious to see what the hubbub was all about. So anyway, as I walked up to the alfresco theater, I sorta walked up to this short, stocky black girl, probably in her 20’s. She was really sweet, had on some delightful perfume and at the same time she seemed really lost. There was something both attractive and tragic about her.
Our conversation was clear and direct and deep and connected, an atypical meet-a-stranger-for-the-first-time encounter. She was new in town, homeless, had been abandoned by some travelling partners who’d taken her blanket – she had no idea where she was going and wanted to go walk on the beach, which way was it?
We talked a bit more, and she mentioned she was lonely and wanted to know if we could go for a walk and hold hands. I told her I had a girlfriend and that I’d just dropped her off at the airport (which is true) and that I was going to walk home. She asked if she could walk with me and be romantic, just for the night? I told her no and rubbed her back and generally loved on her. My mind started cataloging all the things I could do for her, posessions of mine I could give up.
She asked for a backrub, which I gave her. I happen to give really good backrubs being a trained (but not yet certified) accupressure therapist. She didn’t seem to care about my credentials.
She was muscular in a feminine way, but with lots of tension I helped dissolve a little. She asked for a bear hug to crack her back, and I gave her a good Ian Hug. She said “I’m just going to walk away from all this negativity”. I said “yeah, walk into the positive” and I just hugged her and stroked her back and loved this total stranger for a minute.
By now I totally smell like some kind of magnolia perfume and she pulls away and looks up at me with this beautiful almond eyes and says “I was thinking about going out there and killing myself, but you saved my life.”
I had no idea what to say. As I was thinking and trying to feel what was the right thing to do, her attention shifted and she started talking to a more punkish looking kid about something, sort of like the fragments of conversation I hear from streetpunks on Haight Street. Disjointed, kind of rambunctious and tough. It was clear they were familiar with one another, but I didn’t turn to engage in their conversation.
I had to decide in that moment if I were going to get pulled further into something I ultimately couldn’t do more to help with. The decisive moment was feeling like I’d done what there was for me to do, anyway, and i quickly left and walked home.
#2 Meanwhile, before leaving for the airport, I’d had an IM exchange with a guy I’d interviewed for a job at CivicActions. The big push lately has been to find web developers for change-the-world projects and it’s absorbed an incredible talent search that’s had me working 75-85 hr weeks. The interview guy was pinging me to say hi and follow up on the referral. The conversation quickly turned to music, and I shared Unamerican with him. He liked it, gave me some feedback that made me feel like “yeah, actually, I AM on purpose with this stuff.” It felt great.
I asked him if he’d seen my next trick: The Missing Song. He was stunned. This guy he’d referred had told him a very similar story about his friend who’d passed away in this totally tragic way and thought for sure his friend and my song were talking about the same person. Neither of us could believe this was possible, so he left a message for his friend.
Fast forward a couple hours – I come home to an IM from this friend of “Robert John” – the subject of the song, the “boy who died, becoming a man”. In fact, they were very close friends. In fact, he’d played the guitar I wrote the song on. He used to jam with the former owner of this exquisite instrument I play at performances and has known the current owner, “Robert John’s” sister, for years.
We had a mind-blowing IM exchange. I had my breath taken away as we had convulsion after convulsion of divine enormity about talking to someone I’d randomly met through the course of doing what I’m on the planet to do about a person who’s become very much a part of my life even though I’d never met “Robert John” in person. I hear him playing guitar once in a while, though.
I just booked the Ani DiFranco show at the Fillmore in San Francisco on April 8. I’m the “lounge act” for the Ani DiFranco show. How ’bout that. Very excited. If you’re in town, get your tickets right now. Ani shows sell out fast. It’s gonna be a great night if you’re into having great nights of music, that is.
Wow is Mom spelled upside down. I had a pretty intense week last week with my mom going into the hospital. Although I’ve often lamented in a kind of self-pity how sad I’d be if she were to ever go. I’ve done that since I was a kid. Gets me all worked up and sad and full of love for my mom, I’ll say that. It’s also been an intense week or two with work and life in general. Not bad, necessarily. Just surreal and intense.
Life’s kicking my butt. Work is rocking. I’m being challenged in ways I’ve not been challenged in a long time. The Missing Project is moving forward apace. Very nice. I definitely have a lot to do, though, so I’m gonna get to it. Oh, here’s a portrait by my friend and housemate, Michael Rauner. He’s a brilliant artist and a deep, eloquent man. I’m really pleased with the overall quality, but I look like I’d been up all night (I was, actually – doing budgets for my day job). Michael says that definitely expresses part of who i am right now – the tired warrior. Don Quixote after a few windmills, maybe.
