Rebuilding, Tearing Down, Adding On

Written on February 27th, 2006. Filed under Scribtotum. Tagged with , , , , , , , , .

Spent part of today working on fixing, editing, and repairing two of my web sites. This one, and the primary MWS Media site. Long enough that I’m tired of working on it, now… I think I need some food and maybe a shower and bed. I’ve been up since three thirty in the morning — my wife had to fly out of town this morning so I drove her to the airport.

Of course, I may have accomplished more if I hadn’t stopped to post my opinion about the Sex Pistols and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame “scandal” on the Mike Watt Yahoo! List. Can’t link to it, it’s members only, but basically I wrote that it was a case of a manufactured band rejecting a manufactured honor.

Oops… I went and put another sacred cow on the barbie…! Right away, one of the list members accused me of “DIY elitism,” which, I pointed out, is (to me) an oxymoron. And so the snowball rolled down the hill, gathering yellow snow and bits of shit and gravel as it went.

Anyhoo, one of these days I’ll lay down the planks of my platform vis a vis the DIY Ethic. Basically, what happens to me so often on the Watt List is I get attacked because I don’t put the icons of punk (another oxymoron?) up on any kind of pedestal. When I say X sounds tired and bored these days, when I blast Watt himself for being on Sony (and for — blasphemy — putting out a pretty darn boring, self-serving album), when I challenge the idea that the Sex Pistols had anything at all to do with punk rock… well, I hear about it.

Sometimes I have fun with it — rise to the challenge. I’m in the middle of that now… and now I’m blogging about it…. when, as some would say, I should be writing.

So… okay. I’ve run out of steam. Nice talkin’ to ya. I’ll keep you posted… time for food, a little bit more work, then bed.

Oh — I’ve got a web-based voicemail / fax service for MWS Media, now… if you’d like to leave a verbal comment about this site, “Brave Men Run,” or MWS Media in general, call 1-206-666-4DIY.

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Octavia Butler Has Died

Written on February 26th, 2006. Filed under Scribtotum. Tagged with , , .

The author of “Kindred,” “Fledgling,” and many other intelligent, challenging works of speculative fiction, died after a fatal concussion following a fall.

When we lose a master of the field — unexpectedly and too early, or after a long and storied life — it gives me pause, and drives me forward. There is only so much time to be alive, indeed.

For now. And until that’s changed… keep writing like the next page is the last one.

Update: NPR’s Talk of The Nation Science Friday re-posted a podcast edition of their June 16th, 2004 episode featuring Octavia Butler, David Brin, and Lawrence Krauss. Interesting listening, and a chance to hear Butler.

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Brave Men Run Podcast – Episode 14 Chapts. 50 – 53

Written on February 26th, 2006. Filed under Brave Men Run. Tagged with , .

It’s the penultimate episode of the Brave Men Run Podcast! After this — one more episode and the book is finished!

Let’s look at these chapters…

Chapter Fifty:

– “Post traumatic stress, or something like that.”

More information on this disorder is here.

– “Two Orange County sheriff’s deputies got behind him and held his arms.”

These fine officers provide law enforcement services for several unincorporated areas of Orange County, California.

Of course, I mostly recall them showing up in time to take our beer away from us at beach parties…

Chapter Fifty One:

– “I’ll buy you a MegaSip.”

Okay, so I made up the name to avoid infringing on any trademarks, but this is what I’m talking about, here. Essentially, it’s syrup, sugar water, and crushed ice. Oh, and food coloring.

– “I’m gonna give you, like, the Reader’s Digest version, all right?”

This is a reference to Reader’s Digest Magazine, which has been publishing condensed articles, features, and full-length books culled from numerous sources since the dawn of time. The “Reader’s Digest version” means without any fluff, with an emphasis on brevity.

Chapter Fifty Two:

– “…going to watch MTV…”

MTV, once known as Music Television, and even before that Sight on Sound, changed music forever, for better or worse. It launched in 1981, hit in a big way in 1985, and gave one of the creators of podcasting his first big break. So it all ties together, somehow…?

Chapter Fifty Three:

That Lina is wise beyond her years… a little island of common sense for when our hero gets too wiggy.

– “I kept chuckling, randomly, right up until we pulled up to my house. Right up until I saw my mother in the driveway talking to a man in a dark business suit.”

What, you thought I wasn’t going to slip another cliffhanger in before the end of the book? Stay tuned!

 
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Ahnnnnndeee…!

Written on February 25th, 2006. Filed under Scribtotum. Tagged with .

Don Knotts has died. That’s sad.

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The DIY Endeavors Podcast — The Podfade Episode

Written on February 24th, 2006. Filed under Scribtotum. Tagged with , , , , , , .

Seventeen months ago, I learned about podcasting. It was brand new, and Adam Curry was telling the world all about it on Leo Laporte’s radio show in Los Angeles. A week later, I put up my first podcast, the MWS Media Radio Show. The show, then and for the next 59 episodes, put the spotlight on DIY, independent music, spoken word, and other creative endeavors.

I think there were less than a dozen other music podcasts when I started.

The sixtieth show, for which this post will serve as the notes, is the last. I have decided to stop producing the DIY Endeavors podcast.

Why?

Many reasons:

  • There are many, many music podcasts now, nearly every one in the same niche as the DIY Endeavors Podcast. With the RIAA and others holding such a big hammer over everything, no one risks playing anything but independent music these days. The niche is the norm.
  • The podcast, in perfect honesty, was never very popular! It held, on average, about sixty subscribers. Comments from listeners could be counted on two hands over the life of the podcast.
  • Since November, my Brave Men Run podcast novel has attracted listeners an order of magnitude beyond anything the DIY Endeavors Podcast enjoyed. I’ve been very, very busy promoting the book in all its forms. I’m an author now, with very little time left over to attend to projects that don’t have the same return on an investment of effort and time.
  • I have a tendency to put my own projects, dreams, goals, and aspirations aside in favor of things that benefit others. I suspect that this altruism stems from a fear of failure.
  • This year, I’ve said many times since the book came out, is about my own creative endeavors. I’ve quit my day job and taken a 66% pay cut in order to concentrate on making a mark with my art. Everything I do should serve that. The DIY Endeavors Podcast doesn’t.

So. This episode is the last one.

I’m proud of the run — I played music that wasn’t heard anywhere else in the podosphere. I believe I introduced the medium to Jonathan Coulton, Samantha Murphy, Caldwell Shine, and a few others — or at least I was one of the first to play those artists. I fought publicly against Viacom’s KYOU and Nike’s co-opting of Dischord Records. I was proud to turn money my listeners had originally donated to me over to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and to support Boxing Day Tsunami relief by promoting the Of Hands And Hearts benefit compilation.

I’m pleased I got to meet great artists and bands like Jon, Samantha, and Caldwell, not to mention Utenzil, Paul Donaldson, Adam Norman, Anat Damon, Bruce Siart, Christa Couture, City Beautiful, De Nieuwe Vrolijkheid, Dislocated Thumbs, Emma Wallace, Harvey Keene, John Paul Sharp, Jose Promis, Ljova, Noah Hall, Peril Dance, Dan Wallace and the Pindrops, Rich Kubicz, Roymond, Shudder, Steadman, WUPT, Woodstock Taylor, and many many others. If the other music podcasters in the world aren’t playing their music… well, they just better, that’s all.

This last episode, I went through the thousand songs in the DIY Endeavors library and tried to choose my personal favorites. I ended up with over fifty tracks. Somehow, I narrowed that down to twenty songs. The great majority of this last episode of the DIY Endeavors podcast is those twenty songs, played back to back — a mega-set of music, and my salute to DIY eclecticism.

These are the artists in the show:

Eugene Edwards
Caldwell Shine
Pindrops
The Pasties
City Beautiful
Kiff Gallagher
Emma Wallace
Rich Kubicz
Grand Theft Goodwill
Jose Promis
John Hoskinson
The Evernauts
Geetan / Gilleen Williams
Noah Hall
Samantha Murphy
Mark Mason
Jonathan Coulton
Via Audio
Shudder
Christa Couture

I hope you enjoy it… I’ve enjoyed bringing the DIY Endeavors podcast to you. Now, it’s on to bigger, better, different things.

Thanks, as always, for your support.

 
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