Matthew Wayne Selznick

I don’t like php.

I don’t like css.

I don’t even think I like html.

Oh — and I certainly don’t like mysql, or javascript.

I want a set of web tools that’s as easy to use as a hammer, or a wrench, or a pen. No, don’t tell me that that’s Wordpress, or Blogger, or whatever, because they’re not. Okay?

>sigh< I’m a writer. I’m a musician. I’m an evangelist for DIY… but some days the climb up the learning curve leaves no energy left for art.

Okay, it’s been a long week, I’m frustrated, and I thought I’d take a moment to holler my frustrations out into the great empty echo chamber that is the MWS Media family of sites.

I’m not gonna grouch too much here. Better to just take a shower, have some breakfast, do the podcast, and get away from this computer for a while.

Well, the latest song I’ve put to the Garageband test has finished its run… “The Western Lands” ended up in the 65th percentile in the Acoustic category… which is actually just a hair higher than my last best rated song, “Elvis C.”

Here are some of my favorite reviewer comments for “The Western Lands”

“Have I missed the point somewhere?”

“Song is painfully sincere.”

“The lyrics lacked any real depth, and definitely need to be rethoughtout.”

“Oh my what a performance… I felt that… good job man… should be signed.. I thnk that if you should continue with that performance you should get signed pretty soon..”

“could be a nice publicity for cocacola..or 7 up…”

“I commend you on a seemingly effortless well made song.”

“You begin to lose sight of what is going on here, and that is, duh::: Music”

“this is one of those songs that was onriginally done in the studio with electirics and drums and the whole kit and kaboodle and then the band felt like doing an acoustic cover of it.”

Note: all quotes pasted without correcting anything… the errors are the reviewers.

So now, if you wanna hear the song, hop on over to Garageband and give it a spin. You’ll have to come back over here to comment on it, though.

This is a supercute cartoon site — too bad their terms of service are so Sonny Bono, but it’s absolutely worth a visit.

Homestar Go Creative Commons..!

So I was just checking out the computer, making sure my webcast stream was pumping out the tunes nice and regular-like, when I saw I had a listener! It was one Mark Mason, just hanging out and making requests at DIYER.

So I got on the mic and had my first bona fide experience of webcasting when I knew, absolutely for certain, that someone out there was listening. It was pretty cool. I put together a little set, acknowledged Mark’s requests, and had the unique experience of talking to someone without their having any possibility of responding… except that I knew he was listening.

That made it really cool.

Thanks for listening!

My friend has a birthday today.

I met her when we were teenagers. We fell in teenage love. It was heavy and full of drama and my tendencies toward martyrdom meshed nicely with her mental illness. We were a manga soap opera before any of us knew of such things; we were a Terry Moore graphic novel and she was Francine and Katchoo both depending on the day and where her brain chemistry was.

We had adventures.

As we grew older and miles separated us, I often worried about my friend. Her adventures away from me took place in Adulthood, where things are more dangerous and the implications, longer lasting. She did amazingly strong things that I’m still so proud of, and she made the kind of mistakes we all make. I celebrated her triumphs and fretted over her defeats.

She sent me letters boobytrapped with glitter and confetti.

Finally, entropy contributed to our losing touch with one another, and a misunderstanding reinforced that. It was years before the Internet brought us back in contact.

Lo and behold, my friend is alive and well. She’s a poet and an artist and so brilliantly creative I wish I could take a thimble of her productivity and down it like a shot. There’ve been a few more tragedies, and a few more triumphs, and this person I met when we were half as old as we are now has become one of the strongest people I know.

And today’s her birthday.

And I wanted to tell the world that, and also that she’s an inspiration, and a gift, and I love her.

So happy birthday, tigger-eddie-cydniey. It makes me happy, knowing you’re out there — and that’s your gift to me.