So it's almost the end of 2005 -- is it necessary to do one of these retrospective / looking forward thingies? Sure, why not.

Finally, finally, finally, lulu.com got their act together and got Brave Men Run's ISBN registered with Books In Print. It took several weeks longer than it should have, and several rounds of chatting with their faceless but gracious (hmm, that could be a song title, no? Somebody run with it) help desk, to get it all squared away. Now that any bookstore with access to Books In Print can order the book, I can begin the marketing in earnest. I started tonight. First thing I did was send out an e-mail to four hundred of my closest friends and barest acquaintances. Podcasting buddies, DIY Endeavors bands, old friends, other writers, etc., etc. I felt a little strange, doing it... some of these folks haven't heard from me in forever, and some may not even remember who I am. But, as it has been reminded to me more than once lately by various good souls, "nothing ventured, nothing gained!" The worst that can happen is someone says "don't write me any more." That already happened. I also got an offer to review the book, and some well-wishing from a couple of people. That was minutes after the post. Tomorrow..?

Recent fortuitous events have placed me in a remarkable position... after ten years and eighty-some days with the same company, I will be quitting what I have semi-sarcastically called my Cursed Day Job on the day after Thanksgiving. Very strange. I'm alternately very nervous and out-of-my skin excited. I'll still have to work somewhere... we can't quite afford to be a one-income household, and the cats and dog don't know too many marketable tricks, so that's not an option. I'll have to get a part-time job. But it won't be a management job. It won't be a bottom-line, responsibility, babysitting for too little money job. I long to punch a clock! And so I will. What, you ask, will you do with the extra time and less money? Make stuff, baby! Promote Brave Men Run. Write my new novel The View That Comes With You. Make podcasts. Get extra active with the various associations and groups I'm involved with. Get out and do some culture now and then. Maybe make some music. Be creative. Additionally, I won't pass up any editing or story diagnosis work you might send my way. I'm still offering dirt cheap web hosting for DIY, creative…

Holy crap... I don't even know where to begin. Let's go with first impressions again, okay? MTV can't sell me on their bullshit, still, more, forever and ever, amen. Doug Kaye deserves your help. Some people are done doing it for themselves, and the world's a better place because of it. Dave Slusher doesn't have much of an accent in real life. What's up with that? There are good lawyers on the side of the angels doing good work, and thanks for that! In the movie version of the Podcast Era, Eric Rice will have to be played by a very young Jeff Goldblum. Still not sure about Audible... but I am still sure about DRM, so what does that tell me, right there? Why does Lance Anderson seem nervous when he sees me? The youngsters in AMP are full of piss and vinegar, and they have truth and justice in their souls. I liked Harold J. Johnson instantly. And I thought I might! Adam Curry needs to relax. And people I'm having conversations with need to relax when Curry walks into a room. The man uploads his podcasts a packet at a time, just like the rest of us,…

So, my first conference. I feel like a grown-up, kinda. Impressions: Many people... many people... still think in terms of podcasting as an entry into Old Media, like radio or major labels or whatnot. Some do not. Which is good. Brian Ibbott is gracious but nervous around drooling fanboys. Can't say I blame him. If Odeo stays unbought by Fox or ClearChannel or something equally unsavory, they're on to a good thing. Just stay pure, people. It's not always about the money. See? Really, it's not. Dawn and Drew = Still not funny. It's weird to be social with strangers who have so much in common with you It's weird to discover that... podcaster or not, I'm not half the tech-savvy geek some of these people are. I'm way behind the curve in some ways. Perhaps I make up for it with my fanatical prodding and poking with my trusty DIY-anti-old-media stick? Conferences are tiring. Another day tomorrow... still looking forward to it. And where's Evo Terra??? I think I saw him across the ballroom tonight, but his name badge was turned around, and I was talking to Matt May. Okay. Time for night-night.

Punk: Attitude is a Don Letts film that was, so far as I know, never shown in theatres and went from the Independent Film Channel straight to DVD. It's a real decent document of the origins of punk rock from its late sixties origins to, say, the early eighties. The DVD has an extra disc with a spotlight on the Los Angeles punk movement, and there are other features that talk about fanzines, the post-punk and indie movement, and so on. The extra features aren't really revelatory, at least not if you're old enough (or, like me, almost old enough) to have been actually in the scene in the early eighties. But the actual documentary and the extra features together serve an important purpose: educate and enlighten the kids today who don't have a clue as to whom the "punk" bands of today really owe their success. (start rant) I mean, just for example, let's do a quick Google search on "punk rock." The number one hit is Punk Music Explorer. They seem to have been fortunate enough to nab the "punkrock.org" domain name, and they're using it as pretty much a link farm for "punk" band websites. I guess…

I'm having a hard time articulating this blog entry. It's hard, because I've made a decision to not be involved with the Los Angeles Podcasters Group's (LAPG) booth at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo in a month and a half, and the decision is based on a combination of ethical, personal, and purely gut reasons. So it's hard to explain it, and yet I feel the need to blog about it. It's hard to explain, because I don't particularly want to get into the personal reasons (I sense that bad feelings and perhaps some flared tempers would result.) Let's just say I don't mesh with some of the participants, and the perceived motivations that seem to drive their actions. I wrote a post on the LA Podcasters' forum to, more or less, state my reasons. Read that, if you want. It explains most of it. I guess it's enough to say that I want to meet people, and interact, and network, and build relationships, and all of that... I don't want to stand around in a convention hall and wait for people to come to me and my Los Angeles comrades. See, I long for community, and I don't…

... I've thought about it for a long long time... Oops, wait, this isn't a Todd Rundgren song, it's a blog post, and long overdue at that! Yeah, it's been a couple of weeks, almost exactly, since I've posted. What's up, Matt? Well, work at the Cursed Day Job (CDJ) mostly, and red-pen work with Brave Men Run. The edits are almost complete on the book. I've started working on the web page. I'm gathering my ideas and plans for marketing the work, which will be available in no less than three different media... podcast, e-book, and print. Speaking of that, many thanks to Jan at the Big Bear Grizzly for her generous research work on my behalf. She saved me a day long excursion up the mountain. Actually, a day in Big Bear is a nice thing, especially now that it's finally autumn. Fall is my favorite season, and at 3,500 feet above sea level here in the lush and lavish studios of MWS Media, I can actually experience the change of seasons despite living in Southern California. Big Bear's higher still, which means I can go up there in a couple of months for a snow fix. Ramble,…

It happened on Friday, September 2nd, 2005, at 3:21 PM at a corner table in the Starbucks on Bear Valley Road in Victorville, California. On the overhead sound system, one of two songs was playing -- I'm not sure of the timing. It was either the Old 97s song "Salome," or Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)." Either one's fine, really. I finished the first draft of my first novel. Holy crap. It only took 570 days, start to finish, to write this complete edition of the story I started back in 1998, in the Sovereign Serials webzine. At 58,305 words, that's a miserable 102 words per day, which is just horrible. The next one's gotta be faster... I plan on making the next one my National Novel Writing Month project! Can you believe I finished a fucking book? Of course, I have to do an edit, and some fact-checking, and some clean up and tightening. I give myself a couple of weeks for that. But it's done. I've written a book. It's the first time I've ever finished something on this scale. Until now, they've all been in my head. When I finished, sitting in the…