Month: March 2021

NFT Madness

As a young musician, a fledgling artist, a photographer just trying to find some work, do you need to get in on this NFT train?

No.

There are a zillion more people out there who trade in dollars and credit cards who aren’t giving you money already.

Figure out how to sell one more item this week. Read a book or watch some videos about sales. Spruce up your online shop.

Have you seriously done everything there is to sell your wares to people holding debit cards? Explored every nook and cranny of e-commerce, which has a track record of decades? Have you even started an email list, which has a higher conversion rate than social media?

You don’t need to jump on the NFT train anymore than you have to jump on the TikTok train.

Meet your clients, customers, your people where they’re at. They probably get paid in dollars.

Daily Loop #70

One of the writing prompts for folks is to just write. Fill up that blank page at all costs. That’s how today’s loop felt. Just fill up the space with an idea, with a riff, with a bit, and release it to the world. One never knows where they’ll end up.

My run streak from November ended at 70 runs, but I’m feeling pretty good at loop #70. I’m still learning, adding, growing this thing. It’s funny… I’ve done 70 of these in a row and some people I know on social media aren’t even aware because of algorithms.

LIKES

“i make looms in the kitchen, my roommate makes tiktoks in the bathroom. we share a 1b apartment. such is life in your 20s,” @saraduit

“Can men stop commenting on threads of women recounting their abuse/harassment. Let them speak and be heard; not everything has to be about you,” @old_rake

From @jetpacksandrollerskates

Daily Loop #69

Oh, to sit around all day and work on music, right? Or make art. Work on photos.

While a career in creative work isn’t a guanrantee, you can at least fake it. That’s me most every morning (or late night). Pretending for a mere hour or so per day, just 60 or so minutes, I get to create some magic and release it to the world. That just wasn’t possible 20 years ago.

LIKES

“Another day, another evening spent explaining NFTs to my bandmate and being like “also, we are never doing this,” @useyourtanuki

“When a job listing says the words ‘fast-paced environment’ that means toxic,” @1followernodad (this thread is amazing)

“Stay sane, creative friends. Focus on the long-haul. If you’re spending more times studying this garbage tech instead of making things that people talk about, then idk,” @PaulJun_

Via @so_engery
Via @jimibiscuits

Daily Loop #68

Inspired by my pal Jocelyn Aucoin I started drawing a little more in hopes of turning them into animations. Of course I go for the most mundane thing, a fucking flip phone that’s freaking out, but I think it works with the the music.

Trying out a new plugin called Bass Fingers, which you can maybe hear in this loop. Basically some smooth sounding bass tones that you can play via a MIDI controller.

LIKES

“Art being called content and artists being called content creators has to be one of the worst things to happen in the art space in years,” @KyWilliamsDraws

From @vaporwavezone via Norah Lorway

Daily Loop #67

I tend to name my music files after notable events of the day, and most notable yesterday was purchasing my first coffee grinder. So as I waited for my French press to brew, I pulled out my iPad and Procreate and drew this little boom box, animated, and made it the theme for today’s loop.

LIKES

“always wild when you stumble onto the parallel world on here of some blue check tweeting “So excited to be able to say I’m starting as Chief Puppy Kicker at Facebook’s new Pain and Suffering Division!” an every other blue check on here replying “OMG they’re so lucky to have you,” @metaltxt

“You never know who is watching, so just keep doing it for you and when they hit you up, you’ll be ready,” @aundrelarrow

“anarchists heroically fought and died for the five day workweek so you could spend the two day weekend getting caught up on email,” @computerfact

Photo via @masa_photo_jp
Image via @ianmcque on Instagram

Daily Loop #66

Weekends are for singing over loops. Some synth, some reverb, and let it fly. The lyrics and melody were pretty spontaneous (there’s three tracks of vocals), and they made me laugh, so that’s what counts.

Fun experiment in recent weeks is not posting my weekend loops to social media. It’s a nice break from making a few social media assets, but also a nice exercise in the belief that if you make a thing people like, they’ll seek it out. Saving some of the best stuff for weekend posting is the ticket, then. Thanks for reading.

LIKES

Via Blondie guitarist @chrissteinplays
Via @masa_photo_jp

Video by KoolShooters from Pexels

Random Bandcamp Roulette

Check one, check two. Made this with Loom, which I’ve used a bit for work, and started to wonder if it would work for Bandcamp Roulette (see below) – and it sorta does! This was just a quick test – obviously some audio things to work on, but I like this. Made this within minutes, without having to mess with multiple video and audio files. There’s some limitation, sure (no ducking, but that’s okay), but I really like this. Considering how fast I can make these? AND not be tied to YouTube? Definitely going to upgrade my Loom account this weekend.

Sure, that looks and sounds really good, but those episodes are a beast to make. And, again, I like the idea of not spending more time on YouTube.

Daily Loop #65

Perhaps I’ll just keep making these videos as weird as I can until someone emails me and asks if I’m okay.

If you like these mysterious “secret” videos I’ve made (I made three so far), check out my SETH ATOM site and sign up for the email list to be notified of very important secret news as it develops.

LIKES

“A gentle reminder that you are allowed to outgrow versions of yourself that no longer serve you. Its not personal towards anyone. Keep evolving,” @lyssamarielowe

Via @FurstyPhoto

Daily Loop #64

“What’s it for?”

Good question posed by a good friend. You don’t go skiing so you can win an Olypimic downhill event. You’re just fucking skiing.

This is for someone who wants to make music but doesn’t know where to start. This starts the conversation. This gives you permission, just like listening to Primus back in 1991 gave me permission to set out and do weird shit.

That’s what this is for.

LIKES

“I miss live music so much,” @billmeis

Via Ben Howes

Video by Steve Johnson from Pexels

These Pebbles Are Fucking Heavy

This is as true today as it was back in 2007:

Email is such a funny thing. People hand you these single little messages that are no heavier than a river pebble. But it doesn’t take long until you have acquired a pile of pebbles that’s taller than you and heavier than you could ever hope to move, even if you wanted to do it over a few dozen trips. But for the person who took the time to hand you their pebble, it seems outrageous that you can’t handle that one tiny thing. “What ‘pile’? It’s just a fucking pebble!”

Merlin Mann

These days it’s not just email, or one inbox. We have DMs sitting in several social media apps, we have projects to follow up on, spread across multiple project management apps. Then we have text messages, voice mails, and oh yeah… email.

Lately I’ve been irritated by everything, mostly because everything is a pebble, and we’re all carrying around buckets of pebbles.

We already had to carry pebbles for our taxes and bills and all those emails, but we had release valves in the form of going to the gym, dinner with friends, going to a show.

For each of those activities we got to set down our bucket of rocks. The change in scenery, the change in context, it was a minor relief. We had a few of those per week, which was nice, because the bucket of rocks got heavy.

Now, on top of just all the normal pebbles and rocks, we see over half a million Americans dead. We see some states attacking transexual athletes. Outright racism. Dropping bombs. Rumors of another insurrection on the capitol. Texas lifting its mask mandate and opening everything up. No stimulus check. Massive unemployment.

Those are all pebbles, and rocks, and large boulders the size of large boulders, and they’re getting fucking heavy.