Category: ART

NOT ASKING FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING

From the movie “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” manager Jon Landau explaining the release to the label exec

“I’m not asking for your understanding, and I’m not here to explain Bruce’s thinking or justify his artistic choices. I am here to make sure the album is released precisely the way he wants, that’s it.

Whether or not you believe in this particular album, in this office, my office, we believe in Bruce Springsteen.”

This movie rattled me in a few ways, but this is the part I carry in my mission going back to 2001, that being, “I just wanna help my friends in band’s sell albums.”

This mission has changed over the years, notably to, “I just wanna help bands sell albums” when I helped launch Noise Creep at AOL Music in 2008. In 2021, when I launched Heavy Metal Email, a newsletter to help heavy bands return to email lists and websites as a way to regain a direct connection with fans, to 2023 when I renamed it as Social Media Escape Club, my mission is broader, “I just wanna help creative people make their work.”

It’s not quite so noble, more selfish than anything. I just wanted to see my friends in bands, or people I looked up to, I just wanted them to keep putting out their music, and keep this great big circus going – the artists who painted album covers, photographers who took band photos, the journalists who wrote about rock and roll.

I just wanna help creative people do their thing, and to do that thing they need to be able to let their fans know when they’ve got a new art exhibit, a new album to promote, a new book to order, and that’s becoming harder on social media in 2026.

So yes, I think simple email lists and websites make that work, just like post cards and tube amps and print flyers still work in the year 2026. Because it’s people, not platforms. It’s DIY venues filled with weirdos and punks and freaks that will outlast the “too big to fail” monoliths.

I’m not asking for your understanding, or to justify these artistic choices. Whether or not you believe any of this, I believe in the art.

THE MAGIC IN THE ROOMS

There is a magic to the rooms. The spaces, the theaters, the clubs, the bars, the back porches.

I came across Roddy Bottum’s “These Rooms,” which was an eloquent journey into all sorts of rooms, weaving the magic with the turmoil, and everything in between.

“The rooms of punk rock, don’t get me started. Where we are as a youth, as a celebration, as a rebel in our lives at the pinnacle of what matters, politically, protesting, being together and the sheer volume of the music as it comes off the stage, the pits, the shine of those shows, the drunk dumbness of becoming who we. become and the strength of that.”

I’m turning 50 this year and still remember the community centers and basements and feeling the floor shake in a second floor apartment in Brookyn that was for some reason accessible only via the fire escape.

Then a good friend sent me this video of the great Ian McKellen on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, talking about live theater, and doing anything to be in those places, and the magic that happens if only we get off our fucking phones.

It’s the rooms, the spaces, the theater of humanity that endures, that allows the magic to happen, the let me find these two different pieces on this morning and to put them into a blog post that is accessible around the world via the web browser that ships on every smart phone.

THE MATRIX COSM

I’m a big fan of The Matrix, so a few friends have sent me the clip of the movie being played at Cosm, which is a “massive dome theater that wraps the audience in a 360° projection — basically IMAX meets planetarium meets concert visuals.”

My take? Pass.

I saw The Matrix in theaters, when it first came out, and it blew my mind. It blew all our minds, so I’d rather hold onto that experience than add something flashy like this on top of it (and I can only imagine the cost).

If I was in LA and someone was going, sure, I’d go. But I’m not making any special trips to see something like that.

THE AUTUMN WOODS

Noah Kalina used another HUNTERTHEN track for his ambient videos. Stunning shots, ambient sound, and I just love hearing Noah in the woods with the sound of rain and thunder in the background.

Definitely go subscribe to his new ambient channel KALINA.

A GOOD TIRED

I’ve been on a lot of Zoom calls this week with my Escape Pod offering via Social Media Escape Club.

I remember being exhausted from scrolling through multiple social media channels everyday. Twitter. Instagram. LinkedIn. Back to Twitter. Over and over, throughout the day.

I would spend hours every day posting, replying, sharing, DMing, ping ping ping. All day long.

Now I spend hours every week with people who are engaged, filled with the energy of making good work.

ENJOY THE BARRYVILLE CAMEL

Noah Kalina investigated the Barryville Camel for Radio Catskill.

“The current Congress just slashed $170K from (the Radio Catskill) budget, so your support will help fill in the gap. These small-town stations are vital to the local community and culture.”

Read so much more (and watch Noah’s excellent video) here.