Category: Life

Work Together on Cool Stuff When You Can

If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.

The behind the scenes episodes for The Mandalorian just blew me away. The level of “I didn’t know if I could do this” energy was astounding, but it goes to show that people are capable of amazing things when you trust them, support them, and give them space to fly.

Remember, if you’re not “thriving” with all your work calls and video chats it’s not because those things are bad, it’s also because we’re operating during a once-in-a-lifetime event. People will be talking about this moment in time 100 years from now.

Go easy on yourself.

Put On Your Shows

Been feeling the feels a lot lately about the whole “working with people” thing. I blame the making-of videos on Disney+ about The Mandalorian. I’m talking the energy that comes from being in the same room, or on a call with someone you’ve worked with for years and you’re just plotting big stuff.

“I didn’t really know what I was doing in college, but I got so wrapped up in the comedy scene, because it looked so fun, and it was. I had that dream for myself. Perform with my friends, put on our shows. But we had to also feed ourselves, and pay rent, and have jobs, so we grew up.”

Sunita Mani

I love that line, “perform with my friends, put on our shows.”

Our shows.

I love the sort of child-like vibe of that, “our shows.” I mean, Sunita Mani makes it sound like they really did those shows, it wasn’t just some two-bit affair, but for people who don’t put on their own shows, or book their own tours, or start their own sites, well, I guess it’s on the other side of the spectrum. You’re either doing your shows or “growing up.”

Put on your shows.

Know When to Jump In

How can I run through a washed out road in 30°F weather and not die? Are my shoes water proof? How do I keep my feet from freezing?

First, run through a washed out road in the middle of summer. Discover first hand what it feels like. How’d it feel plunging in? How’d it feel on the other side of the road? Think back, charge ahead.

Second, know what comes next. On this day I knew I only had about two more miles to run. Cold is cold, sure. But I can cover two miles in about 20-ish minutes. I won’t die.

And lastly, fuck it. Jump in.

My favorite Seth Godin truth is “this might not work.”

Some social media strategy idea for my day job might not work. Some new system. A song idea I finally record. A video I make.

This might not work.

There’s a time for safety which, okay, is most of the time. But there’s a time to say fuck it and let it rip.

The magic is knowing when.

Learn Your Lessons Each Step of the Way

It was my junior year of high school. Though I grew up in a musical family, I didn’t pick up instrument until my freshman year because suddenly my friends were all learning how to play guitar and be in bands!

So I’m playing my first show ever in front of people. Actually it’s my first time playing, and singing. I never set out to sing, just play bass. But I was the singer now in our band.

This is 1993, so no internet really. Nothing else going on in town. It felt like everyone from my high school was there. Over 500 people, I think.

A few songs in, a buddy of mine yells to me in between songs. Tells me the vocals are too low, they need to get turned up.

So I say to the sound guy, over the microphone, “hey, can you turn up the vocals?”

He replied, over the PA system, in front of everyone, “try singing.”

To which I replied, “fuck you!”

We all laughed, and launched into our next song.

All I remember, after our set, was him coming up to me as I was packing up my bass, and saying something about shoving my heart down my throat or something for telling him off.

Lesson learned.

Looking back, I’m a third generation musician in my family. I’ve been on some recordings, played a bunch of shows. I never toured, or been part of a big release, but here I am now, some 30 years later, still messing around in music.

That’s the thing, though. Making music doesn’t have to be about reaching #1 on the charts, getting 10,000 viewers on some stream, a million subscribers on YouTube.

Create something that you like, and share it. For everyone person who says they enjoy it, there’s probably 20 that will never let you know.

That’s the trick; you can’t get 10 fans until you get one.
You can’t run 10 miles until you can run one.
You can’t put out a book if you can’t write a chapter.
You can’t release an album until you finish one song.

So don’t look too far into the distance. Make your mistakes now, get your bad stuff out of the way this year. Your work today is to keep piling up your art, your work, your magic.

Photo by Anthony from Pexels

Make Without a Map

Photo by Kerimli Temkin from Pexels

Saw this today from ‘That which is unique, breaks,’ via @hundredrabbits.

If you commoditize toys, you remove the toymaker. If you remove the toymaker, the toy is only an object of consumption. It ceases to be an object of wonder.

When tasked in 2009 to “fill up the search engines,” during my time at AOL Music, we published 20+ posts a day. Anything that people might search for, let’s have something written and published.

Here we had a stable of competent, knowledgeable writers – all uniquely qualified individuals – cranking out SEO-friendly “content” to be read and indexed by machines.

As an editor this pained me.

Throw away posts about band members getting arrested got more traffic than finely written interviews with notable artists.

Therefore, feed the machine. Find the drama. Find the bleeding story in the ocean of content, attract the swarm of sharks.

At this point, the inmates run the asylum. The child screams for a cookie, so feed them cookies.

“That which is unique, breaks.”

A unique offering, built with editorial discernment, breaks.

I do not need to spoil your view with visions of this architecture, I only wonder, what have their creators ever repaired?

Who has turned the ship around? Rebuilt the damaged hull? Fixed a site? Started from scratch?

As Seth Godin says, “If there were a map, there’d be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map.”

Showing Up is the Secret

From one of my recent emails from The Soft Run:

As I approached this house a kid (maybe 10 or 11) came running around a corner today, and yelled, asking to use my phone.

Then as I got closer, I realized he wasn’t wearing socks or shoes!

Just another day, just another run, right? Nope. One run out of almost 300 this year, and never once did I see a jeep set-up like the one above, nor did I help a kid get back into his house after being locked out in the middle of winter with no shoes or socks. BRRR.

I keep getting lost in the binary thinking of success, of making it. Either you’re a popular YouTube star with a million subscribers, or you’ve only got 13 and it feels like a waste of time.

You want to be this “thing,” but you don’t have the “social evidence” that you are the thing.

Are you a musician if no one buys your music? Are you a writer if no one replies to your pitches? Are you a photographer if you’re images aren’t on magazine covers?

Again, permission. Waiting for permission is the killer.

I am 44 years old – what right do I have to wear gaudy purple sneakers and tights and a cool jacket and run around the backroads here?

I work in music – what right do I have to make “dark ambient” mixes? What, do I think I’m going to MAKE IT?!?!

Wait, I thought I made dark ambient mixes – why am I making smooth chill jams with funky stock video footage?

Because I choose to.

Am I now locked into that identity? Must I now maintain a weekly music mix? Set up a live stream? Do a daily tune and post on every social network?

Well, if I choose to, sure.

Just go be everything you want to be. Doesn’t matter if it looks right, sounds right, has the right presentation – just make a little bit of magic each day.

This post partially inspired by Seth Godin’s ‘The Practice: Ship creative work‘ book.

First Big Snowy Day of Fall

Crawling back into bed would have been more cozy. I had some tea, which was nice bit of warmth in the morning, but for some reason I threw on my jacket and shoveled our walk paths. It was nice to stop, take a breather, and enjoy a scene like you see above.

Later in the day I got in my daily run. This was day #25, at least a mile a day since November 23rd. The roads were trashed still, so todays run wasn’t a breeze, but if running has taught me anything it’s that crummy conditions don’t last forever. In a few days this crummy run won’t even register, but getting it done was still a piece of the foundation to where I wanna go in 2021.

Start Your Own Thing and Do It Soon

Randomly discovered this video with bassist Juan Alderete from a recent email blast from Abelton (for this post). Jaun played in The Mars Volta, and started a website at one point called Pedals and Effects, because he hated pedal review websites.

He just… made his own.

He bought a domain name and started doing it like he wanted.

Such a theme in life, right?

Don’t like your job, find a new one.
Don’t like the music you hear, start a band.
Don’t like podcasts that are out there, go make one.

You don’t need permission.

“Do you think people would like this sort of music?
“Should I start this podcast about weird horror movies?”
“If I made more of these, do you think people would buy them?”

Stop asking for permission and make your shit.

Can you walk around like Jaun here everyday and hang out with the dude from Nine Inch Nails? No, but I’m sure 20 years ago neither could Jaun.

And, holy shit, in digging more into this, Jaun was in a serious bicycle accident back in January 2020 and had to learn to fucking walk again.

Time is short, life is fleeting, start your shit now. Today.

Buy that domain name, shoot your first episode, upload your three song demo to Bandcamp today – tomorrow ain’t a promise.

God Chose You So Let’s Do This

https://twitter.com/AoctaviusW/status/1337432994596982787

I fucking love this:

The first thing I said when I contacted Porche was ”hey I’m the photographer on assignment to photograph you for TIME and I truly understand if you want a Black woman photographing you” She stopped me and said, ”Baby, God chose you so let’s do this” ⁣

@AoctaviusW

Putting this here, linking to it, filing it here because it hit me today, this Tweet. This block of photography and text, flowing through my time line.

In our work, where we’re at, our circles, our circumstances – yeah, I don’t believe it’s an almighty fatherly figure who held me in his hands and dropped me off in Pennsylvania 44 years ago, but…

I’m here. You’re here. Let’s do this.

It’s so easy to forget the art and the magic and the grace and the power we have in each day, every interaction, every email, everything. I look at the circumstances I’m in, we’re all in, and realize while there’s so much further I want to go, I must remain grateful with where I’m at.

Let’s do this.

My to-do list is long, there’s incomplete projects, things unfinished; let’s do this. Maybe not just out of obligation, but perhaps it’s these foundational moments that are seemingly trivial are going to lead to great things.

I had no idea learning how to play bass in 1991 would get me here, today. That a hobby I took up 29 years ago would land me the clients I have, the career that I have, the everything that I have. It’s good, it’s bad, it’s ugly, but it’s where I’m at.

“Baby, God chose you, so let’s do this.”

That Tweet is from Adrian Octavius Walker.

Choosing is a Choice

The final fight scene from the third Matrix popped into my head while on my run today, the part where Agent Smith asks Neo, “why go on? why keep fighting?”

Which sort of aligns with running, right? Why keep this pace? Why head out the door? Why go down the road to hit three miles when home is up ahead? There’s cake at home!

Why go on? Why do anything?

“I choose to,” replies Neo.

Choice, the big theme in The Matrix. It all comes down to choice.

Staying home and watching movies and eating snacks in a choice.
Heading out for a run is a choice.
Starting a podcast is a choice.
Ending a project is a choice.

I’ve been writing in public (as my buddy Dino puts it) since the early 90s. Like, coming up on 30 years or something. Zines, blogs, newsletters, social media – so much writing, spread out so many different places.

Some of that writing got me jobs, adventures, friendships, heart ache, whatever. Writing in public got me here. What I did is partly why I’m here.

So why write? Because it can lead somewhere.

Why run? Because it can lead somewhere.

Inaction is needed, rest is vital. To reinvigorate, grow, and expand. There’s a season for rest, and a season to move.

Objects in motion stay in motion.