Founder of the Social Media Escape Club
Full steam ahead. Lots of work to do.
LIKES
“That ceremony was many things, but it was also a reminder that no one needs a one-hour work Zoom call. They fit in J-Lo, Lady Gaga, Garth Brooks plus all the other stuff in 30 minutes. Keep it tight folks,” @meganmurp
“Amanda Gorman reminding all of us of the power and necessity of art,” @annabrones
Video by Free Creative Stuff from Pexels
When you wake up the absurdity of a 22 year old aspiring to break into the Capitol building and steal a laptop from Nancy Pelosi and sell it to the Russians (allegedly), you get to work.
LIKES
“Share the quotes but also do the work,” @JWLevitt
Today I beat Instagram. Today, on MLK Jr. Day. I scrolled once, twice, and knew the comfort that it brings. I could just crawl back into bed, pull the covers up, and swipe, swipe, swipe.
But I cracked open Abelton Live, plugged in my gear, re-arranged some stuff, and got to it. Maybe saying “got to work” is a bit much, but maybe that’s true, as well.
If you write, you’re a writer.
A friend told me recently she met Victor Wooten, the amazing, other-worldly bassist. She mentioned that she was taking lessons from someone he knew, so he exclaimed, “oh, so you’re a bassist,” to which she replied, “well, umm.. I mean…”
She told me he squared up, looked her in the eyes, and said, “you’re a bassist.”
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“To our LGBTQIA fans and fellow musicians: we love you. Thank you for being who you are. Metal (and the rest of the world) is stronger because of your voices and power. We are grateful for y’all.” @khemmisdoom
This mix includes an artist I featured before (Choose Death), along with Many Blessings which is Ethan Lee McCarthy from Primitive Man. Rounding out this mix is Катакомбная Церковь and Secant Prime.
Don’t discount yourself. That’s something I struggle with a lot these days. “Oh, I just ran a mile today,” is something that came out my mouth recently, when just 4-ish years ago I couldn’t run a mile without being in pain for a week afterwards.
I’m tempted to discount this loop today, as there’s so much more that could be done here. Better arrangement, better mix, more vocals, more sizzle, more pop… the list goes on and will never end.
But this baby got out today, and that’s all that matters. This is the public facing audio treat, and that’s final. It’s not the final mix, and frankly no one cares.
LIKES
“blasting shoegaze while driving means turning it down every five seconds to make sure that the weird noises in the song aren’t coming from your car,” @dniellechelosky
“I’m not one for ‘told ya so’s but in 1989 when David Duke won the state House seat in Louisiana, some of us said this was an inflection point in American politics. This wasn’t just the logical result of Reaganesque racial dog whistling. It was something different,” @timjacobwise
“I’m just thinking again about how many lives would have been saved had the US had competent — or even vaguely interested — national leadership when the pandemic hit,” @AstroKatie
Today’s Daily Loop gets a little raunchy, featuring a vocal sample and a mish-mash of other sounds and debris. Still getting the hang of the APC40 but woo, I love it.
LIKES:
“I love @YouTube and put a music video on there the other day… how can this be happening? I don’t want my fans or anyone to be funding hate or violence,” @selenagomez
Daily Loop #16 Video by C Technical from Pexels
“I’m mentoring a young African photographer that does all his edits on his phone. Does anyone have a laptop they aren’t using?” @aundrelarrow
“The gentlest people I know are full of rage and grief.” @alexanderchee
“Happy to have cut my teeth in an industry that was more about supporting art and adding something beautiful to the world than being an “entrepreneur” and being cool and not understanding what it truly means to invest in something you believe in.” @misslujo
Just beeps and boops, bass-line and loops. Late night jamming, but loving the work. Head down, crank it out. And heck, this isn’t #14, this is like #114 if we’re counting all the files on my computer. This is where it’s at because I’m been messing with Abelton Live since 2017, which is probably the longest I’ve messed with a single piece of software since ScreenFlow.
One poem, one photograph, one beat can change someone’s life. Make your thing and ship it.
Video by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels
“There’s only so much trauma one single human brain can process, and Twitter is like an always-on trauma machine,” Brown said in an email. “It takes a huge mental toll to consume this content, day in and day out.”
‘Always on trauma machine’: Social media managers grapple with burnout, leaving the industry
My eyeballs are singed by Twitter lately, so tonight I struck back. I scrolled, found the first video I could I find, ripped the audio and chopped it up into a sample, which you can hear in today’s Daily Loop.
Video by Nazim Zafri from Pexels
On a day with too many video calls, a crappy run, and force-feeding my eyeballs with way too much Capitol-siege footage, we get to here. By 8am I had most of this loop done, so when I sat down at about 7pm it was ready to bake.
I can go for a run without thinking of winning a race, which is a mindset I need to apply to this project. A steady practice of running got me here, nearing five years of running. Do I have trophies and winnings to show for it? Nope.
This daily practice of loop making, then, is not for press coverage or the myriad of other random goals that music makers could hope for. In the late 80s I just wanted to be shredder and travel in a rock and roll band. Priorities (and markets) change, so I’m okay with not holding out hope for that.
Sure, there are 100 different articles I could link to and discuss here tonight. Lord knows I read 1000 Tweets, streamed a few hours of news coverage. But tonight, right here, this is for a Daily Loop. A soft place, an open invitation… permission, I guess. Make the thing, do the thing, ship the thing (as Seth Godin says). To hold back is to withhold our magic from the world.