Overall concept: check.
Online forms, check.
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, FriendFeed, Domain Name: Check.
Laptop, WireTap Studio, Skype: Check.
1st Draft of Show No. 1 - check.
No estimated time of delivery. Still working on workflow - need a good USB mic.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
On Entrepreneurship
Here's how I was drafted into the world of entrepreneurs:
I had come into some money, and soon thereafter, at a week long seminar at the Omega Institute with David Deida, I decided I ought to set people free, whatever that would mean.
I was an actor and kung fu student, but not self-supporting. I'd run into a friend at a cocktail party who introduced me to her boyfriend. We talked about art, and a few months and a couple hundred cups of coffee later, I thought, well -- here's the person, the artist I'm assigned to set free.
So I asked him if he'd had money and time what would he do? We discussed making a demo, but the industry was dying all around us. We discussed an EP but that seemed to me not a commercially viable option.
We decided on a full length album in order to make the maximal artistic statement. Then rather than make a low-cost album in hopes of it taking off, I approached someone who regularly made multi-platinum and multi-gold records, Daniel Wise. He gave me a price -- entry-level by major record label standards (where 1st albums can cost half a million) but inexpensive by, say, luxury sports car standards.
It's now a while since we started the album. The album turned out better than I'd imagined. 11 tracks, and 9 -- count 'em, 9 -- are singles. (Some feel lucky with two.) So the album is disruptive because it's major-label quality but we did it ourselves and retain all the money. It's destructive because, while home-brew is good, home brew with experience and the Kink's original analog equipment is better and I hope it helps raise the bar for every basement band in terms of complexity and sound. To paraphrase a quote I heard somewhere, it's better to obviate than to create bad art.
It's taken 3 years to get the album out. That's OK because it's taken time to get all the pieces in place. The game isn't over until it's over but it's also not on my clock. Someone else is timing this for me benevolently, and I'm rolling with the reality.
Maybe it is my deepest purpose to set artists and those in my life free , to open their hearts to God, through my actions and attitudes: the aggregate of that effort, the pearl, as between the sand (me) and the oyster (the artist or my beloveds) is this album which I can sell. Maybe this album will support me in discovering other talent.
I started with an angel investor and now I'm bootstrapping it. The story isn't over. Before and better than money, I'm galvanized by the experience. I know more who I am and what I'm capable of: Part of my entrepreneurial work, it appears, is seeing that in others.
A couple of years I could only have said that speculatively. Today I can say it empirically.
I had come into some money, and soon thereafter, at a week long seminar at the Omega Institute with David Deida, I decided I ought to set people free, whatever that would mean.
I was an actor and kung fu student, but not self-supporting. I'd run into a friend at a cocktail party who introduced me to her boyfriend. We talked about art, and a few months and a couple hundred cups of coffee later, I thought, well -- here's the person, the artist I'm assigned to set free.
So I asked him if he'd had money and time what would he do? We discussed making a demo, but the industry was dying all around us. We discussed an EP but that seemed to me not a commercially viable option.
We decided on a full length album in order to make the maximal artistic statement. Then rather than make a low-cost album in hopes of it taking off, I approached someone who regularly made multi-platinum and multi-gold records, Daniel Wise. He gave me a price -- entry-level by major record label standards (where 1st albums can cost half a million) but inexpensive by, say, luxury sports car standards.
It's now a while since we started the album. The album turned out better than I'd imagined. 11 tracks, and 9 -- count 'em, 9 -- are singles. (Some feel lucky with two.) So the album is disruptive because it's major-label quality but we did it ourselves and retain all the money. It's destructive because, while home-brew is good, home brew with experience and the Kink's original analog equipment is better and I hope it helps raise the bar for every basement band in terms of complexity and sound. To paraphrase a quote I heard somewhere, it's better to obviate than to create bad art.
It's taken 3 years to get the album out. That's OK because it's taken time to get all the pieces in place. The game isn't over until it's over but it's also not on my clock. Someone else is timing this for me benevolently, and I'm rolling with the reality.
Maybe it is my deepest purpose to set artists and those in my life free , to open their hearts to God, through my actions and attitudes: the aggregate of that effort, the pearl, as between the sand (me) and the oyster (the artist or my beloveds) is this album which I can sell. Maybe this album will support me in discovering other talent.
I started with an angel investor and now I'm bootstrapping it. The story isn't over. Before and better than money, I'm galvanized by the experience. I know more who I am and what I'm capable of: Part of my entrepreneurial work, it appears, is seeing that in others.
A couple of years I could only have said that speculatively. Today I can say it empirically.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
James Purdy Selected Plays
http://www.amazon.com/James-Purdy-Selected-Plays/dp/1566637988/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248727112&sr=8-1
I'm mentioned as having worked on the manuscript. With love and thanks to John Uecker, Tennessee Williams's and James Purdy's literary assistant.
I'm mentioned as having worked on the manuscript. With love and thanks to John Uecker, Tennessee Williams's and James Purdy's literary assistant.
The Gospel According to John now available on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Gospel-According-John-Bultmann/dp/B0028N65CE
If you rock a kindle, buy one for yourself or your kinder
If you rock a kindle, buy one for yourself or your kinder
Pat McGrady's Cold War
My father, Patrick McGrady, was the bureau chief of Newsweek Magazine in Moscow, Russia, 1963. Some photos the magazine purchased. Others they did not publish or purchase from him and became part of his personal collection. For licensing and more information contact me at flowersmedia@gmail.com
Everytime I listen to Adrienne Frantz' album.
I keep wondering about the place she lives in, between earth and heaven, an alogorythm of the years 1930, 1950 and 2200 producing the wave that is she. Dan Wise produced, which in no small part accounts for the voluptuous sound of this voluptuous album. It's like when roses are bursting out of their own petals with juice
Buying a Bluetooth Keyboard
Foldable Bluetooth Keyboards
If your smart-phone or Personal Information Manager has a Bluetooth (TM) radio in it, you can link the device to any number of other devices wirelessly. This includes foldable, full-stroke keyboards that allow you to type text (almost) as normally as you would a keyboard and weigh a few ounces. (The caveat is, while the keystroke depth may be equivalent, the keys tend to be a little more rectangular and tightly spaced than you'd find on a full-sized laptop or full-sized keyboard.)
Foldable keyboards provide a solution especially for people with larger fingers who have trouble typing on touch-sensitive keyboards, or smaller keys. It's also a useful tool for people who enjoy the convenience of touch typing but forego carrying their laptop due to weight restrictions, or who want to maximize the power of their handheld before moving up to a laptop. Given the large market for discontinued or used portable keyboards, you can usually pick one up for around $25.00. If you're buying a keyboard new or second hand, make sure to find one that includes the original instructions with the box.
There are a number of portable Bluetooth keyboards on the market but most of them seem to have been re-brandings of the one originally made popular by the Stowaway brand. A quick search reveals what appears to be an identical keyboard branded as Targus, HP/Compaq, Fellowes and more.
By visiting this website, http://corporate.igo.com/support/Drivers.asp, you can find drivers that may work with your handheld device and support the foldable keyboard. The link takes you to a page that offers a "configurator", or a series of easy-to-use, drop-down menus that will assist you in finding the right driver for your device.
http://corporate.igo.com/support/Drivers.aspFor example, if you have a RIM phone, model Blackberry 8300, the configurator page will offer you the hyper link to the driver and a PDF instruction manual on how to use the driver and pair the device to your keyboard.
Here's where you can get your driver:
http://corporate.igo.com/support/Drivers.asp:
If they don't have your driver...
1. Identify your portable keyboard by brand name. Usually it's printed directly on the keyboard itself.
2. Visit the manufacturer's website.
3. Search for the "driver", or the program that allows your device to "speak" to the keyboard, on the website. If you can't find it, call their customer service department.
4. Follow the instructions for "pairing" the device, or letting it find the other device you need it to speak with. This is usually in "settings" under "connections" or devices.
If you search for and find the driver and instructions before you buy a used foldable bluetooth keyboard, you'll be sure to have the basic support you'll need to get your system up and running.
As a side note, Bluetooth keyboards are battery-operated. The model made by stowaway takes two AAA-sized batteries. I recommend keeping four rechargeables, two in the device, and two rechargeables in your computer bag along with two alkaline batteries. Rechargeables tend to lose their power over time, and keeping a few alkalines around will help keep your system dependable.
Bluetooth portable keyboards offer an inexpensive upgrade for smart phones that allow you to type longer documents. It's a great solution for note taking, journaling, or writing on days where you aren't at a desktop and don't want to carry your laptop around.
Oil Spill Remediation: It's not just for supertanker spills anymore...
$19.95 • www.oilgoneeasy.com
Release date: Available Now
Industrial Biotech Comes Home
Oil and fuel spill cleaning is probably something every car, truck, and boat operator should do as regularly as filling up, but don't. But let's face it, it happens all the time in a million little ways people just ignore or walk away from. That's a lot of unrepaired spills into the waterway or driveway that add up to more oil in the water cycle.
Cleaning an oil or fuel spill tends to create more problems than the original mess. Soap and solvents spread hydrocarbon-based spills around further than the original spill, and can damage surfaces. Things that absorb the spill, like rags and sand, themselves become a hazmat to be disposed of carefully.
On land, it's possible to actually create more damage to the garage or driveway (and still not fix the problem). Paying people to do it over a larger area is expensive. At sea, it means dry-docking your stinky bilge because the potent stew of oil, bacteria and mold growing is very toxic and illegal to dump into open water. At the end of the day, you've weakened your vehicle with powerful solvents or further poisoned yourself or the environment by your earnest effort to be responsible.
Oil Gone Easy, an industrial answer to oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez and the Prestige oil spill in Spain, has now entered easy reach of engine operators everywhere. It is green, hassle-free, and non-toxic, and simple to apply. And it literally makes the most common oil and fuel spills disappear.
It works by recruiting the power of micro-organisms local to the spill that break down hydrocarbons into oil and water. These bacteria live practically everywhere, and they literally eat hydrocarbons like oil and fuel and give carbon dioxide and water as a byproduct.
Oil Gone Easy says both versions (one if by land, one if by sea) contain the spill in a waxy gel that attracts harmless bacteria which break down the oil or fuel. From two to six weeks, depending on conditions, the product contains the spill and attracts these microorganisms to the spill site. They then arrive, eat the spill, and disappear.
The water version is especially cool: It binds only to hydrocarbons, so you may apply it to open water after oil has spilled. It bonds to the oil or fuel, captures it, floats it to the surface, and in the sun attracts micro organisms to do their work.
Sounds like the easiest answer to the hardest problem. Application is inexpensive compared to the amount of time and mess cleaning the spills make. It's also simple: 1. Control the spill. 2. Pick up as much as you can. 3. Apply the product on a 1:1 ratio to the rest of it by hand or by any sprayer that uses water, and you're done.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
What To Do About a Bad Yelp Review
I'm watching this story unfold and have a few thoughts. Firstly I admire many of the intelligent responses to the story and I learned a lot. My two cents:
1) Filing papers in court is a good way to avoid libel. That way the stipulations of fact and allegations can be quoted by a 3rd party: "Court papers filed today say that the defendant did __________, when in fact, it was the plaintiff who _________." It doesn't have to amount to "he said, she said...".
2) Whenever people are complaining they should organize their complaint into a) a summary of the complaint, b) a clear laundry list of facts, c) a synthesis for the facts which proves why d) is the best remedy for whomever to take. This begins to suss out the facts from the opinions, which is a huge problem in any conflict.
3) If a business has made a mistake in its business dealings, they should publicly invite the customer to find satisfaction (i.e. "We have a 30 day cash refund policy which Mr. X did not use/is able to use..."). Or clarify their own position: ("We served smith the french fries in a timely manner. Mr. X spoke with his colleagues and kept returning the fries complaining they were cold each time. Eventually after 4 baskets we refused to return Mr. X's fries basket.")
4) Reviewers should accept a moral responsibility to confirm whether the business has attempted to remedy the problem stated or to admit where the reviewer might be wrong, in retrospect.
If this tremendous opportunity for communication can be used as an opportunity for mutual growth (people might be surprised that businesses want them to be happy/businesses can grow from reviews around consistently bad areas of performance), the experience can be be a win/win for businesses and consumers.
1) Filing papers in court is a good way to avoid libel. That way the stipulations of fact and allegations can be quoted by a 3rd party: "Court papers filed today say that the defendant did __________, when in fact, it was the plaintiff who _________." It doesn't have to amount to "he said, she said...".
2) Whenever people are complaining they should organize their complaint into a) a summary of the complaint, b) a clear laundry list of facts, c) a synthesis for the facts which proves why d) is the best remedy for whomever to take. This begins to suss out the facts from the opinions, which is a huge problem in any conflict.
3) If a business has made a mistake in its business dealings, they should publicly invite the customer to find satisfaction (i.e. "We have a 30 day cash refund policy which Mr. X did not use/is able to use..."). Or clarify their own position: ("We served smith the french fries in a timely manner. Mr. X spoke with his colleagues and kept returning the fries complaining they were cold each time. Eventually after 4 baskets we refused to return Mr. X's fries basket.")
4) Reviewers should accept a moral responsibility to confirm whether the business has attempted to remedy the problem stated or to admit where the reviewer might be wrong, in retrospect.
If this tremendous opportunity for communication can be used as an opportunity for mutual growth (people might be surprised that businesses want them to be happy/businesses can grow from reviews around consistently bad areas of performance), the experience can be be a win/win for businesses and consumers.
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