This Week: Me 2, Fear 0
Current Score: Me 16, Fear 5

2 pretty good ones this week.

First, the bank had my account royally fucked up for about 24 hours, in a way that, had it not been corrected, would have been crippling. When I saw this, it was about 5 AM (the worst time in the world to check a bank balance), so I momentarily flipped my shit, but then I dialed it back down, got myself to make peace with 1. the fact that there was nothing that could be done about it at 5 AM, nor did there need to be and 2. I had enough of a paper trail to correct it once I did get there. I still want the little shit teller that waited on me publicly flogged for being disrespectful and paying absolutely no attention to his job, but I managed to get myself to sleep despite a pretty huge anxiety-causing event, and when I woke up, the transit department of the bank had corrected their error.

Second, I took a baby step toward working on my recent and not-so-recent fear of getting involved with people. I’m not getting any more specific than that. Public and private speculation is probably a bad idea, and will probably be wrong anyway. If anyone who I’d actually tell stuff to when I’m not writing for my site wants to know, they’re more than welcome to ask about it, but for the rest of you, the Great Firewall Of My Personal Life endures on this one. I think I’m being candid enough in this series of articles.

Looking forward to Week 10, not a hell of a lot is going on. It’s quiet right now, and I’d kinda like it to stay that way, but eventually, it won’t be, and I’ll deal when the time comes.

Sorry for the delay on this one. Stuff.

This week: Fear 1, Me 1
Current Score: Me 14, Fear 5

I was supposed to go into New York twice this week, and I made it in once That was its usual struggle to get me out of the house, even to do something fun. Well worth it, though, as, after 2 years of being open, I finally saw Andrew’s club, and it’s a great place, one I’d visit for the hell of it, which is rare these days for New York and I. However, I was also supposed to go see Ulrich Schnauss on Thursday, and that didn’t happen for a variety of reasons, some practical (It ended up snowing a little bit, didn’t it?), some a little selfish (There was a mixup over whether Kirsty Hawkshaw was originally supposed to be there or not between Kirsty and I, and without her there, I was less inclined to schlep to Brooklyn even if it meant wasting an 18 dollar ticket and missing a guy whose music I do dig, but am not obsessed with just yet) and some of it was just me being a worrywart about money. I should probably go easier on myself about the whole thing, but I’m trying to hold myself to the same standards week in, week out.

Other than that, it was a pretty quiet week. I’ve got some stuff coming up for Week 9, though. Stay tuned.

The first review I’ve read of the event wrote the whole thing off as a Kaufmanesque, performance-arty in-joke on the Tiger Woods thing (he did use the opening paragraph of Woods’ statement as the opening of the event, admittedly), and perhaps I’m naive or being totally hoodwinked here, but that’s not all or even most of what I saw.

I saw a guy who, whether his problems are of his own making or not, seemed genuinely rattled by the prospect of the “Is he or isn’t he?” rumors undoing 10 years of his work, during which he got the world to believe that a man can party. Hard.

If it was or is all an act, then call me a poor judge of peoples’ acting ability.

Because I’ve written a fair deal about him, met him a couple times and interviewed him a number of years ago, I feel like a lot of people have come to me as the go-to guy as the “Steev Mike”-related rumors have been mounting. Simply put, I’m not enough of an insider to tell you much about them with any authority. By the time I was following Andrew’s career (late 2001 to early 2002, I can’t quite place when I got on board now), the things that people are speculating about now were already pretty far gone.

My strictly speculative impressions, based purely upon what I’ve observed first-hand and read, are as follows:

I think that Andrew made business decisions when he was younger, very early in his career, that still have ramifications on what he’s doing now, possibly legally, possibly otherwise, and that, either by virtue of his word or a non-disclosure agreement, he doesn’t feel that he’s at liberty to talk about them. It also seems like this drives him a little nuts (to the point where he was stammering and squirming last night in ways that were honestly uncomfortable for me to watch), because he’s all about inclusion, and to not be able to fill people in genuinely seems to bother him, especially when you have people crying “fraud” about his work because of this. For some reason, in technology, NDAs are an accepted part of doing business, but not so much in entertainment, even as the two have basically bled together.

The stuff about there being several Andrew W.K.s, at least as of early 2002, I can confirm as total bullshit. Every time I’ve seen Andrew (5 times, counting last night), met Andrew (3 times) or talked to Andrew at any length (twice, including that very long interview), it’s been the same guy. Without much hesitation at all, he recalled our interview last night: “Man, that was a long time ago, but I remember that! It was a great interview! I was standing outside near train tracks.” The location was fuzzy for him (he guessed Connecticut, it was Worcester, MA), but for a guy who does and has done a literal fuckton of interviews, even that much recall is pretty damned good.

As far as his music and who wrote or played it goes, his musical pedigree’s pretty easy to trace, and he’s played at least 3 instruments, possibly 4 (I’m blanking on whether I’ve seen him play guitar in public) on stage proficiently. He’s always referred to his records as “this music” rather than “my music”, which struck me as acknowledgement that it was something that he viewed, either from a practical, technical standpoint or a philosophical one, as something bigger than himself. By most of his own accounts and those of others, he played most if not all of the instruments on at least “I Get Wet” and “The Wolf”.

If there’s anything I’d guess that he’s had help with in the studio, particularly back then, it would be his vocal tracks (which of course gets people all riled up, because that’s somehow the benchmark of authenticity when musicians and producers have been using every trick in the book on vocals since the advent of modern recording; folks, it dates back quite a bit further than Autotune…), because his vocal style’s evolved quite a bit over the years (the man met his wife through his voice teacher, so obviously, he’s put the work in…), and live, he’s never sounded exactly like his recorded vocals. Not bad, but different. That’d suggest sweetening, and probably studio vocalists to fill out the sound, but I wouldn’t say an entirely different lead vocalist.

Writing? Producers butt in on that shit all the time when you’re a major label artist, for better or worse, and again, Andrew’s been about inclusion every step of the way from what I’ve observed, so unless I’m mistaken, it’d be his gut instinct to take advice.

I think the best parallel I can draw here is one to Andy Warhol, who had plenty of help as well, and had his share of similar rumblings from people he’d worked with (I’d say that they were more frequent and more valid in Warhol’s case, but the tone’s very similar). Both Andy Warhol and Andrew W.K.’s work could be called “pop art”. Both have carefully packaged and presented their work. The major difference between the two is that Warhol seemed to leave agenda out of it (at least to me; your art critic’s mileage may vary), whereas Andrew W.K.’s got a very clear agenda: he wants to enjoy the hell out of life, and wants to encourage others to do the same.

That’s basically what I’ve got at this point. Even putting aside the “don’t make friends with rock stars” mantra (and again, perhaps naively, I would call Andrew a friend), I do think he and his work are being misunderstood and unfairly judged, but I’ve thought that since I first really got to experience more than just his recorded output, so this is nothing new. “This guy can’t possibly be for real” was and is the first impression of just about anyone (yes, me included) who’s been around popular music for more than a week, but when you get to know the guy a bit and get to see what he does, your opinion changes pretty quickly. If that makes me a guy who wants to believe in Santa Claus, or a guy who fell for Andy Kaufman’s schtick a generation later, so be it.

This week: Me 2, Fear 0
Current Score: Me 13, Fear 4

I got through New York OK, though it took me a fuckton of effort to leave the house. I certainly wanted to see the people I saw, and I had a good time, but there was this huge internal struggle that took place to get me there, mostly centered around money worries. I look forward to a day when meeting friends for dinner does not involve this huge, anxiety-creating mental transaction with ripple effects far beyond what they should be, or a bunch of guilt when people choose to pay for me. Whether I have it or I don’t, “It’s only money”, right? Also: if the people I met for dinner on Monday are reading this, apologies if my writing about things this way makes you feel weird, bad or uncomfortable in any way, as that’s the last thing I’d want, but for posterity’s sake and in the interest of being honest with myself, these things merited mention here.

As for this week’s round of bureaucratic nonsense, while I’m still mentally exhausted from it (I got something around 15 hours’ sleep in the day after I finished dealing with this nonsense), and I probably could’ve handled some things more gracefully (to the point where I think my psychiatrist got passive-aggressive in one of the descriptions he wrote on a form I needed him to fill out out of his own frustrations in dealing with me, which is actually pretty hilarious, but warrants an apology on my part the next time I see him), I think I got through it alright, knock wood. In my defense, on the subject of grace, when people whose job it is to help those in need consistently perform less competently and responsibly than a person who’s come to them for help out of a genuine need for it, it gets to be a little difficult to be graceful (or even patient) when dealing with them.

“In this life
You’re on your own”
-Prince

Next week: more New York, more red tape, more money worries and more difficulty letting people get close to me! Same Bat-time! Same Bat-Channel!

A little late this week, but I haven’t forgotten.

This week: Me 2, Fear 0
Current Score: Me 11, Fear 4

The good:

I dealt with all kinds of snow. For most of the past 15 years, I’ve pretended to be a grown-up and not enjoyed it, dreaded it, even. I travelled (by train) in a blizzard and refused to cancel plans, I played in the snow (a rousing game of “throw snowballs at the crack house” that folks at the Prudential Center in Newark were playing while they were outside smoking or keeping the smokers company, as I was), I dealt with driving and parking in the snow just fine without having much trouble digging out, even though I have a far less snow-friendly car these days, and I even shovelled snow, because I wanted to, rather than because I had to. (In truth, I felt bad for the poor kids that my complex hired to clean the snow; people were being downright abusive to them.) My back paid for it a little, because I’m not used to those muscles being used, but I needed the exercise anyway. I also managed to just shut out the worries and all my usually-racing thoughts and just enjoy looking at how beautiful the snow was. Probably my best snow experience since the twin blizzards of ‘95-early ‘96.

I also managed to face a pretty bad medical diagnosis (osteoarthritis) with a pretty good attitude, even after hearing the words “I hope that God cures you” from the totally useless orthopedist I saw. It’s an initial diagnosis, and I’ll probably get some more opinions even though I’m pretty sure I’ve been dealing with this since the ’90s on some level, but I’m in good spirits because I have a good idea of what I’m dealing with now, what I’m not dealing with, and how to proceed. Not fun, but far from the end of the world.

The bad:

Just more procrastination. I’ve been inching toward getting some things done, but everything takes a lot longer than it should for me. No new points to deduct for this, as it’s the same shit I’ve been wading through for the previous 5 weeks.

(Side note, totally unrelated to this discussion: I dreamed about writing this at some point in the past couple years.)

On the horizon:

I’m supposed to travel to New York tonight to see friends, again with snow on the horizon. I love spending time with people, but I get so anxious about the process of doing it. Working out travel/parking, paying for things, dealing with the weather in this case, you name it.

I’ve also got some major, major bureaucratic fuckery on the plate for this week.

All of this happens by the end of the business day on Wednesday, so I’m going to have to resist the urge to accomplish nothing for the rest of the week once it’s done with. Stay tuned.

This week: Me 2, Fear 1
Current Score: Me 9, Fear 4

The good:

Finally made it to the coffee date from Week 1, even though it was Really Cold once again, and it yielded interesting results.

I’ve been continuing to try and make new friends when possible, and I’ve talked to some cool people that way.

The bad:

There’s been lot of procrastination beyond making said friends, because I’m really afraid to get too involved with people right now. I don’t want to get anyones’ hopes up, on a friendship level or a romantic one, until I feel more comfortable around people. Like I said, I’ve been coming into contact with a lot of people who could be fun, cool or just plain nice, but at the same time, there’s this apprehension on my part because I just don’t know who or what would be good for me, and because I’m not really sure where I’m welcome or safe. Now, “safe” can be bad in excess, but I think you need to feel at least a little safety to not end up curled up in the fetal position behind a dumpster, screaming racial slurs at onlookers and urinating on yourself. (Yeah, a little dramatic, but it made me laugh.). I’m once again in this place I arrive at sometimes where I just don’t know who wants to hear from me when I’m in the mood to talk to people, and with newer people, that’s obviously even harder to read. So, if you think I’m awesome and want to talk to me, make the first move sometimes and ENABLE ME.

Other than that, procrastination continues in general, on doctors’ appointment/bureaucracy stuff, music stuff and so forth, but the procrastination I described in the last paragraph’s been the worst, and most fear-based over the past week, plus I haven’t already lost a point to it (there was a point lost for one specific person, but not *everyone*), so it’s our boogeyman of the week.

This week: Me 2, Fear 0, but 1 point shifted from Me to Fear from previous weeks
Current Score: Me 7, Fear 3

The good:

I started talking to another new person, though, who I’d been putting off actually engaging for a while just because it never seemed like the right time. That’s been kinda cool.

I also went into a social situation that I was a bit apprehensive about, because of a pretty long history of weirdness surrounding it. As a rule, I tend to avoid those, but I didn’t here, and I had a good time. We’ll see where that goes.

The bad:

I backslid a bunch on the “dealing with bureaucracy” shit, but not on anything super time-sensitive. Still, I hate seeing that cluster of annoying phone calls and form fill-outs move from day to day on my to-do list. We’ll dock me on this one, and hope for the best come Monday.

Aside from that, it was an extremely slow week. Everything else I’ve discussed is in something of a holding pattern, waiting on funding and/or better conditions. Coffee plans from Week One may finally be happening tonight, though (and it’s really cold out, too; I’m seriously thinking that humans should be allowed to hibernate during the winter).

That’s about a month’s worth of my resolution. Usually, by this point in the year, people forget about them. So, not too bad.

Oh, one more thing: I keep thinking about contacting someone I don’t actually know, who may know a thing or two about my family’s somewhat checkered past. Could be a dead end, could be me opening up a big can of worms. I’m starting to think that, either way, it may be worth doing, just so it’s not one of those things that nags at me. Stay tuned.

1. An “about this site” page or blurb. Obviously, given that I write about whatever the fuck I want and occasionally let others do the same here, it’ll be tough to encapsulate things, but people definitely get that “like a child that wanders into the middle of a movie” feeling when they show up here, and I’m feeling a mild need to help ease that transition of late, after, oh, 13 years of doing a web site and 9 years plus at this address.

2. A page that makes it a hell of a lot easier to find all my music without wading through the music category.

3. Merch. No, really. Holy shit, does this site need merch. It needed it damn near a decade ago. Please ride my ass about this, adventure lovers.

4. A guest post from one of the confused, disappointed people who come here thinking that it’s a porn site, presented as-is, without any editing.

5. A huge crowd of screaming women, like Usher has. Man, that Usher guy, he’s got it MADE. Seriously, people ask me that “if you could be anyone, at any point in history” question from time to time, because people love inane questions, and for the past few years, my answer has been “Usher.” You can whisper his name in a public place, and a hundred miles away, a woman will scream until she faints. He seems to have the right mindset to handle all that attention, too, so it works for him, at least at the moment. (I wouldn’t want to be me in Usher’s body, for that reason. I’d need to be him, full-on, for it to work. My mindset wouldn’t work for being Usher. It’d be kinda like that episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” when Larry gets stoned.) Also, I don’t know about you guys, but I never hear anything bad about the guy. There may be stories out there, and if there are, by all means tell me, but you don’t get beaten over the head with “Usher’s a dick” stories or “Usher did this awful thing” stories, so I’m hopeful that he’s just this dude who makes women gather in large groups and scream until they pass out, which they seem to enjoy doing as long as Usher is involved somehow. But yes, this site could totally use some of that Usher action. Mmmmmyeah.

(Update on Usher: not that Wikipedia is an indisputable source of truth or anything, but there do seem to be some “Usher allegedly put his johnson where it shouldn’t oughta have been” stories out there. Unfortunate and not excusable if it’s true, but at the same time, when you’re Usher and millions of screaming women follow you everywhere you go, you probably can’t even take a wee-wee without being mounted by a woman who’s cleverly disguised herself as a urinal and maintained her post for years in the hopes that someday, Usher will walk up. Also, to clarify on my other point, I’d probably want an on/off switch for the screaming women, otherwise it’d be a little hard to sleep.)

This week: Me 3, Fear 0 plus 1 point shifted from Fear to Me from previous weeks.
Current score: Me 6, Fear 2

Recapping previous weeks’ issues:

I am so knee-deep in the shit with the bureaucratic red tape now, it’s astounding. I’m not hiding from it anymore, though, no matter how demoralizing it may be. And it is. It really, really is. So, +1 in that column.

Still trying to reschedule the coffee plans from Week 1, but I saw one of the two people involved in said plans. Effort was made there. I suppose the real test will be how I react to plans the next time there’s a cold snap, so we’ll leave this one even for now.

Haven’t put much effort or thought into the “spending more time with a particular person” thing, but I also haven’t really had a moment to breathe this week. So, no change there, either, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s not me causing a clusterfuck by forcing an issue that I can’t really give any time or attention to right now, simply because loneliness, insecurity, or some need to have what I think I may want demands it. I think I’m being responsible here, though if I keep talking about this, I’ll probably give half a dozen people a complex, so we probably won’t refer to this again unless there’s news. Same for the “scheduling plans in really cold weather” thing.

An update, however, on the “getting back to music” thing: it’s in progress, my mind is there, but it’s taking some time to figure out how to hook up the rat’s nest of instruments I have without making my living space intolerable to be in. Planning this one out’s gonna take some time, but I am planning and testing and doing some real work on installation. Stay tuned.

This week, I didn’t shy away from reconnecting with another friend who I’d been out of touch with for a month or so, through the holidays unfortunately. Felt bad about that part, but our friendship has been such that, when I don’t hear from them for a little while, it’s usually because they’re dealing with some things, and unless the time between contact gets excessively long, it can usually be assumed that I’ll hear from them when they see their shadow, so to speak. In this case, there has been some extra stuff going on, though, so I made the first move just to be sure all was ok, and it was.

I also, despite having a lousy day yesterday and being filled with anxiety over the general prospect of doing so (“Am I too much of a trainwreck at the moment to be the kind of person who should be starting friendships?” was basically the gist of that), went out last night, met up with a new person I’ve just started talking to, and we had a very good time by all indications.

And, finally, a lot of work was done toward being less of a perfectionist and more welcoming in regards to the operating environment of Heck. I’ve historically been incredibly particular about who runs what there, which puts a lot of the responsibility for the space’s success on me, but I’ve started delegating a little, and so far, so good. People enjoyed themselves at two events there this week, and it still felt like the place I’ve spent 3 years being protectionist about.

So, combining this new shit with the improvement in previous weeks’ shit, this week was a pretty rock solid week in my ongoing war against fear. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

This week: Fear 1, Me 1
Current score: Fear 3, Me 2

The way I’ll be tabulating this, for those who are curious, will not involve double-counting fear-related things that I have not yet overcome. 1 fear, 1 point in either direction. The score will also change if I overcome something from past weeks, crediting me for beating it. The only thing I haven’t totally worked out yet is how to deal with situations where I regress into fear. Perhaps I’ll dock myself the original point, maybe a half point, still deciding. Input from the audience is helpful here.

For instance: if I’d actually gotten off my ass and dealt with the paperwork bullshit this week, the current score would be Me 3, Fear 2 rather than vice-versa. Having not done that or rescheduled plans with the friends I didn’t see because it was too cold outside (in fairness to me, I was sick with a cold for about a week, so I wasn’t in any shape to be out, but that still doesn’t change the score), the points from the previous week still stand.

So, this week, after seeing that my fear of getting back to work on music created an awful situation where someone I cared about actually passed away before I fulfilled a years-old promise to perform for them, I started work in earnest on rebuilding my studio. Enough is enough. I really can’t think of too many situations worse than having someone die before you can keep a promise to them, so I’m going to see if I can prevent that from happening again, at least in one corner of my life. I installed software, took stock of what equipment I have here, and have given some serious thought to the layout of the room, as it pertains to having instruments set up in it without making the place a total clusterfuck. I’ve also been giving my share of thought, way more important than this piece of software, that synth, or this way to utilize space, to how I can make music fun for myself again, without flat-out abandoning older finished and unfinished material, which while good, is largely about all the bad things that have happened in my life (which was a big part of what made me run screaming from music in the first place). Thankfully, progress is being made.

Unfortunately, I did run into another situation where my fear did get the best of me. There’s someone I’d kind of like to spend more time with, but I’ve been hesitant to put my best foot forward there, because I don’t want to be a disruption, a burden or worst of all, a disappointment to them. I’m also not really sure where their head’s at regarding me, nor am I entirely sure where mine is where they’re concerned. I can deal with finding out that no, they’re not thinking the same things I am, but I feel kind of like I should tread very carefully until I’m sure how I feel or what I think, because I don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver (as I’m really prone to doing in just about every part of my life), and I feel like they deserve more respect than they’d get if I got them all excited about something and then changed my mind. Even writing this seems like a big, possibly inappropriate step, because I just plain don’t want to get anyone riled up until I feel a little more sure of myself and what I want, and I may have written this just a little too specifically. I’ll meditate on this one for a bit, and take it from there.

More on the minutiae of my neurosis next week. In the meantime, wish me luck.

Current score: Fear 2, Me 1. Not too bad, but it could be better.

Pulled out of plans Sunday night because it was REALLY cold, and cancelled a doctor’s appointment because I didn’t want to deal with the intense amounts of red tape and bureaucratic idiocy involved in having all the paperwork in line, but I did reconnect with a long lost friend, deciding that life was simply too short to hide under a rock and let the situation cause me periodic anxiety as it had been for some time. (No, probably not the one you’re thinking of, regular readers.)

So, I think I’ll reschedule the plans, attempt to deal with the paperwork idiocy at the beginning of the work week, and see what else gets thrown my way.

…and you guys want me to write about women, movies, and action figures more, and more often than the other chosen subjects (abusing emerging technologies, baseball, dancing, football (the rest of the world), laughing, long distance running and profanity; I’ll cop to being the guy who voted for lozengeplay).

Based upon the fact that the following subjects received no votes, we’ll assume that you do not want me to write about them more often than I already do: classic video games, comic books, dyssomnia, football (American), munging (thank God), music, parties, politics, reading, Second Life, television, trading cards and writing.

I’m very curious as to what you want me to say about women, almost as curious as I am about what I would say if I were to write about them specifically rather than just including anecdotes about them in things I write about other subjects.

Movies, awesome, I’ve been watching a bunch lately. This will eventually be its own post or series of them.

Action figures? Cool too, got a few for Christmas. My DC Direct History Of The DC Universe Black Lightning figure is hanging on the wall directly in front of me as I type this. I’ve waited a long time for a “classic” Black Lightning figure to come out in a decent scale (I think they did Mini-Mates once). I’ve got the 1995 costume as part of the Total Justice line, and I’ll probably eventually get the modern costume figure from the most recent JLA line, but my favorite’s always going to be his original suit, because I remember when the first issue of the book came out in the late 70s, and he just looked so awesome. I’ve also got the DCU Classics Vigilante on its way to me in the mail, and Mattel’s new Mego-esque Green Arrow as well, but they’re not here yet. I really wish action figures hadn’t become so goddamned expensive, though. Time was, 3 or 4 bucks would get you a Mego, sometimes as cheap as 2 if they had sales. Ditto on GI Joe, Super Powers, Secret Wars Star Wars and some of the other all-time greats.

As far as the stuff you guys didn’t express an interest in seeing me write about more, trading cards are the subject that I’m most excited about at the moment, so whether you like it or not, fuck you, I’ll be writing about them as the mood strikes me. It’s an exciting time to be in the hobby.

Next poll’s up. Vote!

A short one this year:

The Devin Townsend Project’s “Ki” and Clutch’s “Strange Cousins From The West” are the only 2 new albums I listened to this year that really hit it out of the fucking park. Everything else, I either haven’t heard, have to spend more time with, or wasn’t blown away by. 2009 was one of the weaker music years I can remember. You should totally get both of the albums I just named, though, because they’re both fucking awesome.

So, if I were like everyone else in the world with a bully pulpit, I’d write about my interests more often. I’m kinda thinking of doing that.

Here they are, paraphrased from what I wrote on Facebook and most other places: abusing emerging technologies, dancing, laughing, long distance running, action figures, baseball, classic video games, comic books, dyssomnia, movies, music, parties, profanity, Second Life, trading cards, and football (American and otherwise).

Some interests that I should probably add to the list: television, reading, politics (though this is mostly “be disgusted at people who exemplify the worst in human nature”), women (Hey, I am interested in women!), writing, munging and lozengeplay. (OK, kinda kidding about at least munging.)

Now, I write about some of this crap here and there, usually in passing outside of my trials and tribulations with Attempting To Run, but not on any sort of consistent basis. I don’t know that I’d want to write about any of it full-time or anywhere close to it, as I quite often see even the best of my subject-specific writer friends totally running out of subject matter. I wouldn’t want to just write about what people want me to write about either. If I did that, all I’d do is rip apart whatever’s happening in pop culture at any given moment. (Y’all are some bloodthirsty motherfuckers.) However, as part of our ongoing outreach efforts to you, the hairy-palmed reader, and as a way to beat the shit out of our long-overdue poll functionality, I’m putting the call out there. Go over to the sidebar of this site (which you can’t do if you’re reading a feed of this; you feed people miss out on all the fun), and vote in the first poll here! Have your say! Exert your filthy influence over what gets written about here in 2010 and beyond! “Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones! You…are…invited!”

Big jump forward in raw numbers! I’m thinking that Bing’s catching on, whether we want it to or not, since a lot of those hits came from Bing.

November:

zenova: 915
ecstacy: 858
untitled: 563
wolftab: 452
tonight: 414
love life and sign: 314
puppet: 312
something true: 272
something in my drink: 261
the scott crawford show: 245
sybil: 196
sybil inst: 188
something true (overnightscape): 183
sybil vers: 173
new song: 169
chord: 124

total:

zenova: 2577
wolftab: 1830
ecstacy: 1761
sybil: 1726
sybil inst: 1526
untitled: 1473
tonight: 1462
something in my drink: 1457
puppet: 1277
love life and sign: 1069
sybil vers: 1067
the scott crawford show: 992
chord: 886
new song: 845
something true: 790
something true (overnightscape): 671

Still not much real input on who’s listening to what and why (really, these could all be bot hits; whichever…), because I did go with the “give it away and pray” model here, but that’s fine, because as I’ve said before, the other option involves annoying people. As a consumer, I don’t like to be annoyed, so I can’t see the point of promoting a product in a way that would annoy me if someone else were selling it to me. As for what’s being done on my end, the “rebuild the studio” project took a big step forward this week, because I redid things in a way that gives me a ton more workspace. Workspace is our friend. So, we’re inching ever closer to finishing the album, finishing some of the other projects I have laying around here and getting started on some Get Precious work.

Thank you for another month of your continued interest and support, and by all means, even if you can’t or won’t donate (the button’s right below this paragraph), please add my page on Facebook, as well as the page for my other band Get Precious.