Show at the start
At Rams Head, P.O.D. show today. So you know what that means: I'm at Rams Head bright and early and for once, I'm at the venue before the band is. No problem, they're coming from Flint, MI and I learned that is an 8+ drive from point A to point B so they'll prolly be here in about the 9 o'clock hour or so. This is nice, I suppose. Hey, I did oversleep a bit so this is a good thing. It is boiling hot today, why on earth did I decide to go with long grey and black dreads? I was trying to talk a good game to Sonny about going to Artscape but I have to rescind that because of the heat index. It's important that no one risks heat stroke. And Rams Head is so nice and artic cool, it shouldn't be hard to convince them why I had to back pedal.
Now, P.O.D. is performing with Flyleaf. And just when I thought only a select few of people I knew were gonna come, everyone and their ma has decided to show up. Oh, man. Totes not fair. I can think of at least three different people who I personally know that are coming and I just found out within the last two days. I don't know if I will have my entry to the show to reflect this but eh, we'll make it work.
I guess I should take this time out to update the world on my life. I have a job interview coming up and I'm very excited! I hope I get it and I hope to get more call backs too (don't want to bet the bank on getting one particular position. I've done that before, results weren't fun). And I really hope I get a call back for the Bindery Worker position, I already got one for a Lib. Associate. I just really would like my lot to improve in general and stay well inside my library career.
I'm helping out create a Wondaland Street Team, which is really exciting and honestly, W.A.S. could use it. I don't know why they didn't implement one before (ok, I kinda know but that's not up for expressing). It will hopefully be effective. I've been in the P.O.D. promo crew, LP street team and more, this shouldn't be too difficult. That and helping create a fan site where Wonda fans can go and be happy since Wondaland.com kinda dropped the flag, the ball and the baby on that one. Not entirely their fault, it's a lot to run a site with an active forum and they've already got a lot to do.
Artscape is this weekend, I am happy. Gonna miss the first day because of P.O.D. concert (not entirely a bad thing) but totally gonna be there for the remainder of the weekend but I'm def. gonna freeze some water and bring a sweat rag so I don't die out there. I hope to enjoy myself this weekend and see lots of people I know.
My therapy is doing well and getting better, I don't really like to discuss it but yeah, it's useful.
Kiki the kitty is fine, she still likes to gnaw on my hand and strongly believes my hair doubles as a cat toy, especially when they're in afro puffs or dread installs.
Not sure if I'll be going to Afro-Punk Festival because of my tumultuous experience with the last one. Plus, if I start new job, I can't duck out for an NYC music festival in basically the same month I start, not wise. I would generally do that in the past (if possible) but this time, I just don't feel it's worth going to that extent. Besides Three Days Grace will be performing at MD State Fair, that's brilliant.
I feel like I am sitting on my hands tho with all these music connections. I feel mildly frustrated as a result. I have all these connections and no idea how to use them. I would like to make a publications site of my own based on the arts and go with that route (which seems more feasible) but I don't really know how to go about it and if that's the direction I want to go. Sometimes I wonder if it would just be better to just start a new career in the music industry (I think I would really like artist management/A&R). The reason I don't want to go into the music industry is for several reasons:
1) Currently bleeding like a war victim. So many people are losing their jobs or having the money pipe dry up before they know it. In the library career, I am offered stability. Stability is nice. So is quiet.
2) More snakes in the industry than in the Amazon. I like having friends more than I do taking advantage of them or my connections to them. The music industry is specifically designed to make as much money off the artist as possible while paying the artist as little as possible. I can't involve myself in an industry that is particularly built to screw my friends over unless it's with people who actually don't want to do that. And those people are rare as well as not usually in places of power to call the shots.
3) Not really what I want to do for the rest of my life. Too easy to get side tracked away from what I really wanna do in life: be a writer and a librarian. The music industry does not have normal 9-5 jobs. There is just about no such thing as 9-5, only 24/7. And it relies on trends and fads. And I don't wanna do concerts for the rest of my life. They're great but sooner or later, I'mma wanna job where I can feel complacent and chill at.
4) Tiring when a check is involved. Because this is mostly volunteering (because I'm helping friends and people I believe in), I can call the shots. If someone treats me mean, I can easily bounce. I can pick who I want to work with. I have freedom to do as I like. Attach a check (and remember, the industry is forever in flux) to all that and I will be nice and stressed and tired before it's all over. I like the fluctuations when the likelihood of my rent being paid isn't a factor.
So, I don't wanna work in the industry per se, but I want to do something with all these music contacts but I seriously don't know what. I got options but don't know which way to go. It's frustrating, man.
Like, I wanna assist new artists but I also want to display the music and help the seasoned ones as well. There's a lot of music out there not getting airplay and it isn't fair. Either they're not getting airplay or reduced airplay, it's so unfair because there's a lot of good music out there and different music out there but they're stuck getting wrought through the politics of trying to get something on the radio or on a commercial that it dumbs down the essence of what music should be. It sucks. Radio is moreso for the advertisers than the musicians nowadays. The internet exists but that can be a jungle within itself, it's not like everyone who puts a track on DatPiff or SoundCloud strikes it big or even does remotely well. It's important to know how to navigate all that and to make the most out of your creative works without working yourself over. You know, stuff like that. I just wanna do something, I guess provide a service, so to speak, so I don't feel like a hanger-on. It's important to me that I don't so I gotta do something.
I also would like to do band interviews and so on and so forth so it would be best, I guess, to go with something online like a blog with a radio-like playlist attached. I don't know. It wouldn't be hard to land interviews at the start, I know enough professional musicians to do so. I just don't know if I want to take on such a project because Black Witch also sucks up my time and that's just one blog ran by one person. A music blog is a bleedin' vacuum in comparison, absolutely. That's because I have to procure new content all the time, new interviews, everything is so time sensitive, it would be a bit frustrating to run two pro blogs at once. It's not like this here handy dandy LJ where I can be myself and that's it. Newp. That's not how it works. And music fans/creators can be a special kind of people with occasionally a particular brand of hyper stupid that I am strongly aware of from my years working around them. Dealing with Pagan readers, especially Black Pagan readers, is really fine because they're nifty people not usually foaming at the mouth over minute things. I like that.
It is now 10:41 and they're just finished putting up tour bus guard rails. Yay, dealing with venue people, my favorite thing [/sarcasm]. Another thing about working around or in the music industry, just about everyone who is doing it for a check looks as miserable as all get out and occasionally like to outwardly express that misery to anyone who doesn't look like they'll be performing on stage. I've got on my P.O.D. Promo Crew shirt on but that won't stop them from being Bitter Nancys if they want to be. Been there, done that, no fun at all.
And I brought sugar cookies, local made sugar cookies. I have held off from eating them despite them being horrifically delicious but I am starting to get peckish. If they are not here by noon, I can't promise the cookies will still be in intact order. My desire to eat them is growing exponentially. They are Otterbein Sugar Cookies, it's improper to not eat them as soon as you complete the transaction to get them.