Who’s Scripting My Words?

Posted on June 28, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Finally remembered to check if I press the comics under weight over night if I can mail them in normal envelopes & the answer seems to be yes.

Did some research finding some more press folks for indie ambient stuff & contacting some stores about distro in said category as well.  We’ll see if any leads come to fruition.

It’s hard to say why, but I had a hard time getting motivated today.  I had a ton of weird dreams (one involved me being Robocop & trying to figure out whether I decided what I would say or if it was scripted by Frank Miller) that kept waking me up during the night, so I guess I can blame things on that.

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Done Today, To Do Tomorrow

Posted on June 27, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

So the majority of the day was spent working on XO #5.  The layout is done for the proof, I just have to layout the version to print.  There is a minor art issue where the wrong tool is shown for the car repair being done.  I guess that’s what I get for not writing full script & I’ll deal with it.

I was sent a link from our good friend Lisa Uber at WRSU about an ambient music site that had free download links for Northern Valentine on five or so different sites.  So I was inspired to do another quick round of requesting removal of the Silber catalog from various hosts.  One of the sites actually said how many times the file had been downloaded (it was somewhere around 700) & I have to wonder is the only reason they list that so I know how much revenue I’ve lost?  I wonder sometimes whether the days of releases breaking even has come & gone.  Also, does mentioning this encourage people to steal intellectual property or remind them that it really effects the ability of art they enjoy to be perpetuated?

I got a contact from a potential new comic collaborator, we’ll see if this one works out.

I’m going to be doing some stuff to try to make the comic pages make more sense for ordering.  This includes having a page where all the series can be ordered at once & where people can order future issues (only one in advance in case a series goes dead).

I’m coming up on the end of the quarter & I have kind of a lot of paperwork to do.  Also I really need to do a physical inventory as I know my numbers are way off because I just gave Alan Sparhawk some copies of his solo disc to sell while touring that contained around 300 (I’d never opened the box & it wasn’t marked on the outside) & things just naturally get knocked out by forgetting to mark a promo or two.

So I know I have some work to do.  I just need to get on top of doing it.

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I feel momentum building

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Yesterday at five o’clock I sent out the Lost Kisses DVD for manufacturing.  I’m so glad to be done with it.

I’m listening to the current version of the new Vlor album.  Some minor tweaks need to be done hearing the songs in order (extending a fade, shortening an intro, adding silence between tracks, boosting a track’s volume slightly) & I still need titles for pretty much every song.  I’m interested in doing the extra 10% that makes it feel like a legacy album.  This is the part of mastering that turns into a real art; songs are easy, albums are hard.

I got the art in for the new XO, I need to scan it in & do the layout.

Did some more promo research & found a dozen more comic & music press folks.

I got a track done for a friend’s compilation about robots taking over the world.

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Working on Working

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Trying to do some work on getting the Lost Kisses DVD prepared.  I did the proof of the DVD & things seem as good as they’re going to get.  But the place I’m using for manufacturing is having some kinda problem with their automated order form.  I can’t wait for the headache of this project to end.

Found a few more promo places for my comics.  I think this is going to be my “make it or break it” run for the comics & I’ll scale the promos down to more reasonable numbers if I don’t generate sales.  I guess I’d settle for a licensing deal instead of sales.

Before I go to bed I’m going to put some of my mini-comics under weights to see if they become flat enough to fit five in a normal envelope or if I need to buy mailers for them.

I have this old laptop (it has Windows 3.1 on it) that I was going to take apart but it’s actually a lot smaller inside than I thought in would be so I put it back together.   I guess that’s why Tore Boe makes his acoustic laptops out of briefcases.  Maybe I should do the same thing.  Or maybe I should just buy one from him or pay him to make a custom one.

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A lot of different things today

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Did the design for the balloons & got that sent out today.  I can’t even remember if I mentioned on here before that I was getting balloons made?  1000 for $130.  I’ll send them with promo stuff mainly.  I think they’ll be easier to get rid of than the tattoos were.

Did some research contacting some avant garde & dark music stores in Europe about stocking Silber stuff.  We’ll see if any of them actually get back to me.  I’m trying to start to do more work that leads directly to sales within a month instead of the long term ideas I normally use where someone will buy a record in ten years time.

Also trying to book some shows for the Sarah June/PD Wilder tour.  Got the Myrtle Beach one confirmed.  Who doesn’t love Myrtle Beach?

Got a few orders shipped out today.  It’s always nice to have some income.

Got an email from Melissa that the art for the new XO has been shipped & should be here by Thursday.  I’m going to need to order some special envelopes or something when getting this mini-comic promo pack out as it will have five comics & I don’t really think I can get them in a regular envelope.  Maybe if I press them down so they stay absolutely flat before mailing them.  I’ll need to do some tests….

A special shout out to Sean of Mars Field for helping me figure out how to fix one of my external hard drives.

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Seeds for the future?

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Assembled the first batch of Worms #4 today.

Got some info about putting in for a series of artist in resident grants for Small Life Form doing location recordings at national parks.  Maybe that’s my future.  Certainly I can’t be much worse than the flutists who normally do the stuff.

Finished up fixing some of the links on QRD.

Rough day on certain fronts kept today’s level of production a little lower than anticipated.

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working on things or at least pretending to

Posted on June 21, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Finished up the print layout for Worms #4.  Pretty soon I’ll have to print out everything for the promo batch.  I need to make the press release for them.  Which also means writing new scripts for the next set so they aren’t too incredibly late (though I actually did what is probably the last bit of editing to the Just A Man #2 script today).

Did some more work towards making the move for more film placement stuff & handed it off to an intern.  It’s nice to be able to multi-task by handing stuff over to interns.

I’m going to need to start trying to do some stuff to promote the PD Wilder/Sarah June tour.  It’s sneaking up on me & I want it to be a good enough experience that it’s not a one time tour for Sarah June.

Need to do some finalizing work on fixing some QRD stuff with the links to the new articles in past articles (something I occasionally forget to do).

I spent a lot of the day incorporating some work from interns on my promo list.

I don’t know how much I’ve been updating it, but the Aarktica disc is supposed to be going on to mastering at the end of this coming week.

I’m listening to some EBM/IDM on the radio right now & I have to wonder how these singers can take themselves seriously.  I guess maybe they’re just playing characters when they sing the cornball stuff.  I guess who am I to talk since I did an album about the parallels between an ex-girlfriend & an alien invasion apocalypse.

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If I could….

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

If I could do anything in the world right now, I would do a break even tour of south america playing house shows.

I’ve been starting to do a bit more research into getting the Silber catalog into more music libraries for song placement in films.  I’m hoping it will be the magic thing that gets Silber back on track in the money making side (things have been as off track for me as the rest of the US for the past year or so).

Anyone know how to format an external USB hard drive that a computer recognizes enough to eject, but not enough to read?

Finished the layout for the test run for Worms #4.  Tomorrow I should get the layout done for the version to print.

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Today’s work

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

Working on cleaning up the images & doing the layout for Worms.  I probably get to detail oriented on the stuff.

Melissa Spence Gardner says the art for the new XO should be on the way to me by Monday.  So I need to get things in place for the comic promo soon.

I got in some copies of the new Moodring CD.  I need to make the Silber webpage for them.

I’m not sure if there’s something wrong with my CD burner as the Vlor test disc skipped in my car (the factory CD player does have issues).  It seems like you shouldn’t send something that skips for manufacturing.

I’m running behind on a lot of things.  I wish my only responsibilities in life were running my business & keeping myself alive.

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New QRD!

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Brian John Mitchell

I just posted up the new QRD.  It’s a father’s day special with a dozen interviews with musician dads.  Check it out when you get a chance.

Yesterday I recorded some guitar duet stuff with Alan Sparhawk.  We’ll see what the results end up like.

I got in the art for the new issue of Worms from Kimberlee Traub, still have to put the issue together.

Working on putting together a little music thing in Smithfield for this weekend.  I’ll let you know when there are more details.

If you are going to be on the internet this Saturday night, Tara Vanflower is going to be doing a live interview.

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