Overworked & under nourished

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Okay, so I’m starting to realize I’m over extended on the work I need to do, so the blog may be slowed down from indepth entries for a little while. If you need a blogging fix, there’s a good one about comics I just started reading from Steve R Bissette.

So I think I have about 50 interviews I need to proof for the upcoming issues of QRD.  So probably around 300 pages if I printed them out.  What have I gotten myself into?

I’m going to try to do some minor edits on some glitches on the Azalia Snail record.  Because I’m funny on things like fades between tracks feeling too sudden or there not being quite enough silence between tracks.

I got the layout done for printing the Dave Sim collaborative comic Poit I did & sent him some copies.  I need to get it up for sale & everything soon.

I got in the new album from Goddakk & I like it quite a bit.  We’ll be going digital only with it (these days it’s hard to justify putting money behind a non-touring act, plus the digital only means no overhead & the artist can get paid right away).  Not sure exactly when it’ll be out, but soon.  In the meantime you can buy the previous one.

Got in the preliminary artwork for the Electric Bird Noise collective album.  Looks nice.  We’ll see when it is fully realized for coming out.  Brian McKenzie (EBN) is still working on the Remora mixes for the new album.  So making some movement on that front.  I think we have about two tracks to go on the mixing process.

I also remembered that I agreed to be in charge of the digital anthology for SPACE (comic convention) & that’s going to be coming up sooner than later.

A week from Friday I’m playing with The Pointless Forest as a full band at a show for the first time (I’m on SK1 & optical theremin) & then the following Friday is a Remora show with Clang Quartet.  So I need to start spending some time practicing.

I did manage to finish my quarterly paperwork (soliciting for payment to distros & filling out my quarterly tax form & sending payments out to the artists).  So at least I have that off of my mind.

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Paperwork, Deadpool, XO, Dreams

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Brian John Mitchell

Been working on the end of year paperwork lately.  It’s a headache.  It’s also kinda depressing.  Two artificially good quarters (quarters where I got big distro checks from money owed for over a year) & two kinda lousy ones.  But still in the black which is a testament to something these days.  We’ll see if I can stay in the black in 2011.  It always starts in the red after I cut the royalty checks from the previous year.

I was looking at how many CDs I have in the basement & there are some releases that will probably never recoup either because of money I blew on special packaging or advertising (or generally a combination of the two).  Is it morally right to try to just sell off the discs below what they’d need to sell at to recoup costs (given that I don’t cut royalty checks until recoup of cost)?  I guess if it’s never going to recoup it doesn’t matter if it’s $500 or $1000 away from catching up & I get the music out of my house & into the hands of some folks who want the music.  Of course I look at how few people have taken advantage of the deals on the sale page (the ten early Silber discs for $35!) & I think cutting prices even lower would just depress me when no one bought anything.

Still thinking about the CMYK laser printer for making color mini-comics.  We’ll see If I do it or not.

I’ve been talking to Nick Marino about doing a Deadpool comic together.  Do it & then maybe send it to Marvel & see what happens.  Maybe I’ll be like Ed Brubaker who used to make indie comics about being a jerk & now writes Captain America comics.  It sounds like a better day job than anything else I’ve done.  I know it’s a fantasy.  Just like writing an actual hit song.

Today’s installment of Silber mini-comics is XO #6.

Last Night’s Dream:
I’m on tour with Brian McKenzie & we take a day off to go to Busch Gardens.  I start to vividly remember when I was  9 & went there with my family & The Big Bad Wolf roller coaster had just opened & had a ton of ads on the TV so I want to ride it.  I wasn’t tall enough to ride it, but I got in line a second time with my dad & stood on my tip toes & they let me on.  When the first “drop” part of the ride comes it is clear that I’m really not tall enough to ride the ride & I’m in danger of falling out & I have to hold on to the weird cushioned vest thing to keep from flying out.  Random vivid memories….

I’m a soldier & I’m undergoing genetic manipulation for a special mission when they discover my genetics already have been dramatically altered.  I was born a primitive super-soldier & I don’t know how to use my abilities.

Someone is playing a theremin & they suck at it.  Why if someone sucks at guitar everyone knows it, but just because somebody bought a theremin they must know what they’re doing….

Posted in comics, daily news, dreams, music | Tagged , | 5 Comments

5 Responses to Paperwork, Deadpool, XO, Dreams

  1. Nick Marino says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:25 am

    A fantasy… but a good one nonetheless!!!

  2. GoddakkAttack says:
    January 5, 2011 at 9:40 am

    i think the artists who probably wont’ recoup cost either way will be happier having their CD’s in listeners hands as opposed to your basement.

Best TV of 2010, New Comic Writer, Chess, XO

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Well, here it is the end of 2010.  Just two more to go until the world ends.

Everyone else has been doing their end of year best of lists & I feel really awkward doing that since the records I listened to most this year were by Thorn1, The Wet Teens, Lotte Kestner, & Sarah June.  Also I didn’t see any movies that came out in 2010.  So here’s my list for TV…
Best New Cartoon
Archer (Totally over the top hyper-sexualized spy cartoon.)
Honorable Mention: Generator Rex (Teenage kid who is himself a monster of a sort fighting other monsters.)
Best Continuing Cartoon
Venture Brothers (You already know this one I imagine.)
Honorable Mention: Ben 10 (Whatever they call it now, Ultimate Alien? The story line of when you’re best friend goes crazy/evil do you kill him or try to cure him is pretty nice for a kids’ show.)
Best New Live Action Show
Tower Prep (The Prisoner for teens basically.  Kids with really subtle super powers trying to escape a training school they’ve been kidnapped into.  Occasionally it does lean more toward the teen side of things than the weird paranoia puzzle angle.)
Honorable Mentions: Caprica (When do computers/robots become sentient enough to be called slaves?  At times the series is a little clumsy, but aren’t most shows?) & Work of Art: The Next Great Artist (This is the only reality show I’ve ever tried to watch.  I like seeing artists work, even when some of them are towards the pretentious side.)
Best Continuing Live Action Show
Breaking Bad (I hated the “fly” episode, but the finale bits made up for it.)
Honorable Mention: Doctor Who (This new Doctor grew on me faster than any have.)
Best News Program
Charlie Rose (You know it’s the best.  Debatable to call it a news show I suppose, but it’s more about what’s really going on in the world than pretty much anything else.)
Honorable Mention: The Colbert Report (Entertainment & information in one spot.  I still have no idea what his actual political beliefs are.)
I think that lists most everything I intentionally watched….

Did some more work on updating the banners section of the website.  I’ll actually be finally able to cross it off my to do list after who knows how long.  I also did some mild alterations on the right hand column here on the blog.  Do you think I have things in the right order on it?

Been talking with PD Wilder (Hotel Hotel) & it looks like he might be doing a mini-comic for Silber.  It’ll be cool to have a comic coming out here that I don’t have any hand in.  I don’t know how long it will be before an issue is done as he was wanting the specs for page sizes & such.  I think it would be great to have more content coming that isn’t all mine.  See what other people can do in the ultra-mini format…..

I made a page where you can play a flash chess game against a computer on the Silber site.  Maybe I’ll add more games sometime.  Or I’m thinking about making it part of the radio stream playing page.  Or maybe adding some version of chess with a login system or something.  Incidentally I’m pretty lousy at chess, I play on level 2.

Today’s installment of Silber mini-comics is XO #5.

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Remora, Phone Reviewers, Wolverine, Thorn1, Web Work, Games, Tariffs

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Got a final mix done & sent in the Remora track from yesterday in for the comp.  We’ll see if it makes the cut & if the comp comes out (you never know these days).

Today’s installment of Silber mini-comics is XO #4.

I meant to mention it earlier this week, but Thorn1: So Far As Fast is now available at most digital download shops (eMusic, iTunes, etc).  Of course it’s half the price at better quality direct through us, but who I am to argue with the masses.

I was talking with a reviewer a bit today about things going on with digital promos for reviewers over physical ones.  He was saying he doesn’t like the zip format I use & he’d prefer streaming songs because then he can listen on his phone.  Which kinda messes with me.  I mean, I’m aware that people don’t care as much about fidelity of music at certain points & hopefully he’s talking about doing it through headphones & not the speaker on the phone, but man.  The world’s changing fast.  I still listen to CDs & have never even seriously thought about making a digital library of the music I own.  No wonder I don’t know how to market to modern music listeners.  I’m still stuck in 1990.

Eric Shonborn reviewed the original Wolverine comic over at Nostalgia Equals Distortion.

Got a little work done towards reworking the website so the banner repairs will be easier.  If I could just get myself to sit down for 8 hours straight it would be done.  But it seems like that never happens.

I did a little research towards embedding some games in the blog, but I couldn’t quite find any that worked for me.  I thought I found a nice little chess game, but it just shows a previously played game instead of having a game for you to play.  Who wants that?  But I’ve been thinking of doing something with starting to draw mazes again.  Have one appear randomly in the right column every time a blog page is loaded.  I guess I need to figure out how wide the column is.  But I’d really thought it would be cool to have a chess game that fit right there.  Who doesn’t want that?  I did find an embeddable chess game, but it’s as wide as a whole screen.  I might add it to the Silber start page when I rework that.

I’ve been thinking about writing to the state senate about implementing a tariff on blank media (CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, MP3 players, etc) to be used to fund a series of grants for film & music makers coming from local art councils.  Because it seems like in most of the areas around here these arts are frowned on as far as getting grants & there’ve been a lot of grant slashes over the past couple of years & this would be self-sustaining.  The irony is that while clearly the loss of revenue by all artists that the pennies on blank media would only issue a pittance to recoup anyway clearly doesn’t fit to go just towards NC artists.  But it would help to make a state where being an artist has a greater degree of sustainability & therefore create a greater artistic community.  Obviously it’s modeled after Canada.  I suppose I should get off my but & do it.  If an iPod cost an extra dollar, but you were told that dollar went to support local musicians & you bitch & moan about it, you have to kinda be an asshole.  Because if you are buying downloads for your iPod it’s the cost of one song & if you’re filling it with free media then hey, you should have an extra dollar available after you got all that free stuff.

Posted in art, comics, daily news, music | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

2 Responses to Remora, Phone Reviewers, Wolverine, Thorn1, Web Work, Games, Tariffs

  1. GoddakkAttack says:
    December 31, 2010 at 10:48 am

    doesn’t that already exist:

    THE AUDIO HOME RECORDING ACT OF 1992:
    The AHRA provides that the importer, manufacturer, or distributor of any digital audio recording device or digital audio recording media must file quarterly statements and pay, with those filings, royalties on each recorder or piece of media distributed in the United States. The royalty is 2 percent of the manufacturer’s selling price for recorders and 3 percent of the manufacturer’s selling price for recordable media. The royalty minimum for recorders is one dollar and the maximum is eight dollars, although in 1998, interested parties (such as musicians and music publishers) may request an increase in the royalty maximum under certain conditions. There are no minimum or maximum royalties for recording media.

    Two-thirds of the royalties go into the Sound Recording Fund and are distributed from that fund to the American Federation of Musicians (2-5Ú8 percent), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (1-3Ú8 percent); 40 percent of the remaining royalties go to featured recording artists and 60 percent are distributed to music publishers.

    The remaining third of the royalties are allocated to the Musical Works Fund and are distributed evenly between music publishers and songwriters. The percentages of distribution within each group of beneficiaries is determined by the groups themselves.

    • Brian John Mitchell says:
      December 31, 2010 at 11:10 am

      Here’s the thing with that (from Wiki):
      Blank music CDs and recorders

      17 U.S.C. § 1008 bars copyright infringement action and 17 U.S.C. § 1003 provides for a royalty of 3% of the initial transfer price. The royalty rate in 17 U.S.C. § 1004 was established by the Fairness in Music Licensing Act of 1998. This only applies to CDs which are labeled and sold for music use; they do not apply to blank computer CDs, even though they can be (and often are) used to record or “burn” music from the computer to CD. A similar royalty applies to stand-alone CD recorders, but not to CD burners used with computers.

      Thanks to a precedent established in a 1998 lawsuit involving the Rio PMP300 player, MP3 players are deemed “computer peripherals” and are not subject to a royalty of this type in the U.S.

Brian Eno Documentary, Remora, SAVAS, Thorn1, XO

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

So Azalia Snail sent me the link to this Brian Eno documentary “Another Green World” (named after my favorite Eno album).  I’d tried to watch it back when it first came out; but though the BBC had it streaming, they had regional blocking on it.  Anyway, here’s the video files, they may eventually be taken down.  I like listening to Eno speak & reading his books because though I don’t always agree with all of his ideas, he almost always helps me clarify something I’m thinking about.  The moment that happens in this documentary is at the end where he talks about the devaluation of music as a currency & that music is about causing a feeling of community & connectivity socially.  Which I think has actually been true about music at least since the advent of popular music & hit standards.  The problem always is, what do you do with the information once you have it?


I did get quite a bit done with Remora today.  Listened to the new mixes of the tracks for the new album.  Cut some additional vocals for songs on the new disc as well & I need to try to get those back over to McKenzie for mixing tomorrow.  & I think I finished up this track below for a comp.  The vocals are intentionally low in the mix, let me know if you think they’re too quiet.

 

Did some work on the website making up some pages for the new comics & Azalia Snail.  Going to be going through updating a bunch of stuff that no one but me will care about pretty soon.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it on here before, but I have been talking to Brian McKenzie about doing an acoustic Something About Vampires And Sluts EP on Silber & it looks like that is going to happen.

I finished doing the MySpace campaign for Thorn1.  I’ll have to check with Evgeny to see if there was an interest spike on his side.  I did get one contact about him possibly doing a festival show in Italy, so if that comes to fruition it was definitely worth the time to run it.

Today’s installment of Silber mini-comics is XO #3.

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Vigilant, XO, Remora, Irata, Electric Bird Noise

Posted on December 29, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I got the layout done for Vigilant #2 & sent it off to PB Kain.  I’m thinking about doing some kind of promotion or one shot special based on fan participation.  Where people just send in photos of themselves wearing hoodies & then I write little stories about them.  I’m not 100% on that yet.  I always have a mild fear of fan participation projects because when there’s a lack of participation I feel pretty awful & it’s happened a few times in the past.

Today’s installment of Silber mini-comics is XO #2.

Worked a bit on a Remora track for a comp entitled “Typical Teenage Secret Weapon.”  Just need to add the vocals & then see if it makes the cut.  It’s in the sci-fi style if the song title didn’t show that.  Only fake guitars.  After all, that way I don’t need to practice playing guitar.

I got some feedback back from Brian McKenzie & it looks like I’m going to have to re-cut some more vocals for the Remora album.  I’m really trying to make it a record I can listen to without getting irked by mistakes five years down the line & that’s a tall order.

Speaking of Brian McKenzie, there may end up being a flood of Electric Bird Noise discs next year.  Maybe four or five.  Which makes more sense when you realize he’s worked on a lot of stuff on a pretty regular basis while not releasing much of it for the past several years.  Obviously I’ll post more about it as time goes by.

Spoke with Jason Ward (Irata) a bit.  As some of you may know they’ve been working as a two piece for a few months.  They’re still trying to figure out if that is what they are going to be doing or if they are going to try to find a third member again.  I guess we’ll all just have to wait & see.

So today was the season finale of this show I’ve been watching called Tower Prep.  It made me realize that part of what I like about serialized narratives is that they let you play the next chapter in your own mind & toy with it yourself a bit in the time between installments.  I wonder if this is how they work for other folks or if it’s just me.

I got an order through Amazon today (I put up some of the catalog with an ad to buy it at the Silber site as the description & sometimes people opt to pay the extra $1 it ends up costing to order through it & meanwhile I make $2 less, but whatever).  Man do they suck now.  The email didn’t give me the mailing address to send the package to & it took six clicks to get to that info off their website.  WTF?

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Azalia Snail, Sarah June, Mini-Comics, Radio, Remora, Dreams

Posted on December 28, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Okay, so I know I’ve been talking up Azalia Snail a lot.  I haven’t made a Silber page for her yet, but here’s her Facebook.  & here’s a video from her:

& while I’m mentioning videos, here’s one from Sarah June:

Did some more work on some mini-comics for making the digital versions today & got the approval from Pat Kain for the script for Vigilant #2 so I need to lay it out for him to draw.

I spent a couple hours looking for more promo outlets for the upcoming music stuff.  I really should stop wasting my time on it probably.  I was talking to Azalia about how Silber traditionally has strong radio ties & I think I need to get back to basics on that.  I’ve been farming out a lot of the radio work to interns & I might be better off doing the radio work myself (since that’s what I’m “good” at) & trying to get them on doing something I have no idea how to do.

I did a critical listed to the new Remora disc & sent in some mixing notes to Brian McKenzie.  I can’t believe how much more detail I’m giving this record than anything else I’ve worked on.  I suppose part of it is that I’m getting more sleep these days & that gives me a long enough attention span to pay attention to details.

Last Night’s Dream
There’s a new drummer in a band I’m in & before he gets to  practice I’m asking if he’s any good & I’m told, “He’s almost as good playing drums as you are playing keyboards.”  Wow, this band is going to suck now!

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Lost Kisses, Brainwashed, QRD, xo, Dreams

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I’ve been working a little towards a new stickfigure issue of Lost Kisses.  It’s going to be about seizures & time travel.  So autobiographical.

A bunch of the Silber releases from this year (along with probably any other release you bought this year) are nominated for the best of the year on Brainwashed.

Did some more work trying to scare in a few of the straggling interviews that are out for the next couple of issues of QRD.  I need to get on the ball with the questions for mini-comic folks soon so I can start soliciting for those.  & also figure out if I’m going to do another set for couples in bands & for musician dads.

Today’s installment of Silber mini-comics is XO #1.

Last Night’s Dream:
Going through a bunch of wooden block stamps I find one with an image of a Clonetrooper helmet.

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Merry Christmas, Just A Man, The End of the World, Nostalgia Equals Distortion

Posted on December 25, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

Merry Christmas.  Hope everyone is doing well.

I did some work on tracking down some places to promote the comics today.  But to be honest I don’t know exactly where most of my day went.

I worked up a second draft of a new mini called “The End of the World.” That may or may not be a one-shot & may or may not actually ever come to fruition.  It’s about a teenage girl & an unaddressed cause to the end of society.  The opening story is just about an overwhelming sense of dread & then her parents getting killed while she hides in the closet with her brother.  I’m thinking about incorporating the device where she smothers her brother to keep him quiet, but I feel it’s a little too bleak & over-used in the genre.

There was supposed to be a special Christmas issue of QRD, but none of the folks selected actually sent in the interview answers.  I never got around to doing mine either, but maybe I’ll do it tomorrow & just post it in the blog.

Today’s installment of Silber comics is Just A Man #4.

There’s a new post at Nostalgia Equals Distortion that I wrote about Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime.

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Azalia Snail, Remora, Sarah June, Just A Man, Dreams

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Brian John Mitchell

I did some research for some weird promo swag ideas for Azalia Snail.  Necklaces with snails on them & things like that.  Not 100% sure on things yet.  Because Azalia pointed out that she’d rather have the gimmicky promo thing for reviewers be related to the album rather than be a gag based on her name.  Which I totally understand.  I’d hardly want something involving actual remoras (the fish) promoting my next Remora record.  Though then again I have debated the idea of something with seeds for a Small Life Form record.  We’ll see what happens.

Here’s the Remora robot version of “Brand of Bitterness” (Sarah June)  I’m never 100% sure if the robot stuff I’m doing is kinda weird & cool or just junk that occupies my time.  Maybe it would be better if I wasn’t using a free software from 1997 to do all the instruments.

I also talked with Sarah June about maybe doing a fan collaboration oriented video for the real version of “Brand of Bitterness.”  If it comes to fruition, I’ll let you know.

Today’s installment of Silber comics is Just A Man #3.

Last Night’s Dreams:
I have a new girlfriend who has a kinda crappy job.  She reveals to me that her profession prior to the economy crapping out was traveling with carnivals as a professional clown.  I tell her, “That’s awesome, how could she ever give up that life?”

I’m working in a garage (one of the big ones that does real car work that’s the size of a warehouse, not the kind that’s attached to your house) & I’m cleaning it because it’s the end of the week.  When I’m finished & everything is fixed up.  I can’t find any doors to get out of the place.

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