A Talk I Gave, & Domestic Paradise Paradox
hola comrades.
before the weather, one awesome thing.
i have a new fantasy about speaking at TED, and i’m praying and hoping i can get my ass on the bill for 2011. (if you’ve never seen TED, good god, you’re missing the best of the internet. watch THIS:
so…if i want to get a slot as a lecturer, they need to see that i can speak in public without breaking into hives and/or crying, so i did an experiment at the harvard square ninja gig the other day, and used the audience as group of rather enthusiastic guinea pigs to talk to (somewhat awkwardly) about a subject that i feel truly passionate about: the music industry (and content on the internet in general) moving towards a more donation – and patronage-based – economy.
i didn’t prepare much, just hit some key points and tried to tell my story, but this slap-dash version realize there’s a way bad-asser version in there somewhere, and TED or no TED i’ll work on it and try to make it a little more concise and deliver it at a conference or a music seminar at some point. but for a beta version, this ain’t too bad.
tell me what you think. i’m way open to feedback, or any kind of thoughts on the subject itself, good or bad, pro or con. or ask me questions. i want to dig into this.
speaking of which, soon we begin the UBER-countdown for the radiohead ukulele record. july 20th, betches.
the webcast is coming together (6pm on release day….we’re going to shoot it upstairs, and pope is coming to film live, RAH!!!!!), the video for “no surprises” is in the shop, gettin’ all pretty, and the bundle packages are coming together.
since you guys have been asking, i’ll let you know this much….the #UKULELEhead packages will include $20 (vinyl), $35 (vinyl+tee), $250 (painted-uke+more) and the top package is going to be $1,000 (with several versions available with different special FANCY things). all deets will be sent out in the mailer about a day or so before the sale goes up (sign up here), then sent right at the launch to the blog, twitter, facebook, myspace, etc.
…………………….
and now, the weather.
i’m in a kind of domestic paradox of paradise and hell at the moment. after several months of touring and very little productive work getting done on the road, i’m doing a daily face-off with my inbox and apartment and it honestly feels like trying to sculpt mount rushmore with a used toothpick.
i find it not at all surprising that my computer has decided to act poetic, and has hit it’s own mental capacity. since my machine is such a fucking internally-duct-taped horrorshow, it sort of reflects my apartment. there’s no fucking room anymore, and since i don’t know where anything is i don’t know what to throw out. i could take this one step further and apply it to my head as well. there’s simply too much floating around in there.
days, i try to clean. i try, i do.
this place is BURIED IN THINGS. i’ve actually made some progress since this picture was taken, but you see what i’m dealing with here, people:
when i wake up my head does the most interesting thing. it starts spinning about gigantic questions and i just watch it go. and i watch it go and let it go, and then i carry it, like a caged squirrel, into the kitchen, where i sit it down on the mediation cushion and let it tire itself out. and then i can start the day. this seems to work. i also find it’s useful to keep a pad of paper next to the cushion and write down whatever’s spilled out during the sitting, because that shit gets lost FAST.
all of this is helping me to do what i’ve never done before: i’m cultivating the muscle to simply leave things undone in order to take care of my body, for real this time.
cabaret is going to be a FUCKER of a physical show and i’m in daily training…eating insanely well, not drinking, no coffee, yoga daily, keeping my meditation practice solid, jogging…..agggggggggh. so, basically, i’m no fucking fun to be around and my friends around here can’t stand me since i’m no fun at a party, but the show’s going to be great. trade.
i’ve been listening to early eminem (mostly “marshall mathers” and “slim shady” on rotation) while i jog. it’s healing my brain. he’s TOTALLY double rainbow all the way.
nights, i hole up and talk to neil and if i have it in me, i read…i’ve been working on “lord of light” by roger zelazny (a gift from himself) and a bunch of cabaret-related jazz.
but truth be told, the net has a bigger stranglehold on me and i find myself watching TED lectures and reading long-ago-bookmarked online magazine articles and trying to make sense of the now world.
i’ve been home for a week and i JUST opened the mail fucking TODAY. there’s checks and shit so old the joints have probably gone out of business.
while i clean, i email. and while i email, i do dishes and make phone calls. and while i do dishes and make phone calls, i throw away pieces of paper and hang clothes up. and while i throw away pieces of paper and hang clothes up, i listen to the thompson twins on vinyl and new order on tape. and i take very short breaks to dance and sing. and feel a constant sense of relief and gratitude that it is not winter.
i am a summer ninja.
in the winter, i am a hibernating, cold-fleeing pansy-ass.
meanwhile, my slow gears are turning and i’m starting to see certain trees within the general forest of the future.
my brain is doing a ton of longer-term planning but things are only appearing on the page slowly…and it’s become obvious i can’t push the developing process along by shake-shake-shaking it like a polaroid picture, so i just gotta sit here in the dark and wait while things get clear.
one thing i know for sure:
everything i know for sure is definitely wrong.
love
afp
p.s. WHAT DOES IT MEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN
