I recently wrote an article about the blink-182 reunion. I wrote it from an extremely journalistic viewpoint (barely any opinions) - although the truth is that blink 182 is very possibly my favorite band of all time. When it's printed I will link it here.
I think the reasons for this are pretty evident, although I plan on writing a piece explaining why fairly soon.
That being said - I found this article to be extremely interesting, and a great, great view on cynical idiots who got into music, wanted to be part of the music scene, and having had it end up making them basically criticize everything music-related that comes out - usually including what got them into it in the first place.
So read this awesome article about a cynical music journalist, who was turned around by the prospects of a reunited Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Something to sneeze at?
So this is not going to be one of my normal blog posts (of which I have not posted in a long, long time). The reason for that, I believe, will be explained here.
Senior Discount has gone into overdrive in recent weeks. Sort of. The rest of the band is actually doing less work than normal (as, for a period of time, we had shows weekly, and now I believe we'd had/have a total of four scheduled from 1/10/09 - 3/13/09.
The deal is that the work on the website and our EP (which will be launched together) has really picked up. I decided not to wait for the (at least four) people who kept telling me they would help me. I do not consider myself an expert in web design or HTML (my main source of income comes from a job that is exactly that - but I will say that a landscaping website is very different in design than a punk rock band who creates constant new content, including music, videos, podcasts, shows, flyers and whatever else we can think of - oddly enough, the more professional things need to get, the simpler the design...also, my main HTML tasks with my actual job are more e-mail printing/scanning/quote-sending based, since I already have finished designing their website). Yeah, with the S*D website, I am going to need help.
I've gotten some - Natalie Holl, who met at White Noise Records, is a wonderful and sexy woman who does professional photography for us (of which we desperately needed when considering the *new* band lay-out, and all my design ideas), but besides that, it's basically been me doing any and all design/HTML work.
Tom's new boyfriend Devlin is on the team to help with web design, but so far has not been very fruitful (despite how "full of fruit" I assume he must be behind closed doors). I'm sure he will come through and help with the small tasks I need help with, at some point.
During the final stages (that we are almost in) I am almost positive I will have to call on the knowledge of sir/doctor Jordan Furtado. Jordan set up our past four websites (yep, there have been four, including a pre-Tom Wells S*D site) to finalize the HTML stuff. I also believe I will need to find someone who is familiar with myspace HTML - I've got a lot of it down besides the final stuff (if you know someone who does it - please tell them to email me at chuckstaton@gmail.com).
But the design is very much on its way. We're also trying to finish up our EP (which is also neccessary for the launch of the site, and actually more the main reason FOR it). This is a pain in the ass. White Noise Records has closed its' doors (who would have been our label for the upcoming S*D full-length) and they were the ones doing the EP with us. Fortunately, we recorded all the drum parts before they closed, so we are finishing the vocals, bass, guitar, acoustic guitar/bass, violin, etc. in other places.
My idea for the new site is constant content. I want people to be able to check the S*D site every Monday and KNOW there will be something new for them to check out and interact with. That will happen, which leads me to my next new thing...
Agreeing To Disagree: The Chuck and Brad Podcast - this is my new podcast with my good friend Brad. Basically, the truth of it is that the podcast will take over a lot of what this blog used to be. Any updates or opinions on situations/technology/movies/music/etc from me will be there, discussed with Brad. We also are focusing on local music as well, so we're going to try to do band interviews (the first one was Penrose, who cancelled at the last minute - completely explained in our newest podcast, posted about two hours ago at www.seniordiscountmusic.com) and we're playing local RI music the entire time in the background. Tons of RI bands have signed on so it's going well. The podcast will have a new episode weekly.
With all that S*D stuff - the truth is that one of my new goals is to make it so that Senior Discount can be our full-time job. I want Sousa, Christian and Tom to be able to quit their jobs and work for the band. I basically do band stuff 24/7, and I think if we could all focus on it the same way, we would get a ton more done. On top of that - I oftentimes feel gypped(sp?) and bitter about how much time I spend on this, while the other guys are out making money (they each make between two and three times what I make, because they focus on that while I focus on the band). So when that happens I tend to peeter out (I feel like I've heard that expression before?) because I get depressed about it.
The way I'm trying to get the money thing rolling is a combination of two things...a booking agent, and sponsorships. We don't need a lot of money to live. If we could play shows constantly (as constantly as the rest of the band works) we could make a fair amount of money, and if we could get local sponsorships, it would help a ton as well.
Why would businesses ever give us money?
Well here's why: Online, we generate about 2,200 unique visitors on the myspace per month (and this is taken at a time when we haven't released an album in two years, and our main site is completely shut down - our numbers our normally much much higher than this), we're going to be doing the podcast weekly (during which we can plug the sponsors), we're going to have a huge main website soon, as well as obviously continue playing out - the total attendance of Senior Discount shows in the the 60 days from November 29th - Jan 28th was around 3,400 people. On top of all that we obviously are constantly promoting ourselves on myspace and in REAL LIFE!
Again - I'd like to reiterate - these are all numbers from our downtime stuff (right now, when we're focusing on recording, mixing and new web design). They will jump incredibly when our new site and album are launched (especially as it's a FREE album). We've already been approached by RI Hosting - small web company, and they sponsor us (they pay for us to have unlimited space and bandwith on their servers for our new website and EP). I think that these numbers combined with our history could attract some small-time local investors. I'm thinking stuff like In Your Ear music in Warren, Ray Mullin's (guitar shop), Antonio's Pizza in Providence, maybe Club Hell or a local Providence publication, Newbury Comics (New England-based), Rod's Grille, Del's Lemonade, the Comedy Connection, etc etc.
I think of a place like, say Antonio's Pizza paying us a certain amount of money per week or so for a spot on our myspace, our website, a mention in the weekly podcast, and an advertisement on our merch table, may be a low-risk and easy investment on their part. They also get the allure of, instead of paying for advertising space, actually sponsoring local artists (which is much more respectable).
I also want to look at national advertisers (which would be much more difficult). Even just one big investor (be it clothing, music, alcohol, condoms, etc) could mean a great deal of money. There are a lot of weird sponsorship deals around. Steve-O was sponsored by the clothing company XYZ long before Jackass even started; there's a group of jackass-like idiots called like, The Crazy Idiots who are not famous whatsoever and they are sponsored by at least three different clothing companies - these deals can be incredibly lucrative.
Also, when I say the Senior Discount "history" - on top of those numbers, here's a short list of things we've done:
- Three out of the four of us have college degrees (in Film, Communications, and Elementary Education)
- Senior Discount has played over 200 shows in states such as RI, MA, VT, NJ, NY, PA, and CT.
- Have opened for Gym Class Heroes, Girl Talk, Boys Like Girls, The Bravery, The Ataris, Leftover Crack, Just Surrender, A Wilhelm Scream, the Street Dogs, Zox, Bad Larry, Westbound Train, Monty Are I, Daly's Gone Wrong, Big D and the Kids Table, Brain Failure, Catch 22, Darkbuster, Stealing Jane, Rehab, River City Rebels, Jimmy's Chicken Shack, Someday Providence, Mickey Avalon, Streetlight Manifesto, Sasquatch and the Sick-A-Billys, the Bloodshot Hooligans, Tip The Van, The Loved Ones, MC Lars, Badfish, Mastamindz, Whole Wheat Bread, Suburban Legends, Patent Pending, and many many more.
- Senior Discount's debut (and so far, only) album, "There Were Four Who Tried...", has gotten many reviews from all over, including very positive reviews from Razorcake (CA), Hussieskunk (OH), Plug-In Music (PA), Rock Is Life (MA), Suburban Horror (CA), Upstarter (ID), as well as The Unbound Zine (Canada), and No Front Teeth (The UK). They feel that they've gotten their most important reviews from the historic Maximum Rock N Roll (CA), which boasted, "These guys can rock and scream….a strong full-length," and the revered AbsolutePunk.net, which stated "The band really acts out their emotions….Every track from the album is an anthem to punk rock's principles."
- Their one full-length film ("VBW Attack: The Senior Discount Movie") led to the band selling out a 350-person capacity movie theatre for the premiere, and the subsequent DVD release for the film garnished a win for "Best Comedy" in the 2008 Indie Gathering Film Festival (which is one of the top 25 film festivals, as rated by MovieMaker Magazine). Their film also got shining reviews from Punk Globe (CA) which said "It's well done, it astounded me. These guys are having fun," and The Noise (Boston) which reported "...let's just say that this DVD is gold and that the band, and those with them, have some mighty winds at their sails."
- The national television network G4 has bought footage from the film, started airing the clips in late 2008, and continues to air them. Senior Discount's online videos have achieved over 30,000 views on streaming video websites, and have also sold footage to the web site Break.com.
- In 2007 and again 2008, Senior Discount won the Providence Phoenix Best Music Poll for Best Punk Band - two years in a row. The Phoenix has received many awards for excellence in journalism, including honors from the New England Press Association, the American Bar Association Gavel Awards, the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards and many more.
- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones personally picked Senior Discount as one of the top five bands in the contest to open for the MMB's at their Hometown Throw-Down show show on New Years Eve '07/'08.
- Senior Discount were also semi-finalists in the 2008 95.5 WBRU Rockhunt, a yearly contest held by WBRU, which is frequently named one of the best radio stations in the country by numerous trade magazines such as Billboard and Rolling Stone - Rolling Stone named it best radio station in the country in a medium size market three years in a row, the only radio station ever to achieve that. WBRU also had Senior Discount play their "Rock Hunt kick-off" show on Jan 23, 2009, and before that Senior Discount played the 2008 WBRU Birthday Bash at the specific request of Girl Talk, a very popular mash-up DJ - Girl Talk's album "Feed The Animals" was named Time Magazine's #4 album of the year (out of 10) in 2008.
That's nothing to sneeze at. Especially from a local perspective - we've been tethered to Rhode Island for our entire time as a band (because we were all graduating - I got my degree as recently as Jan 09!) so we've basically all had full-time jobs or full-time college careers (or both) up until this point.
So yeah, I'm talking to my buddy Arcello about that, and I'm talking to anyone I can about the booking agent part. I really want to just open for Whole Wheat Bread, Big D and the Kids Table, or someone else like that on a tour where they are headlining. A band we have a previous relationship with that we feel like we have achieved the right status to open on a tour of that size. (If you know any booking agents - please tell me - chuckstaton@gmail.com).
But yeah that's my viewpoint there. If we could launch the new site and the new free EP and do a tour right then, along with a booking agent and some sponsors, I'd be one happy pappy.
On top of all that - I've also decided that I should make a move into journalism. Why? Maybe because English was my strongest subject in school. Maybe because my highest GPA in college with in my creative writing class (3.9). Maybe because I constantly write, feel I'm good at it, and enjoy it?
It also has to do with the fact that I feel there are certain areas that I'm knowledge-able in, and certainly study. The main field, of course, being film.
After that is television, video games, technology, and music. I put music last because I feel that music is just so oddly subjective that its difficult to criticize, and also because I'm not huge on "trends" which seems to be something that is looked at as actually a respectable thing in music critique-ing.
Anyway - I've gotten a job at a new nightlife publication in Providence called "The In-Prov" (the title may change - or maybe has changed - it hasn't come out yet so I don't know).
So far I've written one piece about reality television (taken and cleaned up from this blog) and one piece about the blink-182 reunion. I also have currently assigned to me a review of the GTA DLC game for Xbox 360, a review of the T-Mobile G1 with all of the advancements it's made in its first three months, and a review of the Monty Are I show at Club Hell next weekend.
The job is non-paid for now, but they are planning on paying us eventually. Truthfully, everything starts up small so I am dedicated to writing, and hopefully being looked at as a hard-worker/team-player so that when checks do start being written, I will be awarded and given the opportunity to continue being a team-player and earning my checks.
Worst case scenario - I get some stuff published, and if I find out I will not be getting compensated, then I will at least have some articles and resume' to give to somewhere else when I look for another job.
I honestly feel that I'm a good writer, I'm at least slightly clever, and that I can give an informed and informative (those are two different words) opinion/critique of things that fall within my area of "expertise".
In doing everything I've just mentioned, I've developed a crippling case of insomnia. I suppose this comes because I get in bed and constantly think of all things in my Google Calendar that I'm scheduled to do the next day. I have a constant schedule, seven days a week, when it comes to working on Senior Discount music, the Senior Discount website, booking shows, trying to get Tom to help me book shows, promoting shows, designing the flyer for every show, PLAYING shows, practicing, working (extremely slightly) on music, trying to contact people to help me with web design, new ideas for the band (like the sponshorship one), fixing the van (which has been back and forth to the mechanic FIVE times now for one problem that he seemingly can't fix), figuring out how to pay off our debts (I will admit they are small ones), promoting the band in general, trying to push our new song to finish getting mixed/trying to push the recording of the rest of our instruments for our OTHER new songs, organizing photoshoots for all the new web stuff, recording/editing the podcast, talking to bands about the podcast, doing the graphics/posting/RSS-feeding the podcast, figuring out what my next article will be, actually experiencing the music/movie/game/etc that the new article will be, writing/researching it - and this is all on top of my actual job (which I dont really have to schedule, as I'm constantly told alerted whenever I need to do things), taking care of my actual life (paying my bills, taking my car in to get fixed, spending time with my hot girlfriend), and also the regular stuff that comes up (attending planned events, doing errands, going to family functions - which come up more than they need to, and in general spending time with all the people in my life).
I think I lay down and think "I have to do these 17 things tomorrow. I can definitely get 7 done tonight." and then I try to push that out of my head. But of course I cannot. I think that maybe it just comes from a feeling of being overwhelmed combined with an extreme worry. I am always extremely worried about the next step. I simply want to take the next step and basically have us all make a small amount of money working for the band. That would make it a million times easier for all of us and that really bothers me constantly.
I feel like I can never get my mind to slow down when it comes to art and figuring out how to make my devotion to art a feasible project. I don't think I could be happy without it.
So I want to start going to a therapist. I have a regular doctor's appointment in late March and I will ask him about it then. Maybe I can get some Ambien? I don't know anyone who takes it but I am interested.
I'd also like a therapist's help otherwise in my life: I feel like I am constantly disappointed in how people close to me act and the way in which they make decisions, and I want to try to find a way to make peace with that. I certainly can't do it by myself.
So that's it. I am going to be posting here more often, but about what I don't know. All my opinions will be either on the podcast or in the articles I'm writing. I will certainly post those here when they are up and we'll have to see what else I feel like posting about.
I have a new awesome little laptop (it's a great HP - 4 gigs of ram, very small, as I've always wanted - fastest laptop I've ever had) and I'm hoping that makes me more comfortable taking it places and working on whatever I need/want to work on (very possibly this blog).
My blog is also now embedded in my myspace, so now you only need to go to one place to see new pictures of me, here my acoustic bullshit, read my blog bullshit, and look at the list of my one thousand favorite movies/tv shows and music. You lucky dick!
But yeah. Wish me luck. I need it.
- chuckstaton
PS - check out the podcast, Brad has an awesome voice - www.seniordiscountmusic.com
Senior Discount has gone into overdrive in recent weeks. Sort of. The rest of the band is actually doing less work than normal (as, for a period of time, we had shows weekly, and now I believe we'd had/have a total of four scheduled from 1/10/09 - 3/13/09.
The deal is that the work on the website and our EP (which will be launched together) has really picked up. I decided not to wait for the (at least four) people who kept telling me they would help me. I do not consider myself an expert in web design or HTML (my main source of income comes from a job that is exactly that - but I will say that a landscaping website is very different in design than a punk rock band who creates constant new content, including music, videos, podcasts, shows, flyers and whatever else we can think of - oddly enough, the more professional things need to get, the simpler the design...also, my main HTML tasks with my actual job are more e-mail printing/scanning/quote-sending based, since I already have finished designing their website). Yeah, with the S*D website, I am going to need help.
I've gotten some - Natalie Holl, who met at White Noise Records, is a wonderful and sexy woman who does professional photography for us (of which we desperately needed when considering the *new* band lay-out, and all my design ideas), but besides that, it's basically been me doing any and all design/HTML work.
Tom's new boyfriend Devlin is on the team to help with web design, but so far has not been very fruitful (despite how "full of fruit" I assume he must be behind closed doors). I'm sure he will come through and help with the small tasks I need help with, at some point.
During the final stages (that we are almost in) I am almost positive I will have to call on the knowledge of sir/doctor Jordan Furtado. Jordan set up our past four websites (yep, there have been four, including a pre-Tom Wells S*D site) to finalize the HTML stuff. I also believe I will need to find someone who is familiar with myspace HTML - I've got a lot of it down besides the final stuff (if you know someone who does it - please tell them to email me at chuckstaton@gmail.com).
But the design is very much on its way. We're also trying to finish up our EP (which is also neccessary for the launch of the site, and actually more the main reason FOR it). This is a pain in the ass. White Noise Records has closed its' doors (who would have been our label for the upcoming S*D full-length) and they were the ones doing the EP with us. Fortunately, we recorded all the drum parts before they closed, so we are finishing the vocals, bass, guitar, acoustic guitar/bass, violin, etc. in other places.
My idea for the new site is constant content. I want people to be able to check the S*D site every Monday and KNOW there will be something new for them to check out and interact with. That will happen, which leads me to my next new thing...
Agreeing To Disagree: The Chuck and Brad Podcast - this is my new podcast with my good friend Brad. Basically, the truth of it is that the podcast will take over a lot of what this blog used to be. Any updates or opinions on situations/technology/movies/music/etc from me will be there, discussed with Brad. We also are focusing on local music as well, so we're going to try to do band interviews (the first one was Penrose, who cancelled at the last minute - completely explained in our newest podcast, posted about two hours ago at www.seniordiscountmusic.com) and we're playing local RI music the entire time in the background. Tons of RI bands have signed on so it's going well. The podcast will have a new episode weekly.
With all that S*D stuff - the truth is that one of my new goals is to make it so that Senior Discount can be our full-time job. I want Sousa, Christian and Tom to be able to quit their jobs and work for the band. I basically do band stuff 24/7, and I think if we could all focus on it the same way, we would get a ton more done. On top of that - I oftentimes feel gypped(sp?) and bitter about how much time I spend on this, while the other guys are out making money (they each make between two and three times what I make, because they focus on that while I focus on the band). So when that happens I tend to peeter out (I feel like I've heard that expression before?) because I get depressed about it.
The way I'm trying to get the money thing rolling is a combination of two things...a booking agent, and sponsorships. We don't need a lot of money to live. If we could play shows constantly (as constantly as the rest of the band works) we could make a fair amount of money, and if we could get local sponsorships, it would help a ton as well.
Why would businesses ever give us money?
Well here's why: Online, we generate about 2,200 unique visitors on the myspace per month (and this is taken at a time when we haven't released an album in two years, and our main site is completely shut down - our numbers our normally much much higher than this), we're going to be doing the podcast weekly (during which we can plug the sponsors), we're going to have a huge main website soon, as well as obviously continue playing out - the total attendance of Senior Discount shows in the the 60 days from November 29th - Jan 28th was around 3,400 people. On top of all that we obviously are constantly promoting ourselves on myspace and in REAL LIFE!
Again - I'd like to reiterate - these are all numbers from our downtime stuff (right now, when we're focusing on recording, mixing and new web design). They will jump incredibly when our new site and album are launched (especially as it's a FREE album). We've already been approached by RI Hosting - small web company, and they sponsor us (they pay for us to have unlimited space and bandwith on their servers for our new website and EP). I think that these numbers combined with our history could attract some small-time local investors. I'm thinking stuff like In Your Ear music in Warren, Ray Mullin's (guitar shop), Antonio's Pizza in Providence, maybe Club Hell or a local Providence publication, Newbury Comics (New England-based), Rod's Grille, Del's Lemonade, the Comedy Connection, etc etc.
I think of a place like, say Antonio's Pizza paying us a certain amount of money per week or so for a spot on our myspace, our website, a mention in the weekly podcast, and an advertisement on our merch table, may be a low-risk and easy investment on their part. They also get the allure of, instead of paying for advertising space, actually sponsoring local artists (which is much more respectable).
I also want to look at national advertisers (which would be much more difficult). Even just one big investor (be it clothing, music, alcohol, condoms, etc) could mean a great deal of money. There are a lot of weird sponsorship deals around. Steve-O was sponsored by the clothing company XYZ long before Jackass even started; there's a group of jackass-like idiots called like, The Crazy Idiots who are not famous whatsoever and they are sponsored by at least three different clothing companies - these deals can be incredibly lucrative.
Also, when I say the Senior Discount "history" - on top of those numbers, here's a short list of things we've done:
- Three out of the four of us have college degrees (in Film, Communications, and Elementary Education)
- Senior Discount has played over 200 shows in states such as RI, MA, VT, NJ, NY, PA, and CT.
- Have opened for Gym Class Heroes, Girl Talk, Boys Like Girls, The Bravery, The Ataris, Leftover Crack, Just Surrender, A Wilhelm Scream, the Street Dogs, Zox, Bad Larry, Westbound Train, Monty Are I, Daly's Gone Wrong, Big D and the Kids Table, Brain Failure, Catch 22, Darkbuster, Stealing Jane, Rehab, River City Rebels, Jimmy's Chicken Shack, Someday Providence, Mickey Avalon, Streetlight Manifesto, Sasquatch and the Sick-A-Billys, the Bloodshot Hooligans, Tip The Van, The Loved Ones, MC Lars, Badfish, Mastamindz, Whole Wheat Bread, Suburban Legends, Patent Pending, and many many more.
- Senior Discount's debut (and so far, only) album, "There Were Four Who Tried...", has gotten many reviews from all over, including very positive reviews from Razorcake (CA), Hussieskunk (OH), Plug-In Music (PA), Rock Is Life (MA), Suburban Horror (CA), Upstarter (ID), as well as The Unbound Zine (Canada), and No Front Teeth (The UK). They feel that they've gotten their most important reviews from the historic Maximum Rock N Roll (CA), which boasted, "These guys can rock and scream….a strong full-length," and the revered AbsolutePunk.net, which stated "The band really acts out their emotions….Every track from the album is an anthem to punk rock's principles."
- Their one full-length film ("VBW Attack: The Senior Discount Movie") led to the band selling out a 350-person capacity movie theatre for the premiere, and the subsequent DVD release for the film garnished a win for "Best Comedy" in the 2008 Indie Gathering Film Festival (which is one of the top 25 film festivals, as rated by MovieMaker Magazine). Their film also got shining reviews from Punk Globe (CA) which said "It's well done, it astounded me. These guys are having fun," and The Noise (Boston) which reported "...let's just say that this DVD is gold and that the band, and those with them, have some mighty winds at their sails."
- The national television network G4 has bought footage from the film, started airing the clips in late 2008, and continues to air them. Senior Discount's online videos have achieved over 30,000 views on streaming video websites, and have also sold footage to the web site Break.com.
- In 2007 and again 2008, Senior Discount won the Providence Phoenix Best Music Poll for Best Punk Band - two years in a row. The Phoenix has received many awards for excellence in journalism, including honors from the New England Press Association, the American Bar Association Gavel Awards, the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards and many more.
- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones personally picked Senior Discount as one of the top five bands in the contest to open for the MMB's at their Hometown Throw-Down show show on New Years Eve '07/'08.
- Senior Discount were also semi-finalists in the 2008 95.5 WBRU Rockhunt, a yearly contest held by WBRU, which is frequently named one of the best radio stations in the country by numerous trade magazines such as Billboard and Rolling Stone - Rolling Stone named it best radio station in the country in a medium size market three years in a row, the only radio station ever to achieve that. WBRU also had Senior Discount play their "Rock Hunt kick-off" show on Jan 23, 2009, and before that Senior Discount played the 2008 WBRU Birthday Bash at the specific request of Girl Talk, a very popular mash-up DJ - Girl Talk's album "Feed The Animals" was named Time Magazine's #4 album of the year (out of 10) in 2008.
That's nothing to sneeze at. Especially from a local perspective - we've been tethered to Rhode Island for our entire time as a band (because we were all graduating - I got my degree as recently as Jan 09!) so we've basically all had full-time jobs or full-time college careers (or both) up until this point.
So yeah, I'm talking to my buddy Arcello about that, and I'm talking to anyone I can about the booking agent part. I really want to just open for Whole Wheat Bread, Big D and the Kids Table, or someone else like that on a tour where they are headlining. A band we have a previous relationship with that we feel like we have achieved the right status to open on a tour of that size. (If you know any booking agents - please tell me - chuckstaton@gmail.com).
But yeah that's my viewpoint there. If we could launch the new site and the new free EP and do a tour right then, along with a booking agent and some sponsors, I'd be one happy pappy.
On top of all that - I've also decided that I should make a move into journalism. Why? Maybe because English was my strongest subject in school. Maybe because my highest GPA in college with in my creative writing class (3.9). Maybe because I constantly write, feel I'm good at it, and enjoy it?
It also has to do with the fact that I feel there are certain areas that I'm knowledge-able in, and certainly study. The main field, of course, being film.
After that is television, video games, technology, and music. I put music last because I feel that music is just so oddly subjective that its difficult to criticize, and also because I'm not huge on "trends" which seems to be something that is looked at as actually a respectable thing in music critique-ing.
Anyway - I've gotten a job at a new nightlife publication in Providence called "The In-Prov" (the title may change - or maybe has changed - it hasn't come out yet so I don't know).
So far I've written one piece about reality television (taken and cleaned up from this blog) and one piece about the blink-182 reunion. I also have currently assigned to me a review of the GTA DLC game for Xbox 360, a review of the T-Mobile G1 with all of the advancements it's made in its first three months, and a review of the Monty Are I show at Club Hell next weekend.
The job is non-paid for now, but they are planning on paying us eventually. Truthfully, everything starts up small so I am dedicated to writing, and hopefully being looked at as a hard-worker/team-player so that when checks do start being written, I will be awarded and given the opportunity to continue being a team-player and earning my checks.
Worst case scenario - I get some stuff published, and if I find out I will not be getting compensated, then I will at least have some articles and resume' to give to somewhere else when I look for another job.
I honestly feel that I'm a good writer, I'm at least slightly clever, and that I can give an informed and informative (those are two different words) opinion/critique of things that fall within my area of "expertise".
In doing everything I've just mentioned, I've developed a crippling case of insomnia. I suppose this comes because I get in bed and constantly think of all things in my Google Calendar that I'm scheduled to do the next day. I have a constant schedule, seven days a week, when it comes to working on Senior Discount music, the Senior Discount website, booking shows, trying to get Tom to help me book shows, promoting shows, designing the flyer for every show, PLAYING shows, practicing, working (extremely slightly) on music, trying to contact people to help me with web design, new ideas for the band (like the sponshorship one), fixing the van (which has been back and forth to the mechanic FIVE times now for one problem that he seemingly can't fix), figuring out how to pay off our debts (I will admit they are small ones), promoting the band in general, trying to push our new song to finish getting mixed/trying to push the recording of the rest of our instruments for our OTHER new songs, organizing photoshoots for all the new web stuff, recording/editing the podcast, talking to bands about the podcast, doing the graphics/posting/RSS-feeding the podcast, figuring out what my next article will be, actually experiencing the music/movie/game/etc that the new article will be, writing/researching it - and this is all on top of my actual job (which I dont really have to schedule, as I'm constantly told alerted whenever I need to do things), taking care of my actual life (paying my bills, taking my car in to get fixed, spending time with my hot girlfriend), and also the regular stuff that comes up (attending planned events, doing errands, going to family functions - which come up more than they need to, and in general spending time with all the people in my life).
I think I lay down and think "I have to do these 17 things tomorrow. I can definitely get 7 done tonight." and then I try to push that out of my head. But of course I cannot. I think that maybe it just comes from a feeling of being overwhelmed combined with an extreme worry. I am always extremely worried about the next step. I simply want to take the next step and basically have us all make a small amount of money working for the band. That would make it a million times easier for all of us and that really bothers me constantly.
I feel like I can never get my mind to slow down when it comes to art and figuring out how to make my devotion to art a feasible project. I don't think I could be happy without it.
So I want to start going to a therapist. I have a regular doctor's appointment in late March and I will ask him about it then. Maybe I can get some Ambien? I don't know anyone who takes it but I am interested.
I'd also like a therapist's help otherwise in my life: I feel like I am constantly disappointed in how people close to me act and the way in which they make decisions, and I want to try to find a way to make peace with that. I certainly can't do it by myself.
So that's it. I am going to be posting here more often, but about what I don't know. All my opinions will be either on the podcast or in the articles I'm writing. I will certainly post those here when they are up and we'll have to see what else I feel like posting about.
I have a new awesome little laptop (it's a great HP - 4 gigs of ram, very small, as I've always wanted - fastest laptop I've ever had) and I'm hoping that makes me more comfortable taking it places and working on whatever I need/want to work on (very possibly this blog).
My blog is also now embedded in my myspace, so now you only need to go to one place to see new pictures of me, here my acoustic bullshit, read my blog bullshit, and look at the list of my one thousand favorite movies/tv shows and music. You lucky dick!
But yeah. Wish me luck. I need it.
- chuckstaton
PS - check out the podcast, Brad has an awesome voice - www.seniordiscountmusic.com
Sunday, February 8, 2009
My First Podcast
Check out the new podcast I'm doing with my buddy Brad!
Click here to go to our temporary podcast homepage - the new Senior Discount site will be the main host - until then, thanks for your patience!
Click here to go to our temporary podcast homepage - the new Senior Discount site will be the main host - until then, thanks for your patience!
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