Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
Waiting to go on with Filmstar at NorthStar Bar.
Since taking this photo we’ve begun watching the so-far awesome The Way Home, who played with Filmstar long before my joining two years ago. Three and four part harmony, awesome keyboard vibes, acoustic/electric mashup – pushing pretty much all my buttons.
We’re playing next, followed by our esteemed colleagues in Venice Sunlight.
Myth: Vegan food is always a stuck-up meat imitation or utter rabbit food, and of no interest to people who don’t mind a bit of animal in their meals.
Fact: HipCityVeg is vegan fast food your entire office will merrily devour without question.
I am so utterly addicted to this vegan lunch joint at 18th and Sansom that our relationship has become deadly serious. After heading there experimentally with my wall-sharing colleague MK I have vowed to try every delectable item on their chalkboard menu.
I’m not sure what the next step is for us – usually once things get this serious I write a song about the person and/or food establishment I am crushing on.
I started with a Buffalo Bella – a huge portabella mushroom breaded and spiced up in the buffalo fashion. As a pescetarian, one of the few world-of-meat things I ever crave are buffalo ANYTHINGS – because, really, there aren’t many fish-y or veggie things that work well with the classic breading and sauce treatment. Well, this sandwich fits the bill perfectly – it isn’t trying to be chicken at all, it’s huge and luscious and spicy and will gradually explode all over your desk as you eat it as any good buffalo meal ought to.
Also, the best sweet potato fries in creation, paired with ridiculously incredible cilantro-black bean dip.
Fast forward to my next visit. I ordered the same thing (how can you turn that down) when a random woman in line started enthusing to me about the Udon Noodle Salad.
(This is the sort of thing that happens at HipCityVeg. While you are there everyone likes everyone else, but not in a creepy tie-dyed hippy way. People are just friendly in a way that isn’t brought out by a trip to Wendy’s. Did I mention vegan milkshakes? They are so good.)
Based on the recommendation, I picked up the Udon Noodle Salad on my next visit – and it was AMAZING. As utterly addictive as the Bella. I almost shamelessly drank the dressing out of the bottom of the container once I was through.
Almost!
That is when I made my vow to eat my way through the entire menu.
So far everything has been excellent. I would amend the Arugula Taco Salad onto the greatest hits list with my first two selections, as well as their irresistible Groothie. A few items have included fake “Chik’n,” but I don’t feel like it’s trying too hard to be chicken so much as it’s a convenient protein delivery system, happily accepted.
If you work within a few block radius of 18th and Sansom I highly recommend a pilgrammage.
Here’s a public service announcement from the awesome folks at Skeleton Balls comics, because the only election result that will truly make me happy this November is knowing that every one of my friends and readers took the opportunity to vote.
If you aren’t already aware, Pennsylvania recently passed Voter ID law that is effectively a cynical act of voter suppression targeting lower income residents and young people. And, let me speak from experience here, it is an awful feeling to show up to cast your vote and be told you are unable to submit a ballot. Please don’t let that happen to you.
Art and valuable info by Skeleton Balls Comics.
For more information on the Voter ID requirements in PA, see the VotesPA website. They also have a handy polling place look-up tool! Pertinent: Even if you don’t have ID, you cannot be denied your right to vote – you should still be allowed to cast a provisional ballot.
Also, the Pennsylvania Department of Heath is reportly issuing free Birth Certificates, if you need one to get a new PA driver’s license or passport. The webpage only mentions refunds for certifications requested earlier this year, but I think that’s because they’re now for free? Unclear.
Unsure if you are registered already? There’s a simple web look-up tool that will tell you, along with advising on your polling place.
100% turnout, people! Let’s make it happen! The best result of an election is not your favored candidate winning – it is the vast majority of the American people engaging in our electoral process.
With Jake exported to lovely Rochester, New York for little while, Gina and I have retooled our mid-week rehearsal into a sort of combo rehearsal, business meeting, new material audition, and general goofing-off night.
Which, honestly, is not so different than what it was when Jake was around for it, but now it’s been officially christened as such.
One of the things we talked about last night was something that came up over impromptu dinner with Matthew Ebel and Nan at #140Conf in June.
Matthew is an indie musician who is totally on the path of 1000 True Fans – and he makes it work spectacularly with steady touring and releases combined with a subscription service and webcasts. He was also the first ever musical director of the conference. I’ve wanted to sit down and chat with him ever since a brief run-in with him at the 2010 conference, so I was psyched to catch up with him about touring, songwriting, and our shared love of Amanda Palmer.
Eventually, conversation turned to my own motley collection of musical acts. Matthew set down his drink, stared me down across the table, and said, “Who are your fans?”
Now, I’m not so delusional as to think I have a massive fan base across all of my acts, but we’ve accumulating our steady listeners over the years. I began to stammer about them, but Matthew cut me off.
“Look, you’ve got friends who dig you. Fine. That’s not what I asked. I said, ‘who are your fans?’ Your people?”
This is the rabbit hole that Gina and I headed down last night. Matthew’s point to me over that dinner was that it’s all well and good to have fans here and listeners there, but it pays to know who your true demographic is. Twenty-something 70s nostalgics? Steam punk enthusiasts? X-Men fans?
It’s basic marketing, and I do it at work all the time at the start of a new project. We produce ad campaigns towards a specific audience, so why not do the same thing for our music?
I guess some musicians might shy away from this whole concept because it’s not artistic, or some frilly bullshit like that. Whatever. In the old, “find a label to be your patron” model of music, there was some marketing person and their intern out there scrambling to figure out your target audience so you could focus on being an ARTISTE.
Well, now your target audience is your patron, as it should be – and it’s your job to know who they are. Figuring out who they are doesn’t mean you have to write songs just for them or anything like that. It’s just a matter of fishing where the fish are. If all the Star Trek fans dig your music, then you better be playing it somewhere where Star Trek fans congregate. Matthew’s point was that putting together that thousand-plus fans is a little easier to do if they aren’t all one-off transactions.
So, who are our people? I don’t know. People in Philadelphia and People on Twitter are apparently categories too large, and People With an Endless Fascination With the End Times But Not In a Morbid Way might be a little too specific.
We’ll figure it out.
(Thanks to Mr. Ebel for a delightful dinner, and for hopefully being gracious about all of the misquoting of him I just did above. Be sure to check out his Lives of Dexter Peterson.)
I haven’t recorded much new music for you since we moved into our house in 2010, which is downright odd, since now I have an entire music studio to produce in instead of an itty little 12’x12′ home office slash studio slash dressing room slash equipment shed.
The space is a plus and a minus. It’s a plus to not have all of my guitars piled up on top of each other in my walk in closet so I can never play any of them. The minus is, I’m only really working in the studio if I’m working in the studio. Do you catch my drift? It’s not like I’m trying to choose a shirt to wear to a party and taking a quick listen to a mix, or EQing vocals between blog posts.
Just after agreeing to try being a band, as shot by @SuzyMags. Yes, I am wielding a neon green yoga mat, like the fucking rock star I am.
I spent yesterday locked in the studio, building an acoustic track from scratch for my new covers side project, Smash Fantastic.
I know, I know – another project? Am I ever going to make a freaking blog post, let alone focus on a band?
My excuse is that Smash Fantastic really plugged a hole in what I want to be doing. I love cover songs, and I love big-voiced woman. I tend to err in those directions for my own solo sets, but there’s only a pretty specific audience for my covering Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga.
Plus, let’s be honest, when am I every playing solo anymore?
Enter my friend and colleague Ashley. She has the pipes for those sorts of songs, but not an outlet for the sound. After a few months of messing around progressed to having a serious repertoire and a pair of performances, it seemed like time to have a demo.
Thus my day in the studio – first alone, and later with Ashley, covering one of our favorite songs line by line.
It felt really good. Not just the recording of it, but the knowing what I was doing, and the having the space to execute my vision without clearing a pile of clothes from where it was hanging over a microphone stand.
Now I just have to spend enough more time in the studio to turn the sum of 28 multi-track recordings from Arcati Crisis, Filmstar, and Smash Fantastic into actual, listenable songs.
I guess what I’m saying is: new music, coming soon!