A Bard's Real World Blog
Journal, Blog, News, and Diary

Anyone up for a swim?
I just got done watching the most incredible movie, I Am Sam with Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer. Oh my gosh, it was incredible. I've been treading water in the tears that've been pouring outta my eyes. Two hours of laughing and crying. Absolutely beautiful. Grab a box of kleanex and go watch it.

The Secret World of Celtic Rock

That's the working title for my next Celtic compilation CD. Whatcha think? I've a bunch of great Celtic bands lined up for this album, like The Rogues, Black 47, Heather Dale, Irish Experience. Still putting it together, but I think I'm gonna start serious work on it in the next couple weeks.

For some great Celtic Rock bands, check out The Rogues, and, of course, Black 47.

Oh, and check out the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine's Celtic rock suggestions.

The Cat's Meow... *snicker*

Torre got in the way of my recording this evening. So I made the most of it. Hear my tabby cat purr and meow in this cat audio file.

A Bard Camping Trip

I've been wanting to have a bardic camping trip for a long while. Just two second ago, I decided I should get off my arse and start seeing if people'd be interested in singing around a campfire this summer. Been wanting to go back to Lost Pines for a while.

Anyone interested?

Expect to bring your singing voice, an instrument, and good humor.

Inspired

Man, I've been wayyy inspired recently. I think a lot of it has to do with playing on the South Mall. I soooo love that. Yesterday, I wrote a bunch of blogs and such. Even gotten back to work on my Bards Crier Music Promotion Blog. That's purty impressive to me. Just need to stick with it. Considering it's that website that will largely insure that I'll be doing music next year, I definitely should spend more time with it.

Oh, looks like we're gonna be performing at the next Austin Celtic Association and Austin Gaelic League meetings. I hope to have more info soon.

A relaxing way to practice
One of the reasons I feel I've been so inspired to record is that Andrew and I've been practicing a bit more... on the South Mall. Yeah, it's nice to be out there again and watching the people walk by and smile as we sing our songs. It's just a shame that the long-session is almost over.

Pleasant Peasant Pheasant Plucking Song

Forgot to mention that I uploaded a rough version of this song that you can listen to. Love to get some feedback. I'm on a nice recording rampage right now... okay, two days, but hey that's more than I've been doing. You can listen to it at my Free MP3 Music Download of the Month.

eBay Gone Mad

Well, the dress price is falling, it seems. Last night it hit $99million. Now it's down to $25K. Still ridiculous, but... hey the hits to the webpage is now up to 2.5 million... I don't think that can drop?

Oh and in case ye dropped by earlier, I posted a wee article about eBay going mad and other ridiculous websites. Please share it with your friends. I'd sure love to get 2 million webpage hits. :D

What a sad, pathetic life I lead... This is better than watching Oprah!

Mind you, my interest is strictly from an internet marketing standpoint (yeah, right)!

I'm in freakin' tears

I got an email today about a wedding dress on ebaby. I thought the text about the dress was pretty durn funny. But there's nothing funny about someone wanting to spend eight hundred thousand dollars on a wedding dress.

I'm befuddled. I just can't imagine. But the viral marketing here is just friggin brilliant... I should be so lucky!

Will they be held accountable to pay that?
I just can't imagine.

Relaxing weekend without Jibber Jabber

Howdy! Miss me. Me too. hehe ;)

Great weekend. Nice and relaxing watching wayyy too many movies, but somewhat productive. I did a lot o'work on the Celtic MP3s Music Magazine. I started adding individual pages to all my Featured Celtic Bands. I still have a LOT of bands to add, but hey, at least I got started at long last, eh?

Oh, and I also FINALLY sent out my Celtic ezine which I haven't done in a month or so. Even started preparing the next few weeks issues.

You'd think it'd be pretty easy, since they're just features. For the most part, it's not like I'm really reviewing bands. I'm just featuring. All I have to do is find bio info. But then, you'd be surprised at how difficult that can be. Bands are horrible at providing useful info in bios. Really gives you a decent perspective publishing a newsletter like this. I need to go back through my own bios and rewrite. One day...

Also, published my latest Bards Crier music marketing tip for promoting through Amazon.com.

Then last night, I got some non-web stuff done. Started compiling reviews and what not for a book I'm putting together. It's a book of reviews for Things Celtic. I'm hoping offering a book of reviews AT Things Celtic will help them sell more CDs, since a lot of the bands are local bands and not too well-known. Course, FINDING reviews for a lot of these bands ain't the easiest thing either.

But I figure people might be able to submit their own reviews too... Maybe I can setup a webpage for that? Or just direct them to the Austin Celtic Association website to do it in the forums. That's probably a wiser move.

And the Final thing I did this weekend was something I've been wanting to do for a while. I'm gonna publish my Bards Crier articles and distribute them around Austin. The hope is to help educate Austin-area bands on music promotion, and I've a lot of great articles. Plus, mayhaps I'll be able to garner more traffic and build up a greater local rep as one of the top key people in the music industry of Austin.

I thought it was kinda funny that my sister didn't realize a bit about my success. A couple years ago, one of the top Indie music websites online, Indie-Music.com published an article that listed me as one of the top 15 people to know in the music business. That's all because of the work I've done with the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine. Never been to good at tooting my own horn.

Okay, enough jibber jabbering. Slainte!

Reminiscing my music business beginnings
It was the Fall of 2002. I was living in an apartment on Riverside with my friend, Jason. My brother moved in with me. He was living on our couch while looking for a job in Austin. He'd hooked up with a high school buddy who was now an Amway distributor.

I remember sitting at our dinner table as they presented the case and asked, "What are your dreams? Big cars, a house, expensive stereo? Wouldn't it be cool if you could...?"

Somewhere in there they inspired me. Deep down inside I remember being a kid. My mom's old record player was playing, "I Gotta Know", the B-side of "Are You Lonesome Tonight" by Elvis Presley. I was pretending to be Elvis, singing my lungs out.

I was hooked. I signed up with Amway and started going to the conventions and spending too much money.

I bought my first electric guitar, an Elektra. I chatted with my friend Johannes in our United Campus Ministry organization at UT about jamming. Plugged in my guitar into that tiny Peavy amp. I had written a few songs over the previous two years of college. They were crap, but we enjoyed jamming to them as well. I was resolved to become a full-time musician.

A couple years later and too much money wasted, I finally left Amway, but the seed was planted. I had a brief spell with Johannes in my band Skander. It didn't last long, so I found a band that wanted it... Conversion Factor. After a reorganization, I left the band and they became Plow Monday. I started managing them, and booking gigs.

It was around 1997. My brother decided to started a website, the Texas Musicians Network. I joined up with him and started using some of those web skills I learned at work. It got me deep involved with the local music scene.

I started learning how to promote music. I started reading and studying music every day at the Texas Department of Health. I spent too much time on it. Eventually, he website became too much work to maintain, and another costly business venture.

Soon, I started up my next band, Breastfed. Our first gig was in December 1996 at the Voodoo Lounge. I wore a painted milk mustache and played guitar (not very well). We had a temporary drummer, but after adding a guitarist "Black-eyed Billy" and seeing I was serious, he joined up full-time. Billy didn't work out, so we got a new guitarist. He was decent songwriter and fan of Sheryl Crow, but had the lead guitar ego which ultimately ended the band.

I picked up the autoharp and started writing songs. In 1998, I recorded a solo album "Ichabod's Geography", quit my job and started managing and booking bands full-time... It was another disaster, but I was learning a lot. So by the time, the Brobdingnagian Bards had started in January 1999, I'd had seven years in the music business and finally had a decent understanding of the biz.

I look back. Twelve years in the business. I've learned a LOT. Yeah, there's still a lot to learn too. I've a strong grasp of internet promotion and building fan bases, starting businesses, and developing a profitable products. I've learned a lot about performing in front of audiences. I've learned a lot about friendship.

I find myself frustrated though. I look at bands and musicians who still don't get it. And often, I don't have the ability to explain the whys. I know what I know. Much of it is intuition now. I just know. But I can't seem to get my point across so they will know.

I guess they just need to do the same. Spend lots of time learning about the business. Listen. Study. And mayhaps one day, they'll look back and do their own reflection on how far they've come.

Lookie, lookie, it's Dougie!

Saturday night, I got to see Dougie MacLean perform live at the Cactus Cafe. If ye ever were looking for a model of a successful Celtic songwriter, Dougie is your man!

At over twenty dollars a head, he packed the Cactus on his whirlwind tour of the US that includes five gigs in a just a week's time. If every venues is as successful as the Cactus', wow!

Before this weekend, I confused Dougie MacLean with a couple of the other notable Scottish songwriters, but no more. He has a knack for writing beautiful, thought-provoking songs. Scottish folk songs are best-known for their sing-along-ability. You can tell that Dougie MacLean as master of that tradition.

He put on a captivating and inspiring performance that left me anxious to hear more (yeah, I bought a CD too). By all accounts, I can list myself as a fan of Scotland's "songmaker". If you're looking for great Celtic songwriting, Dougie MacLean is a must for your music collection.

Special note: At the end of the show, there was an encore. I heard someone shout out, "You can't leave without playing 'Caledonia'." A word to the wise, NEVER tell a musician what to he can and can't do. If I was in his shoes, I might not, just to spite the bastard. In any case, he did not play the song.

Elvis Presley Tartan

Cool. Found out through Highlander Radio that someone has created a Presley Tartan to celebrate the King of Rock'n'Roll. LOL! Too darn funny... and I need to get one. What can I say, I'm an Elvis fan.

Speaking of which, if ye get a chance head over to Highlander Radio and request a song by me or the Brobdingnagian Bards.


Pubcrawler CD is a helluva lotta fun!
Finally, listened to the new Pubcrawler. I love it! Vocals aren't great, but you can tell they are having a LOT o'fun. Hope to publish a full-fledged review in a few days. Also, check out Carey Street and Gilmer & Moore's new CDs. They rock, too! And you can get them all from Things Celtic, Celtic gifts in Austin.

Oh, and if you know ANYONE who owns Christy Moore's 1976 album Christy Moore, let me know. I really want to purchase a copy of that album. After some research over the past few days, I'm about 95% certain that that is the album I Learned "Lanigan's Ball" and "Johnny Jump Up" from. But sadly, it's no longer in print. :(

Productive weekend

Good weekend. Got a lot done. Finally got around to cleaning my place. You can walk around it now. Woohoo! Still a wee bit more to do, but at least tonight I can focus on business and not trying to find stuff.

Missed the session though. *sigh* I remembered a couple things I had to do, and then lethargy struck home. So I stayed home with it. Ah well. It's nice to feel a sense of accomplishment.

No Pants Day rapidly approaching!

Doh! Just saw in an Austin LJ community that No Pants Day is rapidly approaching. Hmmm... Been wanting to get more involved in that honorable event. Course, we have "Donald, Where's Your Trousers? Medley", but I want to contribute more. So maybe I'll see what I can write this weekend.

May 7th is No Pants Day, so get yourself ready!

A parking I will go...
Yippeee! Half day at work. I'm going to the park. Wish I brought some shorts. Maybe'll skip home really quick.

Tonight, work out and record.
Saturday, record.
Sunday. Mozarts to catch a Old Timey band I heard about last night from someone at my LOTR Meetup. Then hit the Irish session.
Monday, bard biz.
Tuesday, College Station gig with Brazos Valley Celtic Association at Carney's Irish Pub.
And next Weds, going to the Austin Celtic Association meeting where I'll be part of the reading of Juno and the Paycock, an Irish play that our local director is running.

Busy, busy. One more hour to go...

Creeping by...
Kinda really really bored. Day is creeping by. Kinda tired of chatting on messenger and emails. It's starting to drive me crazy. Good thing my computer's been crapping out on me. Tired and uninspired.

Uck! Saw on Movie and TV News they're doing a sequel to Dungeons & Dragons. I mean, c'mon, the original movie was bad enough. Please don't bury it. Though I'd LOVE it if they actually did something decent.

It really doesn't help that it's an absolutely GORGEOUS day outside. Ahhh... Another summer where I'll be longing to be a full-time musician. Well, gotta take care of biz first. See what happens with the booking and whatnot. Then make a plan. I have a rough one, but Andrew's not gonna like it. So I hope his works out...

On other news, as of next week, I'll officially no longer be a board member of the Austin Celtic Association. Yipppeeee! I think board meetings are a waste of time for me. I don't have much to offer. I think I prefer small, intimate committees where people get stuff done.

And I'll still be on the Newsletter committee (as well as managing the website). I'm hoping in a month or so we'll finally resolve some of those issues and get the newsletter back in the mail, or determine a better alternative. At the very least, we have a few people interested in helping to create the newsletter. The ACA really needs focus on that aspect. Right now, we're getting ready for a survey to find out how we can serve the community best. If ye have any thoughts on it, or (would) like to write Celtic articles, let me know.

Nothing like writing to inspire you to write, huh?

Blasted spam. Gotta a company spamming my links database. Tss!

The gym is going well. Been working out three times a week, the past couple weeks. Feels great after work too. And I don't find myself getting bored, like I used to. I still feel gyms are just kinda silly ideas, despite the, somewhat, necessity of them in this zombified, computer-driven age.

Okay, I've rambled on long enough. Ciao fer now!

Serendipity Cinema

While visiting my friend C Wayne Owens in Missouri this past winter, we were chatting about building him a website. He excels at finding brilliant gems in the form of obscure movies. I thought he should add that as a special feature to the website. He beat me to it with Serendipity Cinema, a weekly feature of a movie you probably haven't seen but should. Check it out! (should be updated very soon)

Let The Hobbit Happen!

I got duped yesterday while reading the Lord of the Rings 87 yahoogroup. It was the one April Fool's gag I fell victim to when TheHobbitFilm.com posted a press release in conjunction with theonering.net saying The Hobbit would be directed by someone other than Peter Jackson.

Fortunately, some people read things more carefully than I do. So I figured it out yesterday, but it wasn't until today that all became clear. TheHobbitFilm.com is leading up a Letter Writing campaign to get the movie produced. So head over there and see how you can help out.

Scots What Hae Wi MACBETH Bled

Next year, Lorella Loftus is directing a production of Shakepeare's MacBeth here in Austin. She plans to take an exciting direction with the play by basing it when and where it would've taken place which is about in the 11th century. MacBeth would've been from North Scotland.

During this period the Celts and Picts were first coming into conflict with one another. She also wants to incorporate things like Scots Gaelic and such into the play. And she asked my email with some promotion of the event.

So this got me thinking of big movie stuff. Ye know how before a movie is released there's usually a LOT of stuff preceding the event that creates a huge smashing buzz by the time it actually comes out.

So my thought is to do the same with MacBeth. I figured that'd be great timing for the release of our next CD, Real Men Wear Kilts, and mayhaps we could incorporate some other things in the Austin community that'd lead up to the event as well. So... I'm looking for thoughts or suggestions from others.

What do you think about when you think of MacBeth? Shakespeare? Scotland? What would thing that'd draw people's attention? Thoughts?

If you have any, I'd like to keep them all in one place. If you could leave them in my forum, I'd appreciate it.

I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy... of Google
Man, the folks at Google just totally kick ass! I love seeing brilliant marketing and thusfar, Google is the sh*t!

Yesterday, I heard that they are preparing to start their own free mail server like Yahoo and Hotmail. The big difference is the Google genius. No pop-ads. No banner ads. Plus, 1000 MB of FREE storage!

And the genius of it?

Ye know how at the bottom of Yahoo and Hotmail emails you'll see a wee message that says something like "Hotmail http://www.hotmail.com/" or whatever. Well, they'll do the same, only they'll add content relevant text ads which I assume will be a part of the their Google AdWords program.

Imagine. You're chatting with a friend about Celtic music and you see the following ad:

Download free Celtic mp3s
Brobdingnagian Bards are The Original Celtic Renaissance music group with over five million MP3s served. www.thebards.net

April Fools springing up everywhere...

Yeah, I thought briefly about doing an April Fool's gag, but once again decided againts it. A few years ago, I did one that caught a lot of hell as I proclaimed the breakup of the band. Kinda funny actually since the last year has definitely been our roughest yet as we really learn all of our differences.

I don't know. Maybe it's the fact that weather is just so nice, but I can feel Spring in the air at long last. And I'm ready for it. Ready to spend more time outside and to stop and smell the flowers. While Andrew's trying to fill up our gig schedule for the year, I just want to relax and enjoy another summer. Record a wee bit here and there and just have fun.

Mayhaps this weekend when my sister comes out to Excalibur, I'll show her what faire is really all about as we lounge around the site, playing music, meeting people and what not.

Oh, and as a special wee bonus, Coventina's Well - traditional Celtic music compilation CD has arrived at last. I was listening to it last night and just feeling fairly proud. Not only is it a nice sounding CD, but it allows me to help promote a bunch of great artists.

I can't even wait to start my next compilation. Mayhaps I'll finally take some time at home and complete it. I know Jen is waiting quite impatiently for me to use her Celtic Legacy - fantasy art CD cover (shown here in Stein form). I pretty much have all the songs too. I just need to put it together.

The extra cool bit is that since I'm no longer limited by MP3.com's 60 minutes quota, I can pack the CD full of music. That makes me pretty happy... Hmm? Which raises another thought... I'll work on that.

Well, I hope you find your spring to be as enchanting. And take a listen to "The Lady of Setliff Manor" while you continue to read and surf online.

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Well if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those as well.