This is one of my favorite recent photos.

I have tomorrow off, so I'm going to Trader Joes, the tailor, and the guitar store to get a stand for my new banjo.

Life is good.  That is all.  

Congratulations Caleb!  Artadia Finalists list 2009.

Boston Healing Blog and Youth Team Fundraiser

I've started to write a blog for Massage Therapy Works in Davis Square (AWESOME PLACE, btw). Check it out here: Boston Healing Blog.

Also, James Caroline, Ryk McIntyre, and Myself are performing for The Boston Youth Slam Team Fundraiser this Friday, July 10, at 6pm at Cloud Place in the Back Bay. $10 suggested donation and all proceeds go to send the Youth Team to Nationals.

the kindness of strangers

On my way to a photoshoot yesterday my car broke down on RT 2.  I pulled over to the shoulder and called AAA.  I was wearing a pin-up dress, my new Fluevogs, and big sunglasses reading a book of poetry leaning against the guardrail with a corset and 5-inch heels in my bag.  In the thirty minutes it took for the tow truck to arrive, five, count them, five, men pulled over to the side of the road to ask if I needed any help.  One even said he had seen me from the other side of the highway, exited, and gotten back on in the other direction just to come to my rescue.

Context is a funny thing.  I wonder if I hadn't been dressed like that how many people would have come to "help" me.

Mission Statement

Why Backstage at The Caribou?

I believe that the old models of publishing are becoming as obsolete in literature as they have become in music, journalism, film, and visual art.  

It is impossible to commodify a piece of art once the physical component has been antiquated. Once the record, magazine, book, film, print, etc is not necessary and the work is translated into easily replicated and distributed ones and zeros, our capitalist model fails. The model of supply and demand cannot be applied to an economy of ideas.  

If it will be possible to make a living as an artist in the future, we will not be able to make much money by "selling" our product.  Money will need to be made by corresponding appearances, commissions, and gigs booked around either free or very low-cost product.

Even most traditionally published writers have not made the bulk of their money from the books themselves, but from these appearances, commissions, and gigs, just like most traditionally signed bands don't make much money from the music itself, but from the whirlwind of opportunities that come with being a RockStar.  

We used to need publishers or record labels to generate these opportunities.  Now we do not. We've seen many indie musicians circumvent the record labels over the past five years. Publishing on the other hand is older and slower to let go of tradition. 

Regardless, the publishing industry as it stands will not be able to sustain itself for much longer. The modern reader lives half of his or her life in an abstract digital world.  Paper books alone cannot reflect this world accurately.  

If we look at it the right way, we are living in an extremely exciting time for artists.  It's almost like being the first generation with access to the printing press.  What we do with this magnificent gift from thousands of preceding generations is now up to us.  

I'm up for it.  Are you?

Pike Hoses

Taking this abnormal psych class has brought up some interesting emotions.  

The book is clearly geared toward young college students, for instance, I a lot of the case studies are "Steve is a 21-year-old college student," "Mary is obsessed with getting straight As," "Bilbo sought the advice of the campus counselor," and so on.  The book itself is bringing me back to when I was that age, not to mention the book is about abnormal psych, and college was the time when my depression and OCD were at their most incorrigible.

I can't help but think if I had been able to get those problems under control sooner how much farther along I'd be now.  Maybe I'd have a full-time job now, or I'd have made better writing connections earlier, or I'd have moved to the city when I was younger, or I'd just have gotten better grades.  

Now that I know I can live with these things without medication and maybe even channel them into positive outcomes, I am kicking myself that I didn't figure that out sooner.

I spent two hours on the phone crying to my mom last week after reading two chapters of my homework.  All the statistics of unemployed and financially dependent people with mental disorders may have gotten to me.  Or maybe it was just the memories.

All this pathos makes me think I'm moving in the right direction.

PS: I am apparently the last to know that Neil Gaiman is now dating Amanda Palmer.  I guess I have to start listening to her music.

As it is written...

... so it shall be done.

Backstage at The Caribou.

A new chapter every Monday for forty weeks. Spread the word.