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So True. So very true.

Contemporary Savage

In todays American society, there is a certain kind of person I find infesting our streets. Zombies of lust, rage, and the American Way. They are, 'The Contemporary Savage'. These people are the ones committing unthinkable crimes, inside and out, to live the 'contemporary' life, all of them legal. Whether it means thinking like a savage, or acting like one; in todays urban jungle, many would agree that you don't have to look very far to find one. In my personal opinion, the worst savages are the ones that live hundreds of stories over the streets, watching us scurry like mice through a cheese maze from plush leather chairs, and the sound of money falling in the background. Yes, the people living at the top of our culteral console, and controlling a large portion of our day to day world. The only problem is, they are not contemporary.

No, the contemporary savage is the one doing all he can to live our supposed 'middle class' life. The urban jungle calls for an equal supply of intellect, and behavior. Cold, cut-throat tactics are all that will get you ahead here. That is, if you don't possess a well of recources. These people are the ones that will beg borrow and steal to achieve what they feel they have to in order to find happiness, and success. The ones that want to be everywhere they are not, and only see reasons as to why the place they are in is not where they want to be. Considering our current economical status, the statistics of these blood suckers will start to bloat due to poor job markets, and plenty of hungry mouths and late mortgage payments.

Not to get too Zen on you, but it is an important step to finding where you want to be, by learning to accept where you are. In todays fast paced life style, change come and goes so fast, we barely have a solid ground to accomodate ourselves with for very long. But ah, to no avail. This circiumstance could still be percieved as the solid ground we need to make strong, well learned decisions from, as well as find peace. With all of these inner dialogues happening every second, most of them not even you, telling your mind what does, and does not need to get done. And the price of our to-do lists is taxing our world as we know it.

A persons lack of ability to share any compassion with the people close to them, and I dont mean emotioally, with inevitably be their downfall. A good song survives due to good harmony, what makes a species any different. Filled with childhood nostalgia, and promises of wealth, fame and happiness, we search on a never ending path of trials and pitfalls, never quite reaching the goal of satisfaction. Greed and gluttony run rampant, and the dead inherit the earth. Emotionless shells of pre-meditated responses and actions, all bred to tell you just what needs to be done to attain the goals you were told you should have.

This is why I live in the suburbs.

Three Essential Sites for Any Musician

The following is a list of the three pages I use and frequent to help utilize, and promote my music, and my friends, digitally. And no, I'm not talking about MySpace.

1. Reverb Nation

Reverb Nation is an essential online promotion tool that every spawning indipendant musician can use to chart and design their growth. Its fun to use, and so full of tools, that there is no reason for you to not use this site. Your most valuable tool is a great looking music widget that contain songs, pics, videos, show dates, and store. You can see in depth stats covering every angle of your on and offline prescence, and even gives you a score on your potential equity as a group, or individual.

2. SnoCap

SnoCap (recently purchased by the Network Site iMeem) is your first stop for turning your tacks into money. If you have an album, or just some songs, or maybe samples, you can set them all up for available download, at a price you determine. You have to make it at least .39 or else the site wont make any profit. Simple to use, and semi-effective, it's a great start for someone with a product to sell. Hopefully we will se some fun new features now that iMeem has purchased the site.

3. Spreadshirt

So maybe you have a logo for your band, but you want to have more product to have it placed on. Well, spreadshirt enables you to be able to paste your logo, or saying, or whatever on to a ton of different kinds of merchandise. Everything from T-shirts and ladies underwear, to pins, messenger bags, hats, and mouse pads. The only down side is you will have to pay at retail price to recieve your own shirts, but it is still better than no product at all.

Three Writers Resources You Need to Use

In todays world, writers have a plethora of utilities and resources available to help you gain a strong foothold on their potential markets. Being an aspiring writer, I currently use all of the services listed, and find them to really help me to improve as a writer, and a business man.

1. Helium.com

Helium is an ingenius writing community, capable of helping to stimulate the creative juices of anyone. Essentially, you browse through the list of topics available to everyone. There is an endless amount of topics, and if you don't find anything that interests you, you can start a topic of your liking. When you choose a topic, you are then included into a pool of other people writing on the same topic. You will then be rated by the other writers in the community against other articles in your category. The higher the rating, the higher the value, the more you make. I love this site, and it can really help you find your voice, and refine your work against others writings.

2. Triond.com

Similar to helium, but not as in depth, in my opinion. You upload articles or pieces you have written and they are avaialble to be picked up by different publications, online, or maybe off, and used for profit. You make a cut, and are paid through paypal.

3. LuLu.com

LuLu is your one stop shop for free self publishing. Whether is is a book, photographs, music, or anything in-between. The downside is that you lose about 60% of your sale to LuLu, but they empower you to have your products available for sale, whether it be download, or hard copy.

A Guide to Cyber PR for Musicicans

Todays musicians need to learn just how important of a role the web will play in their bands promotion. You can do an innumerable amount of things to earn your band exposure, collect fans, send out mass notifications, and earn money. Here is a quick getting started guide to a musicians online PR.

First and foremost, get a Myspace Music Page (Unless you already have one). Myspace sets the standard for online band promotions, and will act as your home base. It isn't necessarily the best, but it has the largest number of users, a great amount of customization, and the ability to sell tracks online(which we will cover later). You get a four track limit, unless you befriend a MySpace affiliate, BoDog.net. Make them your friend, and you get a fifth song for your profile.

Second, go to ReverbNation.com, and set up a profile. Reverb Nation is similar to Myspace, except this entire website is dedicated to musicians. Reverb Nation has a plethora of tools available for the online musician. From music players you can spread accross the web with your music, the ability to get on facebook, and a fan reach widget which lets people add themselves to your email list from your web page. They also have a show schedule widget with map and directions to your shows that is much more functional than the myspace tool. Your music will also be available on the Reverb radio, their website's streaming radio station. You also get a complete statistic section to see how many people are playing your music, from where, and a complete age and gender demographic of who is listening to your music, and submitting to your email list. Pricless.

OK, so you have an online prescence, with promotion, and graphs to understand your bands growth. Now, if you have a digital version of your bands logo, and maybe even a catch phrase, take them to the site, www.spreadshirt.com. Spreadshirt offers you a free printing service of t-shirts, hats, bags, underwear, anything. You pay nothing, and you actually earn about a 30% profit off of every item sold, and you are spreading your seed in the digital and real world. Promote your spreadshirt store from your myspace page, and you can sell from your main hub.

Now you can set your tracks up to be sold. There are two major websites that can enable you to sell your tracks, and both differ greatly in their pro's and con's. I suggest you use both, but you decide what works best for you. The first is SnoCap.com. SnoCap is a free service where you uplaod your tracks, create albums, and then have a digital store, capable to be linked with myspace and reverb nation to sell your tracks online. They take a pretty sizeabe commission from each sale (for every .99 song, you make roughly .59), but its more than your making now. Your SnoCap store can be displayed on your myspace page, just under the songs you are allowing to stream.

The other site is TuneCore.com. TuneCore works similar to SnoCap, but doesn't take a comission, and gives you a barcode for your album so it is retail ready. For a small charge your album can be placed in iTunes Music, Windows Media Player Music Database, and RealPlayer. People can also purchase a physical CD, rather than just a downloadable version.

So there you have it. You now have a great head start to an oline enterprise, and your band can start maximizing your success on, and off, the internet. Enjoy!

The Music Industry is Killing Itself

The music industry is killing itself with its constant feelings of having to manufacture the next big star. The people running these industries are looking only at their pocketbooks, and missing touch with the one thing that actually matters, the music.

People have completely forgotten the thought of doing something for ideal, rather than its marketability. Musicians get lost in dreams of the limelight, and lose complete focus of why they even began their journey in the first place.
The birth of digital music, on line streaming and downloading, all landed huge blows to the industry. Something they just were not prepared for, and a service that tore the whole entertainment industry apart at the seams.

Similar to the strikes in professional sports, Music stars started demanding more security, more compensation, and fighting their potential loss in profit, and the labels doing just the same. Legal ramifications became a mainstay, and the freedom that so much of our best music stood for, suddenly became lost.

Even some of the independent, outsourced labels are finding it difficult to adapt to these new circumstances standing between them, and the mainstream. Mainly because it is no longer a stream, but an ocean of music and artists associating with countless categories of taste and preference.

With the American public becoming bored with the manufactured success created by big record labels and Television Channels like VH1 and MTV, they are starting to find new places to turn. As well, musicians are finding new and innovative ways to distribute themselves to the masses with the medium created by the Internet.

If the Big 5 labels are going to survive, they will have to utilize new and freedom based ways of enticing artists to work with them, rather than treat them like indentured servants, at the disposal of some corporate suit. When a band can release their music world wide, while retaining rights, and making near 100% profit, it will be difficult to sway someone to the creative blocks created by labels and managers.

A new age of music is being born, as the dust settles from the turn of the century. All we can do, is wait and see who comes out on top of this musical drought we have been instilled in for almost a decade now. Your best bet is to start looking into the cracks of the Internet, and watching who has what it takes to be our savior in these times of darkness.

Reviewing LuLu.com

In todays entrepreneurial world, everyone has a product to be produced. Thanks to the net, and all of the options now available, there are plenty of ways to produce, promote, and distribute products that you come up with, free. Lulu.com is one of these pages that will hand you the opportunity to do all this, with a simplistic interface, and tons of options, paid and not, to keep you working with your product.

Whether you are writing a book, making a CD, or publishing a photography album, LuLu will enable you to keep all of these projects held in one place, and offer you tons of tools to help get the most put of your work. You even get your own website called your Store, simply enough. With your store, all of your products are on display, and people can view a small bio of you, and you can post your contact info.

All of the prices are set by you, and lulu takes a percentage of every item sold. You will make your largest profits working with digital download, because there is no physical product, and you wont have to pay for production, but there is retail space, made to order, or digital options for whatever project you are working on.

If you have something you are developing, or are just not happy with how your current publisher is handling your work, take your career into your own hands. Take advantage of this great service that LuLu is offering, and start your project today!

Drawing Tutorial from MetaCafe

Professional Drawing Tutorial!!! - A funny movie is a click away

Current TV. Your World. Live.

Since August 1, 2005, Current TV has been revolutionizing the way people view their television. Utilizing the aspect that keep people using the internet as their major informational medium, they are displaying special shows to the public through a creative styling, that could change how you absorb information. They use the format that supplies customizable content, and consumer participation, and break the norm of twenty-three minute programs with seven minutes of advertisement filler.

The realm of topics are very encompassing of, and understanding to, the subjects people in the demographic of 18 to 34 are absorbing right now. All shows, dubbed pods, are viewer created, and generally last between 5-10 minutes. Some of the pods are designed by producers for Current, but they remain focused on keeping fresh film makers submitting as often as possible. Granted, some experience in filming, and editing would be a plus, the editors make sure to plug many fresh and new pods full of great content, and full sectrum perspectives. Sudying fashions from all kinds of cities, to secrets of the rainforest, or the thrill of kite surfing.

Taking this idea to the next level, Current TV also has a community based website, located at http://www.current.com/, where you log on, make your profile, and contact other people interested in what current is doing. You can view their television schedule, or watch shows online. leave feedback on everything, with text or video, and find what stories they are looking for people to cover right now. The conversations can go on forever, and may wind up on TV.

The station was pioneered by none other than Al Gore, the Chairman of the Board, has instilled a great role of morals and ethics into the style of programming and direction, so that anyone with a passion will find inspiring, fresh, and interesting. Something for anyone, including the advertisements. Thats right, even some of the ads are designed by viewers as well.

Also on board is Joel Hyatt, Chief Executive Officer and creator of Hyatt Legal Services. A company described as supplying good quality legal services to medium and low income people. With these two individuals helping to steer this company in the right direction, you can only imagine what could come next in their line of ideas to embetter the way people view the world around them.






Carriage:

50 million paying subscriber households in the U.S. and the U.K.. Current is
carried on DIRECTV’s “Total Choice” package on channel 366, Echostar/ Dish
Network’s AT200 package on channel 196. Comcast’s Nationwide Digital Basic
tier on channel 107 and Time Warner Cable’s Nationwide Digital Basic tier.
Current is also available on AT&T’s U-verse Expanded Basic channel 189. In
the U.K., Current is available on Sky Basic on channel 229 and Virgin Media
Basic on channel 155.



By Robert Abby

info from current.com

New Year, New Me

As the New Year approaches, I find that I have not been handed any of the cards I so desperately desired, assuming these things were what I needed to start off the New Year on the Right Foot. Apparently the higher powers have a better idea for whats good for me, becuase I was fired from my job three days before christmas, and all I'm doing now is eating pizza, and smoking cigarettes.

Having this time off has caused me to really reflect upon what I want out of myself, and my career. I find that I have been, in one form or another, brutally tied into the rstauraunt industry as a barnacle on some delapidated old ship, as though I have no intention of letting go. All I have been told since I was a child is that I can do anything, and I suppose I can, only not when I am waiting tables, or tending bar. Apparently everything else I decide to do either doesn't pay enough, or is out of my class.

Well thank god my spineless boss, who couldn't even tell me himself, decided I no longer was an asset to their operation, and let me float on down this river. Ahh, I feel like I'm free falling, and I totally forgot to pack a chute. Life is pressuring me to force some magical answer out of my ass where I can still live my life, and pay my rent. I love it. The only change I see in my near future now, is switching from pizza to Ramen.

A StumbleUpon Capture

Land of the Free

So I have finally, after years of hoping for the opportunity, achieved the ability to snowboard. And I must say, it was by far, the best time I have had in years. As titled in one of my other posts on snowboard.com, She is a Bitch of a mistress, but a bitch you love.

The pain in my bones is by far the most fulfilling pain I have ever experienced The rush of the wind flowing around my body, and the pain of a forward face plant! Unbelievable. If you ski, try snowboarding, if you snowbard, keep doing it. If you can't or havent done either, start! You will hate yourself later.

Even though I don't have the ability to travel out to the west, the experience I had at the Devil's Head Resort in Wisconsin was a good time. Although I think McDonald's has better food, and gives me less heartburn, the atmosphere was light hearted the whole time, and the hills were well tended. It wasn't super crowded considering the decent snowfall, and closeness to the holiday season. I suggest the resort for anyone who is willing for a 2 1/2 hour drive north of Chicago. For the rest of you, happy season, and good luck!

Welcome to December

I must say I am enjoying to see the countries reaction to all of the winter weather we have been recieving over the past few weeks. As we are only a couple weeks into December, and our winter weather is already worlds apart from what we received last year, and the year before. I am a huge fan of Al Gore, and the passions he has taken for the Global Warming front, and I find much humor, and ignorance, in people that refute his, and others, hard evidence.

Although the effects can be seen in daily life, the drastic differences in our weather patterns will be the tell tale signs of just how much of an effect we have been making, and how much more of an effect we can expect from our ecological footprint. All I can say is, thank god I don't own a car.

Falling Through the Net

This fabulous new web page, called StumbleUpon.com, has got to be one of the most addictive browser plug-ins I have ever had the pleasure of using.

Essentially what you are doing is joining the stumble upon community, and marking what areas of the Web you are interested in. After setting your specifications, you download the StumbleUpon tool-bar for your browser. Once installed, all you have to do is click the button that says 'Stumble!', and your off.

Pulling from a rated database of sites from its current users, you travel through some of the coolest, and most fulfilling web pages you probably would have never found otherwise.

I got so addicted so fast that I stumbled for approximately 3 hours straight. Just surfing through new content, and none of it was something I had come accross before. Like I mentioned before, there is a rating system for displaying what you think of the page you are viewing, thumbs up, or thumbs down.

Riddled with options, and features you would expect from a community based site, I suggest everyone should install this bar for your bored time when you stare at your homepage for five minutes wonder where you want to go today, use StumbleUpon to find yourself something new!

To Give Thanks

I am one of those loner people who doesn't have much family around, and even if they were, there wouldn't be much of a Thanksgiving. Besides, ever since my father passed away, and I have been living on my own, I appreciate the ability to sit in my living room, on my laptop, and cook dinner for myself. Then I just relax, enjoy a bottle of wine, and reflect on life.

But what does inspire me, is the adamant nature of everyone surrounding me in this life that are so thoughtful to always invite me to thanksgiving dinner. These holiday times bring the best out of people. Everyone from my best friends, to my co-workers, to others are just associates, and all of them so adamant to keep me from being alone this Thanksgiving.

It is so inspiring, and refreshing to see such a generous attitude from these people, and replenishes that strung out feeling that humanity is an all consuming organism, and that no one really cares. Then these times don't necessarily fight against the consumption point, but does remind me that most people are pure hearted souls who genuinely give a damn about all those people near them.

So I suppose that in the end, I am giving thanks to all those out there who went out of their way to give a lost soul a family home this holiday. Thank you for reaching out to a less fortunate, and being what we all know we can be.

To Blog, or Not to Blog

As a new convert to the blogging revolution, I am having some fun adjusting to this online culture of people who love nothing more than having their thoughts, feelings, and judgements posted online for, potentially, the worl to see. It's a fascinating world of people spreading the seed of knowledge. The question still remains, how many people are actually interested in all of these mindless babbling's that travel through the digital ethers of the Internet.

I would say that the responsibility is on the blogger to be offering content that people may actually find valuable. Whether it is the way you write, the sources you cite, or the place you do it, I would suggest to formulate at least two of those three options. I unfortunately rarely have the patience for citations, so I assume I can rely on the other two options. I would only change my perspective when enough feedback forces me to adapt.

Although my time on the blogoshpere is short at best, I am learning a lot of valuable ways to get that extra exposure that is needed to become a valuable resource for some people.

For those of you out there looking for some practice in article writing, you should definitely look into a web site called Helium.com. Its free to join, they have a great interface, and the articles you post have the possibility to be published for profit. A great learning tool for anyone. For the rest of you, I hope you find blogs useful, rather than just signs pointing at the fact that most people don't care about spelling and grammar.

Online Community Sites and You

Social networking sites have enabled so many in the world to be able to connect with people in ways we have never dreamed of before. The space between you and your social life gets smaller by the second. With all of the options available from more sites than just Myspace and Facebook, you can now become submersed in a world of your interests, your friends(online and off) and connect with so many people at once, it nearly boggles the mind.

Of course Myspace & Facebook are the moguls of the social networking world, but with so many other huge companies trying their hands at this growing fad, the possibilities are going to become endless as far as how we communicate with each other from across the world. I am particularly fond with this new site with a large European community is Virb.com. Virb.com is a smoothed out, and more graphically enhanced version of Myspace. Same general functionality, and same premise. Unfortunately they still have a couple of navigation issues to smoothed out, I really enjoy their interface, and general look of the site. Still, their functionality seems to be a bit more smoothed out than the rest, yet not straying too far from the original formula.

Another great new site by an online mega-site is Yahoo's 360 beta. They are really trying to bring their usefulness to a new level, and tie in everything with info, messenger, blog, video, pictures, everything. They still have a few wrinkles to iron out, but the whole site is creative, fun to use, and great for the yahoo enthusiasts out there. I do find that, in the traditional Yahoo manner, that they are trying to maybe cram too much into too small of a space, but it is in the beta phase, so its nothing a little feedback cant change.

The third and final community site I will talk about is a fairly new organization that is starting a Television and online community, is Current.com. This free interactive website is a community of people discussing and working with current events ranging from alternative arts, to international politics, to sports. Its take on the new, and current events is just the most innovative I have ever experienced. Every hour you get an update on the most popular video searches and google searches on the web, and you can submit your own videos to be aired on TV. Aside from all this it is also a community styled web page, with tons to talk about, people to meet, and groups to follow. If you dont have the Current Channel on TV, you can watch all the shows on your PC. I really enjoy this site, and everything these people have to stand for. the bar has just been raised.

The fact still remains, that Myspace and Facebook have the largest number of people that you will probably either already know, or did know on the web right now. Yet if you want to take a stab at meeting some new people, having different outlets for your creative passions, and broadening that social network, try some of these new options, and spread the love.

Can I Go Home Yet?

One of the worst feelings in thew world for me, are those few moments before I have to actually get up, and get ready for work. And then, the whole time I am there, I am waiting to go home. I cannot be at peace at my job. It just is not a reality.

I see all these other folks who work two jobs, never stop moving, and work 14 hour days. Here I am on my 6 hour day going,'Man I'm tired, is it time to go home yet?'

What can I say, I have never had a strong work ethic when it comes to a restaurant. I have tried. I've been a manager before. I've worked my two jobs before. I think now I am just burnt out. At this point in my life, I would rather sit here all day, and write, than go into the vortex of energy, and sit there while I feel my livelyhood stolen away from me every second I spend standing behind that god-forsaken bar.