Dreams Of Noise

Our buddy Blind Lemming Chiffon is in a bit of a rough patch right now. To help get through it, he has a bunch of nifty collectible books available on eBay. Won't you help?

Sorry I haven't updated here for, jeez, almost two weeks. I'm fine, just spending most of my social time on Facebook. I'll post more often here, I promise.

Meantime, how is everybody? Get through the storms yesterday okay? Everything on track for a decent Thanksgiving?

This is probably a really good time to ask you all about a possible crowdfunding project.

First off, understand that this would be for three purposes: reprinting some CDs that I've run out of or nearly out of (e.g., The Last Hero On Earth and Homecoming: MarCon 2005); getting some spiffy new printings of some of the ones I've been burning myself, complete with actual covers 'n' stuff; and paying for some personal stuff that I need -- dental work, auto repair (or even replacement), that sort of thing. (That precludes Kickstarter, by the way, which doesn't allow fundraising for personal causes. The likeliest site would be Indiegogo or GoFundMe, but I have a few to check out.)

I need to be right up front about that. Neither I nor the economy is what it was six years ago; I'm no longer able to just squeak out a living at filk, not like I did. SocSecDis just about pays my regular bills; my food and any extras are covered by online sales and conventions. I'm not suffering, but I'm sure not flush -- it's the old every-time-I-get-money-in-it-goes-out game, with a side of one-bit-hit-could-leave-me-in-deep-trouble.

My original thought was to basically write at least one album's worth of songs in January and February, say, a dozen, with an initial goal of $5,000. That would cover the reprints of the two albums I'm thinking, the production of the new album itself, the dental work, and a new set of tires for Cashmere (the "new" van, the goldish one -- it definitely earned a name on the trip out west. Ran like a dream).

Stretch goals would include another song every $1,000 or so. Add-ons would include downloads of other albums, house concerts (where I come to you), maybe a personalized song (assuming I don't have any others in the fire), stuff like that. And the resulting cash would give me a buffer.

Leslie even suggested I run an online game for a few people. I have to think about that, but OOOOOOH it sounds great.

Lexi wants me to come out with a song book. I've been puttering at that for ten years; maybe this is the time to spend a month finishing the damn thing.

So. Thoughts? Are those levels reasonable, at least as talking points while I think through the details? Am I being a jerk about this, getting you guys to fund my dental work?

Pay-what-you-want, complete with cover, CD label, and tray graphics. Most notable for Toyboat backing me up on "Rocket Ride", a preview of the no-really-it's-coming Tomboat album. No donation required, any donation appreciated.

So here's the deal.

I'm not in any danger of being thrown out on the street or anything, but I have got a few pending things that I need some cash for -- dental work, GenCon, stuff like that.

So I'm working frantically to get some new concerts up, and to finish a couple of paid-for projects so I can get back to other projects, including, y'know, long-overdue new albums.

First up is my concert at ConTemporal this year. And I think I've done a pretty good job of spiffing up the package. Best possible audio. Lyrics and notes all over the individual song pages. All the JPGs for the CD, tray, and insert. (Subscribers, I'm uploading the MP3s right now, and later this evening I'll upload a disk image for you, already registered with Gracenote [sans cover art -- that's an ass-pain].)

Aaaaaand it's free. You don't have to pay a thing.

What's the catch?

None. I'm gonna start putting ALL my concerts up on BandCamp that way, and update things on tomsmithonline.com soon as well. The concerts will be free.

Unless you'd like to pay me something for them, to help support an artist.

(I repeat: Subscribers, this is already in your folder or will be within about fifteen minutes. You're good, and thanks again.)

Anyway. It was a pretty damn good concert. We had lots of fun, and a bunch of people hadn't heard my stuff, and we laughed and sang and et cetera and I even improv'd a song about a lady carrying on a conversation right near the stage, and I think managed to not offend anyone or come off looking like a jerk.

48 minutes of Tomedy (... okay, that word dies a quick death starting nnnNOW), free for nothin'.

Thanks to you all.

The current Humble Bundle is a jaw-droppingly cool collection of eBooks by such luminaries as Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean, Cory Doctorow, Randall Munroe, and Wil Wheaton. The deluxe edition of The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold....

The Humble Weekly Sale that just started is also superb: There's a famous series of old, old, old-school RPGs set in a world called Avernum. They're not awfully expensive, but pricey enough that, in these days of damn near cinematic experiences, they may not seem very enticing. Well, now you can get them STUPID CHEAP. Literally, right now the average to get all of 'em and unlock the two extra games is $3.93. So, kick in four bucks, get EIGHT adventure games for PC, Mac, or Linux.

Any other cool online deals we should know about (besides, of course, the current 5th anniversary sale at the Apple App Store, Giveaway Of The Day, and Kindle Buffet)?

I've noticed that I do a lot more posting directly to my personal Facebook page lately.

Part of this is simple convenience of technology: The FB App turns out to be pretty darn good. Not perfect for posting, necessarily -- it's much tougher to edit a post from a mobile device after the fact -- but brilliant for checking my news feed, which I never really did much before but now do all the time. And I comment more, and share more, and and and.

I suppose since many of the posts I make directly to FB are in fact shares, it's not something I have to worry about much. But I can't help but notice that, the more I do on FB, the less I do on LJ. (And the irony of this being cross-posted to both services and Twitter after I originally wrote it on DreamWidth is not lost to me.)

I guess what I'm saying is, I'll keep using LJ/DW for in-depth stuff, video links, web pages I want to share... it's not like I'm using my iThingie for everything, or even a lot of things. But I am using it to be more active directly on FB, and so you might want to check my feed there now and again.

What are your current social media sites of choice? I've pretty much abandoned MySpace, LinkedIn is trying so hard to be a one-stop shop that they've obscured what made them important in the first place, and I simply haven't had the inclination to explore Google+. But I like Pinterest.

It's that silliest day of the year, April Fool's Day. Which means (ta-ta-TAAAA)... new fake merch from ThinkGeek!

Which of the new toys do you hope they actually make real? I'm rooting for the Batman Family car decals, of course, and that Eye of Sauron desk lamp is Just Too Cool. (They should be able to make it a lot less expensive than that, though -- it's not like motion sensor tech hasn't been in toys for years now....)

That covers it, really. (h/t MJP on FB)

Ten years ago yesterday, the US launched an unprovoked, illegal war of aggression against Iraq.

I really tried to just let that horrific anniversary go by. I'm trying to finish a bunch of things, I'm not feeling well (no big, just malaise and a lingering headache), I just don't want to think about it.

And then Donald Fucking Rumsfeld has to open his big, virtual yap:

10 yrs ago began the long, difficult work of liberating 25 mil Iraqis. All who played a role in history deserve our respect & appreciation.

More than anything else he's done, this proves Donald Rumsfeld is a jackass. All he had to do was... nothing.

But, no. We must partake of our betters' wisdom, after all.

I haven't even got the energy right now to unleash a rant. Although, honestly, I certainly don't need to. The rest of the Intertubes did it for me, 140 characters at a time. The third response to Rummy's little word vomit on Twitter has already become famous:

@RumsfeldOffice Except you & your bosses, you blood-gargling psychopath.

In a just world, Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney, Rove, Wolfowitz, Rice, the whole motley crew down to the kid who made the coffee, would be in leg-irons before the Hague.

I ain't holdin' my breath.