ObamaCare TV Advertisement Scares and Confuses Some, Sources Say...

I don't know enough yet about all the ObamaCare thing going on and quite frankly I have been putting it off because I'm scared to know the truth. Knowing what I know about graphic design, audio and video production, and advertising scares/confuses me even more. I don't watch a lot of TV but I happened to be watching Saturday Night Live tonight.  In the middle of the Edward Norton hilarious-ness, on came a commercial for healthcare.gov. It could be argued that the healthcare.gov commercial was terribly underfunded and rushed. I could hear the pops of the voice-over actors's P's, the swirly logo was sub-par and pixelated, and the overall vibe and tone left me feeling dirty. It looks and sounds like a high school video project. It's clear they cut some corners on the TV spot, which brings up a lot of questions and conundrums. Should I be scared since I know our government probably spent $450 on the commercial and it's just an indicator of just how shabby the health care system is and will be? OR...should I be grateful that they're not spending/wasting a hell of a lot of money in advertising to mandatory customers? (I know guys who would charge upwards of $20,000 for a 30 second masterpiece) OR...

Peace. 

Hello downtown Nashville. #musiccity

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Break Time 1X15 - October 15, 2013 - WAKA Kickball Opening Day!

How to make a Band Website: Wordpress vs. Bandzoogle #just1musician

One day while going down the YouTube and Google rabbithole (probably started with a search or link or article about songwriting or music marketing or something), I stumbled onto a post by someone who was a strong advocate for Wordpress, and smashing Bandzoogle into the dirt.  I won't feed into their negativity by linking to them...

But it got me thinking.  And then coincidentally, recently someone starting up a new band asked me what I'd recommend about setting up a band website.  As a person who has tried several platforms for various reasons and businesses (PHP, Drupal, Wordpress, Myspace, Google Checkout, Bandzoogle...) I do feel like I have a worthwhile answer for anybody asking the question about what to do about making yourself a band website. 

When Cougar Magnum dissolved (not just for having a stupid band name) and I went solo with the bedroom-recorded self-produced pile of demos released as "First Kisses," I did try Wordpress for almost 2 years. And just the thought of going back to it makes me cringe.  I do know that as far as build-a-site platforms go, WP is by far one of the easiest.  For a musician/band, it was "at least 80%" more of a pain in the butt than Bandzoogle which I currently use to this day.  When we reformed in 2010 as Windsor Oaks Band, we moved virtually all the posts, pictures, videos, everything over to Bandzoogle in a matter of a couple hours.  With WordPress, every single little square and window and widget on your site is its own app, which you have to download and install and configure independently.  Bandzoogle is basically an instant-WYSIWYG. (What you see is what you get.)

Sure, WP is free and open source, but then you have to keep an eye on your domain name, and worry about hosting, SSL Certificates (security), and developers updating their widgets (which can cause your stuff to break on your site with no notice until you get the old "something's wrong with your site" email from a random stranger who may have been interested in your band but now is turned off because your site wouldn't load correctly or was (a bunch of lorem ipsum) and now you look like a bunch of amateurs). 

In my experience of talking to other musicians and web-guys, the people that love WordPress--and for good reason, some WP sites are totally badass and blow anything Bandzoogle could offer out of the water--consistently underestimate how much actual techy-cody-backend-system-awareness it takes to make a WP site work.  For someone well-versed in the language and know-how of HTML, Java, Flash, XML and stuff, yes, WordPress is child's play.  But trying to be a successful musician is a way different mindset than wanting to be awesome at building websites.  

The tipping point: email marketing.  While Bandzoogle's email marketing system is not perfect and could use some tweaks, it's still included its your monthly payment.  And now that our list is nearing 3,000 subscribers, that would be an additional $20-$50 per month to factor in to with the hosting and domain and everything else you gotta pay for to maintain a "free" Wordpress site.  I've been in this a long time, and tried other platforms in addition to WP.  And for the $240 per year it has cost us to have a virtually flawless and absolutely professional looking site, Bandzoogle just makes since for us.  Although there is no Autoresponder feature, the ability to spam-less-ly send literally thousands of emails at once is a very valuable thing.  AND ONE MORE THING.  If you're coming from a pre-existing email client like Constant Contact, iContact, AWeber (another potential nightmare for someone that wants to spend more time writing songs than dealing with computer screens), or even ReverbNation...Bandzoogle does not make your contacts jump through any additional hoops, quarantine them, or make them click a link in their email box to be a part of the list.  And that last thing I would like to talk about a little more: most email clients make a new user click an email in their box to confirm their presence on your list.  Since performing musicians get most of their mailing list subscribers at live gigs on paper and input them later (sometimes weeks later, if you have a regular job or are on tour or something) that extra "confirm" hoop can really put a damper on the numbers that actually end up as a subscriber.

Why the email list is more important than Facebook and Twitter combined:  well, that deserves its own post in the future.  But for now do some research and check out Dave Rose's book "All I Know About the Music Business I Learned from My Cousin Rick" or John Oszajca's Music Marketing Manifesto and let them convince you about why you and your bandmates should set some kind of goal every single gig you play for number of emails grabbed from the room you just played.  Say 3.  From now on, make it a band rule that you only get your "free" beer after you collect 3 email addresses.  If you have 3 people in your band that's 9 emails per gig.  If one of you is an overachiever, that's 10 emails per gig.  At only 1 gig per week that's like 500 emails a year.  After 4 years of being a band that's 2000+ emails, which is beginning to look like a successful business's email list.  And hopefully after performing for 4 years you are tight enough and your songs are getting good enough that your music actually moves people and your list will grow organically.
+Why Email is more important than Facebook and Twitter
+How to get people to sign up on your mailing list

Anyway, I want to reiterate that I don't hate WordPress.  In fact, I think it's probably a more superior invention and all-in-all a completely different animal than Bandzoogle.  But for an aspiring musician who has to keep their eye on the big picture (cost vs. time vs. expectations vs. results), I would undoubtedly recommend Bandzoogle.   And in all fairness I want to say that I'm currently exploring Google's blogger (hence these posts) / free site options and their capabilities so that I can switch to MailChimp  or something and spend the "about-$20 per month" to get an Autoresponder system for my email list. I will let you know how that goes.  My biggest fear, which I haven't investigated yet, is the possibility of the "confirm" hoop if and when I switch over.  

It's a brand new day. Every day.

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Did mom poop? Mom did. #palindromes are awesome

I love a good palindrome.  "What's a palindrome?" you ask?  Well, let's consult Wikipedia:  "...a word, phrase, number, or other sequence...whose meaning may be interpreted the same way in either forward or reverse direction...was coined from the Greek roots palin (πάλιν; "again") and dromos (δρóμος; "way, direction") by the English writer Ben Jonson in the 17th century. The Greek phrase to describe the phenomenon ...crab inscription...alluding to the movement of crabs, such as an inscription that may be read backwards." ...Blah blah blah blah....anyway...it's a word or number that is the same forward and backward.  There's so many little easy ones that you can learn beginning in like 2nd grade....mom.....dad.....boob.....racecar....

One time in 2011 when I was on tour with the Windsor Oaks Band, I looked over and saw Ryan, deeper in thought than I have ever seen him before.  And I was like, "Dude, are you OK?" and he calmly looked up and slowly said to me "Strap Race Nude Dune Car Parts."  I thought he was going delirious from too much road time, but he followed up by explaining that sometimes he likes to sit there in silence and develop new palindromes.  

Since then, I have had a keen ear for recognizing palindromes and I've been compiling a list of awesome palindromes:

Strap race nude dune car parts.
Gun So Snug. -Ryan's favorite
Did mom poop? Mom did.
Mr. Owl ate my metal worm.
Madam, I'm Adam. (and then.... Madam, in Eden, I'm Adam.)  
Poor Dan is in a droop.
Able was I ere I saw Elba
A man a plan a canal panama
No "x" in "Nixon."
Amore, Roma
Step on no pets.
Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?
Revel on no lever.

some I have found, look like made-up words:
tattarrattat 
detartrated 
Rotavator 
redivider
Malayalam, 
aibohphobia - (The irrational fear of palindromes...hehehe)

some palindromes are just short numbers or words:
2002
radar

rotor

civic

mum
noon 

toot

sees 

deed

Tit
Tot
Stats
Solos

Some involve brand names!
Lonely Tylenol
Xanax

Some people's names are palindromes!
Hannah 
Eve
Anna
Elle
Viv
Lil
Otto
Bob
Nan
Odo - (my Confirmation name (weird and archaic, I know), taken from St. Odo of Cluny)

The topic of palindromes has come up a few times in conversations since then.  And usually it's in a bar late in the evening.  So I don't totally remember all of the cool palindromes people have told me over the last few years.  If you have any more palindromes, short, long, one-word, paragraph-length, PLEASE please post them in the comments.  I am addicted to palindromes.  

This is the Ryan fellow, by the way (the guy who introduced me to the wonderful world of adult-level palindromes): 

There's also a really cool list of palindromes here: http://voices.yahoo.com/50-palindromes-list-palindrome-words-sentences-2349273.html - and some of them on this post appear in that list too.  Here's an awesome one from a comment in that post: 

Anne, I vote more cars race Rome to Vienna

(Someday I will attempt to write an entire song that is a palindrome.  That day is not today.)