Stormcellar at Brackets & Jam, Fri 15 Feb, Kincumba Mountain Kiosk
Our fave place to get a vegetarian burger, community and bands.
We have a 1 hour slot at EDIT: we're on at 8!
Our fave place to get a vegetarian burger, community and bands.
We have a 1 hour slot at EDIT: we're on at 8!
There was a downpour as we started rehearsal last night. Thunder, lightning scaling sideways across the sky.
From a Stormcellar perspective, good omens
Last night we welcomed back Carl 'Noodles' Alwert into the Bass chair for the time being, while Brother Bill takes up a learning opportunity that he's passionate about.
My photography left a bit to be desired....
It's always been a challenge to market an intensely private band, both amusing and ironic that people who live a life on stage are not all that keen on sharing everything. But that's how it is.
In a 21st century internet age where we willingly surrender our data, it's even more ironic. Nonetheless, any time I overshare, I get 'that look' from band members, so I keep shtum :-)
We're part of the community of the band, and the community of Aussie muso's at large. When Chris Wilson passed recently, we all knew. There's a lot of sharing because everyone has worked with or jammed with someone at some point.
Within the band itself are the interacting lives of dozens of people.
We mourn each others losses, help each other through when it's our turn in the tempest, we provide solace, company and expression. It's as much a way to get by as it is a band. And I know for Cellar Dwellers, that's not far off the mark as well.
As I think of some of the background stuff that goes on, that is not strictly mine to share, I can at least share the understanding we gain from it.
In these last 11 years we have lost beloved friends, ex members of the band, comrades in music and family. These are the natural tides of life.
It has ever been our fortune to be grateful for what we get to do, doubly blessed to understand enough to be greatful.
Humans are fragile. Life is fragile.
Every time we get to do what we do, it's an affirmation.
Today it's my turn in the storm, and tonight we will play in celebration of a long time band supporter who is coming to the end of his path.
Every time we get to do this, I am grateful, and I am fortunate to be in the company of my friends in the stormcellar.
Yay we got another one done.
Take a trip through downtown Sydney on a night out with your friends in the stormcellar
So apparently I was anticipating some fails. Two video things I just tried failed to thrive.
While we have some downtime I'm trying to get a few more clips made, one of them involving animation, and that's time consuming, so I started trying to get some outside help. If you've seen some of our previous animated stuff, I can vouch for the fact that it takes many hours of work.
This one was a mate in Kiwiland doing the drawings and us both doing some animating. It took weeks.
Ditto with Looking Glass, which, thanks to some knock out software online, I was able to do solo.
Takes a while, good result tho'
Today my latest attempt at a vid for On The Low Low went squirrelly. Not sure if I can fix.
As it's still pre-production, it's not a big thing, but still ARGH. I thought that one had finally cracked and it was on the way.
If the idea doesn't work, pick another one.
Ah. Also have to come up with another idea.
Animation might be hard but it's still easier than getting these guys into a Band Videoclip :-)
We're still making a concerted effort to Not Talk about some of the World Stuff that's going on.
There's plenty of other coverage and heavens knows we have a firm opinion or two inside the band.
At the same time, we can be more helpful as a refuge from the deluge.
So here's a thought on the usefulness of mistakes.
Here's my updated Project list as at this morning, covering what we've been up to and what we're trying.
STATUS |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
CONCEPT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DEVELOPMENT |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
DONE |
IN PROGRESS |
IN PROGRESS |
IN PROGRESS |
IN PROGRESS |
IN PROGRESS |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
NOPE |
RETRY |
RETRY |
RETRY |
RETRY |
RETRY |
RETRY |
So that's roughly 61 Discrete items, let's look at how that's gone:
If you do some basic math, stuff that didn't work is roughly 25% of what we try. Stuff we'd like to do is almost 50% of what's going on and less than 10% is what we're actually doing.
To get something done, we need to:
The initialism is TRPOSFD :-)
Of course, reality being what it is there's also:
I often write here, in brief, about our regular Faceplants.
Failure is instructive. Also: amusing.
As someone who transposes verses, forgets the occasional word and is guilty of countless other transgressions again timing and tone, I can only offer an acknowledgement and a grin.
Error is part of the statistics, it's part of the process.
As the same someone who also attempts to schedule Large Number of Musicians, Luck is a factor. Oh boy oh boy is it a factor.
Leads me to the viewpoint that anything we get done, is, another minor miracle :-) Hallelujah!
Seen over the distance of a decade at this, we can count a whole lot of things that Didn't Work. Samples equal a wave form right?
Over the course of time, you follow the signal. You get a little noise along the way.
The thing that comes to me this week, is that we've made lots of mistakes. Lots of terrific mistakes.
Maybe Bob Ross is rubbing off on me.
We're hoping to make some more good mistakes this year.