Stormcellar Band Home Page

We express our deepest sympathy to our Victorian cousins and the people of Melbourne.

When I can't get anything else happening, I can always try making a video.

When I can't make a video, I can always try writing.

When I can't write anything, I can always practice.

When I'm not in the mood for any of them, I can count stuff we've already done.

So I did. 

With a little kludging over my figures, it looks like we've made around 32 specific Music Videos for songs. The 5D project counts as 6 so there's that.

I've got concept scripts for a further 35 songs. At our current production rate of 3.2 per annum, and a output rate of 13 songs per annum, it will take me 10 years to complete the ones I have scripts for,  by which time, all things being equal, we'll have another 130 songs.

At a rate of 3.5 videoclip ideas per 10 songs, this means that we'll then need another 10 years on top of that to finish the next batch.

This maths relies on some assumptions that maybe faulty, however in the context of the new societal/cultural norms of the age in which I write, bending maths to fit one's preferred narrative is perfectly acceptable.

Youtube as The New Radio & Yet More of The Attention Wars

Mac has been sending me stuff from Youtube stars. 

I agree with the idea that Youtube is the new radio, that video is the new audio, that orange is the new bl...no hang on.

I've blogged here before about The Attention Wars (LIKE ME!! SUBSCRIBEEE!!!!!! VALIDATE MEEEE!) Oh my stars.

Just this week Facebook announced they are now 'de-prioritising' messages that ask for LIKES!! SUBSCRIBEE!!! 

Makes sense. It's annoying.

How long before Youtube follows suit?

Oops.Too late, they've already been 'demonetizing' (taking away advertising revenue) from Channels or Uploaders who had figured out ways to make money from Youtube that Youtube allowed for a while, but doesn't like now.

Doesn't affect us because we were never using Youtube like that.  

Youtube was only ever a repository for the videos we make. Facebook was (and I say was) a social media tool for engagement. Ditto twitter etc. If we want to say something in particular, we can do it right here.

Between them, they have inadvertently (?) created 10 years worth of LOOK AT MEEEEE culture....which they now want to change.

Because it's annoying.

And they helped make it that way.

Ironic, no?

(EDIT - Unintended Meta Irony - up on the LHS of page - links to subscribe, twitter, FB. That was as much as I was prepared to do and where I once thought it wasnt enough, I now wonder if it's too much. I'm so conflicted.)

This comes to mind whenI think about making the next lot of videos.

We make what we can, when we can, with what we got.

If we were following the 'best practise' of the last 10 years, we would have been Yet Another LOOKATMEEE and that's not what we're into.

We barely send out newsletters. 

Now, as the Web Giants consolidate, they've decided that a more Genteel approach is warranted. Well bully for them, say I.

What do you say, St. Frank?

I agree. Let's concentrate on making stuff rather than begging for attention.

Hi Sliders.

Carl, our Golden Roadie and I did a quick 2 weeks in Vietnam.

A picture tells a thousand words, here's 14000 words.

'Brave with your heart' with vocals is awaiting mastering, 'Soul Thing' is awaiting Vocals & Solo's.

Scheduling has proven...intractable. It's like a big ol Rubiks Cube

Gotta keep turning it until I get the combo right.

Facebook Issues - Also A Solid Up Yours to Ajit Pai and the FCC Stooges for rolling back Net Neutrality

One of the ex FB execs came out and said that FB and similar 'LIKE ME LIKE ME GIVE ME APRPOVAL' sites use Dopamine Feedback Loops, like Pavlov's Social Media.

They knowingly use the same techniques as Poker Machines to reinforce behaviour.

I've been online for a long time and been on a lot of platforms. They've come, they go. I have my opinions on FB. We still use it. I'm still doing marketing with it.

You work with what ya got.

They've pushed me further away tho' - by limiting the visibility of what we post unless we pay for speech.

More of the same is what I expect as a direct consequence of the FCC's shameful Net Neutrality repeal.

Facebook, in order to 'monetise' our relationships makes me Bid in order to reach people who 'like' our page.

People who have decided that they want to talk to me, don't get my message, unless I BID for communication rights.

It's not carriage. It's control.

The counter argument is: Its advertising, it's their site.

Right.

Populated with my data.

Supported by the content we create.

No content? No people? No FB.

I recently removed FB from my most visited tabs. It cut down on me checking for approval, for another red sticker, like me, validate me, holy crap what is this high school?

We started the band in 2007, already Veterans of the Early Web. This website started mid 2008. 

2007-2008 was when Facebook, Reddit etc all saw massive increases in traffic. 

I support the argument that 2008 was the birth of the 'Modern' web and I don't think we're done changing yet.

The Web isn't the world, in the same way as the Map is not the Territory, to learn from Alfred Korzybski.

I await further change. I've already changed my behaviour. 

The human mind is still a teenager on the web, but we hope that We Won't Be Fooled Again.

The Voyages of the MG Stormcellar, it's continuing mission to seek out new grooves, explore new sounds...

To do fun things, advance planning is useful.

We had a lovely email from K.inviting us to come to a festival, I'm still working on Beyond 5D, the Gratitude Project and failing happily at videoclips.

This year we've tried a bunch of things that went the way they went. Some worked, some didn't.

Yay!

Silence on the blog here can mean Downtime or more often it means we're off doing something. We're already into 2018 forward planning. Yikes.

With luck and a tail wind, we might even see some more releases of work before the end of 2017, meanwhile, we're working otwards the next things we find interesting.

All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients, perhaps proving that there really is nothing new under the sun.

So channel Lincoln, for we are met here on this battlefield where the better angels of our nature struggle against an enemy of their own thoughtfulness;

the lesser beings have no need of conscience, no regard to harm, no regret, living in the eternal now and continue as they are, unabated, a returning sickness the wheel pulls out from our species.

Tell Yeats we know again what rough beast lurches from the lips of Ozymandias to bask in the glow of the gaslights, fueled by self to exclusion of all others, a self regard that belies the very world beneath holding them up.

Call Shelley that before us still is the temple. Within see the promise of ruin.

The Sun King is mad, Rome burns and the music plays.