It's been a while since you last blogged.  People say you should blog everyday for promotional purposes, and you get that, but you rarely have the time nor the inclination. Really you do this when you need the outlet, which is not exactly helpful in your career. 

Last night was the second Nemion show of the year, and first in Austin for 2012.  It was at Headhunters and you felt good throughout the entire show, but ironically afterwards you found out that the first three songs sounded like shit.  You knew you fucked up "Comfort" ( some how the piano patch changed mid-song into something completely inappropriate ) and some on "Flesheater", but you didn't realize at the time they were that bad. A lot of it was technical with the drum mix volume disrupting things, but you apparently sounded rushed as well.   The crowd was good over all, better than most, and there were several people who responded positively to the performance, but you still haven't really hit on what needs to be hit on to inspire people to support you materially.   The exception possibly being with the song "Puppets" - that song always has a strong response, but it's not even on the album Nemion just released.  Why is this you wonder.  What makes this track more interesting than the others? For one it's simpler. It's basically one part played in different ways throughout the song. Simpler songs are easier to get into, especially when they're unfamiliar to the listener.

Simplicity.  It's something you purposefully avoided when writing most of the songs on Flesheater.  It's only recently that you've started exploring minimalism in your arrangements.  Perhaps simplifying your stage rig further is in order.  You'd have to rewrite a lot of live versions of your songs, but the current level of complexity contributes to a lot of fuckups and sound issues, and it could free you up to enhance your performances.  Not to mention it might be easier on your back - maybe. But then there's so much sonically that you would not be able to do on stage.

The other bands of the night, Buzz n Bangs, Death Ray, and Arrowstrike kept their shit so simple.  Guitar/Drums, Guitar/Guitar/Drum Sequence, Guitar/Drums respectively.  And they were totally free to put on some badass performances.  Something else of note is the stage presence that a lot of them had. They're personalities were forceful and energetic.  You have yet to really reach that level of comfort with yourself.

Then there's the ever present question of earning substantive income doing this sort of thing.....

You're running out of juice for this post, but you ought to talk a bit about Enrod The Clockman before you bring it to a close.  You made your update schedule this past Sunday, but not with the next installment of the comic - for which you fell dramatically behind because of your recent move as well as going to a politcal convention and maybe some other things.  So instead you just posted some sketches and concept art as filler to share with your readers.

You're getting impatient again.  Impatient with growth of the comic.  You've put a lot of money into the album release so you're not willing to buy any advertising to promote the comic right now, so that's slowing it down, but you're also discouraged by Facebook's change in policies, especially when you feel like they do such a shitty job explaining to you the changes.  Needless to say, if you want people to see your page's posts on their walls, you have to pay FB extra to make sure they do.  The price of going public and they want their advertisers to pay for it.

You're thinking that you want to eventually try the conventional model for distributing your comic.  You're planning an ongoing series ( which you had been doing since the beginning ) and you're thinking that once you get the trilogy completed you'll put the website on temporary hiatus and see about getting the necessary first 3 issues in the can before you solicit a publisher.  At you're current rate that's about a year and half of work.  We'll see.  You have to remind yourself that you still need to put all you can into promoting Nemion and Flesheater, as you've only scratched the surface.  You need to continue to improve on syncing up Nemion and the Clockman so that they cross-market each other.

You should look into Anime cons again.  You're not going to any this year.  Artist alley tables have been selling out before you even think to register for them.  But next year, you have to try and make it down to Houston, specifically because you owe somebody down there a drawing.

That's all for now.   Go organize your recording studio and do some drawing.

-

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http://nemion.ginckmedia.com
http://www.facebook.com/nemion
http://nemion.bandcamp.com

Working Past/Present/Future & The Record

This week is music week for you and Nemion.  You spent the majority of the past week penciling the next installment of Enrod The Clockman. so now you are going to focus your energies on the album, Flesheater.  You just spent the better part of the late-afternoon/evening tweaking the mixes of the songs Flesheater and Pain Of Loss.  Neither are 100%, but both are now close.  There's some clipping in Pain of Loss to fix, and some samples that need fixing in Flesheater, but you'll get back to them later, hopefully next week.  Time has run out for the day, so you've got to start preparing for bed.  Tomorrow you plan to focus on two other songs, following the tweak-notes that you've written for them, along with all the other tracks.

Unforturnately, you didn't manage to get your car to the shop today.  It's something you're going to need to get taken care of very soon.  That squeeling sound when you first apply the gas after starting it up from sitting for several hours is concerning.  You're told that normally signals that the belts need to be changed out.  You also need to get the oxygen sensor changed, or else you probably won't pass the Travis County environmental test during inspection, which your car is due for come March.  At least you managed to fix the burned out brake light.

You had a good conversation with your girlfriend's writer-friend yesterday evening.  He's working on a graphic novel himself in collaboration with an artist, and he wanted some insight on the comic book industry in general since he wasn't very familiar with it.  Interesting how knowledge you've come to take for granted over the years would have so much value to someone else.  You're reminded of your senior-year high school English teacher giving you insight on how teaching isn't just the giving away of knowledge, but is a process of learning in and of itself as well.  The process puts things in perspective, sometimes a variety of perspectives, which can lead to new levels of understanding.  It was a fruitful experience, both intellectually and materially as he also gave you the download link for the scripting software he was using, which looked very robust and useful to your own endeavors.  You're looking forward to trying out the software, possibly writing the final draft of Droid Soldiers chapter four in it.

Later that evening you met with your girlfriend at a karaoke bar where old friends of hers were celebrating birthdays.  You both had agreed that after flaking out of going out on Saturday night, that you both needed to get out and socialize after having stayed in all week working on respective projects.  At the karaoke bar, one of her friends you met was a government employee.  You seemed to forget yourself, because you immediately started talking to him about the inefficiency and immorality of the state, though not in those words.  You never used the word "libertarian", but you later found out he pegged you for one and decided he didn't have the patience for the discussion that he was foreseeing, especially since it was his birthday.  You regret this social faux pas; you've done it many times in the past, but you've since become more sympathetic to the desire of others to just enjoy being and not discuss anything serious, especially politics.

For the record, you don't label yourself as "libertarian".  If you do take a label, it's "voluntaryist"; at least for now.  At this point, you currently organize your position as follows:

"LIMITS

FOR ALL 

HUMAN VIOLENCE"

1. No one can legitimately initiate a threat or act of bodily harm or control against another human being without direct consent ( which can be withdrawn at will ).

2. No one can legitimately enter, possess, damage, or consume either directly or remotely, another human being's property without direct consent ( which can be withdrawn at will ) from that human being.

  2a. No human being can legitimately be property.

  2b. Nothing intangible can legitimately be property.

3. Violence cannot legitimately be employed against human beings who are not currently in violation of Law 1 and/or Law 2.

You didn't create these concepts.  This is just your own personal wording for what is called the Zero Aggression Principle.  or more commonly the Non-Aggression Principle or Non-Aggression Axiom.  This doesn't directly account for dispute resolution rules, but really, any can be applied so long as they don't violate the above.  Not all agree with your wording.  But that's fine.  Besides, you've already stayed up too late.

http://www.EnrodX.com

http://nemion.ginckmedia.com