Slice It Up

Kudos to my friend Jennifer's comedy group, Candy Slice, who were given some love by Perez Hilton yesterday. Here's the video that's getting attention.



They're trying to get a nod from the ECNY Awards 2009, so if you like them give them a nomination!

You know, for all my chatter about indi artists and the need to support them... I'm just a nerd girl who thinks this is cool.

~DMcC

The Brain; well, it plays tricks on you. It sees things that aren't there. It tells you that bumps in the night are monsters intent on devouring your toes.

Lately, my brain tells me that I'm not working hard enough. That there's more I could/should be doing. Yesterday (after working alllllll daaaaay on a sewing project and then spending a few more hours on the book) I received some physical proof of my efforts. And I want to share them.

First up are the proofs from a shoot for Citizen Stock. This is my favorite shot. It's especially welcome as I don't have very many nice pics with my guitar.


AND a commercial I worked on also premiered yesterday ~ sorry to say that I was trimmed away, but it was still fun. Here's a production still to play Where's Waldo? in, and the completed video.




Happy Thanksgiving!

~DMcC

Indi Artists and 1,000 True Fans

We all have felt it. We all know it's there. We feel it in the way our habits have changed and the doors opened or closed.

For most the impact is in how we get our news and entertainment or approach shopping. You no longer head to your local music store, whether it be a small independent shop or a monster Best Buy. You don't get the New York Times delivered because you can read it on-line. If you need final proof, it's in how many of my friends no longer have cable. Why pay for it when I can get it for free on Hulu?

We all are listening to the old model of producing entertainment take its last rasping breaths. Just because analysts have been saying it for years doesn't mean that they're wrong. When's the last time you bought a CD? Compare the number of books you bought in 2002 to 2009. The blockbuster, Top 40, Brittney-Spears-mega-seller business model is on its way out. The time of the independent artist is rising.

But in the vacuum being left how is the independent artist to breath? The path used to be laid before us, even if it wasn't simple: Get agent, write proposal, struggle, try to make enough money to support all those that have failed. Rinse. Repeat.

Now we are faced with a world of uncertainty. Should I take this risk. Can I still feed my family if I do. What if no one buys it? What if no one is listening? What if I'm not a NYTimes Best Seller? Add to the mix that most artists have no idea what it means to be business savvy and we're facing a scary cocktail.

Kevin Kelly's 1,000 True Fans Theory has been making the rounds and it makes a lot of sense. It's how I comfort myself in the cold, wet, dark of the night when my teddy has rolled beneath the bed and I've convinced myself that I'll never amount to anything.

Best described in his own words:

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

Kelly continues by elaborating on the concentric circles of supporting fans that may not buy everything but still support your work. (Every indi artist should read this. Hell! Everyone should read this. As a consumer of indi work you should understand how your artist survives).

The “1,000” number is really an X value. X = The Number of Fans Needed to Keep Your Work Alive. I (and many others) believe that this is the new business model we're all fitting into. Using the tools of technology to keep close to our fans ~ Twitter, Facebook, iLike, and (thank god) Kickstarter. We connect to you directly and you tell us what you think. The feedback loop is strong and supportive. The best example of this are Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day. Watch how they play with their fans on Twitter and you'll see what I mean.

But how do we get to our X number? Starting with our families and friends, how do we push beyond? The theory leaves us with a model but few techniques. The artist is left screaming into the static of the web looking for a way to be heard. Hoping that everyone they spam that YouTube link to will forward or repost it. An artist can't go viral without their help.

The artist is still found to be hoping that their work and their fans are strong enough to bring in more. The anxiety of the mass market is still there, still very real. We talk about not living in the shadow of Blockbuster production; but we're also living without it's shield.

With the direct link to the artist now available, Fans have more power than they ever have. They can tell an artist exactly what they think and feel the ripples of the opinion. But, as we know from Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Without the viral effect, without art pushing beyond the original audience, it eventually dies. The artist can not sustain production. No fan wants to feel put-upon, so what is the artist to do?

Keep producing. Keep Twittering. Keep clutching the bear in the night and dreaming of new ways to reach out into the static.

Late Bloomer

I'm a late bloomer. Not in the when-I-got-hair-down-there sense, but as a geek.

Not in the greater-world sense. I was always socially awkward and had a Hermione-like need to answer every question a teacher threw at a class. When I was five I gave my 20-something aunt a lecture on the proper pronunciation of counting is Spanish because "I've seen it on Sesame Street!" (which means I know everything. Duh).

But in the nerd-world sense. Unlike my husband, I didn't grow up in a pocket of well-defined nerds with super-humanly-smart parents who watched Star Wars daily (yes, one of our friends did that as a child) who all played D&D together as they grew up. I just wasn't exposed to it. I didn't know what D&D was in high school, and I grew up in a family that still questions its relationship to my Christian upbringing and ties to Satanic worship.

I didn't know Magic or WoW and probably would've thought GURPS was an STD.

I remember very clearly my first D&D game. We played in the penthouse in one of the dorm towers at our college, and with the city sprawled below us I ventured out as the halfling rogue Elizabaum Roseleaf (she'll always be my favorite). JJMIV's friends had stopped in for a few hours during a road trip and in the chatter before the game they were talking about various girlfriends' refusals to play D&D. At all. Ever. I was already the only girl, it was the first time meeting any of JJMIV's friends from high school, and I'd never played before.

I was more nervious than a prize piggy in a bacon factory. And this wasn't helping What if I sucked!? Does it diminish my nerd-cred if I don't know how to play? What if I'm reinforcing the stereotypes of girl gamers and bla, bla, bla...

We've all seen the movie-magic stereotype of what gamers are. The Comic Book Guys of the world. Ready to sass you to prove their Epic Nerd Superiority (or compensate for something, perhaps?).

And I would argue that there's some truth to the myth. If you run in nerdy circles long enough it eventually happens ~ you invite your cute new lady-pal along to a gathering. Your inescapable, socially inept Sheldon-line pal comes too. And he rips her up for confusing Star Wars and Star Trek, even though she has a legit science/math/cool-other-shit degree. But why does his opinion matter in the first place?

Well, because being a nerd isn't just about the gaming. Or the science. Or knowing a lot of cool things that no one else understands. Nerds who found a group as kids grew up in a pocket of like-minded fellows. Sure, they went through all the other crap we all go through, but they had Saturday morning gaming sessions to help them cope.

But Late Bloomers; we had our own set of challanges. Trying to find other people who liked science as much as we did. An outlet to rally around. Doing a ton of activities, but not really feeling like we had a place where it all came together.

I think Jim from American Pie 2 says it really well: "Nadia. I am a band geek. I just never joined band."

Being a nerd is partially about inclusion. I played that first D&D game when I was 20. That winter JJMIV also taught me how to play Magic and Risk. I built my first decks and got my ass handed to me by a bunch of 13 year olds at a few Booster Draft tournaments. You know what? It was awesome. Sure, those 13 year olds looked at me like I was a jerk and I had no clue what I was doing. But I loved it. We bought Carcasson and it seemed like there was always something to do or play or someone to hang out with.

And that first D&D game was awesome too. The guys we played with are now my friends and they didn't mind pausing to show me where to look on my character sheet to tally my bonuses. They liked teaching the game. Though some are Sheldon-esque at times I've realized that SO AM I. Now I'm DMing my own adventures.

Late Bloomers are an important part of our community. They're refreshing, and it's wonderful to see the faces of people who've never gamed before realize how much they love it. Being in theatre it's bonus-exciting because there are so many natural story tellers. People who really get into the background of their characters. (I just wish one of us could DRAW! It makes me jealous of Gabe & Tyko all the time).

This year we've taught 2 more people D&D who never played before. My friend Hannah (whose SWEET Dragon-born Paladin saves my Shaman Human's butt every week) said to me last week "I can't believe I never played D&D in high school. You guys must thing I'm so behind."

Nope. You know why? Because I'm a Late Bloomer too. And being a geek takes all kinds. Welcome to the fold.

Art Feeds Art

I love cool stuff.

This sounds like such an obvious statement, because who doesn't? HONESTLY! Duh!

But it's a wonderful thing when you're wandering through your day, half awake and something smacks you in the face and says "Look at me, dumb @$$". Like this piece from Tom Otterness in the 14th Street Subway Station.

I was on my way to a shoot, it was 6AM, and I was out of it in a way that defies both logic and description. I'd been going gig-to-sleep-to-gig for three days. Creatively exhausted and expected to put out (figuratively) in about 90 minutes. These little guys were a breath of fresh air. I almost missed my train because I needed to photograph them.

Even on my crappy phone camera from behind the barriers you can see how great they are. Sweet little guys going about their day, undermining the structure of the city.

I even talked to them a little (Like you do at 5am on 4 hours of sleep). To the one above I said "He's just standing there letting you get eaten!" While taking this picture from the other side a stranger came up and said "get it from over here" and gestured for me to come over to his side. Resulting in the shot above, which is MUCH better.

What I liked most about the installation was that for all the salt of the other two pieces, where the subway is being destroyed and one of the little guys eaten by an alligator, this one is sweet. The big, bad, guy with all the money is helping the little one out. You could read it like he's only giving him one or two of his coins, but those could be for other little ones out there.

I'd like to think my work that morning was better because of Tom Otterness. Thanks Tom, wherever you are.

Write Write, Bloody Well Right

When presented with endless free time I'm a fan of quickly filling it with projects and I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that I often over-extend myself. This fall seems to have become no exception.

I currently do not have a full-time "job". I quote it because I'm not currently getting paid or what I've been up to; but I might some day (I hope). I've applied for a few, but nothing seems to be biting. In all honesty I'm not looking all that hard. So what have I been up to?

First: Auditions! Every week I'm running around the city popping in and out of overly-bright rooms and blurting out a few pages just to run to the next one. Even one audition that takes five minutes easily becomes an all day affair. I get up early to work the sides and set my curly hair just right and then ride in on the subway for an hour or more, have my five minutes of glory, and then ride back.

The result of these efforts are 2 commercials I hope to come out in the next week. They're hilarious and I can't wait to post them.

But beyond the acting and the occasional make-out session with my guitar (admit it, you thought that would end in TMI), I've been writing. Like there's no tomorrow. Songs. Blog posts. But most importantly: novels.

As a kid I loved the idea of writing a novel, and even planned how I would do it someday, but couldn't "find the time" to actually write it (even as a kid, I overstretched myself). So in the first week of October I got the brilliant idea that I should start working on one. And I did. And I'm really proud of how it's turning out. So proud that I've decided to self-publish it.

Here's the catch. I know I can use Lulu and I know what I want to do, but how to launch it all? And then I found Kickstarter. Kickstarter helps artists/creators/collaborators launch their visions by asking for backers. They choose an amount and a timeframe and shoot for it. As I believe in doing scary/crazy/exciting things, I launched my project this past Sunday. YOU SHOULD FUND IT!! You get cool stuff in return for funding and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. (A side note: if you pledge now you're not charged until Jan 5 when it ends, so don't worry about waiting for pay-day)

As if that wasn't enough, I've decided to try my hand at NaNoWriMo ~ National Novel Writing Month ~ and do another novel for that. Oh, and we got a director for the webseries I wrote, Seeker. I'm collaborating with Sarah Croce and we're bringing in Mark Kochanowicz to direct. (We'll probably use Kickstarter to raise the money for that project too.) More on Seeker in the next few months. It's going to be huge!