Thinking About Community
They're all going to laugh at you
This week my mind has been thinking about the idea of community. So I started a Discord to test some ideas out. But don’t worry, i’m not going to ask you to join it just yet because that’s just a bit pushy at the top of an email.
However, I discuss my rationale for starting the Discord in this week’s podcast.
I would say one of my big mic drop moments here is the accusation that when people say they don’t have enough time for this or that thing, a hobby or a project, the common thinking is that they just aren’t prioritizing it to be done (or you could say they don’t value it enough to work on it).
Yet my take is that it’s a case that the person did not pick up enough courage to do the thing. You can let that sink in for a minute because it’s a tough pill to swallow. A matter of being powerless in the face of the resistance to do the important work. I don’t dish out such heavy-handed statements without being able to take them for myself.
This is outside of the obvious reasons for not being able to accomplish your goal which is that you genuinely didn’t care about the activity, or you really didn’t have time that particular week.
Tune in for more discussion about redirecting your time towards your projects, and a tune to start things off that I call Gonawinda.
You can also listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Don’t want to commit to the full 30 minutes? Here is the music that starts off the episode, Gonawinda, on its own. It’s a bit hypnotic with some Ethiopian influences.
How to Tackle Overwhelming Projects
If you have ever seen my podcast, you might imagine that there are a lot of steps to take in order to produce this. Just about every episode has some sort of new challenge or technique to work on, even if you can’t see it on screen or hear it.
An exercise that I sometimes do when I am overwhelmed before starting to record is to write down the steps that I have to go through to get started on the episode. For post-production alone, there are at least 10 steps (Load Media Off of SD Cards, Render Video, Upload to YouTube). While the number of steps can seem daunting, the mere fact that they are written down helps get them done.
I know this is similar to writing out a to-do list to make a day less overwhelming, but the list that I am referring to here is far more actionable as you will take it and go do the thing right after you write down as many steps as you can.
Applied to something like music that would be: take guitar out of case, pull chair out of closet, put music stand in front of chair, turn on metronome, etc. The tasks seem ridiculously simple but the lack of clarity is a good reason to sit around and drink coffee and eat tortilla chips like I am capable of doing.
Elliott’s Discord: The Fienberg Effect
Ok if you like Discord and you like what I post, then you can poke your head into my server and see what i’m building. I have channels for the Creative Habits content that I write, music practice accountability, and also an audio server for streaming soundscapes. I would like to start some channels for art house cinema and exercise soon.
If you don’t know what Discord is then this is a good chance to try it out since no one is going to laugh at you if you can’t figure it out.
Important Discussion
Album Roulette
This is the game where I scroll to a row of albums in my library and then I pick one for you.
Hermeto Pascoal, I think of him as the Brazillian Frank Zappa.
Known as o Bruxo (the Wizard), Pascoal often makes music with unconventional objects such as teapots, children's toys, and animals, as well as keyboards, button accordion, melodica, saxophone, guitar, flute, voice, various brass and folkloric instruments. (Wikipedia)
Missed last week’s edition? Catch it here:
Thanks to Fog Chaser for this idea to put your past issues in. Check out the great work he’s doing to make use of Substack for music and creative purposes here.
Alright thanks for reading. A possible takeaway from this issue is if you want to start something, don’t visualize starting a social media account. Imagine a community instead. Make use of Substack and Discord. Social media should be the bottom feeder, only sharing the highlight reel of the larger impact you seek to create.
If anything here has resonated with you, then feel free to leave a comment or write me back.
Elliott
shocked to see salmon roll dominating the poll. you want a palate cleanser for last piece. fresh cucumber and avocado leave a pleasant and importantly muted taste in your mouth. buncha freaks walking around with salmon breath up in this blog.