Virtual Concerts

Thanks for your suggestions. I have been investigating the sound quality of different services and next week I will start a few test runs. Depending on how that goes I will unveil my plans later in the week. I am contemplating an unusual method… but more about that next week.

You can’t do anything else

I think this is good advice no matter what you want to do.

“I still have a writing session every day. It’s another thing that organizes your mind. The coffee goes here. The pad goes here. The notes go here. My writing technique is just: You can’t do anything else. You don’t have to write, but you can’t do anything else. The writing is such an ordeal. That sustains me.”

Jerry Seinfeld, in the New York Times, about how he’s working through isolation. I love that: you don’t have to write, play guitar, photograph, read, (insert anything here)… but you can’t do anything else, like checking Facebook, Instagram or other social media, or making phone calls. Keep your mind on the ball. If nothing comes to you, stay with that for the allotted time.

Virtual Concert Questions

I received a lot of requests for online performances and am trying to get an understanding of what would be involved on the technical side to make this happen. It is interesting to figure out what could make virtual concert a unique new format. There is the possibility of reaching an international audience in locations where we are not likely to tour anytime soon. There is a chance to make the concert more personal by answering questions after a concert. Perhaps I can add visual elements, too, like a slideshow of my images for example. Throw out any ideas you might have in the comment section. Have you experienced streamed concerts recently? What works, what doesn’t? What would you like to see. Here are the main points I came up with:

  1. Which streaming service should I use? This is what I am looking for:
    • possibility of creating a background for the performance, e.g. a slideshow of my photos… or perhaps a separate window I can fill with images
    • ability to chat, so that members of the audience can leave questions for me to answer at the end of a concert – to differentiate the streamed performance from a regular concert
    • ability of musicians to perform together from different locations
    • seamless audience payment processing
  2. What kind of internet upload speed would I need for decent quality? I currently have 300 MBPS download, but only 11 MBPS upload
  3. Camera & microphone recommendations – I imagine an iPhone would make a fine camera, but I should use an external microphone for the guitar

Flatbread Facemask

I’ve been making flatbread with leftover sourdough starter. It’s super easy! Put the starter in a bowl and add some water to make it thinner, a little salt, and some cumin seeds. Get a non-stick pan fairly hot and pour a little of the mix into it. Swirl it so it just covers the bottom. The edges will lift off of the pan when it’s ready to be turned. I use my fingers to grab the flatbread by those edges and lift it up and turn it over. Great with hummus.

RSS

I started using NetNewsWire sometime around 2003 or 2004. It was a great RSS reader designed for Macintosh computers by Brent Simmons. That was the time before social media exploded. Then the idea was that people had a blog and others could come directly to the website or could subscribe to the RSS link of that blog. Sigh… and the internet had less ginormous corporations who get away with way too much (cough…Facebook…cough)

Two of the pages on this website can be subscribed to in a reader.

There is the Diary RSS feed
and the Tour Schedule RSS feed
and even a Mailing List RSS Feed

Recently NetNewsWire was reborn as a free and open source RSS reader for Mac and iOS. You can find out more about it here. I love the app and use it daily. You might be surprised by how many websites and newssites still deliver via RSS. Check it out.