BrotherSpanky.

The Table. (Or, “Where My Ladies At?”)

This is a picture of my dinner table. When I first moved into my apartment, I felt like I needed to give myself an official housewarming gift, so I spent my first week there creating a decoupage (don’t hate on the craftiness) of album artwork and photos of some of my favorite musicians. My brother and his wife had done a similar project in their apartment, so I decided to borrow their idea and give it a try.  Turned out to be a fun way to enjoy a move-in, and I even ended up featuring the table in my first music video.

Usually, when anyone visits my place, the table is often the first thing they notice (it’s a pretty small apartment). Most of my male friends are also interested in music, so they get a kick out of seeing the table, and can name most all the people included. The subsequent conversation is largely about who didn’t “make the cut,” and which albums from each artist we enjoy. Granted, I hang out with a lot of musicians and music lovers, so that’s to be expected.

But I’ve realized that the same is not necessarily true for most ladies who notice the table. I now, half-jokingly, refer to the table as the “cool test,” to see how many of the people they can name. The higher the percentage of people she identifies, the cooler she inherently becomes. While there’s only been one woman who’s been able to correctly identify 90% of the artists, the women’s average is probably under 50%.

This surprised me. I’m not sure if it’s a factor of age or just general interest, but a good female friend of mine (who is a songwriter herself) told me recently: “Girls are allowed to be lazy when it comes to music. They don’t usually take much interest in it on their own.”  She admitted that even she was not immune to this admission of ignorance, and I started to wonder about the truth in her statement. While I was initially pretty appalled and skeptical, the table-test statistics so far haven’t disproven her point at all.

So, good people (especially ladies), any thoughts on this ‘musical laziness?’ Is it merely a coincidence? Can you name more than 60% of the table yourself? Is that a fair expectation?

Enlighten me.

-BrotherSpanky

Promotion Perils.

This is how I feel sometimes about promoting my own music.

Intentionally, I rarely use the venue of this blog as a soapbox or bully pulpit about my own pet peeves or opinions. I’d like it to remain a place primarily reserved for all things music-related. But I feel like this fits into the category of both.

A little while ago, I had a conversation with a friend about the way that many operas were commissioned: a duke, earl, monarch, or some member of the oligarchy would contact a composer/librettist, and would subsidize them to create a work of art — in short, there were patrons. We no longer have that system, and while art via the patronage of the ruling class is in some ways working for the establishment, as an artist I also wonder what it would be like to experience that kind of freedom. Essentially, someone with plentiful means telling you: ‘just write, don’t worry about publicizing, paying your bills, or (the dreaded issue) promoting.’ I could fantasize about that for quite a while.

I know that there are people out there who are good at promoting. They exist. I am impressed by them. But I am not one of them. Self-promotion is a huge difficulty of mine, which is precisely why you are probably one of seven people reading this blog post. I just can’t seem to do it. It takes me away from the eternally rewarding challenge of honing my artistic craft to a different challenge; one simultaneously foreign and mundane.

So promoters, patrons, and publicists: This is an open plea. Get at me! There’s so much for you to do, that I simply can’t.

-BrotherSpanky