“In today’s America, government benefits flow to large numbers of people who are encouraged to vote for politicians who’ll keep them coming. The benefits are paid for by other people who, being less numerous, can’t muster enough votes to put this to a stop. Over time, this causes the economy to do worse, pushing more people into the moocher class and further strengthening the politicians whose position depends on robbing Peter to pay Paul. Because, as they say, if you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can be pretty sure of getting Paul’s vote.
But the damage goes deeper. Sykes writes, ‘In contemporary America, we now have two parallel cultures: An anachronistic culture of independence and responsibility, and the emerging moocher culture. ‘We continually draw on the reserves of that older culture, with the unspoken assumption that it will always be there to mooch from and that responsibility and hard work are simply givens. But to sustain deadbeats, others have to pay their bills on time.’ And, after a while, people who pay their bills on time start to feel like suckers.
I think we’ve reached that point now:
* People who pay their mortgages – often at considerable personal sacrifice – see others who didn’t bother get special assistance.
* People who took jobs they didn’t particularly want just to pay the bills see others who didn’t getting extended unemployment benefits.
* People who took risks to build their businesses and succeeded see others, who failed, getting bailouts. It rankles at all levels.”
February 6, 2012
Maker or Taker?
February 2, 2012
The Gig Economy
I’ve been living with this for the last twenty years. It’s not so bad in these waters as long as you don’t stop swimming. Ever.
Freelancing
Freelancing: the best and worst of it: “the brain can apparently only fully focus on something for 90 minutes before it needs a change. In the office you have to constantly fight this, and as Breslin sagely points out: ‘That’s not maximising productivity.’ When you’re working unsupervised you start to develop a more natural pattern, and once that’s done it’s really hard to go back….
…Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by the amount of work and the fact that it’s all down to me. Then I remember that I am in charge of this operation and I call the shots. This makes it a lot easier to do the boring stuff too, as it’s another building block for the big picture. The element of choice makes all the difference.”
It’s always good to read the view from someone who has been on the other side.
January 16, 2012
Katie’s Clay
Erin’s cousin Katy is a polymer clay artist in Anchorage, AK. We went to visit the family this past March and had a great time seeing Alaska, visiting the family, and getting to watch Katy make her really cool polymer clay art. Katy is the featured artist on polymerclaydaily today. Congrats, Katy! Now sell online! 
January 15, 2012
And the Nominees Are…
Paradise Recovered has been nominated for Best Sound at the 2012 IIFOC film festival! My little ‘ol name is on the ballot. Fingers crossed…
January 11, 2012
Milestone
A major milestone reached today in the show! I just finished writing all of the charts for Sing 2012. I then got the fun job of sitting down and listening to all 112-odd minutes of music I’ve been working on for several months. It’s the first time I’ve heard the whole show in one sitting as I worked my way through the charts checking for errors. Fun to hear it all at once!
The show is still about a month away and the groups are busily practicing their hearts out as they prepare. I’ve still got a lot to do (final key changes, chart book assembly, final locked CDs, show track mastering, final score delivery, and on and on), but for now a big milestone has been passed. Onward!
December 31, 2011
Chew On This
I finally get to write one of my favorite rhythms of all time. Maybe two of my readers will get this. It’s a mess, but a lot of fun to play.
December 30, 2011
Talk of the Town
I’m being interviewed by Rick Thommsen on KTEM’s Talk of the Town today from 5-6. We’ll talk about music, my very strange job, and life in general (as well as whatever curveballs he throws my way).
If you’d like to hear me blab narcissistically, you can listen to it online here. Erin can’t understand how I can blithely go on the radio and just jabber. Guess it comes from standing in front of large groups of people and having them do what I say. After doing that for so long it’s a natural assumption that people would be interested.
December 12, 2011
December 5, 2011
Mobile Man
Sean has a post over at his blog about his impending job move from Magnolia to Mutual Mobile, an up-and-coming company in downtown Austin. I know it’s been a tough decision for him and he’s considered a lot of factors, but I really am happy that he’s making this move. Maybe I’m just selfish, though. This means more lunches since we won’t be facing an 80 mile round trip to spend time together. Hooray!
Seriously, though, it’s good to see a friend making conscious moves to do what they love, and it’s something that I wish on all of my friends. Way to go, amigo!
December 2, 2011
Quoth
“The skilled tradesman brings his intelligence and his discipline to his work. His job is to take ownership of a project. He creates something that wasn’t there before—something new, something better, something more valuable. And in that, the skilled tradesman is the kindred spirit of every entrepreneur.”
Dealing with the frustrations that come when someone sees you as a skilled tradesman, hires you for your experience and knowledge, and then proceeds to disregard your advice. If the pattern runs true to form, this will end when the client is disappointed with the end result and that disappointment is then directed toward the craftsman for the quality of the work. Why couldn’t you take my bad decisions and make something great out of it? I thought you were good at your job.
*Sigh*
December 1, 2011
Do It Yourself
Do It Yourself | Excellence in Philanthropy | The Philanthropy Roundtable: “The skilled tradesman brings his intelligence and his discipline to his work. His job is to take ownership of a project. He creates something that wasn’t there before—something new, something better, something more valuable. And in that, the skilled tradesman is the kindred spirit of every entrepreneur.”
November 30, 2011
November 29, 2011
November 27, 2011
Where the Jobs Are
A very interesting (and short) post over at Insty about the current job market. It only reinforces my guess that the future belongs to those with “skills”. What used to be (and are still somewhat) looked-down-upon trade skills are actually in very high demand as an entire generation bought into the assumption that the “knowledge economy” wasn’t going to need tradesmen, plumbers, welders, or other hands-on workers. Read the whole thing (and the linked article).
What I found interesting was this:
“I would hire 5 more guys right now if I could. However, it is virtually impossible to find anyone with skills anymore. The number one skill we are missing as a society is a work ethic. I speak to employers all the time and we all are looking for the same potential employee–someone who is honest, hard working, and who has reasonable intelligence. In other words someone who willing and able to learn new things and admit it when they screw up. Notice education is not on the list.”
Education is good, though I’m still on the fence about whether or not everyone needs a full 4 years of college. I’m grateful for my 3 degrees, though I still maintain that I’ve learned more in the 20 years since graduation than I ever learned in school. After all, 8 years of undergrad and post-grad is a lot less than 20 years of post college. If you’re not constantly learning, what have you done with the time since school? Reminds me of several people I’ve talked to who consider it a badge of honor that the last full book they read was in formal schooling. It’s just my opinion, but that seems like a real waste to me. Surely there’s something to be passionate about after formal schooling?
Some of the greatest minds of human history have been attached to autodidactic brains (and yes, I meant to write it that way). I think the #1 thing we could teach isn’t math or science or even logic. It’s curiosity. Teach a generation to be curious about everything and then watch out.
November 21, 2011
Good for Revenue Enhancement
Yeah, you know that invoice you think you sent two months ago? The one that covered all that work you did for us in a big hurry? The one you’ve been eagerly going to the mailbox every day for six weeks waiting for so that you can replenish some of the money you floated us in materials to make that thing you made for us (which we love, by the way)? Yeah… turns out we never got that invoice. Or it got misdirected. Or we just don’t understand it. Or we lost it. But thanks for the six weeks of interest on your money. Go ahead and resubmit it and we’ll put it on the bottom of the pile.
Maybe we can lose it again! Talk to you in another two months!
This would be only slightly distressing if it hadn’t happened to me twice. On two different invoices.
Sigh.
To those of you who envy my self-employed, freewheeling ways: witness the downside. At this point, some of my major clients have proven themselves to actually be less responsible than 20 year old college students.
November 13, 2011
Project Done
After 10 months of work on a giant project I’ve just sent off the final song. Last February I was contacted by a major Texas university. They hired me to write 30 songs for their science and teaching curriculum. Over the past 10 months what started as me writing some simple music to already existing lyrics slowly evolved into me writing or rewriting all of the lyrics, writing the music, recording and producing the vocal tracks, and doing final mixing. Today, the final song (and one of my favorites) went out to the client.
It’s been an absolute, unconditional blast to be involved in this project. Not only have I gotten to write music, but it was science based, for pete’s sake. How perfect is that? I got to really utilize the vocal booth I built a few years ago as well as really dig into vocal editing and mixing. Through this whole thing the client has been ecstatic with what I’ve done. They expected rinky-dinky piano and some cheesy Midi instruments but I was able to give them some of my best stuff. I’m extremely proud of it.
I’ll try and get permission to post some excerpts. There are still contractual reasons why I can’t talk publicly about the who/what/where of the project since they’re still in the process of selling the final product. The good news, though, is that it’s virtually guaranteed at this point to be heard by several million K-12 students across the country. What fun!
Thanks to Erin for putting up with me while I went through an entirely unusual period of several months of crazy music writing. She’s had to take care of everything non-musical around here (basically everything from keeping us fed to making sure I actually get up and move around once or twice a day). As of now I’m pretty much back to my normal busy November schedule (which I’ve also kept up with), but I wanted to write a post to mark this milestone. Hooray!
November 2, 2011
You Don’t Have to Suck At Stuff
Great little essay:
I Suck at Photoshop; Except I Don’t, and You Don’t Suck at That Thing You’re “Bad at” Either: “”
October 19, 2011
How to Be a Failure
Some of us get really successful at it.
“Less attention is devoted to failure, or even what failure is. There is financial failure — bankruptcy — professional failure — unemployment — and personal failure — divorce. But there are all kinds of failure — failing your parents, failing your faith, failing to live up to your own expectations of who you think you should be.
I fail all the time, so often that I am somewhat mystified when I get emails in which people perceive me as successful. Because most of the time, I think of myself as a failure. Which, I’ve come to think, is part of what makes me successful.”
via Forbes.