Of Youtube videos and other creative publication.

I did not die from last week, as you may have guessed. Life has taken a minor upswing again, which is very welcome as always. The Decemberists have become my music of choice- there’s just something about the music itself, regardless of who is singing it at the moment, that makes me feel better and for whatever reason makes me a feel a bit empowered. If I’m feeling shy or lacking confidence there are certain Decemberists songs that can instantly make me feel like I’m a force of nature. It’s awesome.

A few days ago I gave an ultimatum on Twitter that if my video for “Cupcakes” (remember it? It’s this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYpe2rYzPhc ) reached 200 views by Monday I would post a new video. I think I underestimated how many people pay attention to what I’m saying because the view count jumped by ten in 24 hours, as did the views on several of my other new videos. I know ten more views in 24 hours isn’t generally impressive, but to have it follow something I said on Twitter is amazing to me. I’m glad to see I’m apparently making some kind of invisible connection. It’s silly if I stop to think about it, which is generally why I don’t stop to think about things like that.

I won’t say more about the video I’m putting up except to say that there may be two videos instead of one. Well see how it goes…

This past week I also recorded a version of “I Have A Theory” that got over 33 views within the first 24 hours of my posting it. That’s pretty funny to me because the video is nothing fancy. It’s me sitting on the kitchen floor with my yamaha keyboard, wearing plaid trousers and a Rogues Gallery shirt, no make-up singing to a jam track. It took two weeks or so to get Cupcakes up to the view count and star rating of this video. Does this mean I shouldn’t be so fancy? I don’t think I can stop being fancy, but it’s an interesting phenomenon to keep in mind:



That strikes me as even funnier because, besides Blood of the Girl, I Have a Theory is one of the oldest songs in my repertoire now that You Say Goodbye has been retired with Gin Circus. I wrote both of those when I was fifteen. I like that I’m still performing them and people like the stripped down sound better than the more complicated things I’m doing now.

There aren’t any pictures this week, really. Mostly because I can’t find my camera cord to upload them.

I have another article printed in The Free Press this week:

http://media.www.usmfreepress.org/media/storage/paper311/news/2009/10/05/ArtsAndEntertainment/Usm-Bands.Rock.Space.Gallery-3794297.shtml

They didn’t put the picture in, but in the print edition of the paper they used this photo:



Lovely Tara. I also had a photo published in the Portland edition of the Deli. The photo wasn’t working when I went to the site just now so I’ll just show you which one it was and forgo linking to the site since, well, the portrayal of dear Katherine has become a running joke. No matter! They chose this one:



I have today and Sunday off as well as Monday and Tuesday. Although I have lots of homework I have a musical task ahead of me- the Dresden Dolls’ “Jeep Song” says everything I want to say about some particular thoughts and feelings I have at the moment but I refuse to let it go just because the topics have been covered before. Therefore, I have to write a song that expresses my feelings without tramping on Amanda Palmer’s past feelings on the subject. It will no doubt become another on-the-floor-with-the-yamaha video, don’t worry.

Tonight is family dinner. I get to see my nephew. This makes me very happy since toddlers’ joy is infectious. Actually, toddlers can be pretty infectious in general, so I’m going to go get some vitamin C in my system before I see him.
-Aubin