The Grind – Journal 2/25/18

Whoa there, almost put a 17 at the end of that date instead of 18. That’s how my day’s gone. Every so often there comes one of those where nothing seems right and it seems like you’ve been asleep all day. Yeah, that’s been my day.

And I am self-aware enough to know that I bitch about it every time they happen and I feel useless because I’ve got this.

Incident report: the Monarch crashed today. I keep really underestimating its specs and today let it hit an errant tree branch. Thankfully only lost two propellers and some minor cosmetic damage sustained. It crashed in such a way that it snapped off the prop sections and also ejected the battery, so I couldn’t even have the seconds leading up to the crash on record because it didn’t save in time. Everything came out okay. But it looked awful. Propellers replaced, cosmetics touched up, and now I know not to fly it in my neighborhood again because of the low trees. I’m still reeling, to be perfectly honest. Sick to my stomach, actually.

As you may have seen in the video I posted last week, I have indeed flown it! Over open areas free of obstacles. In the snow. So we’ll be at pilot status yet. I’ve spent far too much money on it to be treating it irresponsibly in any manner. So this is an open apology to my own drone that I’m sorry for being a prick. I’ll make it better, I promise. I can even buy you new shells!

That section of the station will expand, but slowly. The Monarch must rest, and I must order more devices and plan more flights properly to get good videos of places I enjoy. That’s number two priority: make plans.

Broadcasts haven’t appeared because of the time it takes to record them is being burned by reading and writing poetry again lately. I’ve written a few more Days, just haven’t sat down to get them onto mp3s.

Let’s swing back around to the title of this journal: The Grind. Because it’s something that’s been in my head a lot lately and I constantly find myself questioning the purpose of making art that may or may not go appreciated. View counts and likes are great, but personal success looks a little different than that. It manifests as opportunity, I’d like to think, but clearly this grind is of a different kind.

I was at the University of Washington in Tacoma and was stopped by someone on a corner for how I looked. The man who stopped me had on a beanie, a stack of cards in his hand, and a guitar case on the ground beside him. He identified me as a “rocker” (sure?) and proceeded to tell me to check out his soundcloud, including a business card he must have handwritten out and had copied. No doubt he put some time into their production, but I simply became a part of his grind. This was his publicity. It struck me that I was targeted as part of marketing, whether or not he fully realized he was trying to typecast his audience.

I haven’t looked at his soundcloud, but it’s made me realize that I need to become more crafty with my marketing. In-person promotion is great for when you have physical objects, so does this mean I should hock my poetry somewhere on the street? Shall I become a walking merchant with oodles of literary collections to sell? Is it worth it? How will I know?

I won’t unless I try it. One think I’ve certainly failed to understand so far is the extent of my reach. I keep imposing self-limitations on the things that I do and the range of what I can go out and do. Performances? Posters? I keep thinking so digitally that I’m ignoring an audience that could possibly exist. Reach reach reach. Part of the grind.

I think the Monarch is a very good start. Once I get MUCH more confident with it and its ability, I will be able to take contracts as an aerial videographer. Acquiring equipment doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing yet.

And speaking of contracts, I’m in talks with a few local artists I know to do work-for-hire stuff and commissioned artwork based on poetry and stuff from Radio Reality City! Rejoining us will be the works of Grace Woods! Who had previously done drawings based on No Land Beyond, Mother of Invention, and a few others from Year One. She’s offered to update them, as I’ve asked to purchase the license to publish them somehow, and so far the results are staggering! I really hope to be able to show off some of her work soon.

I would also like to update all my readers on what’s coming in March…

Nothing! Nothing planned, anyways. March is going to be marked as a slowdown in content being released. I need a formal moment to not worry on publishing so much – daily, and maybe getting an actual schedule on when things are published. February has been lax on photography and journals, but big on poetry (as normal) and redesigns and operations on other platforms, and acquisition of the Monarch. I haven’t been writing enough poetry to keep up a constant feed of one new poem daily (at least I don’t think).

Here’s the plan for March: record more Days. Currently, that’s the bee in my bonnet that I’m irritated over my own inaction over. I got my Yeti microphone and immediately followed that up with Monarch anticipation. I need to pay more attention to audio to at least establish a routine for myself. I can’t just crank one of these out in the car, I have to sit down and record it very deliberately and edit it for a few hours to get it in a publishable state. Having permission from Kauf is an amazing thing, and I need to make use of that permission to make something he himself might be able to stand by.

I will still be releasing poetry, but not at a “new one a day” rate.

In March I will also try to draft up flight plans for the Monarch to get good videos of places I hold very dear.

Finally, I’d like to end with some hardcore self-promotion, if you’d indulge me so far.

I have a Patreon set up at https://www.patreon.com/thehostofrrc for those of you who would like to formally support me in building Radio Reality City. Currently there is a $1 option to simply give a few hours of life to the station, and a $5 option to gain access to every monthly publication I put out! This would include original artworks, poetry, and other stuff wrapped up in neat little PDF bundles (a perfect alternative to purchasing every collection separately). So if you do tune in, I urge you to please consider being a patron; it would allow me to invest directly back into creativity to only get more means to make with.

Alright, that’ll do it for me today. Lot of substance if I spread these journals out! Isn’t that funny, more time means more things happening to report back on.

Thank you all for listening, as always, and I hope this update keeps you all in the loop as to what’s going on around the station.

Consume reality!

Radio Reality City!