But what could be better. This is one of my fondest memories of starting this whole thing. First of all, the whole thing poses itself to be quite funny if we implement it correctly. It should just be an interesting story altogether. It is seriously deep though.
The Original Local Music Showcase
Story of the origin of the Original Local Music Scene's "Showcase" Public Access Formula
It's not like it hasn't been done before. But it will probably be done like this again if we're successful. Paul and I have a conversation about starting a public access show about local bands.
Enter @20ian as he approaches @Roland737
Ian (@203ian) is walking down Lynwood (hmm I wonder why? #littleamsterdam) and meets up with Paul (roland737) who is sitting on the front porch of the Rochdaleburger.
John is moving a Christmas tree from his car. He frumbles and grumbles about. Plans on going out to the pub later, alludes to a party he'd be very disappointed if you did not attend.
Paul: "Hey, I was just about to text you."
Ian: "I guess making plans wasn't really even necessary."
Paul: "Yeah. Guess this is where we are."
It's Friday. Paul still plans to go to Firehouse12 later. The plan was to meet at Firehouse at 5. It's now 3 and Paul is on his front porch. The reason why Ian is wandering around is because he's looking for a warm place with wifi. Since it's after 3, and it's Friday, this will probably involve a place that also serves soup. In proximity of the location, Kasbah was Ian's intended destination.
"Yep. Look where we are."
Ian: "So here's what I think we should do. Let's make a local music showcase."
Paul: "That's exactly what I was thinking."
Ian: "Yeah, like we have local bands come in and we film em performing."
Paul: "Right, and then there's like a couch somewhere."
Ian: "Exactly. And a desk. Like some old school Letterman thing."
Paul: "Should we get a jacket?"
Ian: "Yah dude. We'll get a David Letterman jacket."*
Ian: "So the bands perform a song, and then they have a conversation about it."
Paul: "Yep. Right."
Ian: "Ok, I'll produce some animated graphics for it and we'll be on our way."
Paul: "Sounds good. You'll direct it. And I'll produce it."
There's an actual voice recording of this entire conversation.
Later on at Firehouse
Ben is there. He talks to Dean. Silas is in the corner sitting by himself. Silas comes up to Dean.
Ian shows Ben what he's up to. He demonstrates the Music Scene Handbook, which spells out the details of all of the apps on the phone for the next user. You will be able to purchase it as a book pretty soon.
Ben: "I thought that whole Under91 Project was all geared up for you to take over."
Dean: "That wasn't the point. sips beer. It was never the point to take it over, it was about making sure the right people got it. Honestly from my perspective it was about traffic control on the day of the event. I was just there to make sure nobody got hurt and it went ok."
Sips Beer again.
Dean: "That wasn't the point."
Ben: "But you gotta stop recording people."
Dean: "I realize that wasn't good. I recognize that was a mistake in fact I was talking to Silas about it and we both agreed it was supposed to happen. I'm glad I erased that particular conversation forever."
Could you imagine if there was a copy of that conversation floating around? If ever there were a conversation worthy of deletion, it would have been the point where Dean met Ben at Silas' studio on Church Street that rainy December morning the year before.
Ben: "Like, are you recording this whole conversation?"
There are 5-7 iPhones on the counter in front of them.
"Ummm..." A screen lights up, indicating the voice recorder is on.
"C'mon dude." Ben looks forlorn. He has every right to.
"But you know, life is performance art, and
"That's bullshit. Look, here are the rules. You need to tell people you're recording."
"Ben, that drastically changes the nature of the content completely."
Dean is referring to the research he's conducted for years in which people behave differently when they think or know they are being recorded. He has lots of experience with this. The best material, he's found, is when people are naturally being themselves. The trouble with that material is that it's not always that easy to put it in contrast. On his phone are hundreds if not thousands of conversations recorded while he's talking about just about anything. He's essentially bugged his own entire life. In a sense, he's spying on himself, on a way, from the distance of a few years in the future when he organizes and finds all of those voice recordings, and uses that material for future shows and ideas as he recollects the memories of the experiences.
In his mind, though, not on voice recordings are the memories of Laila, standing by the fence looking out at a cold Lake Whitney on that day (Dec 10). I know she's going to leave this place (New England) but I just can't leave with her. She's going to go away and be somebody else's, I think, because I know this place will never truly be home to her. No place ever might.
Going to the Lake
Dean was at Miya's, getting a soup from his housemate Rachel who was working her shift. It was dead, dead quiet peaceful and Dean was going to sit down and work on his laptop in the back room by himself for a few hours. Soup was on, and he had a coupon. Rachel also served him some delicious salad.Just as he sat down, he receives a text message. It's from Laila.
"What's the Mission" Episode
*: Story of Getting David Letterman's Jacket
In the unlikely event that the show becomes a wide success, and Letterman finds out about it (probably from the attention gathered from later NPR exposure) Roland737 is invited to go on the show. In the wind-up to the travel for this experience, Paul and Ian are sitting at ThreeSheets and have the following conversation.
Paul: "I can't believe I'm going on Letterman."
Ian: "I can. I mean, I wrote that whole story about it months ago."
Paul: "I wonder what he's going to ask me?"
Ian: "Not sure. But there's a reason you're going."
Paul: "What's the mission?"
@Roland737 gets David Letterman's Jacket
1. Wander down the hall with a sandwich.
2. Walk into his dressing room and take his jacket
3. Throw jacket into backpack you brought in
Paul: "Wait, why would I want to steal David Letterman's jacket?"
Ian: "It has special powers. We need it for the show."
Paul: "Yeah, that would be sick if we were like, 'That's Letterman's jacket.'
Ian: "It would go really well with my Cesar Pelli collection."
Ian has a penchant for collecting clothing items legitimately owned by famous or important people. It's actually his downfall. He is mistaken about the energy contained in various types of personal items. There is a power to all of it and he's right about that. But the items which contain personal power are those which have a detail that only he would understand. Like the Sweater Vest, or the tee shirt he always wears. Often time it was given to him from somebody.
As part of a goofy skit though, we act this out. It would be kind of funny I think to have Paul sneaking around the office of David Letterman trying to steal his blazer for some weird bootleg Secret Society nonsense. Ian claims allegiance to Scroll and Key, but can't claim any actual membership at this time. Getting into Scroll and Key was difficult enough. When he tells them about the dreams (if he's successful as a student) it's a possibility.
__________________________________________________
explanations
The point of this conversation is to effectively plan the future for all local musicians in town, and to start a national trend in the direction of a new media initiative. What hasn't been said here yet is that Ian is the Executive Director of Stereomedia.Org and Paul is the Executive Producer. They don't even quite realize at this exact moment just how much hanging out they're about to do as friends and co-workers in this enterprise.
At the present moment, Ian holds the seat of Social Media Director for the city. His official title is Content Manager, and he gets told what to do all day; but he does it and the city likes it. The University hired him recently to produce video for them. See the Bruce Alexander story. This all really happened in the same week as that.
Paul runs Public Access video station. Ian is aware that by putting Nhv.Org / NhvMusic content on the television with video and screenshots and other things, he's blowing the door on the whole parameters dominating the way that people get their media. The Public Access Station functions exactly like a TV Station. By creating content on the Television Station produced for New Haven by Stereomedia, this completes an entire round robin paradigm of what a media entity is supposed to be. Like a Facebook that produces TV shows. About you, or people like you. Part TV Show, part documentary, full of interviews, live music and what real life is actually like. And there are maps on there that tell you where to go places. With beautiful photos and clever animations.
Moving the Beat Over a Page
This is a great piece that Dean wrote which could have gotten him in really big trouble but actually won favor by making light of the situation while drawing from the wealth of knowledge in his personal experiences. It was the kind of writing that made Nhv.Org more famous. The New Haven Beat stuff needs to go on the Music Scene page from now on.
This was done for a variety of reasons. Dean was talking to the establishment about Nhv.Org and had to hide all of the New Haven Beat stuff somewhere because it wasn't going to fly with Bruce Alexander. There's no way the University would invest in a project that reported news it didn't want to hear. Unfortunately that's the way it worked. It would probably be better if the establishment actually read what Mark had to offer.
