TBT^65,536: It’s a Thanksgiving Miracle!

The Portly Politico1 Comment

It’s kind of humorous to consider that the very first “It’s a Thanksgiving Miracle” post from 2017 reflected upon my dangerous fall from a ladder, resulting in a broken wrist, as I am not celebrating Thanksgiving with a broken ankle (so far, the ankle has been going a bit better than the wrist).  I’ve been incredibly blessed throughout the entire process, as I’ve noted multiple times across other posts.

I haven’t always been grateful.  I’ve been upset with some of the lackluster response to my creative output, and have perhaps been overly vocal about it on this blog.  Part of me thinks that after five years of slogging away, I’d have something to show for this blog.  If a million words or so isn’t read, do they truly exist?

But I shouldn’t complain too much.  I did well in October with Bandcamp Friday, even if it was below my expectations.  It was actually my second best day on Bandcamp.

My personal life is in a much better place now than it was a year ago at this time, too.  I’ve lost some weight and am dating a very sweet flight attendant, which is kind of the equivalent of the nerdy liar who would claim he was dating a Canadian supermodel (but mine is real, I promise!).  We don’t get to see each other as much as either of us would like, but we’re both fairly independent people, so it works out nicely.

Murphy is doing well, too, although she’s been chewing her paws a bit lately.  Something to get checked out as soon as we can get to the vet.

All in all, I’m extremely blessed:  a good house, a good family, a good dog, a good job—all thanks to a good God.

With that, here’s “TBT^256: It’s a Thanksgiving Miracle!“:

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Giving Thanks… for Civilization VI

The Portly Politico3 Comments

Yours portly had a massive burst of productivity on a lazy, rainy Saturday early in November.  I buckled down and finished my lesson plans, quizzes, tests, study guides, exams, exam review guides, etc., for the rest of the semester.  I spent the following Sunday afternoon churning out blog posts, as I’m trying to get back ahead so I don’t have to worry about writing over Thanksgiving.

One upshot to all of that hustle is that I have a rare thing now:  free time in the evenings.  I’m always working a bit on something, and I have plenty of grading to keep me warm over Thanksgiving Break, but I’ve been slamming that stuff out, too.

That’s all to say that I’ve had way more time to play video games in the evenings, usually while watching horror movies.  The game that has dominated my time the past few weeks—and which has kept me up far too late on a number of occasions—is Civilization VI.

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

The Portly Politico1 Comment

This week’s pick is the definition of niche:  a British indie film about sound design for an Italian giallo film.  If you’re a horror aficionado and interested in film scoring and sound design, you’ll love this film, as I did.  If not, it’s still worth watching, but you’re probably not going to appreciate it as much.

That’s my basic take on Berberian Sound Studio (2012), the story of a meek British sound engineer who finds himself working in a hostile Italian sound studio on an (apparently) very graphic giallo flick.

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Lazy Sunday CXXVII: Indie Musician Rants

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I’ve been in a mood lately—a mood of laying everything out there and being even more candid that usual.  That’s manifested itself in some recent posts, in which I’ve ranted and vented about the trials, the tribulations, and the smells of being an indie musician:

  • “Sleep!” – A bit of a downer of a post, in which I contemplated shuttering the blog.  Only one person commented, so I suppose this cry for help and/or desperate ploy at getting attention failed.
  • “Spotify Theft: Another Indie Musician’s Rant” – The main response to this post was, “sorry, I don’t stream music.”  Well, perhaps none of us should now that Spotify is stealing royalties from small artists like me (or will be starting in 2024).
  • “Confessions of a Frustrated Creator” – A post detailing some of the frustrations that I and, I imagine, many artists face.

But, hey, who cares about art when we can have debates over the marginal tax credit and how much money to send overseas?

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Acceptance

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Readers are likely familiar with the Kübler-Ross model of the five stages of grief.  It’s one of those psychological models that has percolated into the popular culture.  As is often the case, The Simpsons illustrates it better than I can:

When it comes to the future of our nation, I’ve reached the “Acceptance” phase after many, many years in the other phases.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

Confessions of a Frustrated Creator

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Yours portly has to get something off of his massive, hairy chest:  I don’t think I’ve been delivering the best content lately.  Blogging daily is always going to be a game of quantity versus quality, but I feel as though I have been phoning it in more and more.

It’s my job to give you what you want, and I haven’t been doing that very well lately.  Quite frankly, though, I’m frustrated.

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TBT^2: Resist the Black Pill

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It was another disappointing election day last week, both locally and nationally, with Democrats doing better than anyone would reasonably expect and infanticide enshrined in Ohio’s State constitution.

But we have so much to be thankful for as conservatives.  Roe was overturned, after all, and at least we can have these political battles to protect the unborn, instead of their murder being illicitly enshrined in the national Constitution.  Trump is outperforming Biden in polls, although that doesn’t mean much at this point, nor does it mean much when election shenanigans are widespread.

Regardless, we must continue to hope and to pray—and to believe.  I’m fairly pessimistic about America’s longtime prospects, but it comes from a place of realism, not desperation (as, I’m sad to admit, it at times has).  In the meantime, God Has Given me ample opportunities to make a difference among the people in my life.  That’s all most of us can reasonably ask.

With that, here is “TBT: Resist the Black Pill“:

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Spotify Theft: Another Indie Musician’s Rant

The Portly Politico6 Comments

I’ve been using Spotify for years as both a listener and a musician, although I’m firmly in the Apple Music camp these days.  That dedication is only cemented further after Spotify’s latest announcement to changes to its streaming payments to musicians.

It seems that for tracks with fewer than 1000 plays per year, Spotify will take any unpaid streaming royalties for those tracks and redistribute them to major record labels (or, ostensibly, to all the other users on the platform who have tracks with 1000 plays or more).

That’s straight-up theft.  Spotify already pays abysmally low—something like $0.0011 per stream.  Put another way, a track has to be streamed about nine or ten times to make a penny.  I’m already not paid if a track is only streamed once in that particular time period, because Spotify doesn’t send royalties below $0.01.  I typically have about four or five monthly Spotify listeners (averaging seven at the time of writing—woot!), which comes out to a few cents every month—maybe.

“Well, Port, who cares?  You’re losing a few cents a year.”  That’s one to look at it.  The other, correct way is to view it as theft of my royalties for my music.  Stealing ten cents is still stealing—it doesn’t make it right.

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