Hi TPP Readers,
I wanted to send along some Easter weekend updates. To celebrate Holy Week, I’ve released a free collection of recordings on Bandcamp, The Lo-Fi Hymnal II. It is free to download (though you can pay more if you wish).
I’ve also cut the price of ALL of my paintings to $10. Free shipping in the United States. I also have two new paintings for Easter (and soon a third): “Easter Eggs” and “Neon Cross.”
Here’s wishing you all a safe and happy Easter Weekend!
—TPP
After a lot of frantic composing and sloppy recording, it’s here: Péchés d’âge moyen, my short collection of twelve original piano miniatures.
My self-imposed deadline was today, the March 2022 Bandcamp Friday. I made it—barely!
The total recording clocks in at just six minutes and thirty-five seconds, but I’ve jam-packed this release with bonus features: videos, original manuscripts of each piece, and a PDF booklet detailing the origins of the project. It’s not bad for $5 (although that comes out to approximately $1.43 per minute if you just listen to the album once).
I also had a blast putting this recording together. The feel of putting pen to paper is just so satisfying, and each little bit of written music is like its own little work of art. One reason I included the manuscripts with the recording is because they’re beautiful to look at—even with my poor penmanship.
Last month I boldly proclaimed “The End of Bandcamp Friday” because, well, their website said it was over. Naturally, that announcement turned out to be premature, as Bandcamp is bringing back Bandcamp Fridays!
I really should take this opportunity to write some new material, as many of the readers of this blog have either a.) already purchased my music or b.) made it clear they have no intention of doing so.
Still, I should at least try to get readers to part with their money—right?—so here is an abbreviated version of my usual spiel:
It being the Bandcamp Friday—and nearly Valentine’s Day!—there’s never been a better time to buy my music, my merch, or my book. Indeed, you can pick up my entire discography (seven albums!) for just $19.98, a whopping 35% discount.
On Bandcamp Friday, Bandcamp waives it’s share of sales, so musicians take home more of those dollars than other days.
Bandcamp also has some exciting news: musicians can host livestreams via the platform now! These can be free or ticketed, which opens up some enticing opportunities for musicians. I’ll explore this option in the near future.
That’s all I’ve got. It’s been a bit rough lately for yours portly, but things are good on the financial front for the moment. By the time this post is published, I’ll have taught thirteen lessons this week, with six more coming up today. I would have had twenty-one separate lessons this week, but a couple of students got sick and/or had to quarantine. Needless to say, that’s helped beef up the coffers considerably after the doldrums of January.
Of course, there’s always room for more beef—or cheddar—in the coffers, so feel free to cough ‘er up.
Happy Friday!
—TPP
Yep, it’s my monthly Bandamp Friday post! I know it’s not the most exciting post in the world, but, by God, I’ve gotta try. Can you blame me? It being the holiday season, there’s never been a better time to buy my music, my merch, or my book. Read on.
It’s the first Friday of December, which means it’s another Bandcamp Friday! That means it’s the best possible time to purchase my music. Indeed, my entire discography (seven albums!) is just $19.98, a whopping 35% discount (just £15.01 as of 30 November 2021, according to Bing, for my British readers). That’s $2.85 (£2.14) per release, the kind of deal you only get on cassette tapes at the gas station (or from yours portly!).
It’s also a great time to pick up my debut book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot. It’s just $10 (and available in Britain, too). Christmas is approaching, and with Christmas comes parties—and what self-respecting doesn’t have a White Elephant gift exchange? Those almost always call for a $10 gift, and you’d definitely have one of the oddest contributions at the party.
For that matter, why not buy four or five copies to hand out as stocking stuffers to your friends?
Bandcamp began doing Bandcamp Fridays during The Age of The Virus, when most musicians (myself included) witnessed a catastrophic drop in their revenue. Venues closed or stopped live music; parents withdrew students from one-on-one lessons; and private parties were cancelled, meaning fewer of those lucrative gigs. Also, fewer live performances meant fewer royalties for songwriters. It’s only $10
Fortunately, that situation is improving, and people are eager to get out and hear live music again. Still, pitching in a few bucks helps immensely—and you get some good music in the process, too!
So, on with the sales pitch! Here are my seven releases, in chronological order:
An easy (and free) way to support me is to “follow” my Bandcamp page and my Amazon author page. I post updates about new merchandise, new music, and other interesting offers about once a month to the Bandcamp page, and new books will pop up on my Amazon page as they’re published. It’s a good way to keep up with the latest news on my musical adventures.
Another free way to support me is to turn off your ad-blocker. The site delivers several thousand ad impressions monthly, but most of those are blocked, which means they don’t pay out. You can usually find the ad-blocker as a little widget or icon in the upper-right-hand side of your browser; click on it and it will usually give you the option to “pause” or stop the blocker from running on this site. I know ads are annoying, but seeing a few DuckDuckGo ads helps out in an incremental way.
Even if none of that entices you, no worries! I’m just glad to have you here, reading my self-indulgent garbage and my lengthy advertisement posts.
Happy Friday!
—TPP
It’s Black Friday today, so everyone is rushing out to get whatever picked over sales items they can. In the spirit of Black Friday, I’d be remiss if I didn’t hawk my book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard, and my music. Inspector Gerard is the perfect White Elephant gag gift, and at $10 for the paperback, it fits perfectly into the price point for most such novelty gift exchanges. I’ve also got some weird merch for sale.
I first wrote “Brack Friday Bunduru: Workers Need a Break“ back in 2019, at a point when I was feeling immense amounts of burnout at work. I stand by my original assessment—that companies shouldn’t gobble up Thanksgiving Day to offer increasingly early doorbuster sales so their workers can enjoy some time with their families—though now I would probably add some more caveats.
I realized that I never really explained the name “Brack Friday Bunduru.” I lifted it from an episode of South Park in which the kids heat up the console wars between the XBox and Playstation:
Ever since, I can’t help but say, “Brack Friday Bunduru” in an exaggerated Japanese accent ever Black Friday.
With that, here is 2020’s “Flashback Friday: Brack Friday Bunduru: Workers Need a Break”:
It’s the first Friday of November, which means it’s another Bandcamp Friday! That means it’s the best possible time to purchase my music. Indeed, my entire discography (seven albums!) is just $19.98, a whopping 35% discount (just £14.64 as of 1 November 2021, according to Bing, for my British readers). That’s $2.85 (£2.09) per release, the kind of deal you only get on cassette tapes at the gas station (or from yours portly!).
I’m also sitting on a lot of great, but unsold, Spooktacular merch, including my shocking original painting “The War on Halloween.” If the price tag is too rich for your blood, contact me and we’ll work something out.
It’s also a great time to pick up my debut book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot. It’s just $10 (and available in Britain, too). Christmas is approaching, and it’s a great time to read absurdist, ludicrous detective stories by the fire (or to give as gifts—why not buy four or five copies to hand out as stocking stuffers to your friends?).
Bandcamp began doing Bandcamp Fridays during The Age of The Virus, when most musicians (myself included) witnessed a catastrophic drop in their revenue. Venues closed or stopped live music; parents withdrew students from one-on-one lessons; and private parties were cancelled, meaning fewer of those lucrative gigs. Also, fewer live performances meant fewer royalties for songwriters. It’s only $10
Fortunately, that situation is improving, and people are eager to get out and hear live music again. Still, pitching in a few bucks helps immensely—and you get some good music in the process, too!
So, on with the sales pitch! Here are my seven releases, in chronological order:
An easy (and free) way to support me is to “follow” my Bandcamp page and my Amazon author page. I post updates about new merchandise, new music, and other interesting offers about once a month to the Bandcamp page, and new books will pop up on my Amazon page as they’re published. It’s a good way to keep up with the latest news on my musical adventures.
Another free way to support me is to turn off your ad-blocker. The site delivers several thousand ad impressions monthly, but most of those are blocked, which means they don’t pay out. You can usually find the ad-blocker as a little widget or icon in the upper-right-hand side of your browser; click on it and it will usually give you the option to “pause” or stop the blocker from running on this site. I know ads are annoying, but seeing a few DuckDuckGo ads helps out in an incremental way.
Even if none of that entices you, no worries! I’m just glad to have you here, reading my self-indulgent garbage and my lengthy advertisement posts.
Happy Friday!
—TPP
It’s the first day of the best month of the year! My annual Halloween Spooktacular is tantalizingly close—just twenty-nine days away!—and my interest in horror movies now takes on a seasonally appropriate veneer, instead of just the odd obsession of a potentially deranged individual.
It’s also another Bandcamp Friday, which means it’s the best possible time to purchase my music. Indeed, my entire discography (seven albums!) is just $19.98, a whopping 35% discount (just £14.76 as of 28 September 2021, according to Bing, for my newfound British readers). That’s $2.85 (£2.10) per release, the kind of deal you only get on cassette tapes at the gas station (or from yours portly!).
What better time to spin my classic hit “Ghostly,” a spookily unhinged ballad in creepy 3/4 time, or the electronic opus “Zombie Unicorn,” featuring irregular multi-meter insanity and shades of Saint-Saëns? They’re on Contest Winner EP and The Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse, respectively.
Not in the mood for spookiness? Then enjoy the boppy, poppy fun of perennial fan favorite “Hipster Girl Next Door“—or the pleading piano-pop balladry of “Greek Fair.”
Are your tastes inclined in a more heavenly direction? Then check out The Lo-Fi Hymnal, a love letter to hymn singing and playing recorded on over a tiny phone microphone. Trust me—it’s better than it sounds!
In short, ’tis the season for merriment and fun—and for forking over your hard-earned cash to support the blogger, musician, and teacher you love: me!
Yes, poor readers, here it is again: another Bandcamp Friday. Other than one of the earliest times I posted about this glorious monthly holiday—during which Bandcamp waives its usual commission on sales through its site—I don’t know that I’ve ever made a sale hawking my musical wares via the blog.
Well, if at first you do not succeed, pester, pester again (alternatively, doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity, but all musicians are a bit crazy… right?). Also, with my lovely new readers from the British Isles, it’s never been a better time to bilk them out of their hard-earned pounds sterling.
Fortunately for them—and you, my fellow countrymen!—my entire discography (seven albums!) is just $19.98, a whopping 35% discount (just £14.50 as of 1 September 2021, according to Bing). That’s $2.85 (£2.07) per release, the kind of deal you only get on cassette tapes at the gas station (or from yours portly!).
After taking off during the long summer months, Bandcamp is bringing back Bandcamp Friday today, and continuing it the first Friday of every month through the end of 2021.
For those that have forgotten—or steadfastly ignored my many, many, many, many, many posts about it—Bandcamp Friday is when Bandcamp waives the 15% commission they usually take on sales through the site. So, if you buy, say, Electrock EP: The Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse for $4, I get almost the full $4 (PayPal takes a small cut still), instead of $4 minus $0.60 to Bandcamp.
Another, more dramatic example: if you buy my full discography at $19.98, Bandcamp doesn’t take their $3 cut, so most of that goes directly to me (again, minus the transaction fee PayPal assesses).
Bandcamp began doing Bandcamp Fridays during The Age of The Virus, when most musicians (myself included) witnessed a catastrophic drop in their revenue. Venues closed or stopped live music; parents withdrew students from one-on-one lessons; and private parties were cancelled, meaning fewer of those lucrative gigs. Also, fewer live performances meant fewer royalties for songwriters.
Fortunately, that situation is improving, and people are eager to get out and hear live music again. Still, pitching in a few bucks helps immensely—and you get some good music in the process, too!
So, on with the sales pitch! Here are my seven releases, in chronological order:
An easy (and free) way to support me is to “follow” my Bandcamp page and my Amazon author page. I post updates about new merchandise, new music, and other interesting offers about once a month to the Bandcamp page, and new books will pop up on my Amazon page as they’re published. It’s a good way to keep up with the latest news on my musical adventures.
Another free way to support me is to turn off your ad-blocker. The site delivers several thousand ad impressions monthly, but most of those are blocked, which means they don’t pay out. You can usually find the ad-blocker as a little widget or icon in the upper-right-hand side of your browser; click on it and it will usually give you the option to “pause” or stop the blocker from running on this site. I know ads are annoying, but seeing a few DuckDuckGo ads helps out in an incremental way.
Even if none of that entices you, no worries! I’m just glad to have you here, reading my self-indulgent garbage and my lengthy advertisement posts.
Happy Friday!
—TPP
Yes, dear readers, I must apologize—it’s another Bandcamp Friday, which means I am obligated to put out another copy-pasted sales pitch in a futile attempt to squeeze some of your precious Imperial Credits out of you.
Of course, if you haven’t already done so, I’d highly encourage you to pick up a copy of The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot, available in paperback and on Kindle. The reviews are quite good! If you’ve already purchased the book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon—it helps, apparently!
Now for the copy-pasted bits: I’m not going to belabor all the statistics about the hard times musicians have endured in The Age of The Virus; you can read all about that in last month’s Bandcamp Friday appeal. Instead, I’ll cut to the chase and let you know all the great ways you can support the blog, my music, my book (now on Kindle), or even just me.
For one, I have some intriguing merch available. I’m currently offering two completely original doodles, “Bird of Paradise” and “Bleeding Heart,” for just $10 each. There are no other physical copies in existence, so you’d own these lovingly doodled marker pictures—and no one else. They make great “bathroom art”—the kind of thing that would look good in a guest bathroom, or maybe a tacky beach house.
I’m also clearing out the last few remaining “Flamin’” t-shirts for $15 (plus $5 shipping). These shirts are rare and I won’t be making any more of them.
Most obviously, because it’s Bandcamp Friday, Bandcamp is waiving the commission it takes on sales of musicians’ work TODAY, Friday, 7 May 2021. You can pick up my entire discography for $19.98 (or more, if you feel so inclined), a full 35% off the price of buying each album individually. To purchase the full discography—seven releases in total—you can view any of my albums (like Electrock EP: The Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse) and find a button/link that reads “Buy Digital Discography” (unfortunately, there’s no way to supply that link directly).
You can also purchase albums individually, either at their listed price or higher. Here are my seven releases, in chronological order:
An easy (and free) way to support me is to “follow” my Bandcamp page and my Amazon author page. I post updates about new merchandise, new music, and other interesting offers about once a month to the Bandcamp page, and new books will pop up on my Amazon page as they’re published. It’s a good way to keep up with the latest news on my musical adventures.
Another free way to support me is to turn off your ad-blocker. The site delivers several thousand ad impressions monthly, but most of those are blocked, which means they don’t pay out. You can usually find the ad-blocker as a little widget or icon in the upper-right-hand side of your browser; click on it and it will usually give you the option to “pause” or stop the blocker from running on this site. I know ads are annoying, but seeing a few DuckDuckGo ads helps out in an incremental way.
Even if none of that entices you, no worries! I’m just glad to have you here, reading my self-indulgent garbage and my lengthy advertisement posts.
Happy Friday!
—TPP
The Portly Politico 