Be More Indie Research; Reading Notes

Noteworthy transcript excerpts from Ian Nagoski, owner of The True Vine, interview:

What is the idea or moral behind The True Vine?
"The idea of shop was mainly to be able to provide. There's a lot of music out there, and there was a lot of stuff that we liked that wasn't presented cohesively in one place. The idea of the shop was the represent the stuff we liked."

Is there an all-encompassing idea behind the Baltimore music community?
"I moved here largely because of the music scene. The music scene seemed to be so free and open, so much vital stuff going on. It was real egalitarian. Real non-hierarchical."

"My theory was, at the time, it was completely impossible for anyone to get famous here. There are lots of great musicians from Baltimore, but they all got famous because they left. Anybody who stayed here never really made much of a mark. It seemed to be place you could be free because there wasn't any golden ring to capture you."

"That certainly has changed some. There are a lot of musicians that have moved here, particularly in the past two years. There still tends to be a really great reaction between subcultures and a lot of collaborative spirit."

How does an indie record shop fit into this idea?
"The idea of record store to me has always been a place where there would be an exchange of ideas, and a physical place for exploration. They would be able to dig through things and find things they wouldn't be able to find otherwise."

What are your thoughts on digital music?
"The main difference between music as a file and music as an object has something to do with permanence. I'm actually a 78 collector. The records I keep are mostly made of a combination of ground up stone and shellac. The music that I keep is stuff mostly from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It's sort-of 60-90 years old. Those are actual memories of events that did happen. They did play this music in person, in realtime, and it's remembered by this object."

"With digital media, it's easily the most impermanent form that's come up. Each format that's come along is essentially more and more ephemeral so that we are getting back to a point where music is only there for a little while and then it's gone. The example I always use is, ask people how many computers they've owned in their life? How many files do you have left from the second computer you owned? Basically none."

"Baltimore Club began in 1993, and they were pressing tons and tons and tons of vinyl up until 2 or 3 years ago when it just stopped. So Baltimore Club is completely a digital genre. So the only way it's passed around is by digital files. So when the time comes that we go back, put it into context, research it and just look at it, after all the parties are over, they are going to have a really good record of what happened from 93 to 2003. But everything that happens from 2003 to 2008; there's no way to reconstruct who did what when, except by word of mouth. And a lot of that music is just going to be lost."

"There's going to be a lot of music that will come and go, and the cultural circumstance that surround them are going to be hard to archive and understand because there's no object."

Do you think that physical music will ever become obsolete?
"No. Maybe in the general culture sense, but as for people who are interested in exploration and interested in what has happened and the context of human creativity... it is going to remain permanently."

Modules:
1. Introduction/Welcome to Baltimore Music & It's Indie Record Shops
2. The True Vine
3. Sound Garden
4. Reptilian Records
5. Normals
6. The Impact of Digital Music on the Physical Music Lifespan
- Digital music sees sales double
- Music industry steps up search for digital revenue
- Digital Music Sales Explode, with Top Digital Track Besting Top Physical Album
7. But There's Hope: The Resurgence of Vinyl Sales
- Vinyl Frontier: Left-for-Dead Music Is Resurrected for the Digital Age
- U.K. Music Label Creates a Vinyl-MP3 Hybrid
- Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin
8. Conclusion - The Future of Baltimore Record Shops

On Briggs, Chp. 8 - Shooting and Managing Digital Photos
- Take as many pictures as possible
- Megapixel - one million pixels
- Resolution - "measurement of pixels that are available to the human eye"
- Lighting is important
- Fill the frame
- Capture moments
- Always edit copy, never original

Baltimore's Empire Records & More SG Research

Sound Garden Storyboard

Best of Baltimore "Best CD Store" Awards
Customer reviews
3 Best Record Stores in Baltimore
Baltimore Musician: Dan Deacon | Article about Deacon
Article about Sound Garden and how it's affected by Black Friday
Article about Fells Point

Danity Kane Signing at Sound Garden - 9/29/07

**parallels to Empire Records


On Briggs - Chapter 8 (Shooting and Managing Digital Photos)...
- Pixels - PICTure ELement - visual representation of data
- Megapixel - one million pixels - measures power of digital camera
- 3 ways to shoot photo w/ light - natural light, flash only, flash and ambient light
- Important to remember: correct lighting, correct background, steady camera, automatic setting, fill frame, focus on one thing, get closer, go vertical, shoot action, resize, only edit copy of photo
- "Blogs without art are lame."

Homework - 02.13.08 (Ira Glass' Storytelling)

On Ira Glass' storytelling...

Ira Glass proposes two building blocks for storytelling: the anecdote and the moment of reflection. Anecdotes are a series of actions - one thing follows another - and this is where the meat of your story exists. When you jump from one action to another, the story keeps up its momentum so much so that even a boring story can sound interesting. Glass makes a poignant statement when he says that even the most exciting story can't be interesting if you don't know how to maintain this momentum. Glass also notes that it's important to maintain this by raising a question, and it's through the suspense of the answer that your audience pays attentions or "the bait," as Glass calls it.

The second building block Glass uses is what he calls the moment of reflection, which is like the conclusion to your story. If not done well, a moment of reflection gets lost and the story goes from engaging and exciting to bland. This moment needs to be GOOD. Glass also mentions that a story can have a great anecdote but a horrible moment of reflection, and vice versa. It is with the success of both building blocks that you have a good story, and this is what needs to be remembered when embarking on the storytelling process.

But even with these building blocks, Glass mentions that finding great stories is also part of the process. Time must be set aside to find interesting stories, and you have to actively pursue this goal. Good stories aren't always going to come your way, and this is something I see in feature writing and my column for The Towerlight. When pursuing a story, be "ruthless" and only bring about the good parts. Boring or dull (but perhaps partially important) parts of this story should be left out. Storytelling isn't about detail, it's about engaging the audience.

Practice makes perfect, Glass says, and he suggests working on a story a week until you get to a point where your stories are good, and not trying to be good (which is some I understand completely). This was also a great point. Starting off, your stories aren't going to be good (even with hard work), but your own taste - a taste that is refined and interesting - knows this. I see this often in my writing, and I think it's a great example of how even the most gifted of students aren't the most gifted of professionals. It takes practice and time.

On multimedia storytelling...

Key Points:
- Text, while not overwhelming, should be kept clear and concise.
- Navigation, interactivity and organization are hugely important to keeping your audience interested.
- Pick and choose what pieces of the story you tell, and your execution of their pieces is what collects interest.
- Find a way to keep your story deep and complex.
- It's important to let your users make decisions.

On Briggs - Reporting for the Web - (Chp. 4 & 6)...

Key Points:
- Data is OK. In fact, you can make it "thrive."
- Alternative Story Form - like The Oregonian - keeps the momentum of storytelling.
- Crowdsourcing and a strong reader network - community or collaborative reporting - is a great resource, and can often create its own story. This trend is used on many different faucets on the Web. Briggs used a good example with Proctor & Gamble website InnoCentive. The Internet reaction from music fans to big news about a band or a label can be a story in its own (example).
- Also important: time stamps and good headlines.

On Ward - Writing & Online Story Construction - (Chp. 4 & 5)...

Key Points:
- Write directly.
- Specific instead of generalized word choice, but simple words that are easy to interpret.
- Structure/lead is important.
- Clearly identify important elements of story and present them in effective way.
- Intro is crucial. Good intro is even more crucial. Same with headlines.
- Non-linear storytelling, embrace this interactivity.
- Operate in chucks and segments.
- Two-way model lets the audience respond and improve. Three-way model lets users contribute content.