The Whatnots of What You're Doing Here

Ohhh haiiii!!!

It's difficult to start. Lemme clear my throat. 

Ahem. So welcome to my Video Flyer blog. 

Why a blog? I mean, I have a youtube channel and a facebook page. Now a blog? What the fuck, Ben?

HEY! Why don't you bring it down a notch and let me explain a few things before you get all jumpity, alright? It's like I'm dealing with a Zimmerman in here. All "pew, pew" now, all "whoops" later. Take a Valium and chill, man. You're harshing my buzz. 

The truth about it is, doing a video every single week is hard. Especially when you're doing it alone and you don't feel like it's enough. I started the videos because I have a love and appreciation for the thought, talent and trouble people go through to make, pass out and post show flyers. It truly is a labor of love, and 

not many people out there still go through the trouble of "passing out" flyers. It's understandable, considering how easy it is to just stay home and post things on a computer. It's impersonal. There's no going outside of a box on that one. Even if you try to engage in a conversation, you're in a comfortable place to do it in.

Which is why I think I began getting so many requests from people to put in more sponsor type stuff. Ya know, you scratch my back, I'll do you...

No thanks, I got it.

It was something I didn't mind.. at first. But what it ended up doing was take up more of my time than I originally intended. Now, look. This isn't something I blame on the entities that asked (or I offered) to bump on the videos. I blame myself for not being able to say no. And hey, I did have some perks for helping out some of these entities.

But like I said before hand, it is a lot of work. And not to fault anyone besides myself, things began becoming a remembering game rather than the original idea of puting flyers in a video. What I mean is, there was so much to do, that the original idea behind the videos was beginning to get lost. That's where the Facebook page came in. Now I have two platforms. It'll be easier for people to contact me about the videos, and if I miss anything throughout the week, I can post it there, so no one will miss out!

Yeah, that didn't work.

I mean, the idea was solid, but the amount of flyers I was missing every week was just... Shitty. It became frustrating that I was missing my own friends' show flyers, along with the fact that the videos were getting lost in a slew of Sucker Punk stuff. And I committed myself to do this Sacramento punk shows/punch and pie thing where I posted a flyer from that day on the Facebook page... Listen. Some stuff is easier for people to do than others, okay? I can't help it if I'm not good at getting up in the morning and being all peppy about life and the world and computer work. Kudos to those who can, I cannot.

Top it off with a nice thick layer of 'professional disagreements' rounded out with a cherry of 'new girlfriend thinks I'm too busy to spend enough time with her' and just a few sprinkles of 'hey, my computer's dead and I have no cash to fix it,' and there you have it. A six month hiatus I never planned.

Okay, well. It's time to stop being such a whiny bitch about it.

Seriously, I wouldn't even be mad if you made this for me.

The majority of all of that bull shit is worked out. What isn't worked out is how to streamline this process so that it's easy for me to do and easy for you to access. Which is why I'm stripping out almost all the extra crap on the video and putting it here.

Each week, I'll have videos with flyers about local shows, per usual. There will be ONE link in the video and notes section that will bring you here, where you will find a list of everything that I'm talking about. The video will have it's own blog, where throughout the week I will explore different bands playing around town. This info will gradually come out during the week, possibly before the show date, possibly after. I'll have show footage, song or album reviews, pictures, links, whatever I can find that I like. Also, the Facebook page will still work for what it was originally intended for. Posting missed flyers and a conduit to contact me. You can find that here if you don't already know about it.

Oh, and there's gonna be a new address for the Video, which I'll come back here and edit in shortly.

Now, will it be biased? Yes. Will you agree with everything I say? Probably not. Will it be helpful for bands, music fans, promoters and venue owners? For fucks' sake I hope so. But I make no guarantee. All I know is that this is something I love doing, I have a passion for it, and I'm somewhat decently good at it.

Keep a look out for other changes I'll be implementing over the next few weeks as I try to get everything organized for the next round of videos. Suggestions can be sent to the Facebook page with the link above, as well as submissions. Hopefully this whole thing will roll out shortly, so fingers crossed!

And as always, enjoy yourselves.