I broke my neck yesterday. Well, not really, but it feels like it. I
spent all day, just about, looking for free music sites to use as
resources for my audio drama projects. I know, you immediately think
of Jamendo and the like for this sort of thing. I know about them, and
value them for what they are, but they're more than a bit of trouble for
me to work with in this regard. Sure, it's all Creative Commons
goodness, but, as you know, not all CC licenses are made alike. I
license my own stuff under Attribution ShareAlike 3.0.
Now, notice the lack of an NC clause there. I require that all the
music and sound effects I use to have a similar or even more permissive
license, so as not to restrict any further (theoretical) distribution
methods that may be used by others. And I need very specific pieces to
correspond with the scripts and characters I've written. This is a
challenge, to say the least. If I was writing a different kind of show,
it might be very simple to find appropriate music. "Eddie K", though,
requires that "big band/nightclub/Rat Pack" sound, and, I have to tell
you, finding music like that, with a license I can use (or, really,
under almost ANY license) is not easy. So I broke my neck yesterday,
sitting in the living room, using my eeePC to search out links. I found
a fair number of them (each of which only have a few pieces of music
that I MIGHT want to consider, but collectively, it's not a bad haul),
but the pain it ended up costing me from sitting in that position for
hours on end, squinting over this tiny netbook, has proven excessive.
It's almost comical, in fact -- like I'd survived a cartoon throttling
-- but it's entirely my own fault: I didn't HAVE to sit there all day,
after all, and I've had enough experience with this machine to have
known better.
The contrast between sitting comfortably and otherwise relaxed, and the
excessive tension put into one's hands, neck, and eyes, for hours and
hours on end, using a machine designed for a wide variety of functions
(but definitely NOT comfortable use), certainly makes for some very real
pain and suffering. On the flipside of this, the convenience factor of
working in the living room yesterday seemed to trump everything else.
Looking back, I realize that my main machine would have been much easier
and faster to utilize, and I wouldn't now be in such pain had I done so
-- but there were logistic issues at play, since my desktop unit is in
another room, and Little Bronx seemed to need me close. His machine is
in the living room, as you've doubtlessly deduced, and there are days
when he requires that corner-of-the-eye proximity out of me.
So, I'd like you to remember how I'm suffering now. If you listen to my
audio efforts at all, it might not be apparent how much time and effort
went in to such inane stuff, but I assure you that there is pain and
even some heartache connected to them. I mean, I can be as dismissive
as the next person about things I encounter online which hold no
interest for me, and I don't necessarily need to consider someone else's
efforts when doing so -- but it doesn't hurt to stop once and a while
and consider just how much labor most of us put in to present content of
one stripe or another for the planet's collective enjoyment and/or
offhand dismissal. It's entirely willful, of course, and not, in the
least, a one-way street, but, in this regard anyway, I reject for myself
the category of "Consumer". It makes it sound like I'm giving nothing
back. Regardless of what you might think of my personal endeavors, it's
a fact that I'm working hard to present them. And YOU are doing the
same for your own stuff -- blog posts, active conversations in social
media, or other work that might require even more time to produce.
People use their Internet connections in order to experience and
participate in the kind of give-and-take that happens here. GIVE and
take. By simply reading this, you are giving it your time -- and never
forget how irreplaceable that is.
Distributing my silly audio stories may well be the least that the
Internet has to offer me, but it is a part of it that I hold dear. The
the social connections we form and dissolve in this environment are
likely far more important. And we are all content producers in that
regard -- even if that content is consumption; after all, without
someone to read our posts, to look at our photos or fine art, or even to
listen to our ridiculous audio nonsense, none of it has value beyond the
personal. Now, don't get me wrong, the strictly personal is of
TREMENDOUS value. But it is only one part of the give-and-take process
-- the genesis of the give, as it were, the motivation of the take: just
one part of the purpose, function, and result of an online life.
So, I'm giving you my pain, right now -- and you can take it or leave
it. Either one's cool. It all works.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
(c) 2011 lostnbronx
CC BY-SA 3.0
lostnbronxATgmailDOTcom
