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When I set out to write this blog, a rule I created for myself was:no rules concerning topics, as long as I could see it through the lens of independent music production and, if you have been following me, you must agree that I have kept my promise. Mostly.

Sometimes, however, I feel an overwhelming need to return to a previously mentioned topic. This is the case today. And the topic I am going to address once more, firstly came out about a year ago, and it has to do with the podcast on Comic Art research I produce and host. What is the problem about the podcast?

Nothing, the podcat is fine. My critic has to do more specifically, to a frequent behaviour by the guests speakers. I return to the topic without embarrassment, and not because I want to attribute some kind of “original sin” to my university colleagues. Quite the opposite: it is due to the number of people, from different nationalities who exhibit the same behavior, that I started to think this is not a problem restricted to the academic community, but it represents a much more common type of attitude than one might imagine.

My doubt refers to the fact that although the invitation to participate includes precise guidelines, which include the length of the audio (around fifteen minutes), many people choose to send audios twice, sometimes three times shorter than that.

What is the reason, in an era marked by overexposure, often completely banal everyday situations, why people fail to take advantage of free time given to them to talk about their professional career and research interests? I understand, of course, not having the time or even the desire to participate in the program, but once the invitation is accepted, why not make the best use of it?

I don not have the answer, of course, but my theory is that of the various elements present there is a bit of an impostor complex and also a bit of self-sabotage. The invitation to freely express topics that move you is like a gift offered and I realize that many of my guests still do not know very well how to deal with it.

As I said, it is not my goal here to judge anyone, just to point out a problem, but if you have come this far, I feel like I owe you at least a suggestion. Well, here it goes: my suggestion is that you should not waste any opportunity to talk about topics that are close to your heart.

What you have to say is certainly very important, perhaps even decisive, in the life of someone.

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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The flu I had last week caused a sinus attack so acute that I lost my sense of smell for a couple of days. It was a very terrifying experience, if you ask me.

Firstly because it was the first time it happened to me, but also because my sense of smell is very keen, which means (and this became even more evident during those strange days) that I guide myself in many actions throughout the day based, in large part, on the smell of things.

Suddenly, I fet as if the world had become a place without smells, the good and the bad ones. From cooking to deciding whether or not to wash a piece of clothing, everything became a little more complicated without being able to rely on the smell of things.

In addition to these serious aspects, there was also the irony that I had just bought a new perfume. And this is not something common for me. I have so much trouble finding a fragrance that I like and that is not too strong and cloying for my in normal conditions extemely sensitive nostrils, that I usually end up going back to lavenders no perfum at all.

Well, and then just when I had mad up my mind and decided to give a new fragrance a chance… I cannot smell it. Perfect timing, at least from the for comic relief point of view.

Without the alternative of enjoying my recent purchase with my sense of smell, I turned to the aesthetic side, that is, the perfume bottle. Some context: I had purchased the fragrance without seeing the bottle, based on the experience of a free sample, one of those that comes in a small 4 ml bottle, and the first thing that occurred to me, was that the team responsible for the design had done a really lousy job.

Without the distraction of the fragrance, it was clear that the shape and colors of the bottle were not only ugly, but also did not communicate well with the name of the perfume, as they did not convey at all the idea of “illuminating” suggested by the name of the fragrance.

Photos and description of the olfactory family of the perfume are great tools, but the design of the bottle can be the decisive element in the purchase, which leads us to a reflection: am I taking care of the bottles of the products I sell?

I know it is hard to thinnk about music productions as “products”, but let us play the marketing game for a moment, shall we? Now, take deep breathe and think about your next project as if it was the launch of a new fragrance: what would you say about your bottle? Is it communicating your message the way you want it?

Think about it and do not forget to smell the roses, along the way.

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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The body is constantly talking to us and yet, we still have not learned to listen to it. Sometimes it is even worse for we do listen to it, but we choose to ignore it. Here is the story:

I told you already about a podcast I produce and host about Comic Art research. It is called Comments on the Top and it was supposed to have a single season, since it was part of a grant provided by an institution called IAMCR- International Association for Media and Communication Research.

Now, I had the brilliant (sarcasm alert) idea of doing a second season. Why not? , I thought. What could go wrong?, I insisted to myself, it will show your love for the group and its mentor, my dear friend and comic art research legend Prof. John A. Lent.

Of course, there was a whole plan in my head it it included producing the episodes in advance. I even invested some money in a “podcaster kit“, which reduced editing time a lot, so I really thought I had it all under control, except for a little detail: in the middle of all this planning, there was an element that I forgot to take into account: life.

The reason for the plot twist on my plans was actually quite a nice one. After the pandemic plus a terrible government in Brazil, 2023 brought finally good news for those involved in cultura productions: a series of funds to support culture opened their convocatories, whichmeans a lot of paper work to do. In practice, months of hard work that naturally caused my episode production plan to fall behind schedule.

Sure I could also mention en passant that some guests are slow to send the me their files and sometimes I lose valuable time writing reminders for the ‘deadline ignorers”, but none of these events change the fact that the blame for the delays in the release of the episodes lies solely with me. In the same way that the responsibility rests solely on me for not having known how to reestablish my schedule.

Instead, I tried another strategy: working to the point of exhaustion, including an epic workday last week, which ended four in the morning. I worked resless, despite neighborhood parties, no-stop-barking dogs etc.

Even so, the last episode was released two days late. A few hours after I uploaded the files to the streaming platforms I started to feel sick, with flu-like symptoms, mixed with a general malaise. In other words: burnout.

Fortunately, I am not talking here about a high degree of physical and mental exhaustion, which usually leads to the hospital and often leaves consequences, but rather a degree of exhaustion in which the body asks for a day or two off to recover, whether you like it or not.

At these moments, I always think about the signals my body sent before: tense shoulders, sore eyes, you know, the usual computer problems related to computer over expostion. Did I pay attention to them? No. Looking forlornly at my podcaster microphone covered by the plastic protector, I think that it will still take a few days for my voice to recover so that I can record a new episode.

Was it worth pushing the limits of my body so much? Certainly not. I find some confort though in the thought that there are already enough podcasts running and the world can probably wait a day or two for another episode.

I hope to have learned my lesson once and for all: as difficult as it may be, establishing limits is more than a personal choice. It is a universal right.

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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Krusty the Klown is one of my favourite characters from the sitcom The Simpsons. A recurring situation for the character is having his name mentioned in a scandal, usually related to his fast food chain, the “Krusty Burgers”. The few times he is the target of positive comments, Krusty is always frightened by the fact that such a thing as positive publicity might exist.

I often remember Krusty when I see phrases that have become so common that they may no longer catch your attention: “Please like and share”, “please leave a comment”, “help us share this video” so on and so forth.

These much-too-much-overused phrases do not represent bad publicity per se and I use them too, ok?, but it is very worrying how the hunt for likes or a position in the trending topics has become the focus of a huge number of people, either because apart from the entertainment, there is not much to show in terms of talent, or because they simply do not know any other way of behaving not only professionally, but also in any other field of their lives.

The change from the style of “what you do on stage is important” to “what happens on stage is just a detail” may be wonderful to those who make a lot of money by sharing every single moment of their day, reporting on their lives, personal problems (even the most embarrassing ones), but from the point of view of the musical quality it is a disaster.

Remember when the answer, “That is my personal life” was not only acceptable but respected? It used to represent a limit for the others.

The fact is not to be nostalgic or stuck in relation to the past. Actually, this sort of shallow arguments are usually used to mock of critic thinking and, consequentently to praise the choices someone else took for us. The point here is to call attention for the impoverishment of music in relation to the musical field itself. In other words, it seems that music has become a guest of show business.

Everything is more important: where, when and in which hip restaurant the band had lunch, the new sneakers of the singer, the new mansion of the drummer, the private jet of the band, the new diamond implant in the tooth of the guitarist, the new silicone prosthesis of the producer, everything seems to be more important than the composition process, the stories of the songs, the arrangement, in short, the music has become a mere supporting role in the musical scene.

I say this fully aware that there is fantastic, pulsating music, the kind that can truly be called art, that is being made right now, at this moment, all over the world. Even though I did not know it before, my 2020 experience interviewing 39 musicians from around the world for the QuaranJazz: listen while you are home podcast proved to me that, fortunately, outside of the mainstream, music is doing just fine, thank you.

So why is what we hear, in most radio programming and major events, so uninteresting, and sounds just more of the same? My guess is that there is a configuration of factors that include from an impoverishment of our listening capacity to an infantilization of society as a whole. For a wealthy minority, making a living from music has become increasingly distant from making a living doing anything merely related to music.

My point is summed up in a delightful 2007 film by Claude Lelouch called Roman de Gare (Airport Novel). a man reveals himself to be the ghost writer behind the successful detective novels by a hip writer, who lives the life of we usually call a celebrity, including endless parties, frequent trips and flashlights.

Faced with the disbelief of one of her fans, he argues: “And how do you think she would find time to write, with all the parties, manicures and interviews?”

Be seeing you!

G.F.

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Pillow Talk (1959), dir. by Michael Gordon) is a romantic comedy released in 1959 and starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day, who was an excellent jazz singer, by the way. The title in Portuguesse is quite different (“Confessions at Midnight”), bu tit still keeps the meaning of the the expression, which refers to confessions and secrets, the kind of talk that only happens privately.

It can also have another meaning, referring to the inevitable moment of facing our conscience (and the consequenced of this act). It is possible to hide many things from many people, for a long time, but it is much more difficult to hide things from yourself. At least for long.

My theory is that as years pass by, we tend to find ourselves more and more in situations where we got to, let us say, be real or, as an expression that I like very much goes: “no one escapes from the pillow”.

After telling you how I made peace with my sleep cycle and how I became the BFF with my bed, I thought I should end the trilogy with a little confession: I have never been able to find a pillow that I like.

They say that many of our most ingrained habits come from observing our parents during our childhood. In my case this is completely true at least in this aspect. Just like my mother, I prefer thin, practically imperceptible pillows.

What I did not tell you last week about my super chic bed is that in addition to new sheets, I also bought two pillows, that are now always dressed up like the best haute couture bedding. However, behind the ridiculously expensive pillows there is a small, timid pillow, but despite its obvious aesthetic disadvantage, it is my very favourite one or, better saying, the one that bothers me the least.

Is it too much to ask for a headrest that does not sink? And,p lease, do not try to fool me with”astronaut technology”, copper wires or a weird design talk. I want a pillow, not a space station.

There is an aspect to be highlighted here: when you really like the something, you will find a way to keep in contact with it. The same goes for the work of an artist, I guess. There are many really talented musicians doing their thing, despite of not having huge press coverage.

Their crowd might not be a “fandom”, but they are good, loyal old school fans, and they appreciate what you do. They connect to your music, and they feel part of your community, even if your community is not a loud one.

They will not shout on socials how much they love you, but they will “pillow talk” you, and this is the kind of talk that sticks to you to life.

Be seeing you!

G.F.