The Spark

​Is This Love Worth Pursuing?

Roy Orbison’s In Dreams is playing on the internet radio.
What a voice. It instantly transports me into a daydream, and I’m sure that if tested by science, it could make rocks move.
In that moment of Roy’s brief serenade, I dreamed what it would be like to have an audio producer.
It’s not that I don’t like audio producing and editing, it’s just sometimes it would be nice to have someone else do it for a change.

​Ground Control
This is not the first time I’ve (cough) shared about the technological woes I face while recording my radio show.
But here I sit hunched over and brow furrowed, scouring YouTube on how to troubleshoot sound issues, all the while thinking,
Why did I start a radio show?
Test.
Silence.
Why do technical glitches occur?
Is this really a reminder from the universe to not get too comfortable and to always be on top of my game?
Silence.
Even the dog could tell I was stressed.
He barked at me until I finally got up and stepped away from my desk.
Always trust the dog.
I poured myself a glass and watched an episode of The Sopranos with the dog curled up by my side.
It really took the edge off.

photo by Joi

Remember the Reason

When it comes to acts of care, some people make soup or offer rides to airports in the early morning hours.
I make mixtapes.
I remember watching this David Bowie interview about advice to artists. He made a statement in the interview to always remember why you began a project.
When a problem occurs while working on a project, I have to remind myself of the spark that ignited the desire to even begin in the first place.
That is one of the reasons why I have a radio show. Electric Radio Club was born out of the love of making mixtapes and sharing music with others.

​​This week’s radio show playlist of Electric Radio Club, I based the track list around the spark of starting a project and remembering to keep going, even if there are technical glitches.
I included a track by Ron Gallo called Poor Traits of the Artist.
These lyrics stood out to me after my audio editing debacle.

“What am I even doing? Is this love worth pursuing?”

​The answer is yes.

​Make Goosebumps

There’s all this talk about the movie, Song Sung Blue, starring Hugh Jackson and Kate Hudson. Little did I know, it is not about the musician, Neil Diamond. It’s about real-life artists.
I was intrigued and the Google Gods led me to a wonderful blog post by the director, Greg Kohs, who made the documentary Song Sung Blue, about a husband and wife duo who sing Neil Diamond songs.
Kohs shares in the essay that he passed up a million-dollar movie opportunity because the script didn’t align with the kind of films he wanted to direct.
Instead he created a documentary about these musicians, hoping it would help their career.
This essay is a real “page turner.” I kept thinking, Wait. What?! That happened!?! I couldn’t pry my eyes away from his words.​

segment from Greg Kohs blog post, Reel as Dirt

​​After reading the roller coaster of an essay, I made it a point to watch the documentary later than evening.
It’s about the unexpected hardship, taking risks and incredible determination to be full time artists.
I’m curious how this documentary will be translated to the silver screen as it’s created by the same director of Hustle & Flow

​For Your Ears
The new episode of Electric Radio Club is inspired by the spark that inspires one to take creative and artistic action.
Whether that be making a movie, volunteering at an animal shelter or finding a cure for cancer, the playlist is themed around the reason why we begin a project or a task and to not use faith in it.
Listen here to the new episode of Electric Radio Club on Mixcloud. Reminder, it is free to listen and my radio show is Ad-Free. Filled with creative commentary and a great playlist.
Listen here.

the dog is not convinced I've fixed the audio problem

​​If you love the episode track list, I’ve included it here on Qobuz and Spotify for you to save.
Use a different streaming service? Try Soundiiz to transfer playlists:)

I've included some more behind-the-themes video diaries as I prep for this week's episode of Electric Radio Club.