notes on recent deaths

(note: some of the people mentioned here died months ago, but due to my lack of time, I haven't even got around to it)

2023 seems to be another cruel year for entertainment legends.

Just in the last few months, the following have passed away

• Tina Turner
• Tony Bennett
• Sinead O'Connor
• Jim Brown
• Jerry Springer

All were known for doing things their way and still gaining mainstream success.

Tina Turner started as part of her husband Ike Turner's band. They made a bunch of classic hits in the 60s and 70's. However, Ike Turner was very abusive and it got to the point where Tina left not knowing if her career can go on without Ike. Ike thought she was nothing without him. It turned out that Tina Turner became a much bigger star as a solo artist. She played in sold-out stadiums worldwide while Ike was licking his wound as he became a social outcast. 

Tony Bennett came from an era when male singers were singing jazz & easy listening songs while wearing a business suit or a tuxedo.  The world changed with louder music and very casual fashions becoming the norm. But Tony Bennett remained true to his roots and earned the respect of younger fans who knew him as the singer their parents or grandparents grew up listening to. He worked with younger artists like Elvis Costello, kd Lang,  Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga.

Sinead O'Connor was an Irish alternative pop-singer with a troubled past coming from an abusive home. After trouble with the law and placement in a Magdalene asylum (which is something like a religious detention center for troubled youth), she found direction in music. She started out as a backup singer with several bands until she became a solo artist.  She was unapologetically herself as she had a bald head when most female singers at the time had big puffed-out hairstyles.  She had several hit records, the most famous one being a cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares to You".  Even with the mass popularity of the track, she refused to go with the flow commonly expected of female pop singers. She courted controversy with her ripping the photo of the pope during a televised performance. Some said she ruined her career. She responded by saying "but they’re talking about the career they had in mind for me". She wasn't comfortable with fame and decided to just do things her own way instead of conforming to the mainstream. 

Jim Brown was one of the top athletes of his time. He played football and lacrosse while at Syracuse University. He became one of the greatest running backs in the NFL where he just rammed into opponents who tried to tackle him. He also had opportunities in Hollywood, and he refused to return to the NFL when one of the films he was working on was still filming when training camp started. He also spoke out for civil rights and was part of a famous press conference supporting Muhammad Ali when he was in trouble for refusing the draft notice during the Vietnam War.  Jim Brown later started a program helping former gang members transition into post-gang life. While Brown was helping others stay out of trouble, he was getting into trouble for multiple domestic violence incidents. 

Jerry Springer was the mayor of Cincinnati in the 1970s. But what he was really famous for was his talk show in the 90's. His talk show was famous for troubled guests who had disputes with relatives, boyfriends, girlfriends, and acquaintances. Many times, those disputes became violent. It was the fights that attracted an audience. While many were entertained by the fights (I sometimes was), some of the guests later expressed grievances that Springer exploited their situation instead of finding mental health assistance for them. 

editing volume for tracks

 As an independent digital musician, I don't have the resources that major record labels have. I don't have additional funds to spend on mastering tracks. 

Mastering is sort of like editing someone else's music. Just like newspapers have staff to edit someone else's article for the purpose of clarity, record labels have sound technicians to edit someone else's tracks to ensure sound quality. 

Mastering has nothing to do with "hey, make more pop-flavored tracks to appeal to the masses".  It's more about making sure the track sounds right when you hear it on the speakers. 

You can learn more about what mastering is by reading the following article from Audio Issues titled "Why It’s Necessary to Master Your Music (And How To Do It)".

https://www.audio-issues.com/mastering/why-its-necessary-to-master-your-music-and-how-to-do-it-2/

"Why It's Necessary to Mater Your Music (and How to do it?)
image from Audio Issue's facebook page
(https://m.facebook.com/audioissues/photos/a.10150524228283576/10158022935483576/?type=3&_rdr)

One example about the lack of proper mastering,  you can see in this video clip from "Wu Tang: An American Saga", RZA and his business partners were playing a demo, and the DJ refused to play it at his nightclub because of the sound quality. The DJ suggested that RZA and his associates should get the tracks mastered. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygQY-cPpfzY

"Wu Tang: An American Saga | Mix and Mastering issue scene S2E5"

Obviously, RZA learned his lesson and his Wu-Tang Clan became hip-hop legends

========

As for Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior instrumental tracks, it's mostly mixing soundloops that I found on Magix's Music Maker softwares, so I don't really have to worry about recording live instruments or vocals!

I think still most of the Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior instrumental tracks have great sound quality, but even the best recognize that they could've improved on some of the works they already released.

One example is the instrumental track "Heavy Metal Carnival Accordion". That track was made using Magix Music Maker Live 2016.  I used an accordion soundloop, a banjo soundloop and some heavy metal sound loops.

The track started with a banjo sound, then all of a sudden, you hear an accordion, heavy metal guitars and heavy metal drums.

The problem was when I released the track for distribution (as part of my 2018's "Urban Honolulu Metal Industries" album), I didn't properly edit the track for volume.

So for example, listen to this version of the track 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JARyi0mtngQ

"Heavy Metal Carnival Accordion"

After the track starts with the banjo sound, the heavy metal guitars and drums all of a sudden comes out with a very high volume.

A person could listen to the banjo intro, hear the heavy metal sounds so loud, that they want to immediately take off their headphones.

That wasn't on purpose! I didn't mean for it come out that extreme! This was due to not enough diligence on volume editing.

But since it was already released to iTunes, Spotify and other platforms via CD Baby, it's too late unless I want to spend even more money that I really don't have now.

But I did edit the volume for the "Heavy Metal Accordion" and have made it available for listeners on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and YouTube (all of which don't require spending money to place your tracks on).

So now you can hear my properly-edited-for-volume version of "Heavy Metal Carnival Accordion" in the  volume edited version here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqengkONvrc

"Heavy Metal Carnival Accordion (volume-edited version)"

Notice the difference? 

Still the same sounds, just that I adjusted the heavy metal guitar and drum sounds so I don't overwhelm the listeners after a few seconds of the banjo sound. 

============

As for Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior  2020 album "Naptime Music", the tracks were great.

The tracks were placed in order so that they can flow into each other smoothly!

The problem was I didn't get the album mastered. 

So when I actually listen to the "Naptime Music" CD, one track comes out soft, then the next track come out too loud.

That was not my intention. Definitely not for a CD for "Naptime Music"

If I had gotten the album mastered, the sound technicians would've edited the volume so that the tracks would smoothly transition to each other so as to not change the vibe so much. If it was mastered, the CD wouldn't have a track that comes out too loud for actual naptime.

The tracks by themselves were classic. But when played as part of an album, they don't flow together because I didn't get it properly edited for volume.

But hey, we live & learn!

Every person starts off a hobby with limited knowledge and experience, and as time goes on, we learn new things, and we end up saying "should've, could've, would've"

But hey, at least I'm admitting my errors.

But I still think most of Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior's  tracks are great. 

And if you haven't heard them yet, you can check them out at pablothemadtigerwarrior.bandcamp.com

yes, I'm still wearing my mask

 Yes, in summer 2023, I'm still wearing a surgical mask and face shield. 

me with the mask

Covid isn't over, and I'm all about extra layers of protection. Some call it "living in fear", I call it "living with awareness". Just like wearing shoes as a layer of protection, it is a form of "living with awareness". Is it "living in fear" if you wear shoes to protect your feet?

Also, being that I work in schools, that means I work in a high-risk situation since kids don't understand social distancing or public health.  Plus. federal law says that students aren't required to disclose if they're HIV positive as well as some other health conditions. Those with immune deficiencies (like HIV) are very vulnerable to contagious respiratory diseases.

Yes, I did get vaccinated. Vaccines have been proven to be effective in reducing the symptoms and making it less likely for the person to die or need intensive care. However, vaccines by themselves don't prevent spreading the germs.  

Yesterday, I posted a video on YouTube titled "Yes, I'm still wearing my mask"

You can view the video here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCHiExTzZeo

video: "Yes, I'm still wearing a mask"

The power of music to go across cultures

Music can communicate all sorts of emotions that exist in every culture.

For example, earlier this year, on American Idol, the latest winner Iam Tongi was on stage with James Blunt to sing Blunt's song "Monsters" which was about dealing with his father's death. That was the same song that Tongi was singing in his audition and he mentioned that he could relate to that song because his father also passed away.

That performance was a great example of how 2 people of different backgrounds (Iam Tongi is Polynesian: James Blunt is British) can come together to sing about something that people of all ancestries can relate to. 

However, there are some people who think music should be segregated. They believe it is "cultural appropriation" to perform songs from people of a different ancestry.

Earlier this year, writer who goes by the pen name "theoaknotes" had a blog post titled "Want to Make Your Dance Class More Inclusive? Here’s What You Need To Know". She wrote how dance classes should be more accommodating to those (like her) who are non-binary and neurodivergent. 

https://theoaknotes.medium.com/want-to-make-your-dance-class-more-inclusive-heres-what-you-need-to-know-ca0964617368

However, within the same exact post she stated this

I’ll never forget the time I watched a group of entirely non-Black dancers perform a routine to Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’. It made me shudder every time, and I never knew what to do with myself while it was happening. I busied myself backstage every night, but I wish I’d suggested they use a different song. 

I want every choreographer to consider who’s in the room when they make a dance; cultural appropriation is so normalized in dance, and I’d love to see that shift. 

I know that, personally, I’m a Black multiracial queer and gender non-conforming choreographer and performer, and I stay in my lane. I choreograph to songs by Prince or Kehlani or Todrick Hall — not to songs by Bad Bunny or BTS.

Hold up, hold up, hold up.

"theoaknotes" wants dance classes to be more inclusive towards her (African-American, non-binary, neurodivergent) but wants it to be exclusive to everyone else?

Inclusiveness for her, but exclusiveness towards everyone else?

Most musicians want to reach out to everyone and appreciate it when those of a different ancestry find meaning in their music. You don't need to be African-American to find meaning in the music of Tina Turner, and those "non-black dancers" that were mentioned might be able to tell you what they loved about Tina Turner's music if you asked them in a polite manner. I'm sure Tina Turner (who by the way, has a white European husband) would be proud that her music touched the hearts of those with a different ancestry! 

Because music isn't only meant to touch the soul of one of the same ancestry, it touches the soul of everyone. If a song that touched my soul happened to be sung by a person of a different ancestry, I'm supposed to pretend it didn't touch my soul because "that's cultural appropriation"? Are you kidding me?

By the way "Proud Mary" was also sung by European-American folk-rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival (released 1969) before Tina & Ike made their version of that song (1971). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Mary)

So it's super-mega-ignorant for "theoaknotes" to "shudder" when dancers of non-African ancestries dance to a song that was originally sung by singers of non-African ancestries! Ike & Tina embraced songs from those of a different ancestry, and that's exactly what "Proud Mary"  is!

"theoaknotes"  said she wouldn't do dances from music from Bad Bunny or BTS because she doesn't share their ancestries. I have a different perspective. I say you don't need to be Latino (which I am) to take part in Latin American dances. I super-mega-ultra love it when those of non-Latine ancestries embrace Latin music. You don't need to be Korean to dance along with k-pop!  BTS wouldn't be worldwide superstars if they didn't have non-Korean fans! 

To "theoaknotes", I say this:  You speak inclusion? Integration is inclusion! Tina Turner was about integration and inclusion. So when you're ready, add some BTS and Bad Bunny along with Prince or Todrick Hall in your routines!

And dammit, learn to embrace dancers of non-African ancestries dancing to a song by people of African ancestries!

Learn to embrace integration!

Or as the late Rodney King once said, "can we all just get along?"

20 years at my apartment (2 decades of independence)

 20 years ago this month, I moved into the apartment I'm still living in. 

10 years ago, I wrote a blog post "one decade in my apartment"             https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/07/one-decade-in-my-apartment.html

So now it's 20 years! 

I'm grateful to have 2 decades of residential stability. 

2 decades without having to worry about moving all my items to a different residence. 2 decades without having to worry about notifying all my bill collectors about the change of address. 

2 decades of some level of consistency in my life.

2 decades in a great location easily accessible to several bus routes.

2 decades in a great location near many of places I like to go.

2 decades of living independently.

2 decades of privacy. 

2 decades of me running my own private life. 

However, those 2 decades aren't without their challenges, and there's no guarantee of having a 3 decade anniversary in the same place.

For one, the rent has increased dramatically over the years.

Even worse with the building getting old and needing repairs.

There have been rumors that this building will eventually be condemned. 

The building's concrete has been spalling, and there have been promises to get that repaired. Still waiting. 

A few months ago, the pipes in the laundry room had to be repaired. 

Also, the parking lot needs repaving. 

And just the other day, I contacted the property manager about the intercom not working. 

I don't know where I'll be living a decade from now (or even if I'll be living a decade from now).

But for today, I'm celebrating 2 decades of living independently in the same apartment.

Supreme Court and colleges

In the previous week, the US Supreme Court announced two decisions regarding colleges

• blocked President Biden's student debt relief plan
• banned the use of race in college admission decisions

1.) Student debt relief

President Biden had an executive order to give up to $20,000 in student debt relief to eligible borrowers.

I was one of those eligible borrowers. 

Obviously, I was hoping to get that student debt relief. Especially since it would've wiped out all the interest I owe.

But Biden's plan was a long shot, being that it was an executive order and didn't get Congress approval. 

Which was why Biden's plan wasn't approved by the Supreme Court.

If Congress passed student debt relief and Biden signed it into law, it wouldn't have been overruled by the Supreme Court. 

So in other words, the Supreme Court decision wasn't about the morality of student debt relief, it was about the technicalities regarding presidential power. 

For now, the US House of Representatives is dominated by Republicans, who mostly oppose student debt relief. The US Senate is dominated by Democrats, most of who supported student debt relief, though some like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten  Sinema opposed it. 

The US Congress would need to be overwhelmingly dominated by Democrats to pass anything like Biden's student debt relief plan. 

Meanwhile, the US Department of Education is making any adjustments it can to assist student loan borrowers. 

Stay tuned. 

-----

My previous blog posts on student debt relief

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2022/05/college-loans-student-debt.html

https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2022/09/college-loans-student-debt-part-2.html

2.) Affirmative Action

The US Supreme Court ruled against the use of race as a deciding factor in college admissions. 

Many universities (like Harvard and the University of North Carolina, both of which were subjects of the recent Supreme Court case) use affirmative action, which gives special preferences to under-represented minorities (especially for African-Americans, Latines and Native Americans), even admitting them under lower standards than for those of European, Jewish or Asian ancestries. 

Some states had already banned the practices including California, Texas, and Florida.

Supreme Court now banned the practice nationwide.

Affirmative Action was going to end sooner or later, and even the bluest diverse states (like California) voted against it TWICE!

At this point, it's NEVER coming back! It's over! It's a lost cause.

Some worry that would mean fewer African-Americans, Latines, and Native American in colleges.

Not really.

Yes, in California, after the ban on affirmative action in 1996, the enrollment of African-Americans, Latines, and Native Americans at prestigious universities like UCLA and UC-Berkeley declined. But their enrollment (and graduation rates) increased in lesser-known colleges (like UC-Irvine).

In the case of Texas, enrollment by race didn't change much because the policy was changed so that the top 10% of students from any Texas high school are guaranteed enrollment at the prestigious University of Texas at Austin. So the top 10% of students from Houston's 5th Ward (African-American majority) have the same chance as the top 10% from upper-class Anglo-majority schools.

Most colleges aren't really that much affected by affirmative action because many have enough room to enroll all eligible applicants. That is true for the University of Hawaii (my alma mater).

By the way, I got admitted to UH scoring higher than the listed minimum SAT score and with a higher GPA than the minimum listed for admission.

As for diversity at colleges, most of the efforts won't mean much until more of the public education system improves to the point where the average test scores for African-American and European-American students are similar.

By the time a student is 18, a university can only do so much, especially if the student was ill-prepared to begin with! Now that affirmative action is gone, we ought to do more with our pre-college education system, especially hiring more teachers/tutors/etc per classroom instead of expecting 1 teacher to handle 25 students of varying abilities!

Also, social services in lower-income communities need to improve to make it easier for the younger generation to succeed.

Meanwhile, prestigious universities (like Harvard) claim to be for "affirmative action" to distract from the fact that their real preference is the legacy admissions (children of the alumni).

Yes, the legacy students get special treatment and are admitted under lower standards than the rest of the student body. They also outnumber those admitted under affirmative action.

Now that "affirmative action" is over, those colleges are scrambling to protect their real preference for legacy admissions.

If "legacy admissions" was voted on by the general public, it would be eliminated by an overwhelming majority in red and blue states.

But those elite colleges have alumni in government that would try at all costs to avoid a vote on legacy admissions.

I got a Bandcamp page

 Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior now has his music available on Bandcamp.

https://pablothemadtigerwarrior.bandcamp.com/

My music is now on Bandcamp. 

pablothemadtigerwarrior.bandcamp.com

For those who don't know, Bandcamp is a music hosting website where independent musicians can sell their music (downloads, CDs, vinyl, etc) directly to fans. 

And the beauty of it is that it is free for the musicians. We (the musicians) don't have to pay a fee for our music to be hosted on Bandcamp. 

Yes, Bandcamp does take a percentage of any music sold on their site.

But we (the musicians) don't have to pay them if nobody is buying our tracks. 

Contrast that to Bandzoogle, another music hosting website that allows musicians to sell their music directly to fans. Musicians can only upload a limited amount of tracks for free before they have to pay a monthly subscription fee. Which is why I'm not on Bandzoogle. 

Soundcloud is the most popular music hosting website, which was also the first site where I uploaded my music to the world.  Like Bandzoogle, they allow a limited number of uploaded tracks before you have to pay a monthly fee.  Soundcloud allows users to stream music for free. 

Soundcloud allows musicians to make their tracks available to download. The problem is that it doesn't give the musicians the option to charge money for a download. So to this day, I never allowed my music to be available for download via Soundcloud. 

With Bandcamp, the musicians can choose what to charge users for each download or for each physical merchandise (ie CD, vinyl, cassette, etc).

For downloads, I charge $1 per track, and $8 for an entire album.

If you sell physical formats on Bandcamp, the users will get it in the bundle along with digital download of the album, plus unlimited streaming on the Bandcamp app.  Bandcamp doesn't give the option of just selling the CD/vinyl/cassette alone, it has to come with the digital download bundle.

Since that's the case, I charge $10 per CD I sell on Bandcamp.

Since manufacturing vinyl records is much more expensive and viny records take up too much storage space (and I only have a small apartment, not a big office), I'm unable to sell vinyl at this time. Sorry vinyl lovers.

Those who want to buy my CD, but don't want the digital downloads, can buy them from eBay for cheap (circa 5 or 6 dollars). Check it out at  https://www.ebay.com/usr/pw5213-xngkolqw

What I love about Bandcamp is that users can buy both a digital download and a physical CD direct from the same website

CD Baby used to offer that option, but they shut down their online store in 2020. And no, it wasn't due to the pandemic, the announcement came a month before the lockdown.

Learn more at https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2020/03/cd-baby-closes-online-store-still-doing.html

At the time, CD Baby still offered physical distribution, where users can order the CD via Amazon, and CD Baby still distributed to physical stores for artists with a large following.

However, earlier this year, CD Baby announced they were no longer doing physical distribution. They closed their warehouse, and any CDs that were stored there were returned to the artists.

Learn more at

https://support.cdbaby.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002355206 

https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/news/cd-baby-without-cds/

And here's Disc Maker's CEO Tony van Veen's  6 minute video speech about the situation with CD Baby no longer doing physical distribution. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De1IgwSG17E

"CD Baby will no longer distribute your CD. Now what?"

[note: It was from that video (plus viewer comments) that alerted me to Bandcamp, and the opportunity it provided to independent musicians. ]

CD Baby is still doing digital distribution, distributing music to iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Media, Amazon Prime, Deezer, Pandora, and other platforms.  

So, therefore, CD Baby is still my distributor when it comes to placing my music on those platforms. 

In the past, Google Play and Groove Music were also major platforms selling digital downloads. They stopped doing so a few years ago, basically surrendering to iTunes as the most dominant seller to digital downloads. 

CD Baby still allows artists that use their digital distribution services to also sell their music to platforms CD Baby doesn't distribute to (ie. Bandzoogle, Bandcamp,etc)

So to sum it up

• Soundcloud allows musicians to upload without a distributor, and is one of the most popular music hosting sites and the most popular streaming sites. But it doesn't give musicians the option to sell downloads or physical merch.

• iTunes (which requires a distributor to upload to their platform) is the biggest seller of digital downloads.  They don't give a platform for musicians to sell physical merch.

• Spotify (which requires a distributor to upload to their platform) is one of the most popular streaming platforms out there but doesn't sell digital downloads or physical merch.

• CD Baby once had an online store to sell CDs and digital downloads, but no more. They still distribute to digital platforms like iTunes, Spotify, etc. 

• Google Play and Groove Music used to be major players in selling digital downloads, but no more. They surrendered to iTunes. 

• Artists can sell CDs (and other physical formats) on eBay, but not digital downloads. eBay also doesn't give users the option to preview the tracks before making the decision to buy. 

• Bandzoogle allows musicians to sell directly to fans, but charges a monthly fee to host more than a limited number of tracks. No thanks.

• Bandcamp allows musicians to sell digital downloads and physical merch directly to fans.  Bandcamp offers users a preview of the tracks, even a limited # of streams before asking users to buy the track. Bandcamp doesn't charge musicians a monthly fee to host their music. They only make $$$ off the music sold on their platform.

So while I still use CD Baby to distribute to the major platforms (ie iTunes, Spotify, etc), I'm going to emphasize my Bandcamp page more often.

So please check out Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior Bandcamp page (https://pablothemadtigerwarrior.bandcamp.com/ ). 

I promise you will be satisfied :)