Movility....Mobility

Maybe, just maybe, even though I could do it as an android user as well, my platform change will spark a continuous information flow from my head to this page...

My new primary goal is to spotlight the cool kids playing' music in the valley on a regular basis...and doing it well...

For starters we are now into week 6 of the live music series at Amherst Brewing Company. The response has been positive but we really need to get more people out more regularly... So starting new years eve live music night at ABC is moving from Thursday to Saturday ... New Years Eve will feature Akashic Record holding down the funk and in January we are starting a monthly Reggae Night hosted by I-Ganic sound system DJ Camillo and featuring a different reggae band each week as well.

So.... Go see live music. And happy holidays and stuff. Check back soon if you wanna know why exactly I am heading to Senegal 2 days after Christmas..

Nibfib: Re-Revenging This Fall!!

I've been working on some posters. I love doing this. I have the best time cobbling images together pretending I have some kind of design sense but honestly not quite as much fun as I have playing music. So this is doubly cool. NBFB will be performing at the all-new Amherst Brewing Company on Wednesday October 23rd, the night before thanksgiving. Its gonna be a good time. Ill probably make a couple more posters in the mean time. Make sure you got new laces in your funk boots.

Digital Distribution

I've discovered something useful on the internet. That doesn't happen every day. As a recovering comicbook collector (now reformed and self-labeled "reader") every day in modern pop culture can be a battle. For users, its harder and harder these days to find a reliable dealer. True comic book stores are hard to come by these days. And the fact is that its an expensive habit. Keeping up with your favorite heroes (or anti-heroes for that matter) is daunting task in an era where the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate universe mirrors the continued existence of Spider-Man in original form. The newest Spider Hero is a multicultural icon, half black and half Puerto Rican. But it can leave you needing an advance on your student loans to grab all 5 books in the original Marvel Universe as well as the Ultimate Universe. I don't even wanna get started with the X-Men. The current storyline is one I've been waiting for since I was 12 reading collected trade paper backs from the Golden era of X-Men tales (Chris Claremont, credited for more than 200 issues of Uncanny and setting the general tone of X-Men up to and including the box office-shattering movies, was the best writing influence on comics through the 80's and into the 90's). SCHISM pits the ideals and leadership qualities of the Cylcops against Wolverine for the direction and strategies of the team into the forseeable future.

Anyways, I don't have the money to buy all these books. I'm saving up to possibly get into a mortgage and the general pace of life leaves little room (physical, to store in my house, and conceptually, for my gf to understand) for the amount of comics I would like to buy every week... So They found a better way.

I've been reading tons of free selections from Marvel's On-Line distribution library and discovered that for access to the entire 15,000+ library I need only pony up 5.99 a month. Marvel's even all caught up with iPhone/Pad apps for anytime/anywhere consumption. Dark Horse Comics' On-line distribution setup similarly awesome. Most books are 1.99 but they sell bundles of complete storyarcs mostly for 4 or 5.99. Since Dark Horse's bread and butter is licensing, the flagship titles most notably being the entire line of Star Wars comics, it goes without saying that there is a ton of material there that I would never go searching for in stores. The online services are changing all that.

I encourage people to check out these libraries. There is so much awesome stuff to look for. If you just wanna go searching for X-Men storyarcs from the 80's (Phoenix Saga), 90's (X-Tinction Agenda, Age of Apocalypse) or straight Wolverine gigs (First Class, etc) you can stick with that. But like I said, Marvel offers a monthly or full year subscription service and its just letting me devour stuff I otherwise wouldn't have the time, money, or honestly general motivation to go after.

Its worth searching the Android or Apple App stores for other comic distro services. They are out there. And in the same way that the internet gave rise to hordes of musicians gaining access to world-class distribution network over night, comic book creators have also established a niche. Yeah, there is plenty of shlock to wade through but there is tons of good free stuff out there...and in the event you discover something truly awesome you can buy, subscribe and support in other ways directly to artists without getting that nerd-stench of old french fries and mom-basement that hangs in the air at your local establishments- assuming there still is a comic book store within 30 miles of where you live.

So take some inpiration from that, and then take an afternoon off and get a hold of 5-10 X-Men issues or Hellboy or Buffy comics or whatever floats your boat. You'll be way glad you did. In the mean time I'm gonna keep scheming on how to go about creating a retail outlet for pop and comic book art that doesn't strictly attract magic card and miniature game-players. This shit is still cool. In many ways now more than ever. Just check box office returns. Comic books are not leaving. They're just evolving..

Visit Dark Horse online....https://digital.darkhorse.com/
Visit Marvel online....http://marvel.com/digital_comics