Keep Laughing!: January 2021

I was voted to my union’s executive board in 2013. I served for three years, I didn’t do a whole hell of a lot, but at the end of three years I was urged to run for president by the other people on the board. I had a good chance of winning at the time but I felt restless and didn’t feel like I could accomplish much in that role, plus I hated most of the people in the union and didn’t want to dedicate myself to those scumbags. Don’t get me wrong, I’m diehard a union man, I just hate the people in my union. It's not just because I'm a misanthrope, the majority of those people are seriously garbage. Anyway, I felt like I’d neglected my artistic impulses and wanted to put myself into a creative endeavor again after years of getting high and not giving a shit.

I wanted to collaborate. I was sick of being the idea man, the crew, the editor, and the distributor. I ‘d always wanted to do interviews with inspiring people. It was a new skill worthy of pursuing. I was a huge fan of the web series “What’s In My Bag?” produced by the sexy record store Amoeba Records located in Hollywood and San Fran. In the series the store gets celebrities to come in and shop, after which they interview them about the shit they picked out. Because of this series I learned about some incredible music, films, and other bits and bobs that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. I freely admit the show I created known as Vinyl Retentive is directly inspired by “What’s In My Bag?”

I enjoy nerding out on records. They’re artifacts and it’s a treat to encounter a record which absolutely touches you. It’s even more pronounced when you meet someone who shares that obsession and is willing to share their feelings. You get more perspective and it draws you in. Portland, for all it’s faults, is fairly infatuated with vinyl, perhaps to the point of being insufferable. But there’s charm in that too, when viewed from a distance. I knew there were good, eager, interview subjects to be found in this town who could provide a firm basis of content for me to smear on a canvass.

I wanted this new project to be positive, entertaining, and potentially educational. This concept checked all those boxes. So it began. It was a slow process to start with but once I got underway some amazing people came out of the woodwork to help, and or be interviewed.

It might be maudlin to call Vinyl Retentive educational but it can’t be denied that it’s informative. It was an education for me too. I’d been a producer from idea to execution before but never with a traditional format like this. Most of the shit I’ve produced is experimental and often unwatchable. This project was fairly cut and dry. I enjoy the avant grade but I enjoy being understood even more if it’s at all possible. This project was about realism, nonfiction, borderline science, even if it is vaguely “hip” knowledge. And yet I hope you’ll agree, it is knowledge worthy of investigation.

This project was a musical education for me, as well as the viewer. I sharpened my editing skills quite a bit with this project especially in terms of audio editing. It was incumbent upon me to find the groove for every episode, and that wasn’t alway easy. There were some pieces of music which people wanted to share which I honestly fucking hated. It took time and many repeated listens to find the groove which would translate to a harmonious whole in respective episodes.

I was hoping to get the subjects to share obscure hidden gems and many of them knocked it out of the park although I never pressed people to go for obscurity, I would’ve been just as happy to hear exciting impressions based on AC/DC, Kiss, or Air Supply if subjects were so inclined, but there’s no question that obscurity is a part of the vinyl obsession. Jeremy put it succinctly when he mentioned “the chase” and how the pursuit is sometimes the charm. I know I’ve been transfixed myself by certain records only to have their shine diminish once I capture it. It’s part of what makes Discogs.com a multi million dollar business. This aspect of the collector nerd world is partly what made me lose some interest in the series. I always wanted the music to be the focus, but by spotlighting the record itself I felt like I was dwelling too much on the materialistic. Which can be interesting, but it's limiting. Quite a few passionate people reached out to me, wanting to be interviewed, but they didn’t have the records, which was out of place for a show named Vinyl Retentive. I like the quirky conversations inherent in the minutia of worshipping vinyl and the bottomless pop culture that exists continues to surprise me. But it also comes across as privileged capitalist masturbation. I live to create things and then destroy my creations with venomous self criticism. It’s my passion, kind of like what Ludwig Wittgenstein did back in his day.

As for the name of the series, Vinyl Retentive, it was the name of a compilation released by Very Small records in the mid 90’s. I loved that name and have recycled names and themes as inspiration for projects many times over in my “artistic” career by way of homage, or by way of keeping that spirit alive. Keep Laughing is an example of this repurposing as an inside joke just for my own kicks. It's an inside thing which I've taken the mystery out of by explaining here. It's what I do.

I’m forever thankful to Jeremy for being the guinea pig, my first interviewee. He was also instrumental in getting other subjects lined up. Also a big thank you and hugs to Ivy Hover for helping me when I wasn’t sure if this was a project I could tackle. You may notice there are scant few credits. That’s because I did all production duties (audio engineer, camera, editing, interviewing, etc.) myself. Enjoyed it. Will get back to it again someday soon.

I still think it’s a great concept. I was hoping to get funding to turn this into a job for which I could get paid creating. I applied for grants here in Portland, Oregon, but they denied me. They said I could never get the rights to most of the music I used and so it could never be a commercial endeavor. They’re right. I don’t give a fuck about creating commercial endeavors. This may forever fate me to be an obscure outlier unable to make a living off my work. Which annoys me. Maybe you can clue me in to how I can pay my mortgage without producing shit I hate? Otherwise I plan to continue shooting myself in the foot.

I did partner with a video co-op here in Portland named Xray TV to try and got them to distribute the series online. Which didn't amount to much. They posted it to youtube. It got some attention, but then they collectively disappeared. I’ve tried to get them to take it down from youtube but they appear to have fallen off the face of the earth because they’ve never gotten back to me.

Sometime further down the road I will return to this series to make more episodes. I plan to eventually interview myself which will be self absorbed in ways you didn’t think were possible.

I’m still a union man, even if the pandemic might be making my career as a stagehand obsolete. Further irony abounds in that I ran for president of my union a few months ago and was soundly defeated 19 to 65. Which is for the best, I’m sure. Fuck those guys!