Content, content, content. The catch-all description for all of the things, now. I don’t know, I don’t mind. I am a content creator, a content consumer, a content curator and a contented cat. I do not contend that content is a contender of legal tender, but on a bender I might render slender friendings of upended mendings. AS SUCH! I’ll have 100 copies (actually, 99, as I am keeping one) of the CD album of CONTENT for sale in these gizmos soon!
Right now as I write, I’m listening back to the last cut on this 14 song rabbit hole, and thinking, hmm, can I do this one live, with just me and an acoustic guitar? Possibly! I have a wee stack of my original tunes from STREET PARTY and CONTENT which play very nicely that way. Others, not so much! Like, I doubt I’ll ever try to do Push The Better Button all by me lonesome, BUT! This Place Isn’t Here Anymore and Laughing Man, sure, definitely, I’m gonna do ‘em. And save the date if you’re a save the date-y kinda cat - August 12 (a Caturday, naturally) around 2PM, I’m doing a wee solo performance at the storied Down Home Music in El Cerrito, amongst my old pawing grounds. The good Down Homers will have copies of CONTENT and STREET PARTY for sale at their actual counter, with me actually playing and telling an actual story or two, and it will all be very actual. Here’s a photo of the front of the actual CD jacket, of which as I said, there are only 100 in the known universe.
There’s more Berkeley Caterwauling News Content to follow, but this despatch is about the above, and we’ll leave it there. The cats, the actual ones, Berkeley and Panda, have gone from wee fluffy kittens to full grown tiger and panther shape during the creation of CONTENT. They kept me company and pawed at the screen and the mouse (of course) and made this truly a Berkeley Cat Record.
When it “drops,” as the kids probably don’t say anymore, I’ll share it up and would love you to share it on your socialwebby thingys or even, in actual life, with hoomans and dawgs and cats in actualspace!
I’m mad at AI-generated art, I’ve made it no secret. I KNOW it’s just another tool blah blah blah we were mad at drum machines, I make records on a freakin COMPUTER, so how can I be mad, why the hypocrisy? I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW, I’M STILL MAD AT IT! It should be a little hard to make an art thingy. You should have to work on it a bit. Get off my lawn with AI. I practiced guitar and learned how to sing (some would dispute that, but still) I put in effort! It’s deeply satisfying and it gives me a sense of purpose and meaning. I learn from the process at every step. Mixing Am I Not Alien after recording everything but the drums (thank you Jay Lane!) a few years ago, I broke through an invisible wall and FINALLY really felt confident in my ability to self-produce my own songs and records. It’s a journey, it’s a good journey, and it’s a fun one. You don’t press a button and say “make song that sounds like so-and-so” or sure, you can, I suppose, but then you’ve learned nothing. Endured none of the struggle it takes to get through the frustration and long dark nights of the soul an artist encounters before emerging in the warm blissful light of success, having made something perhaps beautiful, meaningful, and real.
Thank you for accompanying me on some of my journey. And it’s ok if you AI, you can still play on the lawn. We love you. Happy Caturday,
Eric Roy Dinwiddie
Chief Caterwauling Ranty McRantface at Berkeley Cat Records