So, am I cured?

The short answer is no. BUT, and it's a HUGE, MASSIVE, H-BOMB SIZED BUT, I feel a LOT better. No other form of therapy I've tried since my accident has helped me improve anywhere nearly as fast as the treatment I've undergone at the University of Wisconsin. More important, I now have real hope for a full recovery and specific ideas on how to get me there. I'll write more about my experiences at UW in the coming days, but I want to thank the UW team that helped me -- Yuri, Kelsey, Joe and Mitch -- with all my heart. Their scientific work, spearheaded by Yuri, will lead to radical improvements in how the medical world treats brain trauma victims and those with vestibular difficulties, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have benefited from their expertise and thinking. Stay tuned for more detailed descriptions of my treatment!

Off topic: Harvest time in Madison.

Where to eat in Madison, Wisconsin? (An important question for me this week, especially since Wisconsin's staple of brats and beer just wasn't having much appeal.)

According to Fahtema, friend and gourmet guru behind the blog Gastronomie, the answer is Harvest. I'd walked by it earlier in the week, but each time I was under-dressed and over-concerned that they would have me ushered out by security should I dare enter. But on Thursday evening, wearing my customary shorts, sweatshirt, flip-flops and stubble, I found myself standing in front of Harvest and, overcome by hunger and the possibility of my first decent glass of wine in days, I went for it and sheepishly pulled the door open.

When the maitre di appeared, I apologized profusely for the way I looked, but much to my surprise and delight, no one seemed to care. So I asked for a table. Outside. If it's not too much trouble. Treating me like I was in a tux, the staff ushered me to my seat and handed me a menu and wine list.

I was stunned. In a good way.

Within minutes, my waitress, whose name I later learned was Amy, appeared and took my wine order. We got to talking and I found out she was from SF and had worked at SF's Zuni Café for seven years. On learning this, I closed the menu and asked for her advice. She suggested a cucumber soup and a fish I'd never heard of, and the name of which, of course,  I've now completely forgotten.

 I ordered both and they were grand. The soup was, as Amy had said it would be, warm, but not hot, with a cooling blop of yogurt in the middle and a small heap of sliced (diced?) cucumbers just next to the yogurt. Perfect with the Burgundian Orgeon Chardonnay I ordered, also on suggestion.

Next up, the Fish of The Forgotten Name. Firm, moist, expertly cooked and lying dead in the very best way amidst mushrooms and brown butter, it was exquisite. Another glass of the Oregon grape got me through to dessert, which was a simple bowl of simply amazing housemad cinnamon ice cream. I also ordered a cup of Joe, which was fine and fresh having just been pressed by a French.

A great meal, and one I very much needed after slumming it for several nights. If you go to Madison, and you like good food, go here. You will not be disappointed. And if you are, you can go jump in your choice of lakes, Mendota or Monona.

Striking out on my own. (Wait, that could be read two ways!)

After much research, I have finally opted to go with Tunecore for distribution. CD Baby looks awesome, and might be better, I dunno, but since I'm not selling a physical CD (yet!), Tunecore's all-digital delivery made more sense for me. Sadly, it will be something like TWO months before my songs appear on sites such as iTunes and Amazon the world over. Not sure why it takes so long, but it does. Weird.

I debated for months what to call myself, and rather than go with my name, I've opted for "My Shirt Is Cool". I've always dreamed of having a BAND, so the solo artist thing doesn't appeal to me. Plus, with a band name, I can have a logo, which, by the way, is being developed as I write this by legendary SF art director, painter and cartoonist Sho 'Nuff.

I've started with two tunes, and will reveal which two in a little bit. To protect myself from the lawless lizards that feed on starving artists, I've registered these two tunes with the US Copyright Office; I've also registered them with ASCAP, as written by Jeff Shattuck and published by Cerebellum Blues Music. Official, no?

As part of my stab at becoming a filthy rich and obnoxiously famous rock star, I've also entered a few songwriting competitions that I heard about through Sonicbids. To save myself the humiliation of having to inform my adoring public which contests I lose, I will only report details if I win. Stay tuned!

Last, as I have written before, I am now a member of Sonicbids, but still eying Taxi. Sonicbids seems to be more about making its members aware of contests and gigs, whereas Taxi makes its members aware of genuine placement opportunities in film and TV, and is more geared toward helping artists land deals. Now, I'm not sure I want a record deal, but I would love a film/TV placement. I'll continue to put Sonicbibids through its paces, but Taxi remains very tempting. If anyone out there has experience with both, I would love to hear it, so feel free to comment.

Last, last, I can't write much about the treatment I'm undergoing here in Madison, WI, but I think it's helping!

Visiting hallowed ground: the recording studio where Kurt Cobain recorded five songs that would later appear on Nevermind.

Who'd a thunk that Kurt Cobain, he of a most tortured soul, ever spent time in bucolic Madison? But he did. Yup, back before Nirvana became pop sensations, Cobain, Novaselic and then drummer Chad Channing checked into producer Butch Vig's Smart Studios to get to work on a new album. The year was 1990. After some false starts, Cobain and Novaselic punted Channing and found Dave Grohl, and, well, the rest is history, seeing as how all this was a lead up to Nevermind, the album of the '90s. Turns out Nevermind was recorded in LA, but still, Smart Studios holds some serious history.

I got there by foot, walking almost the entire length of the Madison isthmus, starting at the hill on which the University sits, walking to the flats, trekking up the hill crowned by the Capitol Building, and then down to a part of Madison clearly not meant to be highly visible to the coddled kids on campus. There's a power plant, large
warehouses, auto parts stores and the like. And the main drag is wide in an ugly way, a big, black, car-filled strip of a passage, feeding and bleeding the city.

Smart Studios itself is an utterly non-descript two-story building from the outside. The windows are bricked in or boarded over, and painted red to match the rest of the building. The front door is sealed shut and blocked along the bottom by weeds. There is no sign. After pondering the situation for minute, I walked around the back and spied a doorbell, which I rang, expecting nothing. I mean, the place looked deserted. But after a minute, a guy opened the door and invited me in. Turns out, he was Lucas Cates of the Lucas Cates Band, and he was finishing up some mixing with Mike Zirkel (I think), who was manning the console. The music sounded good. While Mike mixed, Lucas showed me the live room and then took me upstairs to a second, smaller studio, which sports a living area in the center and a porch off the back. Pretty cool. All the gear in both studios was modern, but downstairs a Studor 24-track lurked in the corner, meter bridge bright, and the deck's finely machined components oozing quality and cool.

I told Mike and Lucas a bit about Hyde Street and my project, and Lucas emailed me later with info on his band and a possible gig in SF in fall.

Not sure if I picked up any Cobain spirits still in the area so many years after his passing through, but I know I got some good vibes. And if I ever move to Madison, I know where I'm going to be recording.

New mixes! And more thoughts on record companies.

After many months of only posting rough mixes, I have now posted mixed versions of Here Comes The Weather and Money. They're both on the player to the right, so give 'em a spin and let me know what you think!

Back to the topic of record companies. As Dave pointed out in his comment, they mainly do advertising these days, and are intermediaries between artists and manufacturers. Regardless, unless I'm picked up by a major label and given some sort of massive publicity push, I won't be working with a label at all, and will need to find other ways to sell CDs to more than just friends and family -- no easy task. Also, since I don't see myself performing regularly, that avenue for buzz building isn't exactly open to me. So, what is? What can I do to get my name out there and attract a few fans?

First off, I'm going to make it easy for folks to get my music. I'll post it for download here on my blog, at CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes, etc. I'm also going to have everything distributed free of DRM (digital rights management or copy protection), so that pass along is easy. Another thought is to cook up T-shirts and a few other items (might as well, right?). Yet another idea I have is to take advantage of the fact that my home town is a MASSIVE tourist capital, and I plan to leave cards with instructions on where to get my music in strategic places. What else... well, I'm going to enter a few song contests, and if I win -- a BIG if -- I can use that info to help attract listeners. I'm going to call Paste Magazine and find out how to get on their sampler (fat chance, I know, but what have I got to lose?). I'm going to call Starbucks, Wal-Mart and Target and ask about music deals. Um, I'm also going to try to get at least one really famous person to sing on the record (total long shot, I know, but I gotta try). Uh... well, that's about it for now.

Other interesting paths to explore for indies such as myself are:

TUNECORE: When you use Tunecore, they place your song on iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon and others and pay you 100% of sales, while allowing you to keep all rights. The catch: you have to pay them to do this for you! Luckily, the rates are reasonable, but a touch complex. Click here to read the deets.

AMIE STREET: A very Web 2.0 outfit, Amie Street prices songs based on popularity, with the most popular songs going for $.99 and the least for, you guessed it, zilch. Amie touts their model as one that encourages experimentation, since members will try new music without hesitation given that it's free. As for cost, Amie seems fair: posting is free, and once your song has earned $5, Amie Street keeps only 30%. Obviously, there's no DRM and you can join without having to be exclusive.

THE ORCHARD: Sounds like a horror movie, I know, but there's something worthwhile here, I just can't figure out if it's for someone like me, or only for labels. I'm going to call them soon and find out.

CDBABY: These guys have a sterling reputation, and will get your music on all the major sites, including their own and iTunes. If you have a full album of material, CD Baby is probably the way to go; if you want to sell physical CDs, they are definitely the way to go. However, if you're like me, and have miles to go before your CD is done, CD Baby doesn't look as compelling to my eye as Tunecore. I'm going to call CD Baby tomorrow, though, and ask about their digital only distribution. Costs for physical distribution: $35 set up and $4 per CD sold, 9% of each dowload sold. If you go digital only, there is no set up fee, and you get 91% of revs. Not sure how this last bit works, though. For example, if someone downloads your song from iTunes for $.99, I doubt iTunes sends CD Baby the full $.99 and then pays you 91% of that. Gotta find out about this. Cost for digital distribution is nada, but CD Baby keeps 9% of revs (again, not sure if this is 9% of actual sale price or 9% of what CD Baby gets from, say, iTunes.

APRICADO: I first heard about Apricado from Mark Sanders, the most brilliant expert of all things web I have ever met, and it sounds like a really killer service. It's not live yet -- in beta -- but should be soon and when it is, it will be perfect for a la cart types like me, who want to post songs, as opposed to whole albums. No fee, payout is 80%, and Apricado will offer widgets for myspae and Facebook. As soon as there here, I'm there!

SONICBIDS: These guys bill themselves as a connector of bands and promoters. In other words, if you're in a band and you're looking for places to to gig, Sonicbids is for you. But what about the poor bastard without a band, such as yours truly? More important, what about the poor bastard without a band who refuses to play solo, such as, yup, yours truly? Well, Sonicbids is still a good choice. For people like me, Sonicbids is like Taxi (see below), conecting you with folks looking for music in television and film. My friend Dave Tutin told me about Sonicbids, and I signed up straight away. I haven't submitted anything yet, but I will soon. Really, I will. Fees: $6 a month or $60 for a year. Cheap!

TAXI: Taxi is a lot like Sonicbids. In fact, I'm not sure how the two differ really, except that Taxi has historically been more about placement and talent discovery and less about gigs. In fact, they bill themselves as an independent A&R dept. I was going to sign up with Taxi -- and might still -- but Sonicbids is a lot less money, so I figured I'd dip my toe in the water with Sonic, and then, when I have more tunes ready, pony up for Taxi, which, by the way costs THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS PER YEAR.

In the coming months, I'll post more about each of these services and any others I hear about. Stay tuned!