it is in solidarity with workers worldwide that I do what I do this and every day...but still, the question comes up every so often: is this actually going to work?

I love this job...what are the chances I get to keep it?

well as I mentioned a couple entries ago, I mostly learned how to start a band online...not the coolest origin story ever but hey, where else ya gonna learn that there are about a quarter-million musical acts currently acting on the largest music streaming service (we'll save the obvious criticisms of the aforementioned "service" for later but trust me I have them here in one of my pockets).

of these 250,000 artists and collectives--from Billie Eilish (and Finneas) all the way down to your neighbor's kid's terrible noise band--about 4 percent have enough of a fanbase to sell 1,000 tickets on a given night.

you may not know these bands. you may not like these bands. nevertheless, there they are jammin' (or screeching or warbling or caterwauling) all the way to the bank.

currencies and circumstances vary, but any band who is able to reach that status has guaranteed themselves food, shelter, and the occasional new hat indefinitely.

the dream of the modern era.

so I ain't all that mathletic, but even I can number up a ballpark figure here: about 1 out of 25 bands to keep at it for any length of time make enough to live on.

that's...that's not all that bad, yaknow?

how many other professions have ~4 percent of practitioners making hundreds of thousands of genuine US dollars? 

like, you gotta figure with the way capitalism is structured these days, your highest chances of making money are in murder, fraud, and gambling...hell if you're in the military or its handling class you can go for the full trifecta on Polymarket.

on the other hand let's go back down to Richard Scarry-type jobs, stuff society needs done no matter what: what are the odds of a schoolteacher making enough to not worry about money every single day of their reasonably miserable lives?

is it 1 in 25?

how about a truck driver, that one guy who personally delivers every morsel of food in the supermarket?

oh, or the other dude who helps prevent pandemics by picking up your disgusting trash?

do 1 in 25 daycare workers have an outstanding quality of life?

like, I know I'd rather play dress-up and perform manual labor with a musical interlude as I currently do than chase 15 screaming toddlers around all day...and my odds of achieving a thriving wage are significantly higher.

that is actually kinda dumb...but is the reality of our time.

...and so right now we're averaging around 50 bobbing heads per show--it's been way higher and certainly been lower, either way it's a party!--but I can see the mountaintop from here.

because another thing They Say Online is that you only need about 50 real actual fans to make it happen...people that show up and listen to the music, talk about it to others and enjoy it in their spare time.

of course, part of that's on us...we have to create music that is interesting enough for people to care about (think we've done that) and let the general public know that it exists (work in progress).

of course, we all know that most of it is out of our hands.

of course, we all know that most of it is out of our hands...besides, the entire construct I have outlined here needs to be torn down and reassembled for reasons I hope I have made quite clear.

in case I have not, allow me to restate them: the overwhelmingly vast majority of labor under this model is unstable, underpaid, and unsustainable.

I just get to talk about it at work.

in the meantime rent's due on the 8th, and we don't decide if we're that 1 out of 25 bands who makes both lifelong memories and enough to keep our beds...you do.

it is at the core of our process. it is the essence of the project.

it is, in every possible way, the bottom line.

all power to The People.

--Flor!