Opinion

Why I gave up Patreon

2017/12/19

If you have heard at all of Patreon, you no doubt noticed they were in the news (as such) recently, after they announced a change to their fee structure. Lots of people complained, lots of people dropped their patronage, and there was dissatisfaction all around. Then Patreon did an about-face, saying they’d consider another approach.

I did not wait that long. I deactivated my Patreon account.

I had been thinking about doing that anyway, but their decision to change things gave me the nudge I needed. Of course, after I deactivated my account, they changed their minds. I did not.

The decision was overdue, for the following reasons:

  1. Unlike Amanda Palmer and a few other better-known people, I do not already have an audience that is willing to follow me to such places. (That’s a judgment of neither Amanda Palmer nor the audience I do have; it’s simply the way things are.)
  2. My blog is my primary venue for sharing my writing; maintaining a Patreon account meant also posting things there. That got tiring after a while.
  3. I do not want to keep the things I share online behind a paywall, which is what ‘patron-only’ posts do.
  4. I do not want to come up with a tiered reward system to persuade people to read my poems. Being a poet is hard enough; I don’t need the extra aggravation.

I have not yet added a ‘donate’ button to my website since I brought the current incarnation back online, though I intend to do so. If you like my writing—whether it is my poems, or my ‘love notes’ to the days of the week—read my blog posts; click on like when you like something, or leave a comment; share or re-post my blog posts; buy my books; engage with me on social media (or share or retweet, as appropriate); tell your friends to check me out online. Support folks whose books/poems/art I mention, and tell them Kevin sent you.

I do what I do because I have to. I share my poetry because I think my voice is as worthy as anyone else’s of being heard. I want a greater audience, but not because I have forced myself upon them. I remember Frank Zappa using the tagline ‘the world’s greatest optional entertainment’ as part of the labelling/marketing of his music. As I wrote not too long ago:

This poem knows that one person’s deep connection
is another’s intense revulsion
but wants to keep going anyway
because making that connection
is everything

If you like what you read here, help me make that connection. All other things being equal, that’s really what it’s all about, what makes life worthwhile.

Thanks for playing!

Kevin

(19 December 2017)

#SaveNetNeutrality

2017/11/21

To add a comment on the FCC website, the easiest way is to go to https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings?proceedings_name=17-108&sort=date_disseminated,DESC, click on +Express in the first box in the sidebar at left, then fill in the appropriate fields. Unless you have A LOT to say, it will take you only a couple of minutes.

(21 November 2017)

Poet of the Month: Georgia S. McDade

2017/11/02

A day late, but here we go…

For this latest entry in my series of tributes to poets I know, I celebrate and acknowledge Georgia S. McDade. Dr. McDade (she is the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D in English from the University of Washington, in 1987) is one of those people who is seemingly in constant motion. On nearly every occasion I have seen her, she has either just come from another event, is about to rush off to another one, or both.

I know Georgia mainly through the monthly Writers Read, held the second Sunday of each month (except for May and August) at the library in Columbia City. Writers Read is presented by the African-American Writers’ Alliance, of which she is a founding member.

As a writer, she has written several books of poetry, including five volumes of her Outside the Cave series, as well as many essays and stories. What I like about her poems is that they are unambiguously in her own voice—that is, they sound like her. To hear Georgia McDade read one of her poems, or one of her stories, is to be part of a conversation. At least, that’s the feeling I always have.

As an educator for more than three decades, Georgia regularly encourages people to write, regardless of their level of experience. Everyone has a story to tell, she says, and that’s how we learn about each other, and discover those things we have in common.

To learn more, here are links to a couple of articles from the South Seattle Emerald.

https://southseattleemerald.com/2016/02/03/georgia-stewart-mcdade-a-life-mightier-than-obstacles/

https://southseattleemerald.com/2017/03/04/31-days-of-revolutionary-women-4-dr-georgia-s-mcdade/

And here is video of Dr. McDade reading some of her work:

(2 November 2017)

Poet of the Month: Lola E. Peters

2017/10/01

Almost let this one sneak up on me again—fortunately, I made my decision a few days ago, so it was only a matter of sitting down and actually writing the post.

For this latest entry in my series of tributes to poets I know, I celebrate and acknowledge my friend Lola E. Peters. Her poems and essays have appeared in a number of anthologies, as well as on the Crosscut, Seattle Star, and South Seattle Emerald websites. She has also published two volumes of poems, Taboos and The Book of David, and a book of essays, The Truth About White People. She founded the nonprofit Poetry+Motion, which, over its five-year lifespan, brought together dancers and poets to create ‘new choreography for poems written and performed by local poets’; currently serves on the boards of Leadership Tomorrow, Seattle City Club, and Onyx Fine Arts Collective; and is a long-time member of the African-American Writers’ Alliance (AAWA).

As a poet, Lola has inspired me in two important ways: Continue reading

Poet of the Month: S. R. Mason

2017/08/01

For this latest entry in my series of tributes to poets I know, I celebrate and acknowledge S. R. Mason. A writer, photographer, and poet, her main outlet for poetry is her Tumblr blog, titled Think of Me As Poetry.

Love is a frequent theme in her poems. However, her protagonists do not experience love in their heads (or with their heads in the clouds), but in their bodies—tongues, eyes, ribs, fists, fingers, teeth, and so on—whether it is pain, pleasure, or indifference. Water is another element that regularly appears in her work—sometimes a benevolent, healing presence, other times an oppressor, or sometimes an object of desire.

Still in her early 20s, Steph (as you might know her if you follow her on Twitter), has a way with phrasing that you’d expect from someone my age. Or—to be more honest—that I wish I had.

On several occasions, I have found inspiration in her poems, most notably:

Ghosts that leave footprints
The past ending in an exhale
What to listen for in a cold war of visual cues.
‘Goodbye’ is a confusion we feel comfortable ignoring.’

As part of a prompt I was working from, I ended up using a line each from the last two poems in this list in poems of my own; she was kind enough to grant me permission to include them in This Is Fifty-three (the oversized volume I published last year).

As far as I know, Steph has not yet published her poems beyond her Tumblr feed; however, she is planning to publish Sugar Comma [sic], a chapbook of donut-related poems, later this year. She also occasionally posts video clips in which she reads her poems. More recently, she has begun writing music reviews for 303 Magazine.

Check out her work. You won’t regret it.

(1 August 2017)

Poet of the Month: Talicha J

2017/07/01

This month, I celebrate Talicha J, one of the first poets I began to follow after I started actively writing poetry again. I don’t remember where I first encountered her work (it’s been about four years, after all), but I appreciate her ability to get to the heart of whatever she is writing about. Numerous times I have read something in one of her poems that perfectly captures something I have experienced.

Talicha regularly participates in slam competitions, and last year did her first tour (I was lucky to see her read at Everett Poetry Night in May 2016, and finally meet her in person (after having already been connected for a while on social media).

To date, Talicha has published one book of her poetry, Falling in Love with Picking Myself Up, and one poetry album, In the making (click on the bandcamp link below).

I strongly recommend you check her out. You won’t regret it.

Talicha J website: https://talicha-johnson.squarespace.com/

Talicha J YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbP6BNSxJvMksiY2Qa0PyA

Talicha J In the making poetry album: https://talichaj.bandcamp.com/

(1 July 2017)

Poet of the Month: Vasilina Orlova

2017/06/01

Over the last three or four years, as I have immersed myself more and more in the world of poetry, I have encountered a lot of poets and/or their work. In some cases, what I have heard or read has provided inspiration for some of my own work. have been thinking recently that I want to acknowledge these folks, so I’m going to do so by acknowledging a different poet each month. Continue reading

Why Designers HATE Papyrus

2017/05/22

It took me a while to get beyond mere dislike, but I am now firmly in the I-hate-Papyrus camp. In fact, I dislike it so much that I have disabled it in FontBook (I would have deleted it, but I don’t like to mess with system fonts).

I will grandfather in anybody who has already made use of Papyrus (I used it for my very first cassette release, back in 1993); anybody who uses it after, say, June 1st—I will judge you… 😉

I feel better now.

(22 May 2017)

The Musings of Dave

In a homage to my post about Why Designers HATE Comic Sans, I am going to go and look at another member of the design worlds reviled font’s collection. Seriously folks, I swear this font was BORN to be loathed by designers everywhere. It’s incredibly tacky in a horrible kitschy way and it should never be used anywhere, certainly not in professional production pieces (Avatar, I am looking at you here). And if the Avatar clue hadn’t given it away already, Ladies and Gentlemen for your delectable Hatred, I present to you, the Font PAPYRUS.

English: Specimen of the Papyrus typeface.

God, You could not pick out a worse font if you tried. Papyrus. Look at that wonderful example of the kind of font that is used by people with no design sense. Now in my post on Comic Sans, I at least managed to say that Comic Sans has it’s uses and can be quite effective…

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