I've got some #newmusic up to start the week, if anyone in the #MusicSky world wants to check it out. I've been using the "Refluxions" gimmick for covers; this is my first original in this format. Maybe I'll polish it into a single, but this is a very rough draft. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BM6...

I almost forgot: today is #BandCampFriday, the first Friday of the month when #Bandcamp supports #indiemusic by giving its share of all album sales back to the artists. If you still want to #BuyCanadian, this is as Canadian an album as I could make. 🍁🦫 lukemaynard.bandcamp.com/album/desola...

I almost forgot: today is #BandCampFriday, the first Friday of the month when #Bandcamp supports #indiemusic by giving its share of all album sales back to the artists. If you still want to #BuyCanadian, this is as Canadian an album as I could make. 🍁🦫 lukemaynard.bandcamp.com/album/desola...

My dystopian fear as a #writer in the #writingcomnunity isn't a world where every human uses #AI to think & write. it's a world where under its pervasive influence, every human eventually thinks & writes so much like AI that it doesn't matter if they use it or not.

I wonder sometimes what would've happened if #BrianWilson had worked with the Prophet Isiah or the Book of Psalms as his lyricist, and G.F. #Handel had been left to write about fast cars, teenage romance, and surfing. Who, truly, captured the heavens in harmony? RIP Brian. youtu.be/VS4sKZMkJOQ?...

Awright! I made a Friesh Thing - well-kent, ah hawp, but aye worth getting in th'kin, innit? Sadly I can't do justice to #JohnMartyn 's iconic Glaswegian mumble. Wrangling the audio/video for this four-piece vid was a huge headache. I hope it was worth it! #MusicianSky #MusicSky #IndieFolk #Music

I'm sure a few folks on #MusicSky know the joy of recovering access to masters you once thought lost. But 18 years later? I doubt many of the #indiemusic crowd are that old. But I am! I'm looking (& listening) backward to past chapters, and forward to future ones. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tqia7...

I'm not sure why I'm suddenly so popular here…but hi & welcome! I'll try to offer content worthy of your feed: this is my "peacetime" social media. I try to leave my vicious politicized snark (some might prefer that) on the birdsite, now my "wartime" site. Here's a song new to #BlueSky/ #MusicSky.

I saw this news item, then Ms. Öztürk's name, and a photo of a woman in a headscarf. I rejoiced. I wondered what vile dictatorship we negotiated her release from—until I saw. In my day, the USA were the ones negotiating for this wonan's freedom. I'm still getting used to seeing them as the jailers.

Dear #indiemusic lovers of #MusicSky, I can't think of a better time (OK 6 hours ago would've been nice) to remind you that today is #BandcampFriday: all proceeds to the artists! If you're keen to #BuyCanadian, this is the most Canadian #music I could make: lukemaynard.bandcamp.com/album/desola...

Hard to believe that I started my main #YouTube channel 12 years go today. This is the first thing I ever posted; 12 years later I'm still playing wit...uh, my own band. My playing may not have gotten much better, but the lighting sure has! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqOJ... #MusicSky #Acoustic #jazz

Tell a friend. Tell your enemies, too, unless you want the richest man in the world to buy their DNA to make roboclones of the most awful people.

Part of my #BuyCanadian mission this year includes listening, playing, & singing Canadian.🍁 I can't think of a finer place to start than #JoniMitchell, who is probably pound for pound the best #songwriter our great country has ever produced. Thanks for listening, #MusicSky. 🎶 youtu.be/q5eknnLtbvc

Okay, #MusicSky, this one's a brand new recording, no bells, no whistles. Just me celebrating my new all-canadian guitar Sam with some Blind Arthur Blake. I'll do some multitrack stuff soon, so add me here and on YouTube! youtu.be/f2zYNN1BcOA?... #nowplaying #blues #Acoustic #MusicianSky #Acoustic

My receipt on BlueSky so far, courtesy of bskypt.vercel.app Is that really how I talk? A few of my skeets are just old Twitter retweets... so I guess the right people know when they're not new. 😅

1/2 In certain communities—ironically, the ones I'm most comfortable in—my "he/him" pronoun & AMAB face are like being born with a police uniform tattooed onto me. I wear a history of other people's violence on my skin—and no, I can't shave it off, not if I shave down to bare blood. No matter who…

1/x I owe someone an apology on this site, I think, for causing offence where I didn't mean to—for replying to correct a two-year-old piece of misinformation that might have seemed like a petty correction, if you notice (as I didn't) that it was a very old skeet indeed. Sadly, I can't apologize…

After more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies, doctors worldwide have found that Placebo produces no ill effects in any of its patients. Placebo is considered safe for young people, the elderly, pregnant and nursing women, and more. Ask your doctor if Placebo is right for you!

"Free" is a magic word these days. Few things are. My first album, because reasons, is not free (though wow, it's cheap!). This debut electronica album by Partixan IS free: a gift to #MusicianSky that I don't take lightly. Download, share, and really listen. That's how we grow as a #musiccommunity.

#TRUMP: "Bye bye, #Gaza. Hello new #WestBank, My West Bank. Costa del Trump. Donaldville. Marina del Trump… Elonburg?" #ElonMusk:"Ivanka, she's got her own place." Trump:"Elonburg?!" Elon:"It's a little bitty place." Trump:"ELONBURG!?!" Elon:"I'll just wipe that off..."

I think, after careful thought on the matter, this is my "Peacetime" public social media account. I still have a Twitter account over on Egon Stink's site, X (not an "X account"), which I was keeping in solidarity with the folks who can't leave yet "because reasons." That's my wartme account now.

Facebook put virtually ALL our social media data onto American servers, and made Zuckerberg a super-billionaire. Imagine if every country Trump has threatened went in on a new, GLOBALLY managed & hosted social media site, blocked all U.S. IPs, and put all profits into an allied global defence grid.

It's #BandcampFriday today—the day when #Bandcamp cedes its royalty share to the artist if you buy (and own *outright* rather than stream) some #newmusic. For now, here's some #Canadian #indiefolk —but I guess it'll be #Americana once we're the #51stState?😅 lukemaynard.bandcamp.com/album/desola...

I've taken all my music off of #Spotify, as it's mostly bad news for #indiemusic small-timers like me. But I left a #RyCooder cover up, the only song I ever paid to license, because people on & Across the #Borderline need to hear and be heard. open.spotify.com/track/2HihUm...

I heard that #ElonMusk used a certain iconic super-villainous gesture in his #Inauguration speech—one often used by the most vile people in history. I could hardly believe it until I saw it for myself and knew exactly what kind of man he was. I speak, of course, of the megalomaniacal hand-claw.

I can't think of a better day to relink this old track off my album, #DesolationSound. I wrote it just over 8 years ago—the day the great #LeonardCohen left us, just a day before he had to watch #Trump win the presidency. It's never been more relevant. lukemaynard.bandcamp.com/track/end-of...

Something new for the #musicsky / #musiciansky / #tiktok crowd. No backup, no Autotune, and nowhere at all to hide. youtu.be/CZneGEUXKtg P.S. I started putting RIDICULOUSLY stupid clickbait in my titles as a joke, but it's actually working! Expect a few more like this (video #4 will shock you! 😆)

There's something to be said for hope. We know how poetry like this goes—we think. Then we see the fruits of a generation, maybe two generations, of incredible hard work, tough fighting, fierce advocacy, fearless dedication to a cause. Maybe Star Trek IV was a goofy movie.😆 And yet…🤔🌍

I'm happy to see the #writersofbluesky brought over one of the few things I loved about the birdsite: #FantasyIndiesJanuary! I have two WIPs: "Heartblood," a darkhope fairy tale, and "The Season of Rust and Rhyme," the third book in my flagship high fantasy series, the semi-serial #TravalaithSaga.

Folks, I have been remiss this holiday season in following back new followers. Many of you are strangers, so if you want to jump to the top of the #followback list, tell me about yourself! What community are you from? Do you make (or love) a particular art? Tell me your story, lovely people.🫴🖖

Just in time for the holidays: a visit from Sandy Claws!

1/2 #indiemusic thoughts on this dark solstice: To be happy I must 1)make #music, and 2)earn enough money to live. I don't need to achieve (2) BY doing (1). Doing what you love simply because you love it is fine. Stardom is dumb. There's only one thing that really makes me sad about not being...

This is an important but horrific thread. I only know how to understand all this in the present tense because I've read it all before in the past tense—not just in history textbooks, but from Elie Wiesel, Art Spiegelman, Philip Gourevitch. If we're not preparing to oppose a genocide, we should be.

In the spirit of giving this platform more than I give X, folks who follow me or support #music & #indiemusic here, get a taste of a brand-new #DireStraits/#MarkKnopfler cover, straight from my tiny cluttered apartment studio to your ears! #Catlovers, look for a special guest!🐈‍⬛ youtu.be/mu62vfjPWh4

OK folks, it was my fault making a political comment, but I've let some 👹 into my echo chamber. It counts as "engagement" so 🤖s will start sending them my way unless I change course. So tell me, #film fans: what are the best #movies I've missed in 2024 because only superhero movies get advertised?

Happy #BandcampFriday everyone! A great time to support #indiemusic. I need new ears & #music friends more than the extra 15% cut, so use the code irvingberlin24 (it's a "blue skies" pun) to keep the 15% off my full album, Desolation Sound, for yourselves.🤫 lukemaynard.bandcamp.com/album/desola...

I still have no idea how the ecosystem of lists like #jamsky work here (do I just tag #jamitout & hope for the best?), but as an #indiemusician they leave me with a lot of joy & hope for this platform. Anyway I've uploaded too many cover songs, so here's one of mine. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xwC...

Since I've now picked up followers from my day-job in #law, here's some news I only just became aware of: A members' bill in the Ontario Legislature has just passed first reading to commemorate the great day in 1929 when Canada finally decided that #women were persons: www.ola.org/en/legislati... 🚺

I will (eventually) drop new material to welcome & thank my new followers from the #indiemusic world. In the meantime here's my a 90-minute "Couch Concert" solo series, recorded in the 2020 lockdown, before my MS diagnosis, when I was still at my COVID weight. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Without a doubt, THE ODYSSEY. Vancouver-made, as close to a perfect "kid story" as a psychedelic parallel-world Jungian fantasy can get. It was also a HUGE launch pad for young Canadian geek-culture acting talent as absolute babies (below: #DevonSawa, #JewelStaite, #RyanReynolds, #WillSasso).

You've taken your first step by trading Elon Musk's site for this one. Here's a long list of Trumpers to silence with a single click. Yes, there are arguments against the "echo chamber" effect of only letting our friends in. But nobody criticized Helm's Deep for keeping the orcs out, either.

I don't know whether to see this all through the lens of a medievalist, a novelist, a lawyer, a bluesman, or whatever else I've got. I don't know which paradigm will bring me both peace AND purpose. But we need BOTH right now. Pick up your instrument of choice and play La Marseillaise. PLAY IT.

Hi all, I suddenly have a bunch of new followers from the #indiemusic world—maybe because I'm on one of @florgoth.bsky.social 's lists. Nice to meet you all! Just to give you some brand new content for your trouble, here's my new cover of Michael P. Smith's heartbreaker: youtu.be/v1fNQ-z-qjI?...

To disable #AutoPlay of images & videos: #1: Go to > Settings #2: Go to > #Accessibility #3: Under > Media, turn this off #4: If this saved you some aggravation, check out my #indiebooks here: books2read.com/ap/8pyVJ6/Lu... I mean, I'm a shameless mercenary, but hopefully a helpful one! 😉

1/2 OK @bluesky folks, I have to complain: (I'd "kvetch" if I had the right to, though I guess as a half-Scot I can "whinge" instead of just "whining.") I was all excited to wake up to 9 new followers, until I found all but one were spam bots for the same Onlyfans account. Thus, the following:

Artists: be brave enough to be awful! It's VERY hard when you have the maturity & taste to know what's "good," and what you produce isn't as good as the masterpieces you consume. Young children don't know they suck at things they love until they've become "kinda good." Cultivate this Toddler Mind.

In theory, I find it hard to imagine a language with a richer subset of vowels than spoken English. But of all the subtle vowel sounds my impoverished North American accent has done away with in its lazy race toward nothing but /ə/, I feel I miss /ɔ/ the most.

I was sad to hear about #RogerCorman, but I didn't really KNOW his work. I knew only his name and his reputation for beautiful trash. I've spent the night reading, learning, about just how much he did for Hollywood—how many incredible artists he lifted up. I hope i'm remembered as an "up-lifter."

Me: Has any company officer's gap between claimed & actual technological aptitude ever been wider than Elon Musk's? I can't think of anyone… Mira Murati: "Hold my, uh, brown cylinder thingy." Me: "Your beer?" Mira: "Yes, beer—oops! Hey, the brown's gone." Me: "Beer is a liquid. You spilled it."

I'm an ex-academic who still does Humanities research (but I also selfpub—it pays "worse than bestselling novels, but infinitely more than monographs"). I often worry my indie scholarship will be of neither weight nor value without peer review. Then I'm reminded what peer review is worth in 2024: