27 Changes

I was nothing in 2002 if not a person willing to change old ways of existing. It became an approach in itself after a while: looking at screwed-up situations and opening up my mind to different ways to win, instead of choosing the same known loosing solutions. The best example is my vocation through the year. I spent half the year in doing medical data entry, took a month throwing myself into my first sales job and finished the year serving food at a fancy restaurant in my neighborhood. I acknowledged the reality that until one year after the economy recovers there will be no work in advertising and graphic design in this town. And when the jobs finally return I can count on making $5000 less than I made when i last worked in the industry. If my finances were not a significant factor at ZH27 I would not even bring up the subject here. But as always my fiscal situation directly relates to networking and audio activities... the more spare cash I have the more those factors thrive. Additionally my state of mind is influenced by my relative poverty or wealth and that mindset is reflected in my audio work and my interest in doing ZH27 activities. 2002 had just the right amount of releases: 36. Nine years I've done more releases and nine years I've completed less. Networking was extensively achieved online as I only afforded two postal mailings. My web presence was in disorder much of the year, yet in the last few weeks pulled off a massive effort to more than make up for the slack. With the new identity of Z27 I surged into action renovating and updating everything previously known as zidsic and zids.net. All covers needed new contact information and while revising this I often re-typeset and added color to older covers. I set up a new short e-mail account Z27@india.com to put on all releases. Indeed after all this effort over 525 pages with 425+ updated covers will be online. I am in my second month of trial separation from 95% of my possessions as I hunt for an apartment while my stuff is in storage. I have my computer, my mobile audio gear, some clothes and a modest number of personal effects. At first it seemed to be transitional and I didn't get a lot of things done. Then I decided to start obsessing on things that I could do while I don't have all my stuff to distract me. Thus in the last six weeks or so I have been pouring a huge effort into the digital aspects of my networking and label activities that I can use my iBook and an internet connection to improve. So on the floor of various apartments, online at the library in Skid City Mall and sometimes as I hang out at friends houses, I'm busy updating webpages, databases, covers and keeping in touch with my online network. I'm really excited about all the progress I've been making and that's why you get this disjointed missive - bouncing around as I am from one thing to the next to get them done as it occurs to me - because I'm bursting at the seams to tell somebody what I've been doing. Very few of my friends here in Louisville understand or appreciate the magnitude of my undertaking here at ZH27. I've been more open about telling people about it the last few years, but it is a rare soul that groks what's going down here. The audio I've been doing since last fall has been a nice departure for me too as I'm concentrating on what I can do with portable tape recorders and my dr. sample exclusively. Just as the world is giving up tape decks and taking studios into computers I'm making sure I've not lost touch with my analog roots. I plan to release ZH27 works on CD instead of tapes, but the exploration continues in my analog world to explore new sonic realms. Finally, I'm searching on the digital horizon for new realms to take ZH27 into and there are some promising technologies I plan to embrace to extend my expressive reach.

January 2003