Thursday, October 11, 2007

Un-victorious

Ok, that was weird.

My friend Danny Palmer tells me about this site called OurStage. He's been claiming to have had this concept for a webpage for like, 10 years or something. Seriously, he's like, " I have this idea for a website, where people can go and "hear some music", and then like, "pick what they like", and you know, other folks recommend other good stuff. And my response has always been like your is probably right now, and that is..."You mean, Danny, like EVERY MUSIC WEBSITE ON THE INTERNET?!"

Still, he's convinced that somehow his is/was different and he's missed the boat on this genius idea. Also, I think he wants to specifically blame me for the perceived miss. (I should note, however, that Jamba Juice was MY idea, Danny!)

Moving on. Danny says this OurStage is pretty close to his original stroke of genius. So I go and check it out. Turns out, the site does up to the minute rankings of music based on head to head voting battles. An actual numbered standing. Just like sports! I'm in. So I sign myself up, throw in a bunch of my music, and move on. I'd say that the story ends there as it does with most music sites, except that:

A) Danny calls me three times a day to update me on our rankings (he starts out ahead)

B) My video keeps creeping towards the top
and

C) I get an email at the end of the month informing me that I've made the semi-finals for September.

Ok. Buuuutttt....the semi-finals of what exactly? Of course, Danny lets me know that these guys are actually serious and there are real prizes. So now I'm slightly more interested in not losing. One week later, another email informs me that I've actually won "Video of the Month." Now it's getting cool. (Which, I suppose it was before as well, but things always seem "cooler" when they come attached with personal victory)

Then it hits me. OurStage, somehow...someway, has a $5000 monthly grand prize for overall best video. $5000!! Time to stop acting like a too-cool music snob and get the tens of people on my email list to start voting for me goddamit!

So I spend the last day of September glued to OurStage.com, watching my video for "Falling Into Space" drift in and then out and then back in and then back out of the 1 position. It was unnerving to be honest. The whole thing went from "just another music website" to "this is the BEST SITE EVER IN THE WORLD PLANET OF INTRAWEB SUPER SITES!".

At the end of the day, when the dust had settled, I emerged un-victorious. Oh well. Perhaps it wasn't the greatest site of mankind everness, but it still provided me with quite a thrill for a few days there. And I did, after all, win best music video. So, not bad.

So the battles wage on, and if you're so inclined, you should consider the following 3 things:

1) go to OurStage.com, and put some of your own stuff up there and try to be not un-victorious.

2) go to Danny's MySpace page, and tell him that if he mentions Kingcuts.com one more time to me, the his next album is OFF!

3) go Red Sox (just thought I'd throw that in there while I was numbering things)


Lastly, it has just occurred to me that I still haven't written about the whole Australian Songwriters Award that I won for "Falling Into Space" as well. The reason I really need to tell that story has waaaaay more to do with my acceptance speech than the actual award. So I'll rest my weary fingers and get back soon.

Thanks to all of you who helped vote for my video during that last rush!
Not completely un-victorious,
DD

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