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[pineapplefulfillseveryneed]

It's funny how this post that I made 11 years ago contains no details of the show. Time to make amends:

With this being my second Sparks show I had a much better idea of what was to come and how Sparks audiences are: I was beyond excited. Before the show the familiar fairground organ music was playing in the hall and before the show started we were treated to the studio recording of Two Hands One Mouth.

This time I'd managed to be right at the front, on Russell's side, and one of the most amazing things about this show was the height of the stage: knee height. There was no barrier either. (To this day it's still the closest stage I've ever experienced.)

At the start of the show some camera guy (massive camera like for tv) insisted on pushing me out of my place and leaning his camera on my shoulder, without asking. I thought he was an asshole (clearly not a Sparks fan) and to this day I've never even seen that footage surface anywhere. Luckily he disappeared after a few songs. After that all was as it should be, and I quickly became friends with one of my show-neighbours who was kind enough to translate the things Russell said when I couldn't figure it out (French is not my strong suit).

I was yet again completely blown away by Russell's voice and his dancing, and something that became apparent during the show was that Russell had no issues moving around on the edge of the stage, mere centimetres away. (INCREDIBLE.) Some of the songs I had been most excited about hearing again were Metaphor, Good Morning, Sherlock Holmes and Suburban Homeboy. (The various reasons: favourite piano parts, Russell's dancing, Russell's voice and the amount of enthusiasm from the audience.) The setlist was different than the show in Gent that I'd been at, as they were following the setlist of the American tour. Meaning we got Angst In My Pants that night, that I'd not heard before!

I was also more prepared for the songs from The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman and had listened to it a lot more at this point and I am very glad to say I recorded the full Bergman performance, which Ron started with "Je suis Ingmar Bergman", and the video also includes some dramatic and very close up shots of Russell Weissing it up (it's a verb now, roll with it) turning evil. I am excited to be sharing this soon.

Catherine Ranger made a guest appearance for the performance of Singing In The Shower and Russell and Ron were really happy about this. I didn't know who she was at the time and I was personally honestly not overly impressed with how it sounded (I am sorry), but their enthusiasm was really cute :) (Also the previous time I saw them perform this song was hard to beat as there was a long silence that time that grew pretty tense, that was AMAZING.) Anyway, no need to pay attention to my opinion on this - there's quite a few videos of it that I'll share later so you can make up your own mind :)

The encore was excellent: Russell was beaming so much during The Number One Song In Heaven! Plus, the encore has a lot of dancing from both Ron and Russell. At the start of Beat The Clock (the song Ron shuffled to during this tour) Russell dabbed Ron's head with a wet tissue which was cute, and apparently I managed to film. (Will be shared later.)

However two massive highlights of the show were still to come: during Two Hands One Mouth Russell decided to sing the words "one mouth" in French (une bouche) which had people losing their shit. (...He really was going for it during this performance anyway, I don't think you're ready. Did I have my camera out? Yes. Was Russell in my face for part of that performance? Also yes.)

As for the other massive highlight: I intended to shake Russell's hand at the end of the show. (At the end of my first Sparks show I had held my hand out and when someone (Russell) actually held it I was so shocked I just stared at my hand, I really didn't think that would happen! But godd I didn't even smile at him, what an idiot. So I had to see if I could fix that.) During the applause I waited for him to look in my general direction, then smiled and stuck out my hand. And Russell smiled and immediately walked over!!! I got to smile at him and say thank you! :) (In hindsight it's really funny that I thought they surely wouldn't notice me or something, while at the same time the vast majority of people in that room were two or three times my age and I was right at the front losing my shit the entire time. I'd always felt invisible in life so not being invisible to these guys honestly was huge to me.)

Someone sent their kids onto the stage with a present for Ron and Russell. It was a t-shirt and Ron put it on. (Photos of that to follow in a later post by a fellow tumblr Sparksfan.) Also a huge banner was being held up by people across the audience which spanned at least half the the concert hall and read "merci, merci beaucoup!". (I've since learned that this seems to be tradition in French speaking audiences and I appreciate that a lot!)

... I'd already written that my dad had been impressed by the show, and he really was, but unfortunately he has memory issues so I don't think he still knows anything about it now. But for a couple of years after this show my dad would always ask if I wanted to borrow the t-shirt he wore at this show whenever I'd go and see Sparks, because Russell had looked at him. He thought it had been because of his t-shirt. (It's not the t-shirt.)

Setlist:

THOM Overture

The Rhythm Thief

Metaphor

Propaganda

At Home, At Work, At Play

Sherlock Holmes

Angst in My Pants

Under the Table With Her

My Baby's Taking Me Home

The Wedding of Jacqueline Kennedy to Russell Mael

Excerpts from The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman

Dick Around

Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth

This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us

Suburban Homeboy

When Do I Get to Sing "My Way"

Encore:

17. Singing in the Shower (with Catherine Ringer) 18. The Number One Song in Heaven 19. Beat the Clock 20. Two Hands, One Mouth

THOM at La Maroquinerie, Paris, 24th of May, 2013 (part ½)

One year ago today. And what an incredible day it was! Me and my dad (who didn’t really understand how special it was going to be) left our house in The Netherlands around 5, carpooled and spent the day with 2 other Dutch Sparks fans who I met at the THOM show in Ghent, to arrive at our house again at 5 the next morning. So many incredible things happening in only 24 hours, I was so incredibly excited the entire day (and the weeks in advance and afterwards of course). I’d really go anywhere within reach to see Sparks. So very fortunate to have ended up front row that evening!

Needless to say, my dad was also left impressed by Ron and Russell and really wanted to talk about it with my mum afterwards, but ended up frustrated because she just “doesn’t get it”. My dad: “Sparks cannot be compared with anything else. It certainly was an incredible and very special evening, and the most special show I’ve been to. They are brilliant.” I couldn’t have said it better.

The effect Ron and Russell, their music and seeing them live has on people remains absolutely incredible. Just like Ron and Russell themselves.

[theway-to-myheart]

Keeping Up With Content Creation: A Dad’s Workflow

We love collaborating with bloggers and today we’re pleased to be able to share this guest post with you from Ivan Siladji. Ivan’s a dad and a blogger and he’s sharing his tips for keeping up with content creation. Enjoy!

Let’s be real for just a minute. For most of us, this whole blogging thing is a part time gig. Some people never want to take their writing full-time, you know, the making a living from it kind of full time. For many, blogging is a way to journal their life – and it’s a great way of doing that. Kudos.

For others, myself taken, the blogging journey we are all on is one that will one day provide for financially, and then some.

The bridge between hobby content creation, being part time and then ultimately full time is a long journey that best be enjoyed with long nights, sore typing thumbs and a glass of wine. It all gets interesting when you couple all of this with a full-time job, being a dad to two kids under six, married life, family life, taking time for health and all the other things this wonderful thing called life may throw at you.

Content Creation – Why Create?

Legacy. That’s it for me. For you that might be different, and probably will. My mission is to interact with as many people as I can while I’m here and in some way, shape or form, leave a lasting impact, big or small, trivial or profound. Content creation and the internet is the easiest and most direct way of doing that. It’s also the most competitive. And if I can support my lifestyle while doing all of this it just seems like a no-brainer. Of course, there is always a catch. I’ll give you a hint – it starts with “W”.

So Where Do You Fit In?

My perspective starts with me standing all alone, on that bridge, this little guy from the big city of Sydney, Australia — long way from home, I know. I’m currently walking that line between hobby content creator and part time blogger. Sure, I hope to take this thing full time but the biggest thing I’ve learned in the last four years would have to be patience.

I currently create content around three main pillars – written in the form of my blog or other articles, such as this that you’re reading now. Second is video content and that’s where my YouTube channel comes in. There I document my journey and life in the form of vlogging and create other short form videos for my community. Then there is the third pillar – the audio component. Think of podcasting for example. In my case, this is my anchor station where I aim to put out daily “plogging” content – think of vlogging or blogging but in podcast form. Then there is the plethora of micro content that strings all of this together – Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. All of which in their own right are quickly becoming, if not already, pillar content platforms.

I took the route of these three main pillars because they integrate well. I can write a piece of content in blog form and then speak about it in audio form, opening up further conversation and bringing to life the voice behind the written post, and vice versa. YouTube vlogging allows me to take my community along for the journey and pull together a video that visually tells the story I am trying to convey in otherwise written form. And in all honestly, humans are very visual creatures. Personally, I’m always painting the picture in my mind of what a writer looks like behind a post – video is perfect to share what that looks like with your own community, especially if you’re comfortable to do that sort of thing.

How Do You Keep Up?

Before you think about how you are going to go about all of this it’s important to accept the fact that it will involve a great deal of work, which, if you’re passionate about all of this content creation stuff, shouldn’t be a problem, most of the time. If you don’t have kids you’re ahead of the game for time as evening, night and early morning hours are still your own. If kids have somehow made their way into your lives you’re in for a journey of time management. Don’t worry, it can be done, you just have to manage a few extra things.

Now that you’ve accepted the fact that work will be involved, it’s important that you get clear about what it is you are trying to do. Get clear about the pillar content forms you want to pursue. Don’t focus so much on the social platform or you will be hedging your content on the success of the platform and any algorithms they throw your way. Rather, focus on the content types. For instance, when I say I vlog for YouTube I also have these vlogs as video posts on my public Facebook page – Facebook is really upping their attention on video content so engagement for that type of content is usually higher and Facebook gives it some preference in their feeds.

From here it’s all about when. This is where the ‘keeping up’ part comes into play. I’ll make it easy for you from the get-go. You won’t always keep up. Accept that. As you make progress and get better at your craft you inherently get busier. Opportunities come more often which means you’re writing more frequently than you otherwise anticipated and with that comes an increase in your content distribution efforts. You spend more time engaging with your readers, viewers and/or listeners and building a community — personally, that’s the best part and it’s a lot of fun.

Tools Of The Trade

Like any job, you need specific tools to get you through specific tasks. Personally, I use a number of tools to make the process of content creation all that bit easier. These include (and are free without taking any upgrade options);

Evernote – I use Evernote to create written content for platforms outside of my own blog, for example, contributor pieces. If I’m writing directly for my own blog I write directly within WordPress, my sites hosting platform. The text editor there is more than ample for how I like to write so I keep within that. However, when it comes to writing for someone else, jotting down notes or getting an audio note in, especially while out-and-about, I don’t go past Evernote.

Pages – I manage my facebook page through the native pages app by Facebook. It gives better reporting and power over your page. I’ve used this for years so I’m not sure if it’s normal practice now but if it’s not and you’re still managing your page within Facebook itself, try the pages app.

Canva – I’ve recently signed up with Canva (oh Canva, where have tho’ been). In a nutshell, Canva makes creating anything visual so much easier. They have all the templates you need for all the major platforms. I use this via google chrome as an in browser app as well as on my iPhone when not at my desktop.

Asana – Need a task and project management tool? Asana is your new best friend. This cloud based app on desktop and mobile is powerful, visually appealing and makes setting up tasks and projects much easier. After you play around with this app and get your bearings around it you’ll never look back. You can organise your tasks by project and assign sub-tasks. And if you have a team it gets even better as you can assign tasks to your team and open workflows between members.

Bit.ly – Bit.ly is my go-to link shortening app. I like this as it allows me to track click throughs from social platforms and other parts of the interweb so I know in more detail who is getting exposed to my content and from where.

WordPress – I natively create most of my blog content within the mobile version of WordPress. Because most content today is consumed within a mobile device I figured it made sense to create the content within one. This allows me to see what my posts will look like on mobile which gives me a chance to iron out most blogging layout bugs before I hit publish.

iPhone / DSLR / External Microphone / Tripod – I’m an Apple guy but if you’re an Android user all of what I’ve written here will still work. I record 95% of my video content on my iPhone and subsequently do 80% of my video editing within the device as well. Sometimes I go to desktop but it’s usually much easier and quicker to do it right from my device. Point is – you don’t need to get fancy. Although I use Adobe software for higher end video and photography work, apple iMovie is more than capable of getting you started. I also carry in my kit a DSLR (although I’m using it much less these days), an external microphone for audio content such as that which I put out on Anchor when I’m in the office as well as a tripod to hold my iPhone or DSLR when shooting video. Take home message is you can do most of your content creation using nothing else than your smartphone and any excuse otherwise is exactly that – an excuse.

I’m Still Hearing You In The Background…

I’m well aware some of you are still saying – good for you but I just don’t have the time. Respect. I get it. But I don’t buy it from most of you. I truly would love to see you win at this. Even before I do. The journey is long, so engage in a little patience, sprinkle on some consistency (the hardest part) and take small steps to climb big mountains. Utilise tivo to record your favourite show for later or skip it all together. If you’re naturally a night person – go to bed an hour or two later. Morning person? Wake up an hour or two earlier. Catching a train? Write a post. Waiting in queue for a latte? Engage on Twitter. Taking an Uber? Record a podcast. Out and about? Record a vlog. It just comes down to work.

Given this post threw a lot at you, I truly hope it’s given you a little more edge. I love creating content, particularly that in written form. Being part of an online community has introduced me to more people than I ever thought I’d get to know and it’s been a hell-of-a journey. Be open to patience, and be willing to travel the blogging journey long term – results come not over night but rather after many keystrokes. Most of all – enjoy the journey. I am.

About Ivan

Sydney, Australia. That’s where I’m from. It’s a big place. Me – I’m a little smaller. I’m a normal dad, of two wonderful children, a boy and a girl. I’m married to one amazingly attractive woman who’s patience for being swamped by my intensity is admirable.

  I blog. It is a means for me to let out my creative juices all the while working in a crazy job and raising a family. It’s a place to share my opinions, albeit sometimes controversial, share lessons I have learned that might be of use and hopefully bring some joy to someone’s life. Some of the experiences I draw lessons from are my work as a scientist and manager of people, parenting, business, lessons from blogging, family and of course a general interest in things like the outdoors, lifestyle and self-awareness.

  For me,  the best part of writing is connecting with you, the reader, and each time I do I’m forever grateful for the new friendships that are formed.

  If you like this post I’d love to connect with you more. You can reach me by email, visit my blog or catch me on Facebook most days of the week.

The post Keeping Up With Content Creation: A Dad’s Workflow appeared first on NC Blogger Network.

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[julesliedtke]

Keeping Up With Content Creation: A Dad’s Workflow

We love collaborating with bloggers and today we’re pleased to be able to share this guest post with you from Ivan Siladji. Ivan’s a dad and a blogger and he’s sharing his tips for keeping up with content creation. Enjoy!

Let’s be real for just a minute. For most of us, this whole blogging thing is a part time gig. Some people never want to take their writing full-time, you know, the making a living from it kind of full time. For many, blogging is a way to journal their life – and it’s a great way of doing that. Kudos.

For others, myself taken, the blogging journey we are all on is one that will one day provide for financially, and then some.

The bridge between hobby content creation, being part time and then ultimately full time is a long journey that best be enjoyed with long nights, sore typing thumbs and a glass of wine. It all gets interesting when you couple all of this with a full-time job, being a dad to two kids under six, married life, family life, taking time for health and all the other things this wonderful thing called life may throw at you.

Content Creation – Why Create?

Legacy. That’s it for me. For you that might be different, and probably will. My mission is to interact with as many people as I can while I’m here and in some way, shape or form, leave a lasting impact, big or small, trivial or profound. Content creation and the internet is the easiest and most direct way of doing that. It’s also the most competitive. And if I can support my lifestyle while doing all of this it just seems like a no-brainer. Of course, there is always a catch. I’ll give you a hint – it starts with “W”.

So Where Do You Fit In?

My perspective starts with me standing all alone, on that bridge, this little guy from the big city of Sydney, Australia — long way from home, I know. I’m currently walking that line between hobby content creator and part time blogger. Sure, I hope to take this thing full time but the biggest thing I’ve learned in the last four years would have to be patience.

I currently create content around three main pillars – written in the form of my blog or other articles, such as this that you’re reading now. Second is video content and that’s where my YouTube channel comes in. There I document my journey and life in the form of vlogging and create other short form videos for my community. Then there is the third pillar – the audio component. Think of podcasting for example. In my case, this is my anchor station where I aim to put out daily “plogging” content – think of vlogging or blogging but in podcast form. Then there is the plethora of micro content that strings all of this together – Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. All of which in their own right are quickly becoming, if not already, pillar content platforms.

I took the route of these three main pillars because they integrate well. I can write a piece of content in blog form and then speak about it in audio form, opening up further conversation and bringing to life the voice behind the written post, and vice versa. YouTube vlogging allows me to take my community along for the journey and pull together a video that visually tells the story I am trying to convey in otherwise written form. And in all honestly, humans are very visual creatures. Personally, I’m always painting the picture in my mind of what a writer looks like behind a post – video is perfect to share what that looks like with your own community, especially if you’re comfortable to do that sort of thing.

How Do You Keep Up?

Before you think about how you are going to go about all of this it’s important to accept the fact that it will involve a great deal of work, which, if you’re passionate about all of this content creation stuff, shouldn’t be a problem, most of the time. If you don’t have kids you’re ahead of the game for time as evening, night and early morning hours are still your own. If kids have somehow made their way into your lives you’re in for a journey of time management. Don’t worry, it can be done, you just have to manage a few extra things.

Now that you’ve accepted the fact that work will be involved, it’s important that you get clear about what it is you are trying to do. Get clear about the pillar content forms you want to pursue. Don’t focus so much on the social platform or you will be hedging your content on the success of the platform and any algorithms they throw your way. Rather, focus on the content types. For instance, when I say I vlog for YouTube I also have these vlogs as video posts on my public Facebook page – Facebook is really upping their attention on video content so engagement for that type of content is usually higher and Facebook gives it some preference in their feeds.

From here it’s all about when. This is where the ‘keeping up’ part comes into play. I’ll make it easy for you from the get-go. You won’t always keep up. Accept that. As you make progress and get better at your craft you inherently get busier. Opportunities come more often which means you’re writing more frequently than you otherwise anticipated and with that comes an increase in your content distribution efforts. You spend more time engaging with your readers, viewers and/or listeners and building a community — personally, that’s the best part and it’s a lot of fun.

Tools Of The Trade

Like any job, you need specific tools to get you through specific tasks. Personally, I use a number of tools to make the process of content creation all that bit easier. These include (and are free without taking any upgrade options);

Evernote – I use Evernote to create written content for platforms outside of my own blog, for example, contributor pieces. If I’m writing directly for my own blog I write directly within WordPress, my sites hosting platform. The text editor there is more than ample for how I like to write so I keep within that. However, when it comes to writing for someone else, jotting down notes or getting an audio note in, especially while out-and-about, I don’t go past Evernote.

Pages – I manage my facebook page through the native pages app by Facebook. It gives better reporting and power over your page. I’ve used this for years so I’m not sure if it’s normal practice now but if it’s not and you’re still managing your page within Facebook itself, try the pages app.

Canva – I’ve recently signed up with Canva (oh Canva, where have tho’ been). In a nutshell, Canva makes creating anything visual so much easier. They have all the templates you need for all the major platforms. I use this via google chrome as an in browser app as well as on my iPhone when not at my desktop.

Asana – Need a task and project management tool? Asana is your new best friend. This cloud based app on desktop and mobile is powerful, visually appealing and makes setting up tasks and projects much easier. After you play around with this app and get your bearings around it you’ll never look back. You can organise your tasks by project and assign sub-tasks. And if you have a team it gets even better as you can assign tasks to your team and open workflows between members.

Bit.ly – Bit.ly is my go-to link shortening app. I like this as it allows me to track click throughs from social platforms and other parts of the interweb so I know in more detail who is getting exposed to my content and from where.

WordPress – I natively create most of my blog content within the mobile version of WordPress. Because most content today is consumed within a mobile device I figured it made sense to create the content within one. This allows me to see what my posts will look like on mobile which gives me a chance to iron out most blogging layout bugs before I hit publish.

iPhone / DSLR / External Microphone / Tripod – I’m an Apple guy but if you’re an Android user all of what I’ve written here will still work. I record 95% of my video content on my iPhone and subsequently do 80% of my video editing within the device as well. Sometimes I go to desktop but it’s usually much easier and quicker to do it right from my device. Point is – you don’t need to get fancy. Although I use Adobe software for higher end video and photography work, apple iMovie is more than capable of getting you started. I also carry in my kit a DSLR (although I’m using it much less these days), an external microphone for audio content such as that which I put out on Anchor when I’m in the office as well as a tripod to hold my iPhone or DSLR when shooting video. Take home message is you can do most of your content creation using nothing else than your smartphone and any excuse otherwise is exactly that – an excuse.

I’m Still Hearing You In The Background…

I’m well aware some of you are still saying – good for you but I just don’t have the time. Respect. I get it. But I don’t buy it from most of you. I truly would love to see you win at this. Even before I do. The journey is long, so engage in a little patience, sprinkle on some consistency (the hardest part) and take small steps to climb big mountains. Utilise tivo to record your favourite show for later or skip it all together. If you’re naturally a night person – go to bed an hour or two later. Morning person? Wake up an hour or two earlier. Catching a train? Write a post. Waiting in queue for a latte? Engage on Twitter. Taking an Uber? Record a podcast. Out and about? Record a vlog. It just comes down to work.

Given this post threw a lot at you, I truly hope it’s given you a little more edge. I love creating content, particularly that in written form. Being part of an online community has introduced me to more people than I ever thought I’d get to know and it’s been a hell-of-a journey. Be open to patience, and be willing to travel the blogging journey long term – results come not over night but rather after many keystrokes. Most of all – enjoy the journey. I am.

About Ivan

Sydney, Australia. That’s where I’m from. It’s a big place. Me – I’m a little smaller. I’m a normal dad, of two wonderful children, a boy and a girl. I’m married to one amazingly attractive woman who’s patience for being swamped by my intensity is admirable.

  I blog. It is a means for me to let out my creative juices all the while working in a crazy job and raising a family. It’s a place to share my opinions, albeit sometimes controversial, share lessons I have learned that might be of use and hopefully bring some joy to someone’s life. Some of the experiences I draw lessons from are my work as a scientist and manager of people, parenting, business, lessons from blogging, family and of course a general interest in things like the outdoors, lifestyle and self-awareness.

  For me,  the best part of writing is connecting with you, the reader, and each time I do I’m forever grateful for the new friendships that are formed.

  If you like this post I’d love to connect with you more. You can reach me by email, visit my blog or catch me on Facebook most days of the week.

The post Keeping Up With Content Creation: A Dad’s Workflow appeared first on NC Blogger Network.

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