Amanda Palmer, and The Art of Asking

 Amanda Palmer (who I absolutely adore as a musician, artist, and human being), recently did a talk on TED called 'The Art of Asking'. In it, she talks about how she has been able to use social media sites like twitter in order to organise support acts, venues, and food for her gigs. She talks about the give-and-take of modern human interaction. She talks about her kickstarter project for her latest album, and how it was funded by her fans (the best £5 I've ever spent). And she talks about how much easier it is to get people to pay for music by asking them, rather than trying to force them.

 Watching the video, I was also reminded of a line from a song on her album 'Theatre Is Evil': 'I'll never find it, I want to shout into the vacuum.' In a way, that feels like what I've been doing here for the last couple of weeks. I've been posting stories, poems, etc. online, hoping that someone will take an interest in what I'm doing and maybe give me some feedback. The idea is to improve my writing to the point where I can actually start making money from it. The only problem? I haven't quite been able to work up the nerve to tell anyone about it. At all.

 So that's going to have to change.

 Today Statikland goes public. For the first time, I'm going to be posting about my blog on facebook and twitter, and hopefully some of my 'friends' (never has that been such an ambiguous term than when applied to social media), will have a look through it and tell me what they think. This will also (hopefully), encourage me to keep writing and posting. If you are one of those people; Hello. Sorry I skipped out on that coffee/party/dinner we were meant to have. The truth is, I don't really like you that much.

 So there you have it. Unlike Amanda, I'm not asking for money (yet). I'm not asking for a couch to sleep on, or food. All I'm asking for is a little of your time and your honest opinion about what you find on this blog. I guess what I'm trying to say is this; I'm just a boy, standing in front of the internet, asking it to love me (or at least give some helpful criticism).