Mark Nicholas

12:22 pm: Bringing Cosmicity Back?
Okay internets. I'm leaning pretty heavily toward bringing back the Cosmicity name for my next release "Music For Headphones". The tone and sound I'll be going for will lean more toward that of Synthpop and Postal Service-style modern programming than the harder-hitting, grittier sound of my more recent releases, so it seems fitting to me. And just plain fun/funny to reunite a band that only had one member to begin with. :-)

In favor? Against? Anger? Elation? Thoughts? Disagreements? Confusions? Disappointments? Don't give a crap?

-m

Tags: cosmicity

02:00 pm: This is really cool.
This article makes me really really happy. Someone actually listened to the lyrics to one of my songs and... understood them! (And an unpopular song at that.)

http://community.beliefnet.com/index.php?page_id=1000&site_page_id=301&&sblog_id=1862&post_id=20412

A lot of people think, or have said, that I'm not a spiritual person (or even a good person) just because I'm not a church-goer or a Christian conservative. That's actually extremely untrue. I'm pretty excited that someone found the truth in there.

-m

Tags: cosmicity, lyrics, the perfect shape, uu

12:39 am: iTunes PLUS
Just a quick announcement to mention that, at long last, all of my music (Mark Nicholas + Cosmicity stuff) is available in iTunes Plus format from the iTunes Music Store. Finally, high quality and, most importantly, DRM-free downloads. Hooray!

-m

PS - Zoe is now officially 3 weeks old and... officially running my life. :-) Good thing she's adorable and awesome! Also a good thing that I planned for this... it makes total sense to me now why musicians often retire or take huge breaks after they have children! Me, well, I've been stopped for a little while, sure, but my new project still begins in t-minus 6 weeks and counting!

08:44 pm: Trying a new service called ping.fm to hit all of my various blogs at once. Does it work? I'll soon find out.

So as not to just make this an annoying test to read, I'll share this little bit of information with you:

My daughter is 2.5 weeks old now, but I have aged 5 years in that time. Following this math, I *may* be dead January 8th, 2009.

-m

12:41 pm: Oh yeah...
Forgot to mention this last time: I think our daughter might be a ninja.






That is all.

-m

Tags: chop, ninja, zoe

07:09 am: Zoe Lain
INTRODUCING:

Zoe Lain Nicholas
Born Sunday, June 29th at 7:27 pm.
Weighing in at 7 lbs., 6 oz, with a height of 20.5 inches.

Sara's nose + my ears + knee dimples + curly hair = she's perfect. Quickly snapped iPhone picture at only a few hours old:



I've got a LOOOOOONG ENTRY coming (which is the cause of the delay on this announcement, in addition to the basic metrics of just having had a baby and finding the time to come type updates on a computer got tricky pretty quick...) but it's gonna take me a while longer to type out everything I have to say about the experience, so this will have to do for now! :-)

-m

Tags: announcement, birth, zoe

04:55 pm: Almost baby time.
Been at the hospital since about 4:00pm yesterday, but Sara wasn't induced until this AM. She's been incredibly strong, I think. Labor through about 5 cm was done without assistance, but about 1/2 hour ago, she crossed a pain threshold she couldn't take anymore. It was really really hard to see. When the doctors told her that an epidural would take 70% of the pain away AND help the baby deliver a lot faster (because when you tense up as Sara was from the pain, it restricts labor), she took it. I can't imagine anyone in that degree of pain at that stage NOT taking it, now that I've witnessed it.

Watching them do the epidural was awful. Supremely awful. I was helpless to do anything, and she was frightened out of her mind because of all of the various things she's heard about them. I kinda wish she'd never watched a single episode of those fucking Baby Story shows on TLC. Do yourself a huge favor: stay the hell away from those shows if you ever get pregnant. Worst thing you could do to yourself - gives you 1000 more reasons to worry about everything.

As for the pain, it looked like it really hurt when they gave her that first numbing shot. Sara said it burned like hell. But after that it was mostly fear in her face. There were lots of people around her giving her warnings about this or that as they were doing stuff, and it made me frightened, so I can't even imagine how it feels when they're doing it to you.

Now I sit typing this as she sleeps. She was insanely exhausted from her pre-epidural contractions/pain (she was working VERY hard to get through those for many hours) so after there was pain relief, she was out like a light. Not from the meds - they don't make you sleepy - just complete exhaustion. The doctor wants her to sleep so she has the strength to push soon. Probably very soon. Within the next hour or so.

Looks like we really will have a baby this evening, and I know when Sara's got her in her arms, it'll all be worth it. Still, what an unbelievable thing women sign up for when they decide to do this. Watch all the birthing videos you want, it's impossible to grasp until it's right in front of you. (Hell, tons of people even told me that it was impossible to grasp, but even hearing that doesn't cover it at all.)

Send positive thoughts everybody. Hopefully my next post is a birth announcement!

-m

Tags: delivery, epidural, hospital, sara, zoe

10:56 pm: We're having a baby this weekend!
We're checking into the hospital tomorrow at 4:00 to start the baby delivering process. We'll both attempt to blog the big news on here when we're able, but if that proves tricky for any reason, I'll use twitter (via my cell phone) instead, so keep an eye on there (my twitter messages are also transmitted to my facebook header) if you're keen on more moment-by-moment news.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/marknicholas
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592355886&hiq=mark%2Cnicholas

-m

Tags: delivery, zoe

11:35 am: Watching the charts...
As suspected, Cosmicity is the faster climber of my two musical efforts on thesixtyone.com.

I gotta tell you, though, this site is an eye-opener for me. Completely democratic... people vote for their favorite songs, and the most successful songs make it to the home page and are considered "hits". And it's fascinating to see what songs work and what songs don't.

For example, the most popular Cosmicity songs of all time (in terms of sales) are "Rengerate" and "Sedgwick". They did okay on the site, but then got SMOKED by the songs "Let Me In" and "Crucify", the two I posted most recently. "Let Me In" hit the homepage yesterday, and Crucify will be joining it there in the next day or so. That's kind of cool... a song from 11 years ago that's a hit with people today. For all they know, I recorded it last week. In their ears, it still holds up (not dated). That's awesome!

On the Mark Nicholas front, the song "I Wish" went straight to the home page in just 2 days, but the song "Two Sandwiches" did SO badly (only 12 bumps in 3 weeks... to put that in perspective, most of my other songs get an average of 80 bumps in that time, and Crucify just got over 200 bumps in 14 hours). I would have bet the farm that "Two Sandwiches" would be popular, but I would have lost that farm! "Maniac" also just hit the homepage today. I would have bet half the farm on that one... so at least I'd still have half a farm. Hopefully the things on that farm aren't split too evenly, as half a cow is still a dead cow.

Overall "Mark Nicholas" still has a higher score, but I've had "Mark" in the game a lot longer. In the next few weeks, I'm positive that Cosmicity will double that score and then some.

What does it all mean? I guess I don't really know. I'm just happy that some of the songs are doing very well, old and new. If you feel so inclined, cast your votes for the next Cosmicity song I should post. Which one do you think will be a hit (given the facts listed above about Sedgwick failing and Let Me In succeeding, etc.)?

-m

PS - Weren't we supposed to be having a baby or something? What ever happened with that?

PPS - (Any day now!)

Tags: cosmicity, mark nicholas, thesixtyone, zoe

01:15 am: Thing that old friends say to me all the time that I get tired of now:

"So, are you still doing the music thing?" (Not even just old friends, actually. Current friends, co-workers, you name it. My answer should be, if you actually care, maybe get on my mailing list or look at my website once a year?)

Thing people would say to me all the time that I would get tired of now if I'd reached the level of success I was shooting for:

"I always knew you were going to make a name for yourself with your music."

Ah, life. You fuck with me, but I still love you. Between humans that's considered a dysfunctional relationship. With you, I believe it probably is as it should be. Because on the absolute flipside, there's this:

---

( A post from last week that never posted for some reason - recovered from the draft.)

Every so often someone sells an old Cosmicity album on E-bay, and I feel SOOO much better about my musical accomplishments. Seriously, I am humbled.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180239938414

$33.00 for a CD I self-released in 1994 at the age of 21 that retailed for $9.99. Shit, I REALLY wasn't even very good yet. Sara and I were just talking about this the other day. She and I only put the songs we actually like from albums on our iPods, and I think she only has 1 song from this album on her iPod. One!

Thanks for letting me know about that auction, Miss Ania.

-m

PS - I've got Cosmicity up on thesixtyone.com now too. Who wants to take bets on which artist performs better on there... Cosmicity or Mark Nicholas?

Tags: cosmicity, e-bay, success, the vision, thesixtyone

01:01 am: Ah! I'm on the homepage!
Thanks so much, everyone, for your help on thesixtyone.com. "I Wish" is on the home page right now! That's not just top in my genre - that's top 10 on the WHOLE SITE!

Not sure how long that'll last (possibly gone before you click to see it?), but that's awesome exposure right now. Woo hoo!

-m

Tags: i wish, thesixtyone, top 10

10:22 pm: thesixtyone
Hey, if you feel so inclined, I'm having some fun competing on a new music website (it's actually pretty cool) and any "bumps" you threw my way would be appreciated. It's free, and a totally simple and non-invasive to sign up for. (Lots of free music to be found here for download too - and the best music does seem to rise to the top - well sorted by category - so there's a lot less crap than just looking for new music at random on sites like myspace.)

http://www.thesixtyone.com/marknicholas/

I found the site through a band called The Long Division. Might even be doing a remix for them. Check out their songs "Neighbors" while you're on thesixtyone... it's got a very innocent retro flavor to it that I tend to like right on the first listen.

-m

Tags: the long division, thesixtyone

02:45 am: I got my username back!
The person who used to have Cosmicity (the correct spelling) as a username here on LJ finally dropped it. Woo! So, I changed this journal to the correct name. Ah. Feels good to have it right.

Speaking of which, I used the name Cosmicity for the Color Theory song I just finished remixing. So um... if that counts as bringing the band out of retirement, well, there ya go! The song is called "If Not Now When (Cosmicity Remix)" and probably won't be available for sale for a good 6 months or so, but it may be posted for listening before then. If so, I'll post a nice little link for yous guys.

Wish me luck... baby shower tomorrow. (Technically today. Better get to bed.)

-m

Tags: baby shower, cosmicity, cozmicity, if not now when, remix

01:25 pm: Your commercial on TV: $50
This is pretty fascinating. Want to directly affect the outcome of the next primaries? This new website called saysme.tv just launched, and for about $50 a pop, you can run a political TV commercial in any market. So, for example, if you want Obama to win in Indiana, you could buy an ad and run it on CNN for $50 to help him out. Choose from their pre-made ads, or you can make your own commercial and upload it. You can put commercials on many cable networks, from MTV to Fox News to Comedy Central.

http://www.saysme.tv

That's pretty amazing. I've never seen a direct line from ordinary people to television like that before. I'm sure it's just a matter of a few months before they either expand this site to include ANY content (not just political) or someone copies this idea and expands it to include anything.

I like this. Not only does it give regular people a voice (instead of just the rich candidates themselves), but it is potentially an excellent opportunity for the "very little guy" trying to give his business a boost.

-m

Tags: commercials, saysme.tv

04:10 pm: Hanson
Are you 14 and female? If so, apparently you're in line for the Hanson concert in Royal Oak, MI right now - 6 hours before doors even open?



PS - I saw a few tents camped out here last night. LAST NIGHT. For... Hanson.

Tags: hanson?

11:59 am: Did it work?
So, some of you might be wondering about the "The Free EP". Did anyone download it? Well, yes actually.

Thousands of people.

I was shocked. That's much better than I thought it would do. I was stupid and I didn't put up a visible page counter on my main download page until the initial rush has passed, so it's only showing about 400 hits on the download page now, but I had well over a thousand in the first couple of days alone based on my invisible web stats, and that's not even counting the downloads from last.fm, myspace and iLIke, some of which can't even be tracked.

Has it lead to more sales? Well, I didn't expect it to initially... kinda figured it would take a while and that I'd see the bigger benefit for my next full release ("Music For Headphones") in 2009... but it actually has. I've seen a spike in paid downlaods, particularly from the amazon mp3 store. Not tons, but certainly better than I was doing before this promotion. And I've been getting more-than-the-normal-amount of orders for physical CDs too.

To me, a huge success. I was mostly afraid no one would even bother to download my music for free, but they did. More people now have "The Free EP" in just a week or two of availability than have ever purchased any one of my albums, Cosmicity or otherwise. Sure, there's no revenue for that, but it's tough to beat the advertising of people hearing and enjoying your music. Here's hoping it leads to even better things for my next album.

Speaking of Cosmicity... there's a rumor going around that the band might be reuiniting. It's just a rumor at this point, but I heard it from a fairly reliable source.

-m

Tags: cosmicity, music for headphones, the free ep

07:00 pm: This will never stop being cool.
The news about "The Free EP" reposted in Japanese. I find this awesome.

http://www.sukisuki-elepo.com/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2204

-m

Tags: japan, japanese, sukisuki-elepo, the free ep

01:56 pm: Where would you spam?
Hey, if you were me, where else would you post / mention / plug "The Free EP".

I gotta imagine plenty of people wouldn't mind getting a new EP for free. But I gotta get 'em to find out about it first

So, where do you hang out online, LJ friends? I've put it on my myspace pages and stuff like that, but most of the people who see that stuff have most of my music already anyway. What's a good forum or chat place or whatever? I've hit the relevant last.fm forums, I believe. The synthpop group here on LJ. And side-line.com. Where else do you think?

-m

PS - I will SO greatly appreciate any mentions you make online or to friends. A direct link to the download page is: http://www.marknicholas.org/listen.html

(And if you don't like complicated links, dirtyelectronic.com will get them to the home page which has a handy link on it as well.)

Tags: the free ep

11:48 pm: A guy's gotta contribute.
Just in case no one shared this with you today... I give you Hilarious Muppets Bloopers!




With 10 minutes to spare. (Thanks to Steve for the link!)

-m

04:25 am: The Free EP - It begins...
Early dibs for ya...

I've still got LOTS of other sites to post this EP on (it'll probably take me all weekend), and I'm going to build it its own web page, but basically here's what it it's going to be if you just can't wait to get yourself some free tunes. (Available for download so far only on last.fm, iLike.com, and myspace.)

http://www.marknicholas.org/listen.html

Thanks for your help sorting this out, everyone. Obviously the final track list isn't exactly what any one person specified, but almost all of these songs are tracks that you guys suggested, and yeah, one that nobody suggested. Goodnight My Love? Yep... 'cause Sara and I love that song. I mean, when you're getting all kinds of downloads for free, you're bound to get at least one song WE want you to hear. (It'll grow on you, damn it! Seriously, who doesn't like a song that details a psychopathic - possibly android - killer breaking up with his girlfriend? It's got MASS APPEAL!)

-m

Tags: mark nicholas, the free ep