Balance © John M Parks 2009

Overlook © John M Parks 2009

See these photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmparks

Peace,

John M Parks

Four Little Birds © John M Parks 2009

Download the full resolution TIFF here

I recently just reviewed an article on the Gazette website entitled Police get electric vehicle to help patrol

I can’t begin to explain how much safer I feel now that the CRPD is riding around on the bastard child of a trike and a Segway.  Now I’ll be able to hear every criminal of the city laughing from over a mile away - seriously.

CRPD - I’d love to help test these by seeing how effective they are…  I propose an old fashion police chase somewhere in downtown Cedar Rapids while a trained officer chases me on one of these - I bet a fit officer on his feet would preform much better.

This is simply just another example of the City of Cedar Rapids, and it’s officials (including the police) wasting money.  $12,000 can go a long way in police spending…and they spent it on this?!

Thanks Cedar Rapids, I’ll be in Marion if you need me.

Afternoon,

I just recently read an article off of Popular Science today by Jonathan Coulton entitled “How Do I Become an Internet Rock Star on the Cheap?”

I’ve never heard this guy, and I honestly don’t care to after one quote :

If you don’t know HTML or PHP, find a sucker. . . er, a fan to build it for you.

So this guy is basically advising those in bands as well as the music industry to stand up and screw fans that can help you.  Listen, if you want to run a successful online campaign for yourself try not insulting huge online communities of music loving web developers.  Granted I help out a ton of people for free; and have been for years - but it’s because they respect what I do and I respect what they do.  I guess I must be one sorry sucker then huh?

Now, Jonathan :

Your site looks and functions like ass.  You’re in a rich media world and your site design screams “WordPress with generic theme installed”.  If you’re as concerned with online branding and awareness as you like to make yourself sound, I invite you to start looking through some decent XHTML/CSS design sites.

I urge you to stop promoting these gimmicks; they’re misleading to many.  The first exposure that I had to you was finding you through an online marketing trick you wrote about, not through a positive experience through you and your music; which to me is what any musician big or small should be concerned with.  Honestly son, why would I ever consider buying one of your albums now?

Musicians, labels, artists, take my advice :

A positive and successful online image starts at a solid product you’re excited about, and ends with people that care about you.

I leave you with a great quote from the comments made by chris_radcliff :

“Step 0: Work really hard to make awesome music.”

Sincerely,

John M Parks

Good morning readers, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc… I took these pictures for you.

© John M Parks 2009

© John M Parks 2009

Check out these pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmparks

© John M Parks 2009

© John M Parks 2009

Just a couple of show posters for late January and early February. There’s a lot of sick shows coming up in next the few weeks so I’ll be posting more in the upcoming weeks.

Luke Viertel:
www.myspace.com/lukeviertel

VitalLight:
www.myspace.com/vitallight
www.vitallight.net

See the photos on Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/jmparks/

Just got done with a great winter’s photo shoot with Luke Viertel.

Check him out, he plays a show this Thursday (January 29th) at the Maintenance Shop on the ISU Campus in Ames Iowa at 7:30 opening for Ben Maimone. (Long sentence.)

http://www.myspace.com/lukeviertel

© 2009 John M Parks

© John M Parks 2009

© John M Parks 2009

© John M Parks 2009

© John M Parks 2009

© John M Parks 2009

See the set on Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmparks/sets/72157612956050755/

New John M Parks Logo

So in a long effort to finally redesign this site I’ve finally got a logo design (sort-of) settled on.

The color scheme is arbitrary at this point, but I figured I would pretty it up some before I got it on the website.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!