Very cold walking along the River Wey and up through Gostrey Meadow. Frost on the river banks.
River Wey running high and fast.
Dark and gloomy in the Parish Church.
Hassle in Waitrose as no Waitrose card, two week on and still not arrived, even though allegedly fast tracked, and would not even have the hassle were it not for hassle from two weeks ago. Or would have had hassle today but for the ever helpful lady on information. She called Waitrose. Bad news they had not even processed my card. She gave me a cup for free coffee, to save hassle at check out.
Waitrose must sort out Waitrose Farnham. Speaking with customers, everyone is sick and fed up with the piss-poor service. Waitrose prices but Asda service. If Waitrose Alton can provide good service then so can Waitrose Farnham.
Last week a poster for Heather a singer-songwriter I know in Parish Church for an album release concert. Today I bump into her. I miss bus, and have a chat, pick up a signed copy of her latest album Pohala.
Twelve pounds for an album from an unknown artist is far too high. A tenner max, and even that is pushing it. It also needs to be released on bandcamp.
Poundland has already opened. Surprisingly not busy. Other places when Poundland opens, for at least the first week, packed.
1728 bus leaves early. I return to Waitrose and catch 1748, which it too would have left early, but for people getting on the bus.
On bus from Aldershot, I meet a blind girl who I met yesterday. Being blind, she reads audio books. A strange way of describing, I would say listen. I suggest she downloads The Way of the Bow. She uses a feature I have never tried on Android. She speaks ‘The Way of the Bow’ and it searches for and finds. Quite impressive.
When I alight from bus, already hard frost on cars.
A prayer without a deed is an arrow without a bow-string
A deed without a prayer is a bow-string without an arrow
– Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The Way of the Bow is a meditation on the art of archery.
The Way of the Bow, centres around the story of Tetsuya, the best archer in the country, who conveys his teachings to a boy in his village.
A few quotes from The Way of the Bow
“The best allies are those who do not think like everyone else. When you seek companions, trust your intuition and pay no attention to what anyone else may say. People always judge others by taking as a model their own limitations, and other people’s opinions are often full of prejudice.”
“Join with those who experiment, take risks, fall, get hurt and then take more risks. Stay away from those who affirm truths, who criticize those who do not think like them.”
“Join with those who are flexible as the wood of your bow. They are people who do not hesitate to change direction when they encounter some insuperable barrier. They have the qualities of water: flowing around rocks, adapting to the course of the river…”
“Join with those who sing, tell stories, take pleasure in life, and have joy in their eyes, because joy is contagious and can prevent others from becoming paralyzed by depression, loneliness and difficulties. Join with those who do their work with enthusiasm.”
The Way of the Bow audio book is available as free download. If you enjoy, please feel free to make a donation to the Paulo Coelho Institute.
The Paulo Coelho Institute was founded by Paulo and his wife Christina to help street kids in Rio.
There is currently a limit on downloads of 200 free downloads per month (set by bandcamp). There is no limit on paid for downloads. If the limit for the month has been exceeded please try again the following month. You may listen on-line as often as you like.
Please feel free to share The Way of the Bow with friends. There is no limit on sharing.
The Way of the Bow is available as an e-book free download from frostwire
Keith Parkins – executive producer, liner notes
Elaine Street – audio recording
Chris Skillicorn-Aston – cover art, details from a painting
Calvin Hales and Central Utah Educational Services – tech support
The music is from a free download site called soundzabound … Our song is “Mellow Woods”, from the “Easy Listening Low TempoMellow Volume”.
The Way of the Bow audio book is a collaborative venture, Paulo Coelho, Keith Parkins and Elaine Street. Everyone involved with the project has given their time, services and expertise for free.
I appear to have forfeited my recording deal because I won’t do reality TV. No one needs to make an album that badly. Tea anyone? — Alison Moyet
Thank you Paulo Coelho, you are a gift to mankind. — FrostWire
And remember, DO NOT PAY A DIME FOR FROSTWIRE, EVER. You can use it all you want in as many computers as you want, it’s absolutely free. — FrostWire
Artists: sell your music & merch directly to your fans. — bandcamp
Fans: discover new music & directly support the artists who make it. — bandcamp
The uses we make of this world are, in reality, the rules and laws which we agree; and not the reverse. — Laetitia Kava
I had never heard of FrostWire until Paulo Coelho mentioned on twitter that he had placed The Way of the Bow there for free download. It had been previously available as free download on his blog.
Checking stats this evening on FrostClick (2321 GMT), 7,020 downloads, downloading 24, sharing 974.
FrostWire is a free, open source BitTorrent client first released in September 2004. Developed in Java by the FrostWire Project. FrostWire was spun off from an earlier project that was shut down by the music industry.
Another download system I have recently come across, thanks to ShadowBoxer who have placed their excellent EP Two Cities for download, is BandCamp.
With Two Cities, you decide what you wish to pay. You can download for free if you wish.
Marcel Legane lets you download his Heart Life EP for £3 or for £4 you can download and he will send you an actual real physical album, signed limited edition.
Bandcamp connects creative artists with those who may appreciate their work, thus bypassing the music industry. But it does far, far more.
What is surprising is the amount of revenue being generated on bandcamp.
I do not download music. The quality is too poor due to the use of lossy digital compression. BandCamp is offering high quality digital downloads (file size large).
We like to share, as human beings, we are social animals, that is what helped our brains expand and us evolve (though I do wonder with many people).
If we look at musicians from the 1960s who are still around, they played music because that is what they enjoyed doing, it was not to become mega stars or celebrities or to become rich and famous. That playing music earned them some money enabled them to carry on doing what they loved doing.
Paulo Coelho, Neil Young, Michael Moore recognise this need to share. They want people to be aware of their work.
We read a book that we are given, lent or recommended to read by a friend. Or if we are very lucky we meet the author.
My first encounter with Paulo Coelho was meeting a lovely Lithuania girl sat by a river reading The Zahir. I was curious what had her so entranced. We had a long conversation about writers. I have since not only read all the books by Paulo Coelho but actually met him.
I had never heard of Orhan Pamuk until my lovely Russian friend Alissa recommended that I read My Name is Red.
A little over a year ago, I met Canon Andrew White. I bought all his books, which I read, then gave as Christmas presents to my lovely but sadly mad friend Sian. A year later we met again and I bought six copies of Faith Under Fire, one for myself, the others to be given away as presents.
Fulla tells her story in Suffer the Children. We are now in regular contact and we will meet in Brighton in September at a conference on Iraq organised by Canon Andrew White.
Little known author Neil Gaiman persuaded his publisher to make available one of his books for free download for a month. Monitoring only sales in independent bookshops they found sales increased by 300%!
Paulo Coelho had only sold a few thousand copies of The Alchemist in Russia, his publisher was no longer interested, until a pirate copy was posted on the net, sales then became millions!
In 1999, when I was first published in Russia ( with a print- run of 3,000), the country was suffering a severe paper shortage. By chance, I discovered a ‘ pirate’ edition of The Alchemist and posted it on my web page.
A year later, when the crisis was resolved, I sold 10,000 copies of the print edition. By 2002, I had sold a million copies in Russia, and I have now sold 12 million.
When I traveled across Russia by train, I met several people who told me that they had first discovered my work through the ‘ pirated’ edition I posted on my website. Nowadays, I run a ‘Pirate Coelho’ website, giving links to any books of mine that are available on file- sharing sites. And my sales continue to grow — nearly 140 million copies world wide.
Writers do not slave away in their garrets wishing no one would read their works. They write because they have a story to tell, they want to be read.
The music industry and now publishing is in crisis because of greed. There is no nurturing of talent. It is the latest me-too, copycat, blockbuster mega-selling act, book, then on to the next, mindless brain-numbing book, act. Moronic TV shows like X-Factor encourages the dumbing down, me-too I want to be rich and famous celebrity no talent culture.
We were angry over Sopa, we are even angrier over Acta, we are seething with anger. Sopa was defeated and so will be Acta. We will not allow Hollywood and the music industry to control the internet. We will continue to share. If sharing is piracy, then I am proud to be a pirate. Sharing is not theft.
A couple of years ago I picked up Unlimited Art by Jacob’s Stories. I got Unlimited Art from Resident Records in Brighton, having been pointed in their direction by Brighton Books, where I first heard Unlimited Art. I got home from Brighton some time after midnight, listened to Unlimited Art until the early hours of the morning. I gave copies to friends. Can you buy us a copy next time you are in Brighton? I bought several copies to give away as presents.
Next time I was in Brighton, I asked in Resident Records, anything else by Jacob’s Stories? No, but you will like Mechanical Bride.
Last Easter, I asked again. No, but we expect something later in the year. I picked up a copy of The Ordeal by Stuart Warwick. Stuart Warwick was founder of Brighton band Jacob’s Stories. Or maybe it was the year before, I lose track of time.
Brighton Books, Resident Records are a rarity, another good reason to visit Brighton. The reason independent bookshops and record shops are a rarity is because they have been destroyed by the greed of the music and publishing business.
Who needs a record label? Shadowboxer are doing ok without. Watch them in a recording studio and see the sheer joy on their faces.
Maybe Shadowboxer can show Alison Moyet how it is done without needing a record label, without a degrading appearance on a reality TV show.
Big business has alienated those who buy by treating them as criminals. Alienated those who have talent as they are incapable of recognising talent.
What the internet demonstrates, via systems like FrostWire and BandCamp, those who create can communicate directly with those who appreciate what they create. To Big business both are simply a source of money, a product, a brand, a commodity, all consumed by easily manipulated mindless consumers who can be sold the latest fad. It could be a can of baked beans for all they care, so long as it has a monetary value attached, the bigger the price tag the better.
We make the rules, not Big Business. By making use of services like FrostWire and BandCamp, by sharing, by telling our friends to do the same, we can bypass Big Business and put them out of business.
We need more creative people to make use of platforms like FrostWire and BandCamp. And for us to support them when they do.
Well done Paulo Coelho for setting an example by putting The Way of the Bow on FrostWire for free download.
Keithpp's Blog 