There is only one way to start this week’s newsletter – by telling you a joke.
Since May, I have been looking at Covid deaths data and doing some basic forecasting. As per my latest forecast, we will start seeing 1,000 avg daily (reported) deaths in a week or two (this week 720+ died on an avg per day, reportedly) and by early Sept, total reported death toll will cross 1 lakh (31k+ have died so far – again – reportedly).
Yesterday was my birthday by the way. You can still wish me! Belated than never as they say!
So this week, I finally finished editing a new 3MS. It’s on a day in the life of a DJ.
I had shot it last year. With this, now I have completed three stories in my Being an artist (BAA) series.
I am looking forward to documenting more artists – want BAA to represent as much variety as possible, in terms of art-form, gender, experience etc. The idea is to put together enough videos so that when a child, especially from class IXth to XIIths sees them, they realize that being an artist is not as far-fetched a life choice as their parents / teachers / acquaintances typically make it look like.
Most artists are freelancers and talking about that, my advice this week on surviving the pandemic as a freelancer, became my most liked or shared post on Instagram ever.
BREATHE. SURVIVE. CREATE.
I guess many freelancers could relate to what I had to say (some even pinged me to let me know my words helped them). The strategy that I’ve preached, has definitely worked for me.
One of my early admirers – who like literally found me via this blog over a decade ago – asked me if there was a way for him to contribute towards my existence as an artist. I pointed him to my Patreon page and with him joining the list, I now have 3 patreons who support me every month! Yay!
If you are new to the concept of Patreon: watch this short video made by its CEO.
In short, if you are someone who has a decent source of income, and there are certain artists whose work you admire, you can offer to pay them a fix amount of money every month (with the freedom to stop the payment whenever you feel like). This way your loved artists will not have to keep looking for ways to make money from their art (at least when enough number of patreons put together a decent monthly inflow for the artist).
It’s almost like subscribing to a paid magazine except here, the magazine is typically free for all. What I create is for everyone to consume. With three patreons, I make USD 36 every month now. At this rate, with just 300 patreons I would be able to make USD 3,600 per month (INR 2.7 lakh per month). What happens when I reach there? I can stop doing all commercial work and only create work that I feel the world needs. See the beauty?
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
I created my first podcast this week. In here, I explore what explains China’s behavior towards India lately (have also blogged about it). What does China have to gain from this? There are essentially three theories that exist:
- The theory of unity – by creating common enemies (India, US etc.) the Chinese Communist Part (CCP) can unite its citizens who otherwise are likely to start civil protests in the country (as the economy falters)
- The theory of message – China wants to give India a message that it is the big boss; it is agitated with the infra development along the border that India has been undertaking since some time.
- The Middle Kingdom theory – Xi Jinping probably believes that the time for China to become the global leader (akin to the days of Middle Kingdom) has now come and there is no point in pretending to be nice anymore.
A reader pinged to share few additional reasons that explain China’s behaviour.
If you read my blog, I have also linked few books on China that I’ve been reading off late.
Video of the week – Camera-vala beetle
And before I end, leaving you with some gems from the “I have a joke” series trending on twitter this week (no idea why)!
Ok enough I guess. That’s pretty much for this newsletter. If you would want to ask your friends to subscribe to me – you can send them this link.
Saw my DJ video-story? Like the BAA concept? Drop me a reply on email na. Just don’t tell me any more jokes! 🙂
-Amrit