Radio8Ball is like a crazy magical plant. All flower and no stalk (stock.) We’ve enjoyed some impressive achievements in the last few years. High profile bookings. Great media coverage. The love and devotion of our fans and followers, and the participation of some truly great artists and musicians. We’ve done all of this with really nothing to back it up but the strength of the concept and my ability to convince talented people to participate for little or no money, or for Dibits from our sponsor DibSpace. The rest goes on my credit cards, and those babies are maxed.

What am I doing about it?

This is the first week in over 5 years that I haven’t been focused on an upcoming Radio8Ball broadcast.  It’s a relief and I know I’m going to miss it. I don’t know when we’ll start up again. I’d like to be back broadcasting the show in 2010 but it all depends on finding a financial sponsor for the radio show. That’s one of the projects I’ll be focusing on during our hiatus from active production. Alternative Talk 1150AM will be running previous episodes of the show at random hours, which seems very appropriate, and you can always listen to the podcasts at this site.

We’ll be starting the live show up again in January of 2010 at Theater Off Jackson, so get ready for early Sunday night shows in the International District if you’re in Seattle.

To pay off my debts I’ve taken a few odd jobs. I’m teaching an acting improv class, doing private Pop Oracle sessions, managing my super-talented girlfriend’s acting/music/modeling career, and learning to tend bar.

I particularly dig bartending. It’s a lot like acting. You’ve got to use your memory with grace while staying in the moment and connecting with people. Liberty Bar where I work is not an easy place to get hired. In truth, I’m not even sure if I am hired. I just know that sometimes I get to bar back and sometimes during those shifts I get to bartend. Sometimes I get paid and sometimes I get paid in sushi and cocktails (which is actually pretty good, since they have great sushi and cocktails.) I had to bar back there for months for free before they took me seriously. And that was only because my buddy Justin from RawStock Film Festival let me bar back his shifts as a favor. Liberty is like an alcoholic library, overseen by alcohol nerds who geek out over obscure bourbons and outlandish homemade infusions like D&D kids with Rat Pack pretensions. It might sound annoying but it’s actually a great vibe. And like I said, the sushi is excellent.

The cool thing about bartending and teaching and sessioning and managing is that it actually leaves me time to work on some of the exciting R8B Projects that have taken a back seat to producing a weekly radio show and live event for lo these many years. Projects like the Radio8Ball Iphone App which we hope to launch by the new year, and rehearsing with The Radio8Band, and working with Pardiman Productions on editing the video footage from the live events into webcastable bites, and finally creating a business plan and working with my team to raise the funds necessary to do Radio8Ball the way it wants to be done.

Sounds like I’ve got a busy autumn ahead of me.

If you are interested in supporting Radio8Ball by engaging me to do a Pop Oracle session ($50) with you, or if you feel like investing anywhere from $8,000 to $8,000,000 in some aspect of the Radio8Ball project, or the whole shebang, please don’t hesitate to contact me. And if you feel like having a good cocktail and some late night sushi stop by Liberty Bar if you’re in Seattle and ask for me.

Presently Yours,

Andras Jones