Jem…Chapter 149

*Before…

They exist…a SLB fan band and yeah they’re doing air-band but it’s really cool. We’re all trying the food and other things with like some small packs of like Japanese cosmetics and it’s a huge lift and we’re all talking and geeking out and we put in the video and they’re covering us as like if they were cosplaying us and they cover us in full costume and instrument in what looks like a music classroom and they do *Fortune Favors the Bold* and *Magical Power Panties*

The level of enthusiasm that they’re doing it with is actually kind of humbling and Mike’s there with a camera and I think he’s been taping us watching them and playing and goofing off, trying the things and laughing and making faces and yeah…just yeah that should go up too.

I look into the camera and smile. “Hey everyone check out the really cool stuff that we were sent from a bunch of super cool fans from Japan!”

“And as a thank you we’re going to send some shirts back to our girls over at The Osaka Butterflies.”

“This is seriously cool actually girls. And this kind of stuff makes like all the other cool things we see from all of our fans out there like an over the top day for us.”

We all yell “Thank you.” And “Origato!”

*And Now…

I feed Rayne this plum treat thing and it’s got spices on it but it’s dried and it kind of tastes like a Christmas sort of thing but on just on the side of sour and she chews and she grins.

“This was cool.”

I nod. “This was really frigging cool actually; I mean I know we have friends over there but seriously. To actually have like a fan club over there and that they pooled the money to send us something this cool.”

Kim’s like. “I so want to return the favor please!?’

I look at Rayne and she’s smiling and Molly says. “Honestly the PR would be like good for us and everything honestly. We might not have all of the foot traffic from these fans but they’ll give us lots of internet buzz with their friends and we honestly could use the hits and the downloads.”

She smiles at us. “Not that we haven’t broken a hundred hits already on the Starlight Butterfly website.”

Blink, Blink…

We all squee and we still have junk food and we’re still nomming on that as Molly shows us the site.

It’s a nebula shifting scape with stars that come out sort of wallpaper and in nice easy to read white letters it has all of the things that we offer in the top tool bars with SLB pics and SLB Blogs and Videos and Etsy for our stuff and Fan art and Fan forums and links to SBL of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube and The I-Tunes link for our stuff and that has a bunch of things set up for our songs and covers and you can also get the originals and there’s even a section with each band members name and it’s an “Is listening to…” section.

We have Paypal and credit cards and something for Bitcoin? I grin hey I know it’s a thing and if it gets us like geek points and stuff that’s double cool.

Then on the main page is our Gig calendar and dates and times and all along the sides are these Ad space boxes and Lucky’s is there and Thompson’s Home Hardware and Powerhouse Garage as well as The Pine Tree Café, The Amsterdam, Freebird Jams and Graffiti Inc. as well as a few other places and services.

Molly says as she’s showing us the links. “The pages for supporters and advertisers are all on the right side of the screen but also if you hover over the box without clicking with the cursor the Ad box does autoplay if there’s a commercial for it and it’ll play it.”

“Then there’s the left and that’s our bonafides with our membership in the Canadian songwriters Guild and The Canadian Music Association but I also got us into the Ontario Music Association and The Ontario Chamber of Commerce.”

She looks at me. “I’ve got a few applications into other stuff for that and we still have to work out all of the things for what you want to do and everything with the local stuff here. Though I was thinking of something.”

I look at her and I kind of think about what Carmen and I said about Molly having a place where she can step up. “Okay what’s that?”

“I’d love a tutorials section for the site, like how to get into the Canadian Songwriters Guild and all of that stuff for the fans and the kids and the new bands and how to get permission to use a cover and who to pay and all sorts of things really.”

I nod. “Totally we have to have that and that’s really awesome.”

Molly grins and shows us where the bottom on the screen has another tool bar with charities that we support and our apparently we are not just supporting the Chapel Street Shelter but we have things for The Red Pines and Harper’s Point SPCA and another one for Amnesty International and Red Cross and we even have a spot for MADD and The Canadian Breast Cancer Association. “I made this so it scrolls too and that way we can like share the wealth as it were space wise at least.”

I take a huge deep breath.

“We’re up, Holy Moley we’re up girls this is a really huge step for us.”

We’re cheering and I’ll admit we do a few screams of joy and Carmen leans over Molly and does a long, long kiss between the two and we’re really all smiles and laughter.

We’re all pretty charged up even doing rehearsal and just sort of knowing that this will be going up on our site and we’re rocking it out really decently and there might just be a little bit of sugar involved with that.

Supper is really fast and dirty with me cooking sausage out of the casing and then us having that with taco seasoning on it and on top of savory French toast…think salt and pepper instead of cinnamon and some chives and some salsa with that and some grated cheese type of thing.

It’s like a hot sandwich meets an omelette I guess but it was pretty fast to serve all of us and Mike and Josie who Rayne and I talk to as we’re eating about some of the new designs and the new orders and we’re going with the shopping bags and we’re going with a simple shoulder tote too with the same designs and the we’re looking at producing some bigger posters.

I look at Josie. “We’re going to be doing an online store and stuff and I was wondering with you wanting to expand things if you’d actually like to do all of the online merchandise orders for the printed items and you could handle all of those through your shop.”

She nods. “Honestly that might be easier since I’m already set up for shipping.”

I nod. “And how’s that going to work with cost and rates?”

She shrugs. “I can’t see it being anything different than what I’m doing and charging now only with you girls we’ll have access to the SLB site.”

I nod. “Plus we can do a commercial for Graffiti Inc. as well.”

She grins. “Can I play with you?”

I grin and give Josie a fist bump. “You play? Then definitely.”

I eat the last of my eggy-taco-omelette and look at her. “Do you have merch for your place?”

Josie tilts her head. “No, but I have a bunch of old stuff we made like back it the day for like TV and movies and even like some old event stuff, some of them had like bands playing and stuff.”

I nod. “You should do a Graffiti Inc. Bag and shirt and put the other stuff up and we’ll do a link page for like vintage prints.”

She looks at me. “This is going to be big stuff for me you know?”

I look at her. “Too much?”

“No, but it’s been a long time Angel since people when to a small time print shop like mine for anything and it’s been sort of bread and butter and beans for a long time really and this is just…you and this and I’ve a account for Pine Tree and The Amsterdam and with the extra word of mouth I’ve a few more small businesses that want things done for their staff like work shirts and aprons.”

I smile at her. “Well that’s kind of the point Josie and actually if you can handle the extra I’m really going to try and hit Charlie up for shirt for Lucky’s and the maybe one’s for The WildCat and even maybe for the Halloween thing that they want to do so maybe if you do know someone else with a shop like you have maybe if we know that there’s going to be a run on things you can share the wealth.”

She nods. “Even with Cool-Line Graphics here in town who is like “The” big shop here in town there’s still only the two of us really and honestly we could work together in theory.”

I smile and drink some more water. “Seriously if we can actually get places linked together doing all of these little things to help each other and passing it on to the people that have a reason to show up her at the point then like we might actually have a pretty cool town and stuff.”

Josie hugs me. “Seriously I love being in on the ground floor with this. I mean we really tried this a bunch of times like in the late eighties and early nineties and stuff but it never really took off and then harder times hit and here and then and the people trying could like only try so much and then it was just like life happened.”

Molly says. “The internet, that and social media and amazon and shipping stuff it’s changed the way that we all can like do things now and see social things and have all these people with the same interests actually be able to see what they want to see when they want to…it changed like everything and honestly Josie there’s a whole lot of folks especially older folks that have no idea how to work with this.”

She looks at me. “We send stuff back to Japan, and they get that and see the stuff on the site and they share that online and pass it around and we’re getting hits and people checking our stuff out and the links and then someone likes something and orders it and others order different stuff and word spreads because they like it and it just keeps going…we do that and we can actually like I think Angel’s thinking we can market the scene here and the town even and we will see more…it’s like a huge, huge medium and it has huge potential.”

I’m grinning like anything because Molly’s getting it, of course she’s getting it she’s putting all of this together with the site and what I’ve been talking about.

And the thing is it honestly doesn’t take a huge amount of things to change a lot, have like just ten percent more people coming here and spending here regularly and the spin-off would be a bigger change for the town. And a town that’s doing better actually has a better chance of attracting more people for all sorts of stuff and if we’re registered with all those agencies and stuff then we’re on lists, we’re getting looked at and that leads to other things.

Heck as much as I hate him Adam’s Blackjack Studios is actually in the end a good thing because our little town has a recording company and music promoter.

And I know his family will dot the I’s and cross the t’s and that will get attention somewhere down the line.

Josie’s till looking at us both now and she’s smiling. “Yeah and I’m glad I’m not missing out on what you girls are doing and what’s happening again and like I said I want to be part of this so like anything I can help with and do I’m like in.”
I look at her. “Come to the gig and sell our stuff for us?”

“Done, I had a blast with Remy and Mitch doing that last night.”

We finish eating and then the rest of the guys are here and we’re tearing down and showering and then going downstairs to Carmen’s studio and I heard Kimmie’s squeal over that while I was showering.

But…I notice it’s going smoother, we know what to do, how to pack and load things and now we’re getting our hair and make-up done in a better way and getting ready faster.

We’re getting better at this.

I smile as we head out for Lucky’s and I’m in a red band tee and my corset top under it and pink jeans with heels and that’s it just pretty basic stuff and we’re going for the whole casual rock look that’s suit playing a bowling alley and bar and we park in the back side parking lot and it’s actually pretty neat. There’s a roadside billboard sign there and at the corner with our names on it and the specials tonight.

Thursday nights are a pay night for a lot of people. There’s usually two days and that’s Thursday or Friday that are good as paydays and that means that there’s generally better crowds in anything as people are more than willing to spend some cash on eating out and seeing a band and stuff like bowling.

The parking lot being pretty full is actually a pretty good sign too.

Rayne starts to curse actually as we’re pulling into the parking lot. I look where she’s looking and I see.

Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum there.

Randy and Danny McWhitter those two asshole thugs of Brooklyn are outside and hanging around a truck that’s seen better days and they’re talking to a bunch of other rough looking guys and I can’t help it either.

“Dammit!”