Maximum Anything is looking for the future- the future of music making, the future of community and the future of creative spaces. It is born out of an old-fashioned notion of doing stuff with your friends, just because it’s fun to do, and to see where it might take you- but it is also born out of a feeling that something in the way that the artistic community is brought together, needs to change.
Maximum Anything aims to create an open dialogue with other interested folk- “the curious”. We want to know what is going on, what is being thought about, where the action is. Be it music, art, science, tech, books, films, whatever-let’s share.
I’ll start….
If one wants to “be in the world” then there’s no escaping the digital version that we all have been enmeshed in- I’m not going to tell you what I think that world has become but I’m pretty sure we can do better. There are others with much clearer thinking than mine on this topic- Here is a link to an interview with the sci fi writer, future thinker Cory Doctorow. I particularly like the title-Platform capitalism and the curse of "enshittification".
And why Maximum Anything?-
The name was inspired by my light research into an early 90’s Punk scene that took place in East L.A. Creative, energetic people with a DIY approach making the art that felt important to them. When that scene was ticking along nicely (before the money got too big) they had the support of a local venue, a radio station, and a magazine (Maximum RocknRoll) nice… There is a fun doco that tells this story. It’s on Kanopy - a great free streaming service. This book SELLOUT by Dan Ozzi is also an interesting insight into that time and place.
And this brings us to here….
Substack might be the future. It’s essentially a platform that allows readers to subscribe to (and yes, pay for) writers of their choice. The subscription payment goes directly to the writer not the platform- It is free to “publish” on Substack but it does take a 10% commission on paid subscriptions. The difference here is that the platform is not curating the content in any way. There are also free subscriptions- but it is the writer’s choice.
Once again there are others who know much more than me on this. Here is an article on Substack from the Gaurdian. It’s a couple of years old but the good news is that things haven’t changed much in the way things work on the platform.
Thoughts….?