Category: WorkCategory: Work

This from Howard Wuelfing, who made zines and documented the vibrant punk rock music scene in Washington, D.C. (read the full interview here, via Jen)

“(My) phone number wasn’t published in the magazine, but people were doing research. People were looking to make connections. At a certain point over a number of years, they built up something that at one point they used to call Fanzine Nation: this whole network of fanzines all over the place. You had local clubs that really specialized in booking indie bands that were created because people were looking to connect. It wound up being a very vital, very active, and very effective network of all these people working together. They looked for each other, they found each other, they collected that information, they shared it, and it was great.”

This isn’t just nostalgia, this is still happening. Social media companies make you think that all the connections start and end with their platforms, but there are many routes to make things work.

People are leaving social media and finding life outside of algorithms, away from the influence of techbro monoculture, and it’s all about sending the right signals.

What signals are you putting out today?

How can you send better signals?

And how can you make sure your signal doesn’t get lost in the noise?

Posting on social media is a lottery ticket, but sending an email to someone in a far away scene, or a newsletter write covering a particular topic, those are better odds. Get what you want by asking for it, not wishing upon a star.

Q. I’d be curious to see a post on how you manage to pitch and get on sooo many podcasts, from Teodora.

A. If you wanna be on podcasts, show people what it’s like to have you on a podcast! A podcast host is taking a risk when they invite you on their show, especially if you haven’t shown that you’ve appeared on other podcasts – like me!

What I did was two-fold: I made more videos, mostly answering questions that people ask me, or doing Substack Live streams all by myself.

Most important behind all this, though, was having a passion for what I was talking about. I love helping people, and I love nerdy internet newsletter stuff, and I think that really comes across in these clips.

(more…)

Sean Cannon, from a recent Escape Pod guest appearance.

“All you have to do is just be 5% better than everyone else who’s really bad at it. You don’t have to get everything perfect… you just have to be a little bit better so you can survive the war of attrition.”

You don’t have to our run a bear, you just need to out run your friends.

This is not meant as hard and fast advice, but something to chew on:

Be yourself, and don’t confuse the market.

The simpler and more direct I can make my branding, the more genuine it will feel. Ultimately all I need to do is be true to myself (sometimes this is hard to do though!).

Read more: https://tomcritchlow.com/2016/08/01/brand

It don’t have to be pretty, it just had to be done.

I’m setting up at a the Lehigh Valley Punk Rock Flea Market this weekend with a friend, and I’ll be selling some musical equipment and records and Star Wars books.

Date: Saturday, September 6, 2025
Vendor Time: 10 AM – 4 PM
Live Music Time: 4:30 – 7:30 PM
Location: The Ice House, 56 River St, Bethlehem, PA 18018

I made a few of these for curious onlookers to pick up and discover the magic of Social Media Escape Club because there’s a great big world out there that might never know about this community!

The text, “Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer,” is from a 2024 post titled “It’s time to do whatever we want.”

As in, we can spend a couple of bucks at a local print shop and make something like this, instead of paying Meta or Twitter to “boost” our posts for absolutely nobody to see.

At least this way maybe three people discover my work, right? And maybe one becomes a member?

Plus, I’ll be having a great day hanging out with my BFF as we try to unload gear we don’t use anymore. I’m forecasting a great return on investment.