Howdy Pals and welcome to the Free Portion of my Substack: The Monthly Newsletter.
I’m going to start off with catching up on a bit about what I’ve been up to, some of the new content that’s come out recently, the evolution of that content, touch on some of the new exciting things like Song-A-Month-Club and the Monthly Live Stream Concert, and finally a few closing words. No reason to dilly daddle. Let’s get down to it.
ps. I didn’t proofread this so we’re riding dirty…
October was absolutely beautiful around these parts. We were blessed with some of the nicest weather I’ve seen for that month in years. Some dreary days, some hot and sunny, but overall it was exactly how I want my autumn to be. I spent Halloween evening sitting out in-front of my house, in our makeshift graveyard, dressed as a wizard, and handing out candy to spare the dogs from the stress of borking [sic] at every cry-into-the-night of “Trick Or Treat.” As I said I was dressed as a wizard, so when a more timid child approached the house, failing to call out “TRICK OR TREAT!” I would ask the, “What are the magic words?…” The cutest kid said, “Please and thank you,” so they received a few handfuls from the cauldron of candies.
I used to love Halloween when I was a kid. It was fun to own the night as we did. This year felt like an echo of that in many ways, even if it was one of lesser-intensity. I feel that many people realize the lockdown and covid scam they fell for, and took to the streets to retake a bit of their personal pride and liberty. I still feel like the majority of those who came out never fell for it in the first place, nevertheless It was warming-of-the-heart to see and experience. I am fortunate to live in an area where many of the residents share similar opinions to my own even if we are surrounded on all sides by madness… I can not be made about it, I have asked God for challenges throughout my life and he has delivered them to me…
Challenging times are upon us all for now it seems. I don’t know if you, my reader, are feeling it, but the failing economy and rotting society has definitely had its impact on my own personal purchasing power. There is no immediate cost in refusing to quit though, and that is why pushing through the tough times is a blessing in the end. Tough times all around: what a terrible cucumber harvest we had… We must have had something like 40 plants, and in the end we only have 7 jars of pickles. We did have a grand carrot harvest, with a strong emphasis on “did…” The weather was so beautiful and the crop was growing so well I thought I’d let it go a little longer. Ring Ring… Ring Ring… went my phone as I was at work removing some knob and tube from an older house. My wife called me to inform me that the dogs decided they were gardeners. Now for the next 3 weeks I was lucky enough to watch them enjoying massive deep-purple, bright yellow, white, and orange carrots. I don’t know where they hid them… I still don’t know. We were fortunate enough to still harvest around half of what we grew, and the dogs are happy and health as ever, so there is that… haha. Blessings at every turn when you think about it.
I have been making content like it’s going out of style these last few weeks. If you haven’t heard it yet, a daily morning podcast to keep you company on the way to work has had me, for lack of a better term, adjusting to a new bonzo-schedule of non-stop microphone mayhem. A realization I had about myself led me to the decision of pursuing this avenue: the more I have to do the less I have to complain about. Supplementary to that, I look at how I would maintain social media channels related to my brand. Without casting an ounce of shade in any direction, is it not common to see channels abandoning the pursuit of original content and instead sharing a circular vitriol of shares and reposts from friendly creators doing the same? We must do better and I intend to lead the way, in my own way. Like I said on my radio show in the morning: I like that format. We have streamers of all sorts creating wonderful content, so I choose to do what I like: audio. There is a lot of it for you to enjoy: Morning Ride Radio is every monday-to-friday, ARCD AM returns shortly to this very platform (substack) for paid subscribers (dm me if you can’t afford the premium sub).
Morning Ride Radio has adopted the original format of ARCD AM: talk and music radio with guests and more. ARCD AM will be evolving into something else which I haven’t completely fleshed out as of yet, but it is on the way. More of that will come shortly.
Another perk of premium subscription to this sub-stack is the non-public articles. These articles will be more raw and released with more riposte and less restraint. I have some things to say, but I feel as though I would rather say them to the people who believe in the time it takes to write them. This will be completely separate from the free monthly newsletter which you are reading now. I do apologize I am occasionally behind schedule, but I do always catch up to equivalent volume or my name isn’t Greg Wycliffe [sic]. If you don’t get that joke, you need to listen to Wednesday November 9th’s Morning Ride Radio Podcast to fully grasp it.
I have begun practicing my instrument again, and this is aside from the occasional Friday live stream I have been doing. The perk of “monthly live stream concert” will be the only place to see me perform live officially for the foreseeable future. I’m actually quite excited for this event. I’m going to up the production value up a little bit and make it something worth waiting for, but let’s get there first. The first concert will be near the end of November. Premium subscribers will be notified roughly one-week-in-advance.
For founding members, better known as Greg Arcade Enjoyers (I just typed memebers by mistake, which I think will also apply haha) Song-A-Month club is the main perk. It is also honestly what I’m most excited for, and likely the most work for me with everything else I have planned. Essentially, we are going to have an additional album of material every year for paid subs to this substack. I haven’t decided if these songs will be made available anywhere else yet, but if I do it will always be a better deal to be subscribed to this publication than to buy it. It also comes with the piece of mind that Greg Arcade Enjoyers (memebers) are helping to directly create this album through their support. I really appreciate it and those of you who have committed to this level.
So why the paywall? Well, like I said you can always let me know if the price is too steep and we’ll figure something out, but the career path of the content creator is not one of luxury or low cost. The equipment, both to purchase and maintain is a worthy golem one must maintain, as is the time spent creating the content itself. I love the trade I’m in, but that trade on its own can not keep me in touch with all the wonderful people I’ve met over the last few years. It is a personal duty and pledge of mine to maintain these relationships and grow them so we never need to slink back into the ways of before. Even if it is just us my friends, then it is just us, and this I can accept. I accept it so wholeheartedly that I would not go back to the world of before, even if it means walking out into the night once-and-for-all. It is us, without them, and this is fine by me, but to live this life means to struggle with the workload day-in and day-out because what we are building together is much more important than acceptance or amalgamation. We will fix it for our own future generations, and we will never allow those within our walls to forget these lessons we have bled to learn.
There is no better place to be than with ya.
Thank you all for keeping my pyres lit.
I’ll talk to you soon.
<3
- GA
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