Once again, I’m doing a concert live via UStream. Tonight I’ll be asking my viewers about the future of the show, so if you’re interested in helping me plot a course towards the future then join me at 6pm Eastern US time!

You can find the show, as always, at http://matthewebel.com/ustream

Last night I had the best movie theater experience I can remember. Sure, the movie itself was some of the finest American cinema ever made, but that would be equally as true if we’d have waited for the DVD or iTunes download. No, this isn’t a review of Pixar’s new movie “UP”, it’s a review of the modern theater experience.
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So last night I had a dream that I won a black Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Brand new, too. In fact, my brother won one as well… but he got a diesel model and mine was a gas model. I was ticked off about all this, complaining to the contest people that my brother doesn’t even know what biodiesel is, let alone has any intention of making it and using it.

On top of all that, the badges on the truck (you know, the little Chevy logo and the nameplate and all that) kept falling off, like they were held on by Elmer’s glue or something. The rest of the truck was rock solid (even though it’s a Chevy), but I was fairly pissed off about the cheap badges.

I guess the moral of this story is that no matter how bad the pollen gets, taking antihistamines before bed is a really bad idea.

Once upon a time I tried to book a full-on tour of house concerts, not realizing that two evil monsters stood in my way: The monster that spread most of my fans out all over the globe and the monster that jacked up gas prices over $3 a gallon. This summer I’d like to try something a little less ambitious but a lot more plausible.

If you’ve got a big living room and/or a backyard that you’d love to turn into a concert hall for an afternoon/evening, I’m interested in playing there. Right now this will have to be limited to my local area- let’s say within 100 miles of Boston -but we’ll see how things progress from there.

If you’re interested, please take a look at www.matthewebel.com/houseconcert/ and get in touch with me there!

New Music at Matthew Ebel dot net

• The software that runs the membership accounts was written by someone who doesn’t speak English very well… I finally went in and re-wrote ALL of the emails that the system sends out (password reminders, payment receipts, welcome emails, etc.).
• I rearranged the signup screen so, hopefully, it’s a little easier to follow. A lot of folks were basically buying themselves Gift Certificates when they didn’t mean to. Oops!
• Now that I figured out how to pass variables to the signup page, I’ve made links that automatically choose certain products or fill in coupon codes for you. Like this link to my All-Access Yearly Pass.

So keep your eyes peeled, there’s going to be more music coming out today. If you want to own it, you can now sign up for Matthew Ebel dot net a little easier!

It’s that time of year… time to pick the first-ever Matthew Ebel dot net VIP Song winner! Congratulations to VIP Subscriber Tony Carcieri, he’ll be getting a custom-written song from Matthew sometime soon!

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Hear the complete concert at matthewebel.net

As a bit of a teaser, I also just released one of the live tracks to the podcasting world. If you’re interested, check out Night Train – Live at FWA 2009 at matthewebel.com/podsafe.

I never really have a problem with being filmed during a concert… I think it’s great that people want to keep the moment going long after the show is over. Fortunately, most of my fans post their vids online when they’re done.

I debuted She Will Set You Free at FWA last weekend, and Marcus Noble was there to catch it. Check it out!

Last weekend was the best convention experience of my life. Without question.

Photo by Zschamm

Before I duck behind a cut to save people’s loading times, I want to remind everyone who attended to please tag your photos/videos etc. with FWA09 wherever you post them. I’ll be looking on Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and other sites for evidence-gathering purposes, so please make your stuff easy to find!

If you’ve posted any pictures or videos of me in or out of costume, please tag them with Matthew Ebel or matthewebel. If you’re feeling nice, put a link to http://matthewebel.com at the top of the description. I always appreciate the traffic!

And now, on with the show…
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I’m frequently asked, when new fans want to buy a track or album, “what method gives you the most money?” I’m touched that a lot of people want to make sure I get the most of their hard-earned dollars when they decide to support my music. The fact is, though, that I want you to pay the sales staff.

(Wait a second, he doesn’t have a sales staff, what is he talking about?)

Photo by Andyrob

If someone or some service is actually introducing you to my music, I want them to stay in business. I want them to get a piece of my good fortune. I want to reward anyone who is helping spread the word about my music, so long as they’re doing it legitimately.

So if you’re worried about the extra $2 per CD or 9¢ per track, don’t be. Please just do what you can to keep my sales people in business. If they’re making a living, then I’m making a living!