The Robin LeBlanc

So here’s the deal.  I’ve always loved looking at those cheesy portraits taken usually in malls during the 1980s, if you’re friends of mine chances are you love them too.  With that in mind, here’s the contest:

Draw or photograph a portrait of a villain as if they are having it done to give to family or something.  They can be holding flowers, standing in front of a chair, have lasers behind them, have another picture of them on the top right corner…ANYTHING.  As long as it looks like a bad portrait.  It can be of just one villain, or a “family shot” made of several villains…whatever you want.  The only rules are that it must look like a 1980s portrait, it must be a villain from comics/movies/television and it must be them in a nice pose.

Now what’s a contest without prizes?  The winner will receive:

- A mixed CD

- Some photography prints

- A 2GB flash drive with all sorts of goodies inside

- A picture of the framed winning picture on my office desk

- Something else that I can’t think of right now.

And there will also be runner up prizes!  And of course, the top…let’s say 20 will be featured on this site.

SPECIFICATIONS: All pictures must be Portrait size and in 300 dpi.  Send your submission to wornoldhat@gmail.com by October 31th 2009

EDIT:  FOR THOSE THAT AREN’T CONFIDENT IN THEIR DRAWING SKILLS, I WILL ALSO ACCEPT PHOTOS!

That’s it!  Sound good?  Awesome!

It’ll be up shortly, but what the hell, here’s my latest article up on AWMusic.ca

To me, making a tape is like writing a letter — there’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with “Got to Get You Off My Mind”, but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you’ve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can’t have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can’t have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you’ve done the whole thing in pairs and…oh, there are loads of rules.

-Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

——
After a bit of a hiatus that involved family deaths, broken hearts and unemployed grief, I’m back to writing for this thing because damn it, I have things to SAY. Expect some stuff in the future consisting of horror indie bands, Japanese Hot String and maybe something steampunky. But for now I want to talk about the concept of “mix tape”.

I know that this subject has been brought up before, but let’s try to look at things a bit differently. Frankly I’m surprised that I’m still hearing gripes about this subject.

“The mix tape is dead.” is pretty much the main thing you hear at parties/concerts/any kind of social setting where the topic of music nowadays is brought up amongst anyone who enjoys music. The reasons for why it is dead are always brought up. I’ll spare the rant, but just say that the general view is that with cassettes you could put your HEART into it, man. You could make something completely personal, almost handcraft it, spending hours and hours picking the right songs and the right order and putting it on to the tape and then experiencing the sheer excitement of decorating the cover and tape yourself. Silver spray paint? Sure! Glitter? Damn right! And I would consider you inept if you didn’t draw a picture of a moose.

So the big view is that “you can’t do that nowadays” which let’s face it, is total bullshit. Some people have said that CDs lack that personal touch, but for every person that says that, there are at least two who listen to every single song before they put it anywhere near the tracklist, all the while keeping that person in mind. And for every person that just makes the same CD for their friends, there are two who make one and only one copy and delete the tracklist (while possibly keeping a playlist on their computer so they could think of the person they sent it to).

And anyway, who said that mix tapes have to be personal? One of the great things about music is that it brings people together and that can lead to some incredibly interesting projects with complete strangers found on the internet. Take The Post-Apocalyptic 8tracks Project I started up several months ago. Went on to a forum, created a thread stating a theme (in this case, anything post-apocalyptic), gave them the link to 8tracks along with the account name and password and let them loose. 19 post-apocalyptic mixes were created and we’ve accumulated up to 52 followers with countless people who don’t have accounts listening. A large number of random people putting together a mix based on one central theme can come up with some mind-blowing music that you’ve never heard before. You might want the song and can get it through the use of DownloadHelper (Which officially I should say you should never ever use because it is stealing). From there you can look the artist up and before you know it you might have a new favorite artist.

Anyways, the point I’m trying to make is that The Mix Tape is far from dead. The cassette isn’t around anymore, but CDs and the internet are powerful tools and can contain limitless possiblities. If you want to make something personal for that special someone, the fact that you have to use a CD will in no way take away the personal feeling and the touching knowledge that someone cared enough to create a special mix with specifically them in mind just for them. And if you want to discover new music, by all means start or take part in a project similar to the one I mentioned above. Do it on a forum, with your friends, or whatever you want. Use 8tracks or just upload them all on to a free file hosting site. Hell, when it starts up again take part in m3p3, an amazing livejournal audio penpal community. I don’t really how you do it, just go out there and discover some amazing fucking music.

Now here’s some music that I have received in mixes from some random audio mix projects I’ve been a part of.

Gogol Bordello – Never Want To Be Young Again

Odd Nosdam – We Bad Apples

Hello Saferide – The Quiz

Bodies Of Water – Dear Boy (Paul and Linda McCartney

www.offshorecomix.com/

The first anthology from Offshore Comix, debuting at SPX.

BIG SEXY includes contributions from Ignatz Award nominees Cayetano Garza Jr. and Colleen Frakes, along with a host of other emerging creators

An erotic post-war hook-up, a magic unicorn with a sexy secret, the tales of a former phone sex operator and a full-scale orgy on a city bus are among the subjects that the 17 cartoonists and comic creators tackled in the 90-page anthology.

BIG SEXY also features contributions by Bryan Stone, Jennifer Vaughn, Morgan Pielli, Rachel Dukes, Daniel Barlow, Anne Thalheimer, Colin Tedford, Tim Hulsizer, Madsahara, Joe Bacchus, Anna, Radical Warren, Meagan Frappiea, Liza Petruzzo and Denise Warren!

The comic was edited by Barlow, Tedford and Thalheimer and features a full color cover by Frakes. BIG SEXY costs $6 and is for adults only.

Contact Twister is an old UV favorite- imanifest.ca/joomla/images/imanifest/contacttwister.jpg

VERY interesting idea.  Would love to pick up a copy.  Anyone going to SPX?

Or have a car and are willing to drive, why not go see this?

Performers Katelyn Clark and Xenia Pestova will play multiple toy pianos and portable percussion instruments, placed strategically throughout the cave’s winding passages. Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer Erik Ross will provide an electroacoustic soundscape, which will be played back by loudspeakers, creating an intricate sonic tapestry.

Sounds INCREDIBLY interesting. Totally wish I could go, but I live in crummy old Toronto, don’t own a car and can’t afford the bus drive.  BUT IF I DID…

Hey folks!  I know, I know…I haven’t really updated in a while.  Truth is, other than a few select places I’ve pretty much not been around.   This is due to pulling ridiculous hours helping out at the office and dealing with family drama.

The newest development is that my Grandmother, Gladys Wilson, passed away last week.  She went in for surgery back in November and was never quite the same afterward.  She was later diagnosed with terminal throat cancer and was given two months.  A problem was that it looked like she was overdosed by the nurse and that may have been the cause of her death that day.  She was going to die within 48 hours of that time regardless, but my aunt rightly feels wronged by being robbed of her mother’s last words.

So the past two weeks have been spent getting my mom ready to go to England to oversee the funeral process, empty out my grandmother’s house and take care of her aunt for a bit, who has gone above and beyond, visiting her everyday and even spending the night sometimes while punching in at work.  Even though she is in England now, I’m still running around like a chicken without a head and as such, commitments I made will be runnig a little late.  Primarily my Occult Brew story on ForgeFire Press which, I kind of regret, but I just haven’t had the time this week to write anything more.

It’s been a really crappy year of loss for my family.  The holidays, especially Christmas, are really going to suck since the absence will be more pronounced.

Anyways, back to the grind.  Next week should be calming down so expect some more content.