April 28, 2011
Aw shucks, I guess I can finally talk about this! A selection of my photos will be appearing in the first issue of the Weaponizer Quarterly magazine, with one of my photos from the SCARS shoot on the flippin’ cover!
The magazine will feature some great fiction from friends Mo Ali, Andre Navarro, K. Patrick Glover and C. Brian Hickey and will feature some stonking great art by Emmanuel “MojoKingBee” Hernaez.
For more info, check out the official announcement from Weaponizer.
January 24, 2011
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my EXTREME pleasure to introduce to you page one of the comic by Neil Struthers and myself, REMNANTS.
click to embiggen.
I’d also like to introduce you to the first character in this series, Edward. You’ll learn a bit more about him later. For now though, let him run.
This is…wow. This is an emotional moment for me. I came up with the idea for REMNANTS in 2008, getting some amazing concept sketches from folks in 2009, but nothing coming of it. In late 2009-early 2010 Mr. Neil Struthers heard my pitch and agreed to work on it with me. And it took a while, as things normally do, but DAMN is it worth the wait.
Neil is a wonder. He really is. Since I first met him I’ve been in love with his work and his keen eye and sharp wit have been so important in the development of this.
Once a few more pages are done on Neil’s end, we’ll be posting pages up weekly. We’re still in the process of getting a hold of the web space, so keep an eye on this site for updates regarding that.
April 18, 2010
So a dream last night got me thinking about something and after getting some opinions on said dream, I’ve been thinking even MORE about it. To start with, I’ll first tell you what happened in this dream.
I was getting romantically involved with this girl whose breath smelled of gasoline and who lived in a house full of mannequins. Anyways, we were walking down some road at night wondering what to do when she recalled that my friend M had her thing tonight. “I hear her topics for this week are going to be really good” she says. I smile and we start heading to M’s.
When we get the the two-floor apartment building we find that there are already a number of people outside on the street. Some are talking to one another, most have a bottle of something and all of them are hanging out by this one specific area outside the building that has about six LED marquee lights put up. Suddenly, the light in one of the rooms turns on and we see M, not even paying attention to the crowd outside. The sounds die down and the twenty or so people look up intently. The light turns off and the only illumination from the room is a computer monitor glow and a small desk light. We can still see Mara, but she’s looking down at her computer, which we cannot see.
Music begins to play. Sort of a dark ambient sound. And then the LED lights begin to scroll words. As M is typing, they project on these lights and all of us read. We’re barely paying attention to the music, just reading what she has to say. The topics are broad, each one leaving us something to think about. Like all concert situations, some people break off from reading to discuss the previous topic. But most just read. When it’s done the LED lights turn off and M turns off her computer. That’s it. The crowd begins to scatter away, discussing their experience.
Wouldn’t this be just an interesting thing to see? Perhaps get a bunch of well-known bloggers to shoot out on to these LED screens either a raw or pre-written piece of writing? Hell, hook up another monitor and one could, at certain times in the post, display an image or even a full screen video clip. The ambient music would be a nice touch, since it would make the people standing there reading feel a little less like complete gits (thinking on it, I’m pretty sure the music playing in my dream was Taphead and almost definitely part of this preview track that he put out. ALSO, the entire album is available for download on the site). But most of all, this would be taking the concept of the blog and making it less accessible. Hell, more or less turning the act of blogging in to a concert experience. Both of which wouldn’t be a horrible thing to see. Hell, sort of giving it that “reading them live is different then reading them on their site” kind of thing (ESPECIALLY if the words are shot out as they write them).
While there would be some excellent writers who I would love to see write on their own (Warren Ellis, Cory Doctorow and Wil Wheaton to name but a few) I really see this as something that could do well with multiple writers typing up different topics. If the folks at Boing Boing, Lifehacker or Coilhouse each set up an event (or hell, even went on tour, which would be doubly weird and awesome) I think they could seriously get a good audience out of it. What would make the experience more interesting was if this was something that will NEVER be seen officially on the writer’s site after the concert. Perhaps at the end a piece of paper with the completed piece would be handed out, but that’s it.
Anyways, just thinking out loud on this one. I’ve got to admit the idea of taking a specific medium and turning it in to a different kind of presentation with a somewhat same result would be fascinating and the thought of starting up one of these is really tempting me. Who knows? Maybe I’ll find someone with a couple of LED lights and the technical know-how to set it all up and get one going. Either way I certainly hope someone does it. It would be great to go to one.
April 7, 2010
Good lord, I am quite talented at dropping off the face of things. I haven’t given a proper update on here in a while.
A few things have been happening. Right now I’m just finishing up an editing gig for the video material for a quiz show. Most of it has required working in After Effects, a program that I touched once in college, so the experience was an educational one. I’m also working on an online comic with the INCREDIBLY talented artist Neil Struthers. This is a project I’ve been trying to get off the ground for a few years and I feel so incredibly fortunate that Neil has agreed to join in on the fun. Of course, any updates including the comic episodes themselves will be up here once we finish off a couple of them. Stay tuned. In the meantime, check out Neil’s Flickr.
Now here’s some things from other people…
- My friend, the very talented Miss Veronika von Volkova recently got together with the wonderful Katelan Foisy and they got up to some wonderful photography-based sexy fun.
- Big Sexy, the comic anthology I mentioned a while ago that explores the many facets of sexuality, is finally for sale and you can get it here. At$6 for 92 pages I would consider you a fool NOT to purchase it.
- MOON8 created the entire Dark Side Of The Moon album by Pink Floyd in 8bit. And they’re giving it to you for free.
- An Assortment of Underachieving AT-ATs by Tobias Lunchbreath:
- Mentor and photographer I adore, Lex Machina is having a special Print Sale on one of the photos she took of the League Of STEAM.
- I really can’t wait to see Micmacs, the new film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie and City Of Lost Children) Check out the trailer here.
- I REALLY REALLY want a print of this from talented Duchess Caroline Harrison (via her Flickr)
And that’s all for now. I’m off to bed for a well-deserved trip in to Dreamland.
January 8, 2010
It’s been a very busy week here both with my own stuff and other people’s. One photography gig, one filming gig, two backstage gigs, one trip-to-Memphis gig and one social media job are all up in the air and I’m wondering which ones will fall down and hit me right on the head. Pretty exciting stuff! On top of that I’ve been experimenting with HDR, figuring out Adobe Lightroom (On advice from my good friend and INCREDIBLY talented photographer Lex Machina) and actually feeling like I can write some stories. Going to be flexing my scripting muscles next week in order to prepare for “Project: Not Telling Yet Ssh” with stunning artist (both in his art and his wit) Neil Struthers.
A thought hit me earlier in the week touching on the topic of what the future might hold for listening to portable music. I don’t mean anything like the iPod Touch, but the actual experience of listening to music. The short of it is a device that reads your brainwaves to determine what mood you are in and plays music that you designated to that particular mood before hand (somewhat like the iTunes star system). Make it colour coded, and when you’re angry your player turns red and plays angry music. Two additions are that the player could slowly integrate happy music in to the playlist when you are angry or sad and having the ability to stream other people’s playlist that corresponds with your mood. So if you’re happy you can listen to what other happy people are listening to. Tastes of course will differ, but it’s fascinating if you’ve ever wondered what music other people listen to when they’re in a similar mood as you.
Anyways, thinking on some more things. I’m off for now.
December 21, 2009
I originally wrote this as part of a Geek Carol contest for GeekGirls and I liked it so much that I thought I would post it here!
Carol Of The Bat (in the tune of Carol Of The Bells)
Hark see the light,
Up in the night,
It seems to say
Bad guys will pay
Parents are dead
Fucked up my head
Now in the night
I go and fight
Zing! Voop! Sop! Zong!
That is the song
Of fist hitting face
In a dark place
One seems to hear
Shrieks of good cheer
Before he kills
If he so wills
Oh how he smiles
In me he riles
Thoughts of the dead
Must pound his head
Gaily he spits
Blood and some bits
Take him away
I deeply say:
I am, I am, I am, I am Batman
I am, I am, I am, I am Batman
On on they send
On without end
Sane and the mad
Good fights the bad…
Goodbye mom and…dad…
October 8, 2009
It’ll be up soon, but here’s my article on AWMusic.ca
I should admit, I didn’t find the Sweet Hollywaiians. They found me. Anyone who uses twitter knows that sometimes you can say something like “my god I love raspberry jam” and about ten minutes later you’ll have a jam reviewer following you. It’s the way ads work there, I suppose. Anyways, I was talking about hula music in one of my “tweets” when all of a sudden these guys started following me. I went to their myspace page, learned about them and heard just the most…INCREDIBLE music. And thus began my love affair with the Osaka based Sweet Hollywaiians. What must have been a month or so later, I received a package with four of their albums including the latest, Ticklin’ The Strings (which I am listening to while writing this).
I love this group because they really seem to inherit the spirit of Hot String music and manage to sound authentic. They’re right on par with the original groups of the time such as Ray Noble and His Hawaiians or other revivalist groups like R. Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders and The House Rent Serenaders. Listening to them is like being transported to a 1920s kitchen jam or a small club. They’re just amazing.
What’s more amazing, it seems, is that the Hollywaiians are from Osaka, Japan. A place that sounds so unlikely for this music to thrive enough to form a band as talented as the Hollywaiians. But I suppose that it is further proof that the power of music knows no borders, regardless of genre. The Hollywaiians have played with members of the Cheap Suit Serenaders Robert Armstrong and Tony Marcus. They have received praise from Robert Crumb himself as well as legendary filmmaker Terry Zwigoff who has said that they “have probably the best feel for this 20′s music of any string band working today”.
Here’s a small e-mail interview I did with Nobumasa Takada (aka Mario) of The Sweet Hollywaiians.
The most common reaction from people regarding the Sweet Hollywaiians is surprise that you come from Japan. How did your interest in this kind of music spring up?
In our young days,we were collecting Yazoo Records.Because we were interested in album jackets which were illustrated by Robert Crumb and Robert Armstrong.The music were based on 1920′s,30′s blues,jazz and hawaiian.
What appeals to you most about this type of music?
We can feel nostalgic and sound is comfortable and soft to the ear.
How big is Hot String music in Japan? Is there a community based around it?
Very small.There is a community but very small.Majority of people don’t know about this type of music.
I understand that you all were pursuing solo careers and through an accident you formed the band. What was the accident?
All of our member were at the intersection crossroad.We were all crossing from different directions to each other and all of us crushed at the center of the intersection.It sounds like fake story but It’s true story.
You guys have a European tour coming up, right? Will this be your first time in Europe?
Yes but I have been there so many times in my imagination,Ha!
How did it feel to get high praise from the likes of Robert Crumb and Terry Zwigoff?
We are very glad and so proud of ourself.Because we respect them so much and it’s our pleasure to accept such comments from them.
After the tour, what’s next for the Sweet Hollywaiians?
We’ll come see you.Can we?
And there you have it. A great band with a great sound just doing what they love. That’s the musical dream, right? Remember these guys. You’ll be hearing a lot more from them soon.
Here’s two tracks from their latest album and a video of them playing My Girl From The South Sea Isles.
The Sweet Hollywaiians – Ellis March
The Sweet Hollywaiians – Ten Tiny Toes
www.myspace.com/sweethollywaiians
October 8, 2009
Have you been to Weaponizer yet? You should. It’s a great way to see some brilliant works by emerging and established writers and artists such as the brilliant Will Couper, the lovely Will Ellwood and the baby-kicking Andre Navarro. And the man who runs is it a friend of mine and I TRUST HIM with sites like this to make my eyeballs sweat and my mind need a bit of a lie down. This is some excellent stuff.
Here’s what they say it is:
We publish Flash Fiction, longer Fiction, and ongoing Serials.
We also publish a diverse range of Nonfiction, including interviews with artists, film-makers, writers and musicians, plus devastating opinion pieces from our Staff Writers. We host thrilling poetry and short films on our Video Channel, and anything else that we like. We also blog about whatever we’ve been wasting our time online with today.
Anyone can contribute to Weaponizer.
Subscribe to the WPNZR Feed for regular updates on new content.
So any writers, photographers, artists, whatever. Contribute to this. They’re always looking for someone! And most likely you’ll find a new favorite artist!
September 24, 2009
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
Bodies Of Water – Dear Boy (Paul and Linda McCartney
July 31, 2009
Alright! Time to write about what the hell is going on here!
So, some crappy things have been going on in my life lately. Grandmother has terminal cancer and about a month left, my godfather was rushed to the emergency room for breathing problems, after a pleasant year and three quarters the Tyson and I ended the relationship.
But! With all crappy things usually some good things come with it. I went to Montreal and and took some nice photos (even decided that I will one day move there), got some news saying that I might be going to sunny Vancouver for the Canadian Country Music Awards on videography-related business, I will most likely be getting a table at some music convention deal pimping my wares and giving out cupcakes, and I might be going to New York in November just for the hell of it.
Notebookery: I’ve been informed that the notebook has arrived in Michigan as of Wednesday. By Monday we should have a scan. A big problem I’m feeling with Notebookery is the stagnation in between contributors. I think I may add a couple of things like short interviews with contributors, samples of their art and maybe just some freakin’ music. I dunno. Also, it seems the only way I can send an e-mail to over 70 people is to start up a google groups account and get you all to sign up. More on that Later.
Comics: I’m working on a script for the Edward comic I mentioned a while ago. I still haven’t found an artist, though I’m just writing it up because I miss that little weirdo and his bodyguard. As for the reading of comics, I haven’t had much of a chance. When I was in Montreal I picked up Welcome To Hoxford and soon intend on picking up Batman: The Long Halloween.
Dose: I’ve been meaning to do a review on Dose for a while and regret that I haven’t yet. I will in the next day or two when I am at home and have it in my hands. But right now I can tell you that it’s really really really good and they’ve included a Warren Ellis-inspired Scooby-Doo and you should go and buy it right now.
Other Work: I’m writing and taking some photographs. Am also starting work on a bible for an animated series I’ve been pondering for years. I’m going to save up some money and get a nice artist and get that fucker developed.
Bah. I’m off for now. Here’s an old comic that I wrote ages ago. God Nathan and I were fucked up. Still are.
