Je M'endors

I have been captivated by this Cajun folk song brought back to the present by Michael Doucet of the Cajun folk group Beausoleil. Je M'endors translates to "I'm Sleepy" and you will know why when you listen to this hauntingly melodic lullaby of a culture not our own. The full moon inspired me to make this presentation. It is a video, but it would be experienced best if you put on your headphones, close your eyes, and listen.

NEWSFLAH: Zydeco is not Cajun, it is Creole

I discovered this just yesterday. I am facintated by the Cajun culture and I wanted to learn more about them through their music so I looked up "Zydeco" in iTunes music store and found a bunch of black people playing odd music and I said "This is NOT Cajun." After that small revelation, I looke up (with the help of Google and Amazon.com lists) good Cajun music collection albums. I found a very good specimine of more modern Cajun music called "La musique Chez Mulate's". This is more modern Cajun music and traditional Cajun music being just 1-3 instraments and a singer; very bare bones. I am very happy with my Cajun music, which definitely is not Zydeco. My knowledge of this fact was deepened when I did a Google search of something like Cajun Zydeco and I found a rant going on about how Cajun music is not Zydeco and it is a modern myth and incorect assumption my the American population, and also Cajuns work hard to preserve their music which are mainly waltzes and traditional themes. What is Zydeco then? It is Creole music. The Cajuns and the Creoles are historicl neighbors, but the Cajuns are white, and the Creoles are black (not to be racist, but that's the way they are). They both speak French, but different dialetcts. The main point is that Cajuns have Cajun music, and Creoles have Zydeco. This is a question that you may never have asked yourself, but now you know the answer.

Guitar Video Games and Me

I was at my friend Anne's birthday party last Saturday and I participated in a rousing marathon of Rock Band. I played bass most of the time as usual because that is my actual instrument and it is fun for me, a few times when I was paired with a novice on the game I became the lead guitar, I sang one time, and I played the drums for the first time and it was crazy fun (for me playing and for the others watching me because they said I played like a gorilla). It was so fun I was riled up the rest of the night and had a hard time getting to sleep!

As always after such ample face time with me and a game, I wanted to have one for my very own. I had been toying with the idea of buying Guitar Hero 3 when the new one came out later this month because it would then be cheaper since other people would be selling that version to buy the new version, but in my residual euphoria the next day, I decided that Guitar Hero World Tour (4) would be better for me to get because it is definitely the next awesome thing and it has three songs by my favorite artists ("One Armed Scissor" by At The Drive-In, "Hey Man Nice Shot" by Filter, and "L`Via L`Viaquez" by The Mars Volta).

I looked at the website and saw all the cool features of the new versoin with the cool new guitar, great drum kit, neat fatures, and so on. Then I saw the price for the whole kit and kaboodle: $180. Yes that is a lot of money, but oddly right now I am debateing weather to buy a Ducks hockey jersey that would cost exatly that much (the game has a lot more use). I thought about it, "yeah, I could get this! It would be really fun for a long time." Then I thought about all the time I would spend having fun playing this game, but then it turned to me thinking about how much time I would be wasting having fun playing this game. That was the turning point. I would gain nothing from this game. I thought about those nut jobs who are so obsessed with these games that they bought real electric guitars at paun shops and bastardized them by mutialting them into game controllers (There people selling these for more than a nice new guitar costs!). I thought that I'd rather play the real thing so I thought what if it were not just a game but it was a teaching tool game that actually taught the real guitar? I did a search for something like that in google and I found Guitar Rising.

No, these are not real guitars... they may have been in the past, but they are now video game controllers.

Guitar Rising is exactly what I want! You play the notes as they pass by exactly like in those other games, but the difference is that you are really playin it on a real guitar because you have to move your hand up and down the neck to the different frets and not just keep your fingers on the same buttons that do it all. It looks pretty much the same as the other two in a simplified form, but inside each dot on the strings coming up are numbers so it is an animated tab! You can play this for hours on end like the other games, but when you are done, you walk away with a little bit more skill you can use in the real world.

As for the Guitar Rising game interface, sure, it is not as flashy and attractive as Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but I think it will be someday. I think that when this is released (2009 it says now), it will be noticed and then it should get picked up by a big game corporation that is not already in the band game mix (Harmonix has Rock Band, and Activision has Guitar Hero) like EA, then Guitar Rising can get a visual and technological boost and be a huge contender with the other two. It can rule the world!

The funny thing is that after all this, I still kinda want Guitar Hero 4! Hahaha.

In the end, I just want to jam with the band again.

Disneyland mit Kinder

Disneyland... I have a pass, an annual pass for SoCal selects. It is like I am meat: SoCal Select; I'd like to think a notch higher than USDA Choice. I have a pass, 2 nephews, and a brand spanking new baby nephew. My sister needed a day off from the other two and today was the last day my one nephew could get in free by being two (yes his birthday is September 9). This time, my brother-in-law, Roy, came with the boys. It all went as expected: exausting. We went on the rides that the kids did not claim to hate and be afraid of because they had never been on them (not too many) and we got out of there in the daylight and before anyone else had the same idea, and the oldest had a minor meltdown on the tram because part of his pirate gun broke. All in all it was a good day with them and I am sehr tired, so why the heck am I wrting this now? There it is. And they all lived happily ever after!

Sketch Monkey Business

At this time for my seldom employment, I am a sketch monkey. What is a "sketch monkey", you ask? Officially it is a designer who churns out large amounts of ideas and sketches in one day, usually working for car or toy manufactures. My version of being a sketch monkey is that I draw up very detailed and very boring technical drawings on Illustrator. This is exactly what it is: 1) Oakley calls me up and gives me a batch of physical prototypes of their latest bags for the next season. 2) I take one of the bags, set it up somewhere where I can see it well, then I draw it up in Adobe Illustrator in views they want. 3) Oakley takes the files and puts them on the technical hang tags and put call outs to important features on that bag. 4) The consumer purchases the bag and throws away the tag without looking at it. This exciting process is a strain on the brain and not creative. It takes me hours and hours to do these things, for example, it took me 6 hours to draw up a back panel (back side of the backpack) from scratch. It is a good thing I raised my hourly rate $10! I have finished 2 and a half bags this season, and I have 6 right next to me waiting to be done. Needless to say, I am looking for a full time job.

Here is an example of my sketch monkeying. This is the Flak Pack from fall 2008, the first Oakley bag made specifically to go into Apple Stores. I think it went out a season early. It should still be available in stores.

"What's Next" Puppet Music Video Premier

As I said at the end of my post "Puppet Music Videos: A History", I made a puppet music video for Filter's contest of their song "What's Next". I finished it last Thursday and put it up on Youtube the next day, but I didn't tell anyone that I had it up for a week before the premier party because I wanted it to be a suprise. The party started at Bad to the Bone where about 16 of my friends showed up. I paid for my cast/crew's dinner per the agreement that if they helped me with my movie they would get a free dinner there and their names in the credits. I stayed true to my word and shelled out the cash for their chow.

After dinner and some Golden Spooners getting their yogurt fixes, the party moved to my house and the video was debuted. Without further adu, here is my puppet music video for Filter's song "What's Next":



It was a smash hit! They raved and raved, but not in a rabid sort of way. It was very satisfying seeing other people enjoy the video that I made and know far better than anyone after I have lost any bit of objectivity with it. We watched the video, then we watched my old video (Army of Anyone "Father Figure"), then the new one again! After the viewings, someone requested to see the storyboards.


Then the puppets were requested to make an appearance and a photo shoot began.

Rob, KTM Thompson, Me, Drake Fowler

The Cast and Crew:
Top: Emily L., Heather, my brother Dustin, Eva
Bottom: KTM, Rob, Drake, Me

The Party! (Rob's got two hotties in his arms!)

Since August 15 was the deadline, I went on Youtube to see what my competition was like. I found only two and it looks like I have a good chance at winning this contest. Apparently Filter fans are not very ambitious with only two entries that I found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymTAP2FnpLQ and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU6KzuVAYaU (watch at your own risk). Now that the fun is over, it is time to wait for the band's decision which can happen at any time because they did not put that in the contest announcement and they are musicians, so I don't expect them to adhere to a date for their fans anyway. When the announcement is made, I will tell you all about it.

Finally, I would like to publicly thank my very good friend Eric for forcing me to not be lazy and develop my characters and story, and lending his vast knowledge of film making techniques so this video could run so smoothly. I would also like to thank him a boat load for clean editing the song and seamlessly removing the loud F word and putting a proper word in from earlier in the song itself that still fit the context! I would also like to thank him for his visual effects skills and his amazing creation of my new best friend, the explosion at the end. When he comes to town, he gets his Bad to the Bone dinner and a desert for all his extra help. Without him this video would definitely not be as good as it turned out to be. Thanks you!

Old Books

I am a sucker for buying old library books. The first time I discovered the concept of old library books being sold or just given away was when my elementary school had discard books just sitting out on top of the shelves. It had never occurred to me that the library got new books and didn't just keep the same books all the time forever all dated the same year the school was built and the library stocked. I couldn't believe it; they wanted me to take them home with me? This was a magical discovery that I would always take advantage of in the future.

Sure, I don't read all that much, but I really love hardback books especially the ones with cool covers. Don't get me wrong, I won't pick up an old book and take it home with me just because it looks cool, no, it must have a good story inside as well. The cover lures me to the book, but I look inside to see what it's about and if the writing is any good. For instance, I bought a book from 1945 called Zotz! at the Saddleback Community College library book sale for about $1. It is a very odd and very funny find. I love to read the books I am certain that only a tiny fraction of my peers may have read; it's like having a rare gem that no one can comprehend because they have never heard of it before.

My latest find was today at my local library off the "$.25 Quarter Cart": The Silent World by Jacques Cousteau from 1953. First the obvious old age of the hardback spine drew me in, then the title, and then when I saw that it was all about Jacques Cousteau and his undersea exploration narrated by the man himself, I just had to have it. I paid my quarter to the nice lady at the desk, then only after I walked out the door with my friend Emily (who miraculously made it out of the library without a book) pointed out that my new gem had a fantastic little octopus in the bottom right corner of the front cover. That little octopus made me love this book 50% more. It was added into my book que immediately and I will read it once I am done with A Girl Named Zippy and my highly anticipated The Cajuns book. I will be under the sea shortly, Jacques my friend.