JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)

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  • a warning from the sky 2003-06-10 10:30:37
    You know you're a serious underground rivethead when your best loser-too-tired-to-concentrate date idea is for the two of you to listen together to a CD that you already know you're going to hate. The good part about this is I finally get to see Meg again; the bad part is that I actually have to buy _St. Anger_. I wish I HAD bought that Colt Police Special out at Cabela's, and a nice blackpowder starter kit; that way we could go up in the woods afterwards and blow holy hell out of the CD.

    I have never been so sure in my life that a record is going to be total crap. Say what you will about the _*Load_s, they were at least listenable albums, even if they weren't metal albums. _St. Anger_ is a metal album, but it appears to be a horrendously crappy one. Megadeth, Korn, and Godsmack are supposed to survive artistically by ripping off Metallica, not the other way around.

    However, I've only heard two or three songs out of eleven, so I'm pretty sure I'll find something to like -- like the last bit of "Shoot Me Again". I'm fairly sure that it'll score over fifty points, and that I WILL have heard worse metal albums. I DID sit all the way through Bathory's awful _Requiem_, godheadSilo's pointless _Share The Fantasy_, Killjoy's idiotic _Compelled By Fear_, No One's assembly-line-retread self-titled effort, Primal Fear's clone masterpiece _Black Sun_, Stratovarius' ceaselessly annoying _Intermission_, Borgabor V's deliberately painful _Born In The Woods_, and two whole Lefay CDs that set new standards for boringness and lack of vision.

    I'm not even going to get into Jerry "Maniac" Mattox.

    Perhaps I'll get some work done on #77 tonight, to show Meg how the process is for real. But since AMV editing is inherently non-interesting to anyone in the room except the editor, I'm sure we'd rapidly move along to something else. Regardless the vow still stands -- to finish Project Haibane by the time I turn 23, which is about 11:15 AM Friday. If I use minimal effects and work late tonight, I could be finalizing #77 tomorrow night, then drafting #78, with finalizing on that and mixdowns of both proceeding Thursday night.

    Assuming, of course, that I can stay alive and functional on such a schedule. There will be no more delays; there are no more excuses. There will be four new video listings in my profile come this time Friday.

    --Kai out

     
  • he never gets respect 2003-06-09 11:44:37
    I wrote about 200 lines on my weekend, but figured that that is of low interest to most. Suffice to say that I did nearly 1700 miles round trip in about 61 hours, of which maybe 26-27 were spent driving. I also got nothing done on Project Haibane last night because I was worn out from the road. I'm currently projecting that I draft #77 tonight, after I talk to Meg and fill her in on my weekend, as optimistic as that may seem, then finalizing it tomorrow and taking care of #78 on Wednesday and Thursday.

    Quick bits:
    * the most essential accessory for cross-country driving is a good pair of sunglasses. Not only do you look cool, but it majorly cuts down on road glare and associated eyestrain. Don't leave home on a long-duration drive without them.
    * deer are big animals that will really do a number on your car if hit. I saw three roadkilled on roads in Michigan and New York, and all but one had vehicle debris still around it.
    * the Kenshin dub being shown on Toonami is handled surprisingly well. The only misses are with Megumi, who doesn't come off half as sexual as she's played in the Japanese, and Sano, whose low-class-punk image is dropped in favor of a more standard tough-guy feel. Kaoru could have been played by the same actress in both versions, it's that exact.
    * $1200 is too much for a used AR-15. $550 for a G3 clone is a lot more reasonable, but really, you can get a decent gun from Bushmaster or Springfield Armory for $800 new. And if you don't have FFL, it's probably still cheaper to drive to Maine or Illinois and buy in person.
    * Messville Road, Fangboner Road, and Gay Road are all real streets in Ohio or Pennsylvania that you can drive under on I-90.
    * all classic rock stations in the eastern US are owned by Clear Channel, and all play the same fifteen songs ALL the time.
    * if it sounds like Lacuna Coil, but it's on the radio, it's probably Evanescense. Especially if it's got Mike Shinoda banging around in the background and it sucks.
    * if Metallica wanted to sound underground, they could have gone to the Abyss or Dug-Out to record _St. Anger_ instead of just telling Bob Rock "make the drums sound like ass". Ofcourse then Lars Szoke might have eaten Lars Ulrich by accident, but that wouldn't have *needed* to happen.

    Not that that would really have been a bad thing anyway.

    --Kai out

     
  • into the dark 2003-06-05 10:16:40
    [Almost; I tied up the current scene, but it was like one sentence] No work on the book last night; after Meg left I was all worn out and it was damned late anyways. I'll see what I can do about it tonight, between packing, final trip planning, and getting my Michigan ID, which I should have done like last week.

    I showed Meg the half of Project Haibane that I've gotten done so far, and she was bowled over by #75. She might have picked out some of the weaker points in #76, because she's never seen any Haibane Renmei, and #76 unfortunately requires you to take a little of the series in with you -- and because some of the timing is a little kicked. She also liked my Grimlock/Riverblind material, so this may be a case of loving the creator over the creation, but she did have enough detachment to recognize 'Ocean's Call' for the horrendous piece of crap that it is. I actually counted moving mouths on this one this time -- TWENTY FUCKING NINE cuts of unsynched motion. NEVER AGAIN. And the slow, imprecise cutting didn't help anything either.

    I will finish Project Haibane before I turn 23 (end of next week). I don't care how little I have to sleep, or how far I have to push everything but work and my girlfriend to the back burner, it's getting done.

    Song quote yesterday was from Bill O'Brien's "Indiana Turnpike" off his 1980 Raven Records album _Cool At The Union_. You Have Lost.....but since there's no way you could have had a copy of this LP in the first place, "there can be no winners".

    --Kai out --- all the way out, 16 hours to Michigan

     
  • rebellion is here 2003-06-04 10:53:09
    In contradiction to prior statements, I didn't do any work on the video and probably will not for the rest of the week. It's too hard to concentrate with those 32 hours of driving in 72 hanging over my head. I have, however, been working on the book. I wrote up the eighteenth (final) chapter yesterday, and got almost to the end of the current (seventh) as well; I should be able to polish that off tonight after Meg and I get back from the flick and finish our other pursuits, and then take the stub I've already written for the eighth chapter and flesh it out some.

    This book has been under process in a sort of nonlinear fashion for the last three or so years; I think it dates back to early 2001, and the idea for it is older than that. It's undergone a few changes along the way, and it wasn't until this winter that I finalized the narrative thrust, did up a real outline, and started thinking seriously about how it was going to hang together as a literary work. So far I've written about eight and a half chapters, which belong in various places, plus some reference pieces, an outline with stub chapter titles, and a context/backstory chronology. A lot of the backstory might actually count as text further along the line, since while it's stylistically useful to have characters casually reference events that the reader is not familiar with, it doesn't do to not eventually tie up those references, especially when it's to something major in a major character's life.

    Of course, everything is under constant revision, especially when I run across some information that contradicts something I've brought in. I believe in writing first and researching after, because once you've gotten something creative done and out of your system, you can always tweak and polish it to bring it in line with reality, but you might not be able to get it written in the first place if you're aware of the restrictions that you're going to have to operate under. If I get this accepted for publication, I'm going to spend the advance on trips to Cairo, Kentucky, and NYC to do research for rewriting, but until then I can console myself with the knowledge that most of the people who will ever read this are not going to be familiar with the areas discussed.

    Or with the weapons, for that matter. I really ought to get ahold of a Wilson CS semiauto, but those things cost some serious money, and the extra realism in Nick's narration isn't worth $850. It's not like I've never fired a shotgun, drawn a sword, or done something stupid and dangerous underground; like method acting versus classical, it's all about finding the right breakpoint between style and substance.

    I really ought to be working on Project Haibane, for the sake of later deadlines to following projects, but I'm kind of on a roll now, writing-wise, and don't want to just drop it and not have the itch to come back and work on it again for another four months. I should be at least able to finish chapter 6 (seventh chapter, the numbering system I'm using on this one is zero-based) and get chapter 7, which I've got a draft start to lying around somewhere, up to half-finished before I go out to Michigan this weekend. Hurrah for cruise control, if I can manage to keep myself awake.

    Odd fact: in the Midwest, certain interstates like I-80 and I-90 (Ohio) and I-90 and I-94 (Minnesota) occasionally merge, because there's no point in having TWO interstates that nobody drives on. "Up ahead a change of pace/I think I see some overpasses".

    And if anyone can identify the artist or song on THAT by the time I leave tomorrow, you'll win an e-copy of everything I've got done on _Darkly Shining Void_. Excessively obscure references keep your IP safe.....

    --Kai out

     
  • from the eternal sea he rises 2003-06-03 08:45:52
    Well, things are slowly getting better. First was the discovery that because the industry won't enforce strict "you break it you buy it" rules, I can't rent a car for another two-plus years, wrecking my already precarious travel plans for the weekend. Then the Iced Earth breakup (with Jon and Matt parting ways, that's what it IS) totally killed any chances of doing video work last night.

    Fortunately, the trajectory went up from there. I got about four pages done on the book, and out of the passage that I'd been stuck in for the last few weeks and into the creative clear. Then I talked to Meg on the phone, and not only did she put up with my moodiness and frustration, but she also gave me a really good idea to fix the travel situation. Now I just have to get off work for Friday and make sure that I get enough sleep Thursday to leave at 5 or so for Michigan by land. I'm still going to be eating three hundred bucks in airline tickets, but there was really nothing I could do about that.

    So this is the schedule for the rest of the week. Tonight I'm going to do my best to finish #77 so that I won't have too much to tighten up tomorrow night after Meg and I get back from the movie and whatever else we end up doing. That'll probably be just mixdown and such, maybe the timing chart for #78 as well. Thursday I'll just draft #78 if I'm in position for that, or do the timing chart and work on the book some if not. Everything should finish Monday night, after which I'll add video entries Tuesday, and probably bomb through a new video by the end of next week. So many ideas, so much Project Haibane work to get through first....

    --Kai out

     
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