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with my mind and spirit intact
2003-03-04 12:24:28
Good progress on the video, less so on _Cairn Zoser_. I've got a few more riffs down, but what's bothering me right now is not being able to find either my doomhorn or my drumpad, which are quite essential to the proper operation of this recording.
Since #69 didn't turn out so well, I had been casting about for ideas to send to Shoujocon, and eventually decided just to remake video #1. This will not get a new catalog entry, but rather will be noted in the existing entry. Of course, I had planned to do this anyway for a centennial release if I ever got that far, but there's nothing wrong with doing it now....as long as it doesn't get in the way of other projects for this year.
Current video: Kawashima Mirai, "Untitled 3" to Patlabor 2. Progress check: 45%. Expected catalog number: #70. I've already got coverage, and I've still got an hour or so to cut through. Nift by the yard. If I really light a fire under myself I might even finish it by week's end.
Riverblind news:
Stats on _Cairn Zoser_:
*Lyrics/texts written: 3 (of 9)
*Tracks arranged: 2 (of 14)
*Tracks recorded: 0 (of 58)
The difference in the number of tracks to record is because the earlier number wasn't accurate; there will only be 14 tracks on the album, but each of those is going to have between one and seven instrumental tracks internal to the song. Am I making sense to anyone who doesn't have recording experience? As soon as all the lyrics are written I'll bump that off an put in a stat on mixing to reflect this stage of production.
I'm strongly considering adding a bonus track to the recording, and the choice is pretty much between "Han som reiste" by Burzum, "Prohibition" by Root, and "Zombie Town" by Rapid Charlie, which I have to record eventually for other reasons. I would like to do "Han som reiste" for the coolness factor, and "Prohibition" would be fun as well as a test of my abilities, but "Zombie Town" will probably take the least effort, and thus take that slot, seing as how much of a hassle it is to set up all the recording gear.
--Kai out
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take your sword and spear
2003-03-03 13:07:25
Things are rolling again in KK Studios, with a video project well under way and the new Riverblind album in progress. I also got paid for my efforts over the past two weeks, which is always a positive, and in glorious untraceable cash. Now I should be able to send that Donut donation along with no problems.
The weekend was cool as well, with another round of getting everything I requested from club, and having enough time to dupe most of it. The speed of video progress makes it eminently possible that I might finish the current project by the end of the week.
Current video: Kawashima Mirai, "Untitled 3" to Patlabor 2. Progress check: 35%. Expected catalog number: #70. I've clipped 20 of the 110 minutes of this movie, and already I've got like 3 minutes of source of the almost 9 I'm going to need. A few longish cuts, but that's not always a bad thing, and nearly all of the ones I've gotten are killer to the extreme.
Riverblind news:
Stats on _Cairn Zoser_:
*Lyrics/texts written: 2 (of 9)
*Tracks arranged: 2 (of 14)
*Tracks recorded: 0 (of 14)
I'm currently writing lyrics and riffs, having worked out the instrumentation for all the songs on the record. Also, over the weekend I did a little mechanical project necessitated by the style of the album, and my current circumstances.
This record is going to need acoustic guitar parts. That's just the way it is. Now, if I was still in school, I could go up to any of six to ten people I knew and ask to borrow their Matrin, or Takamine, or Ovation to do my recording with, for nothing more than a "OK Kai, just don't bust the strings up or give it back detuned". However, I'm now living away from such a civilized environment, and am in the situation that Metallica was in when trying to record "Fade to Black": sitting around wondering "Who the hell do we know that owns an acoustic guitar?" Or I would be, if my brother hadn't picked up an ancient Stella dreadnought from a dead guy's trash pile and left it in the basement.
This guitar is perfect for this record, though most musicians probably wouldn't piss on it if it were on fire. The top is split and bulged, there's some dried glue rattling around in the sound box, the neck is ever-so-slightly warped, and the tuning pegs are just about rusted in place, so you need a pair of pliers to get it in tune. Just the sort of instrument that you'd expect to find on the back of a somewhat inexperienced bard still out collecting material rather than performing it in places where people have money. I shook most of the glue bits out, tuned it up mostly by ear, and have been playing the hell out of it to get the rust off the strings. I've already got a couple new riffs and progs done; probably not enough for the four tracks that are going to have some acoustic guitar, since it's probably going to be a dominant or the dominant element in three of the four.
--Kai out
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at speeds of melting glass
2003-02-28 13:51:44
no progress on the video, but a bunch of other stuff:
mp3.com made me change my band name. It's not Grimlock any more, and since all the good debilitating diseases were taken, it's Riverblind. I'll flip the link out as soon as the page gets approved. However the good news is that I've finally got a fire under me to record some more new music. Tentative plan is to record 14 tracks, plus the Rapid Charlie cover, later this spring, send a sampler around to labels, and eventually put the release out as a full album. Tentative title: _Cairn Zoser_. A bit of a concept album based on some stuff I wrote a long while ago and heavily inspired by Root's _Kargeras_.
Ofcourse, this'll mean pushing some vids off, but I have space in the schedule.
Another thing: I was reading in the paper about the local cultural council doing a celebration of the Japanese Doll Day referring to it as Hina Matsuri. I didn't previously know you could write 'hina' as 'doll'; I don't know if they have that particular expression in Japanese, but since the title of that anime is never spelled but in kana, I think I'm getting a whole new respect for Ken Akamatsu.
If you need that last bit spelled out you're a moron.
And now that both people involved have passed on, it's time to reveal the truth: Fred Rogers was NOT, as has been rumored, a legendary military sniper before going into childrens' television. He was too young to serve in World War II, no formal sniper command was organized for Korea, and he was already broadcasting in 1968. The reason for this confusion is that the man generally recognized to be the greatest American sniper of all time, Carlos "White Feather" Hathcock, bore an uncanny resemblance to Fred Rogers. However, Hathcock died in 1999, while Rogers continued broadcasting into this year. All the stories about the world's greatest children's TV host being also a steely-eyed killer are just that: stories.
Grimlock news: the band changed its name to Riverblind. I'm currently writing lyrics and organizing riffs for the new album, which is going to be a first in that it'll actually use multiple tracks.
--Kai out
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proud nation kargeras
2003-02-27 13:26:46
Mostly because the source I was using for the voiceovers sucked, there's been a little change to the video. It won't really affect time to completion, and probably not the reaction of any audience either. What will affect T2C is the two volumes of Yawara I have to cut through sometime before 4pm tomorrow, and those two blockheaded dogs.
If I can get my lazy ass working this weekend, I could make a major dent in this one, but it probably won't happen until next week. I should also be looking at composing that CD for distro at Anime Boston, which is coming up, but that has to wait at least until after this video is done.
Current video: Kawashima Mirai, "Untitled 3" to Patlabor 2. Progress check: 25%. Expected catalog number: #70. As you can see the remix got nixed, I'm just going with the straight track. This idea is a little more than a year old, but it's still got that whole feeling going for it. I'm looking at this as an Otakon flagship, and possibly sending it out as sole entry to AX.
email me the name of the vocalist for the band quoted in today's title (should be easy), and you could win something.
--Kai out
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the last grave is dug
2003-02-26 12:23:14
The video is done, and its con appearances have been basically cancelled. Why? Because it's not that great, that's why. Something fucked up the timing, and so now I have an odd video that looks weird and doesn't make any sense instead of an avant-garde video that looks cool and doesn't make any sense. Fine, fine, lines.
I haven't captured the source for the next vid yet, partly because the post-prod stuff for #69 took a long while, and partly because I have to take care of two extremely high-maintenence dogs, which keeps me away from my editing gear 3-6 hours per day. I'm also going to hold off clipping, I think, until I get an idea of how the final mix for the song I'm using is going to sound. This'll be the first project I've used Audacity for, and it's already proven its worth just by letting me do multi-tracking. I can do edit and cleanup in Nero (still more comfortable with this system), then just drop the tracks in said mixing console and put out the new track. I love free.
Current video: Kawashima Mirai, "Untitled 3" (Shadow Government remix) to Patlabor 2. Progress check: 5%. Expected catalog number: #70. With this anime and this kind of remix naming, you know what the themes are gonna be. Mirai's stuff is deep and trippy enough with Sigh, but this solo techno cut is on a whole other level, and I'm going to try my best to kick it up yet another notch.
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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