JOURNAL: Soul Bro Ryu (A. Maximillian Russell)

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  • To Jack an idea from Big Big Truck - 2003-08-24 18:54:44 I decided to do a little searching and see who comes up on the obscure meter here at AMV.org. The results were...well disheartening:

    (MUSIC ARTIST: # of RESULTS)
    - A Tribe Called Quest: 0 (I'm...I'm speechless on this one...)
    - Black Sheep: 0 (Not even "Flavor of the Month"?)
    - J-Zone: 0 (I'll be damned if that isn't gonna change...)
    - Hieroglyphics: 0 (Not only Del is being dissed, and this is a group that's all about anime. Hell, how many time have they mentioned Neo-Tokyo in their songs? ^_^)
    - Troop: 0 (I should have know this one. Who's "Troop" you say? "Spread my Wings"? Oh...never heard of that one, eh?....I'll shut up now...)
    - MiniBosses: 3 (Holy shit! Wait a minute, only one of these are an actual anime music video. Criminy...)
    - Thomas Newman: 1 (Yeah, buddy! And to something to Shawshank, too! Something must be done to music from "Road to Perdition" and I think I have the cast-iron manifolds to do it. ^_^)
    - Jerry Goldsmith: 3 (This is promising. I've been wanting to do a western-themed AMV to the theme from "The Loner" for some time now. Just gotta find that SDTK...)
    - Eminem: 61 (No kiddin'! I would have never guessed. Somebody shoot me...)
    - GangStarr: 4 (-and one of them is mine. Well, out of respectable lyricists I'm glad to see cats are making AMVs to their joints.)
    - Binary Star: 0 (I was expecting this. I guess if your from Detroit and you're not Eminem, you'll get no rotation. If I can find FireTripper on DVD, I could do a video to "Glen Close"...)
    - Earth, Wind & Fire: 1 (Christ, that's it?)
    - The Ohio Players: 0 (I'm serious, where's that gun?)
    - Elysian Fields: 0 (Not suprised, hard stuff to do a vid to.)
    - RJD2: 0 (Good, cause I'm doing one to "The Horror" and no one will stop me!!! Now only if all of JoJo's Bizzare Adventure would come out on DVD already...)
    - DJ Shadow: 4 (A much better turnout than I expected...)
    - Led Zeppelin: 12 (-and 4 are to the SAME track - "Immigrant Song". I still can't believe there only Twelve...)
    - The Pharcyde: 0 (OMG! No one even thought to do an Eva vid to "Runnin'")
    - Peanut Butter Wolf: 0 (The man has a TON of vinyl and no one has hooked him up with an AMV yet.)
    - The Lootpack: 0 (Oh, well...)
    - Masta Ace: 0 (......)
    - Leaders of a New School: 0 (...............)
    - Busta Rhymes: 9 (You have no idea how ironious it is to see that Leaders of a New School - Busta's old group - got no hit, but when he sold out, people start using his music. Yare, yare daze...)
    - Deee-Lite: 0 (I guess I'm a bit behind the times on this one, but fuck it, Lady Miss Keir is still the dopest. Gotta' love a girl that can rock turntables! ^_^)
    - Sonic Sum: 1 (Yep, I'm still the only one...)
    - Ugly Duckling: 0 (Back to ground-zero.)
    - Stevie Wonder: 1 (Wow...the greatest songwriter in our lifetime, and only one person has sampled him. I'm starting to regret this...)
    - Five Deez: 0 (Lord...)
    - Unspoken Heard: 0 (Seriously regretting this...)
    - Bill Withers: 2 (Well, there goes that idea for a vid to "Ain't no Sunshine". Nice to see him listed though.)
    - Mel Torme: 1 (Come on, there's always room for Mel Torme!)
    - Linkin Park: 1254 (And I'm about spent...)

    Well, I guess it's to be expected, but man I'd wish folks would actually look for new music instead of using what's spoonfed to them on the radio and on MTV. Checkm8 gave me really good advice when he told me to make videos only for yourself, in the end you'll enjoy them more.

    Then again, if I want acclaim, Linkin Park is the way to go. I feel really dirty right now.

    Peace out. 
  • I'm goin' comatose... 2003-08-23 16:02:03 Christ, I've been in from of a 'puter screen for almost seven hours now, thanks to weekends here at the paper being slow as molasses. That's a good thing, since surviving Fridays here is a testament all it's own. Sunday aren't much better, if not slower, but that's my last day of work until I ride out into my "weekend" of Monday & Tuesday. Yeah, buddy!

    But I dig these "lazy" weekends here and hope they'll never end (unless my schedule gets fucked). I get to bring manga, music, and my laptop in and watch the scores of DVDs I borrow from numerous friends and watch series I'm too cheap to buy. ^_^ Well, at least for the moment.

    I work on my vids here too, and sometimes come up with decent sequences while working, during all things. The "Speed Game" sequence I did in "Across The Board" (when Hikaru leaves the stones spinning) was made here, and was my favorite moment in the whole video. I'm not sure how it'll come across to others, but making it was digable planets.

    That preview for the video that supposed to come out after "Across the Board" - "Very Educational" - is an AMV that won't be out for a while, since I've been neglecting my projects for "Grooveline" & "Madness". No it isn't to "Golden Boy", and yes, it is to "Great Teacher Onizuka", but for those curious of the song that plays during the credits, it's "The First Day of School" by J-Zone.

    That vid will actually be two songs back to back, since both "Recess" & "First Day" are pretty short tracks. "Recess" is also by J-Zone, but the vocalist on both is Al-Shid, a cat that appears often on Zone's albums. J-Zone and his clique put out some quality music and if you're an underground hip-hop enthousiast, this shit is for you. He's actually got a new album out ("$ick of Bein' Rich") and as soon as I can find it in town, I can sleep at nights again. ^_^

    Well, I'm out of here in a few minutes and I'm riding out the time typing here. I'm off to a shindig over by UCF (home of JACO) called the "Orlando Video Gamers Association" run by my boy Buck, and sponsored in-part by the video game store I used to work for, Cybertron Video Games. (Yeah, Cybertron" as in TransFormers...by the way, OVGA was in charge of the game room at AFO3 & 4, and they did a bang up job.) They have a couple of tournaments going on today, but the only one I could have a chance in was Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and that shit ended at 3pm (it's 5 now). I still might be able to get some rounds of Capcom Vs. SNK 2 in though if I'm lucky, especially since I'm bringing one of my custom remixes for the DC.

    Well, I guess I'll see what happens when I get there. Can't wait until more Go on Monday. In between all this, AMV making and the gym, and can't complain too badly about being bored. Makes me wonder how I'd fit a relationship in my life with all this going on.

    Fuck it, that's my time. Peace... 
  • It's up! 2003-08-23 00:20:12 And I'm out. Hope you dig "Across the Board" and whether you do or not, drop a comment on what you thought of it.

    Thanks, and good night. ^_^ 
  • "Across The Board" Premiering Tonight 2003-08-22 18:41:20 Well, at least I think. I watched the almost finished version this morning, and before I left for work, I had Premiere start crunching the final rendition of it. All I've got to do when I go home is compress it to XviD (which'll take about an hour and a half), and then upload it to the site.

    My next two days off aren't until Monday & Tuesday, and if I play my cards right, I can sit down and watch all of Nadesico over again, looking for choice scenes to match up with the lyrics in "Madness". If I wasn't between paychecks, I'd probably find something more outgoing to do, but with dough and gas low, I think I'll be sticking around the house as much as I can.

    Went to a Go session last night, where folks get together and play, you guessed it, "Go". Our group used to meet up once a week (at the Winter Park Villas Borders in Winter Park, FL), on Mondays, but since some of our members getting back into the flow of their semesters for college, some of them can't make it to the usual time of 7pm on Monday nights. So one of those cats suggested that there be a second night on Thursdays and with the quickness the second holy night of Go weekly was born.

    Anyway, I played 2 games of 19 x 19 and they ended up in mixed results. First I played Chad, who is relatively new to the game, and giving him a 4-stone handicap, he beat me by over 50 points. Then the head of our Go club, Rob, who was watching that game, played me in a game of Shidou-Go ("Teaching Go") and giving me a 7-stone handicap. I won that game, but the victory felt kinda empty since the handicap was so big. Plus I could have lost tremendously if Rob didn't point out a major flaw in my defense during mid-game.

    I've only been playing Go for about 5 months, and I don't expect to be a pimp at the game anytime soon, but I'm a little discouraged that I don't see some of the major mistakes I make on the board until after I play them. Not to mention, while I'm struggling with certian gameplay issues, my friend, Nick the Stampede - who I taught how to play - is advancing so much faster then I am. I'm proud of his game, but at the same time I'm disapointed in mine.

    Guess Go's learning curve is different for everyone. I'll just have to hang in there.

    Til' next time... 
  • The way things stand... 2003-08-21 18:36:08 Well, it's been a while. I still have to finish my AFO experience, but I keep putting it off since the only time I find time to do this is when I'm at work. BTW, I work for the Orlando Sentinel, which I guess is Central Florida's largest newspaper. What I do, would take most of my break-time to explain, so fuck it, I'll just sum it up and say I'm a middle man of sorts here. Anyway, this is all besides the point...

    I got 20 or so seconds left of "Across the Board" to do, and then some touch-ups to certian sequences and it'll be done. I worked on the opening and the creditws for the videos first this time around, so that I wouldn't rush them when I finshed the actual video itself. As for this video being competition worthy, I doubt it, since the song isn't really well known, but at least it has a few bishonen characters in it - which usually gets major pop from the crowd at AMV contests.

    Then again, fuck that too. If a video wins on audience alone, then every video to Angel Sannctuary/Fruits Basket/Evangelion/(Enter pretty boy/shoujo anime here)/etc would win, and make this scene the last thing I'd want to be a part of. Especially if it's a song to the latest "pop" diva or rap-rock band. I'll keep my music tastes obscure for the most part, and kepp rocking some more of those classic titles no one gives a shit about. If I can turn one person on to an anime or a musical artist I used, then making the video was worth it, not to sound corny...

    I've been hitting the gym extra hard lately, especially after AFO when I realized even more that if one is to have a chance with a person the opposite sex that has the same interests as you, chances are being in decent shape is a plus. It's used to be a goal of mine to meet and have a relationship with a woman around my age (26) that does have similar activities, but as I get older, that becomes harder and harder. Almost so, that I'm really thinking about giving up on that quest after the next AFO. So, I'm giving myself until the end of July 2004 to get down to the weight that's suited for my build (about 160-180 lbs.) and if I still can't hook up with a "chosen one", I guess that shit wasn't meant to be.

    Of course, I always have an alterior motive, and this trial is no different. I've been saving up for a trip to Japan, but I don't plan on going until May 2005. I sure as hell want to be in prime shape when I go too, since I plan to be walking a lot around Tokyo, Osaka, and other places, and if I'm still single, meeting local girls there will a bit easier if I'm not the big bastard I'm right now.

    Christ, I sound so superficial, but in the end so is the world. I didn't even mean to run on so long about this but since I'm on the subject I might as well talk about it. I hope when this weight loss is said and done, I still have some of the humility I have now and don't become an arrogant prick (i.e. - certian in-shape folks I've had the misfortune to run into at the gym), still being able to put myself in a person's shoes who may not be in healthy condition themselves.

    There's no doubt I'm shaking this curse once and for all, even if it kills me either physically or emotionally. Just got to stay positive.

    One last thing, my boy, Nick the Stampede, and I had a discussion about what makes a video popular, and he wants to a joint project to "Holy Calamity" from Handsome Boy Modelling School. I've been wanting to do a video to this sone for a long time, but I've been hesistant, thanks to my level of skill. He thinks that we should do it to various anime, but I have a strong aversion to random anime videos. Not that they are bad, but it's less of a challenge to me to go that route then to pick a certian show and stick with it. I personally wanted to do the video to "Naruto" but since I don't have DVDs of that series yet, that's a definite no. Not to mention, EVERYBODY and their mother has done a Naruto video as of late, and it's already starting to get old.

    Besides, after reading the manga up to where Japanese are, the best episodes are still yet to come, and I can't consider even using the show until those eps are made.

    Anyway, that's my time. Peace out for now. ^_^ 
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