Audio Comicbook Project

Beneath The Leaves

The above link will lead you to download a project I did a year and a half ago for school. The assignment was to convert a chosen comic story into a "radio play." I had the choices dwindled down to a comic version of a Ray Bradbury story and, ultimately, a quaint story entitled "Beneath the Leaves" by Rad Sechrist. It was a tough decision because I was envisioning (enHEARING?) that these would be very different sounding projects. I chose BTL because I thought it would be fun to play around with the dynamics using all kind of different songs, and that the characters would also be easier to capture.

Some of the requirements for the assignment included: at least 50 SFX, no more than seven minutes long, at least 4 characters, have a "cliffhanger" ending, and turn in a "professionally labeled" CD. I earned perfect scores in all areas except for the professionally labeled CD requirement. You should see the grading sheet, it was the very last item, on the very bottom - It's like a poop streak on an otherwise pristine paper.

I just now listened to it for the first time in recent memory and can already hear things I would've changed (there's the tweaker coming out.) I've always felt that it sounded kinda rushed, but that's the seven minute time limit for ya. I'm lucky it was able to squeak by and not get docked for going over.

So, yeah, here it is. It was a fun project and we all had a blast recording. I was even able to get Sarah in on the action and she did a bangup job. It's an uncompressed mixdown so you might have to up the volume some to hear all the totally brilliant nuances.

Dig it.

I want to go to there

And lodge here...

And do this...

So I can build this...

And sit next to it in this...

And let my mind do this...



For this long...

The Smokers

"He lit the cigarette and smoked it down to the filter in one breath. He silently thanked the cigarette company for being thoughtful enough about his health to include a filter to protect him. So he lit up another. This time he didn't exhale the squeaky-clean filtered smoke, but just let it nestle in his lungs, filing his body with that good menthol flavor. Some more smokers knocked on his door and they came in and all started smoking along with him. "How wonderful it is that we're all smoking," he thought. Everyone smoked and smoked and after they smoked they all talked about smoking and how nice it was that they were all smokers and then they smoked some more."

Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Steve Martin

ManCalledSun: goings on/behind the scenes/mind meld

Now that I've nabbed the attention of a select few here's a quick update on my thought processes concerning how this blog will be maintained as well as some information on updates that will soon be happening.

1) Yes, there will be plenty of Mitchell pictures. There, now that we've got that taken care of...

2) I am a compulsive tweaker. There are some things that I just cannot leave be; ManCalledSun has turned out to be one of them. So, assuming that you'll be tripping over yourself to check this blog as often as possible you'll soon notice that the layout will twist and morph like whisps of smoke.

3) I've enabled open comments. This means that anyone can leave poop comments. You can even post anonymously if you're big enough of a coward.

4) As the badge to the right indicates, I've inducted myself into Dylan's BIG RED ROBOT MONTHLY MIXTAPE BRIGADE. Sometime during the first week of every month I will have an official mix of righteous tunes to contribute to this noble effort. Keep an eye out, April is fast approaching.

5) There will also be occasional bonus mixes to download. I'm also working on getting together and uploading some of the audio projects that I've worked on these past couple years. It's all in good fun.

6) Any good suggestions for the blog roll?

7) Again, yes, there will be plenty of Mitchell pictures.

De-Mitchellized Zone

Yessir, Sarah and I are still in that transitional stage of caring for an innocent little crawling infant to keeping up with a headstrong, fearless and walking toddler. Suppertime is now much more interesting...

Dear Half-Priced Books stores

I love you. No, really - I LOVE YOU! In a barrage of glitzy, gaudy over-priced bookstores, you are tucked away in the corner of strip malls like a well-kept secret. You keep it realzz. Where Border's perversely expects me to pay eight bucks for a paperback - FOR A PAPERBACK(!!!!) - you come in and say:

Here, have the same piece of work for 75 cents; it's an older edition, the spine may be creased, the pages may be marked, but you know what, crusty old books smell better. And, hey, while you're here, check out the overstock/returned video games that we have. Check it out - this one sold retail for 30 bucks, but, tell you what, I'll charge you 10 because I'm that frikkin' cool.

I love you Half-Priced books. I love how you have no electronic inventory - That's how fast goods come and go, that's how awesome you are. You make the simple task of browsing an absolute joy. Plus, you have retro copies of Analog Science Fiction/Fact. That alone elevates you beyond a mere retail establishment. You are a beacon of hope and inspiration and an awesome place to kill 45 minutes! Your employees reek of geekdom, but I don't come to socialize; I come to feel that everything is alright in the world.

I love you half-priced books. Don't ever leave me.

<3 HPB + NJ 4-eva <3

Foley Day

Chrismack and I were in dire need of some SFX for our capstone projects. So, Friday morning I stopped by the campus to pick up the Tascam 2-Track and couple other pieces of gear then headed out to his place where we spent the afternoon and early evening getting some killer takes. The highlights of the day includes:


Chrismack struttin his stuff in cowboy boots that were two sizes too small



Melting his new shotgun mic with a blowtorch



The dog laying right in the middle of everything



Sound guys... what do they know? Psh...

Mitchell loooooves spaghetti

Way ahead of its time - if that means anything

From the reports of my earliest years, it has been made known to me (repeatedly) that I watched Dumbo... A lot. It appears, though, that in my young fragile little mind wasn't too hip to the pink elephants of parade sequence. Decades passed, and the movie sunk into the deepest regions of my longterm memory. Then youtube came along, and one day my mind perked and said, "I want something to blow me away... bring on the pink elephants!" And now, I get giddy everytime I watch it: A slammin' intro followed by a frantic musical montage, and animation that is as surreal as it can get - Ernst would be proud.

I would love to meet and greet the creative forces behind this epic. I'd buy them lunch and/or maybe pass along some Thorazine.

Blow-your-mind stuff right here, folks. Oh, and if anyone can make me an animated .gif of the wicked cool strutting elephanthead creature (2:07 - look at that thing... JUST LOOK AT IT!) I'll love you forever.

Wise words

Aaron Copland is one of those rare American composers whose music is widely recognized without knowledge of the logistics of who authored the work or what the title may be. You've heard him, trust me. Remember the bold music in the "BEEF! It's what's for frikkin' dinner - YEEEAAAHH!!!" commercials that got you all ramped up to go out and feast upon scrumptious bovine? That's Copland. The music was effective enough that I'm willing to bet that some vegetarians rejected their dining preferences for a nice juicy sirloin. American music = eat meat: Therefore, to deny yourself meat is un-patriotic.

During the Olympics everybody's all slobbering over John Williams and his stirring, victorious fanfare completely ignorant of the fact that there would be no John Williams without Aaron Copland. But, I digress...

The following is a quote chunk from Copland's book Music and the Imagination - I found it quite appealing, especially as a fan of instrumental music of all kinds:

“The precise meaning of music is a question that should never have been asked, and in any event will never elicit a precise answer. It is the literary mind that is disturbed by this imprecision. No true music-lover is troubled by the symbolic character of musical speech; on the contrary, it is this very imprecision that intrigues and activates the imagination... I can only recommend reliance on one’s own instinctive comprehension of the un-verbalized symbolism of musical sounds... Without theories, and without preconceived notions of what music ought to be, he lends himself as a sentient human being to the power of music.”

Dig it.

Most best amazing ever

Can I just share this with you? The above picture is of a book I bought for 50 cents at the library book sale this past Saturday. Everything about this cover screams utter awesomeness: The mind- blowing title, the fantastic creature, the author's have been labeled as "science fiction sorcerers", the retro type/layout - These are really the only reasons I bought the book. There is also a very strong possibility that I won't read a single story that this book contains. I'm opting, instead, to frame the whole thing and hang it up in our living room or place it on my nightstand so that it's the first thing I wake up to in the morning: "Well, today's GONNA TOTALLY SUCK!... oh, wait... No... No, evertyhing's gonna be alright."

Indeed.

"I'm a hopeless romantic..."

Well, I'M not, but I recently read an interview of a person who thinks this of herself. I've heard this phrase countless times before but for some reason this past instance made me stop and think: What does being a hopeless romantic actually mean? After much soul searching (two minutes over a bowl of Applejacks) here's what I came up with...

Being a hopeless romantic means that you are a sad and lonely person who insists on nit-picking the asinine details and therefore refuses to acknowledge the overall beautiful picture. Basically, you're an idiot. Instead of thinking you're being cute/fun you might as well keep it real and say, "I'm an idiot."

I, on the other hand, am perfect! PERFECT!

MY NAME IS HENRY!

AND I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WORTH A DAMN IN FIFTEEN YEARS!

Interesting Google Image searches

• Light Streaks - If only we could program our eyes to leave the shutter open for 3/4 of a second. The closer we get to Kaleidescope vision the better.
  
• Sombrero - Somebrero's are so awesome NASA named a galaxy after them. Do you have a galaxy named after you? Nope.
• Ted Danson - What an irresistible silver fox he's become.
  
• Loud - According to Google, Loud is a love/hate thang
• your name - Who is this weirdo? Who does he think he is befouling my Christian name like this?
• Bowling Ball Art - Cool ideas
  
• Street Fighter II - Bask in the glory days. Amongst the 50 billion pictures I've yet to see E. Honda.
• E. Honda - Oh... There he is - Large and in charge.
  

Dear HALL_Network network,

Thank you for your wireless internet. Though we leech a VERY LOW signal (that dips in and out quite frequently) it's still enough for us to do even the most basic of web surfing; enough even for me to start this blog. So thank you, HALL_network network, wherever/whomever you are.

Love,
The Joneses