July 18, 2007

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:47 am

Howdy, all. I've been following this here thread, but feel funny posting early in the day for yesterday's question. Know what I mean, Verne? How about an East coast question regarding...the future! Oooooo scary!

QOTD - What creative project(s) would you most like to pull off? I know that Niveous has a pile of them going, Spud's building a self designed house, Glenn Case and Jim Tyrrell are working on albums. Whatchoogot?

I hope to make a "career" spanning music box-set with book, art, spiffy box, covering from childhood 'til today. Also, a collection of self made comic books telling stories from my life. (Hey, my life isn't that interesting, but there are some good chapters) I don't believe myself to be a great artist, in any regard, but I'd like a couple of rememberance packages for when I'm sitting in the home, struggling to remember what I did way back when. Or to cling to while living under the bridge and asking myself what went wrong.

jimtyrrell · Post by **jimtyrrell** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:55 am

Work work work. I'm taking Fridays off in July so I can play shows, and it makes the work week that much more hectic. Starting tonight, I've got six shows in five days. Woo!

QotD: Paco's answered this one for me. I got a message yesterday saying the audio CD I sent in is clipping from start to finish. Well, frankly, if I knew what I was doing I wouldn't be using them in the first place, right? Anyway, I gotta get in touch with them today and figure out how to get good source material to them.

EmbersOfAutumn · Post by **EmbersOfAutumn** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:56 am

QotD: I've actually got a ton of miscellaneous creative projects, way too many to ever cover:

I enjoy video games more than most people (geek alert), and so most of them are built around that. A project (though not very creative) I'll be starting soon is going through a popular series of them from the very first one to the last one put out (11 in all). I also have computer software for creating some basic computer games, so I have one unfinished project sitting out there for that, as well as an almost finished Text-Adventure game.

I also want to develop a website for personal reasons as well as to showcase some of my music, and possibly to advertise for a job I'm trying to create as a local music/jingle writer for commercials and whatnot.

king_arthur · Post by **king_arthur** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:52 am

Jim T. - be aware that "clipping" may mean that their machine detected four samples in a row at max level or something... it's not clipping that one could hear, but it's clipping that the duplicating machine detects. If you mixed low and then normalized, you shouldn't be seeing that problem, but if you pushed the mix, it's likely you do have places where there are multiple samples in a row maxed out, and yet it sounds just fine.

QotD: I think I mentioned in one of the discussions about eSnips that I'd like to upload all the songs I wrote and recorded for songfight! but never submitted, and then use that to make "the Complete King Arthur" available.

An even bigger project that I work on now and then is the "Diary Project" - basically, it's taking all my old journals, songs, loose stuff, photos, etc., and incorporating them together into a day-by-day journal of my life since 1972. I don't have material for _every day_ since then, but I have journals going back that far, and calendars and ticket stubs and stuff like that, and I've been able to go through some old years and fit a lot of the pieces together. I went walking around Berkeley a few years ago and took pictures of a lot of the stuff I remember from when I lived there (76-82), found things on the internet, managed to remember a few things... so, yeah, someday I would love to actually get all this stuff collected together, organized, indexed, illustrated, and then donate the whole mess to the psychology department at some university so that somebody in need of a thesis project can figure me out. My overarching goal on this thing is to try to keep it going until 2022, fifty years worth. It's not entirely impossible...

We are safely back from our trip to Mexico, setting up computers for a classroom down there. I think my digestive system will be back to normal by the weekend. The Mrs. goes back to school (as a teacher) on Thursday, so we're getting settled back into the routine. A bunch of "back at home" stuff to take care of today, but also try to get in some unwinding and resting time, too...

Charles

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:56 am

Hey everyone. It's raining in NYC. And I have 10,000 files to deal with today at work. Today isn't going well. But at least I'll soon have a Wii and tomorrow is Aurora's b'day and a Harry Potter block party in my neighborhood, so I have lots to look forward too.

QotD:

I always have something going on. The big thing lately is Septemberian, my webserial. I have written 11 installments so far, making myself way ahead of the game when it comes to releasing them. (That's 5+ months of content) So now I've just gotten get together the other bits and pieces for the project:

- Building the website (that's easy)
- Getting a theme song (hopefully an SF'er will help)
- Getting some artwork (that's been the tough part)
- Typing up the story (a chore but an easy one)
- Promotion

I've also been wanting to do some more music. A while back I gathered together a crack team of musicians to do some grunge music. But I think the musicians have had time conflicts so far and have put the project on the backburner. So while that sorts itself out, I have been psyching myself up to doing a new solo album.

I have spent a lot of time trying to build up a band (whether it be the unnamed grunge band or Killed By Spiders, with Luke & Lucidia) that I haven't been making music. I have just been planning and planning. And the other day, the Qotd was about favorite songs. Dan said "I Don't Believe You" and I took a step back when I heard that. And I realized that I lost a little of myself in the struggle to build a band. What happened to me just sitting down with my guitar and doing some simple g^2 stuff.

I know that g^2 is a creature that brings seething hatred into the hearts of many. The idea of a guy just sitting down in front of a mic with just an acoustic guitar is almost sinful. But I truthfully love it. It's minimal but at the same time conveys so much emotion. I know that I get a lot of notice when I do the XTRG solo type stuff with TTS and backwards sounds (not referring to the XTRG band, which I hope to do more stuff with soon.). But that's just experimentation. It's kind of "throw it out there and see if it sticks". I don't think that I convey a sense of myself in those. Not like I do with g^2 stuff. Plus I see the stuff that Luke and Dan have been able to do with minimal arrangements and I wanna see what I can get out of it too.

Not saying that I don't want a band still. But I need to do some g^2 too. So many projects.

All that and there's still some work that needs to be done at http://www.newzeromusic.com but that doesn't mean you shouldn't stop by and enjoy some tunes. New Silent E recordings coming soon.

jimtyrrell · Post by **jimtyrrell** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:03 am

Thanks, King Arthur. I think your info hits the nail on the head. I'll be talking with them as soon as California wakes up.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:05 am

Wednesdy, I have to remember to put the garbage out tomorrow.
Work has been ultra busy and I'm working this weekend for Traffic.com too...

Project? I'd be lucky if I can even get a song written and recorded. Between two jobs, one & a half bands, and the frickin' dishes I do not have time to take on any 'projects'.

I hope work slows down.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:44 am

So it looks like I'm moving to San Francisco (well, the general vicinity). It's all very overwhelming. I should talk more with the resident SFers.

QotD: Like everyone here I have a bunch of musical projects, and I also have a lot of comic projects, and a lot of ideas for Internet projects, and I suck at time/energy management.

Billy's Little Trip · Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:11 am

You East Coasters sure know your way around a QOTD. No wonder you funny talking fellers dominate the roll call.

I think it's official
AAW isn't going to happen for me
I have 4 days to record 30 more minutes of music
A very busy work week
Plus I have early appointments all week
So I can't drink any inspiration all week
I'm not a morning person
So I need to do my best to stay sharp
A big part of my income for the next 6 months depends on these meetings
When all the contracts are signed, then I can relax
It's so heavy on my mind right now
I wouldn't say I'm stressed about it
Because I'm way too easy going about stuff like that
But as I was working on my music last night, it was very influenced by work
So I had to walk away from it for a while
I hate it when my music turns into "business related" gibberish

QOTD:
I'm a mechanical minded guy and I like to take on mechanical projects mostly. I always have music things happening too. I have two big projects that I have been working on.
#1. I developed a water management system for residential swimming pools and spas. It's now in use on around 100 pools/spas and working very well. Every time I see a common problem, I make changes to fix it. Unfortunately it's an expensive system at this time, so it's only sold in contracts on new, high dollar, pools. But I keep working on ways to redesign it to make it more affordable for existing pools and spas.
Also, I've been the only one that can install them because they are very involved, but I've got 3 guys trained on the install now and how to trouble shoot and repair them, so I'm not so overwhelmed. I'm working on a complete easy to assemble package so that it can be homeowner purchased and installed.

#2. I have an Internet Hot Rod apparel and accessory biz I've been trying to make happen for some time now. My friend owns an apparel and accessory distribution business that sells licensed logo stuff to car dealers, IE: Ford, Chevy, Dodge, etc. As a distributor, he can't sell retail, but I can. I run a Mustang site which has 42 other automotive sites under the same auto group. This gives me a perfect marketing advantage.
My only problem, I suck and the E-commerce type stuff and that's where I hit my road block. I designed a great site with several hundred different items to sell, but now I have to make it so people can actually purchase stuff, lol. I have to give each item a part number, price, tax, shipping, etc. ugggg! I have like 50 different key chains just for Mustangs alone. It gives me heat flashes and a back ache just thinking about all the data entry.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 2:21 pm

I have many projects... coming out with a CD isn't that hard, seeing as how I've done it 5 times or so already... but it is an awful lot of work. however, i'm currently making a soundtrack for a comic book, and that's been a challenge. Also trying to finish the DB&tI album, for some reason J$ and I have hit some speedbumps. So I guess those are it, the more challenging projects for whatever reason.
-bill

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:06 pm

QOTD: I would hope that out of the hundred or so songs I've written in the past 3 years - I could cull them down to about about a dozen good ones, record them properly and make a pretty good album. I have no idea how to go about this though really. Can I do the recordings at home to the best standard I can manage and then give files to someone to make them sound professional?

How are you doing your album Jim T?

NatchDan · Post by **NatchDan** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 4:31 pm

My project currently is to arrange and perform my music live with either just me or myself and one or two others with laptop backing. I also want to do an original score for Nosferatu, but the problem there is getting started. It'd hard to begin a project like that - however, I want to get into the film music world, so it's something I should really do. It'd maybe be nice to start with something shorter, though.

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:08 pm

I cannot sleep when I am supposed to be able to sleep. I watched Spirited Away this morning when I should have been sleeping. That was an incredible movie.

qotd: I would like to finish the stories I've been working on lately. I would like for them to be the best stories I've ever written and something publishable. That's all really. I have no long term goals. Long term goals cause me too much stress and anxiety.

jimtyrrell · Post by **jimtyrrell** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 5:54 am

Caravan Ray wrote:How are you doing your album Jim T?

Short answer: The only way I can.

Longer answer: I'd like to have booked some studio time, but family and work/show obligations forbid it. So I've been chipping away at getting some good tracks on my home system. I've improved my recording equipment/methods somewhat since I started, and I've gone back and re-recorded some of the older tracks with this new setup. Some songs needed only a few instruments redone, and some needed a complete overhaul. In a couple cases (Big Disco, for one), I found I couldn't much improve on the original performance. Maybe if I had more time. But with the Weird Al show coming up, I've got to get this thing pressed.

The results have been sent to Diskfaktory, and they're gonna do some basic EQ and compression and level adjustment stuff. Then they're making a hundred copies and shipping 'em out. I'm hopeful that the sound adjustments help to give the CD a little more 'context', and that it sounds more like an album than just a bunch of songs. I'll let you know how it turns out.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:24 am

I've designed an awesome online archive system for genealogy-related type things that facilitates the archive and tagging process and relates assets between all users of the system. This allows some pretty cool navigation, building a greater context around peoples' own collection. I'm looking for organizations to drive adaptation so that oral history can be captured as well, but mostly to help capture the stories of the generations that are dying out. Remote field work could include visiting nursing homes and relatives in their own space so that you can scan images and letters, and then capture the stories behind them and catalog them appropriately.

Not having had much of an extended family scene, I've recently become more aware of my roots, and in moving my father to a new house this year (he's 90) it became more apparent that we'll soon miss the opportunity to document his life and the huge archive he has (he was an educator, photographer and artist).

Well, I dream about making this happen.

thehipcola · Post by **thehipcola** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:39 pm

heh, a few years ago I too thought it would be brilliant for my extended family to start archiving images and scanned thingies in a central repository, for similar reasons as Roymond...people were aging and a few were leaving us and taking their stories, our heritage, with them. So I suffered, SUFFERED through trying to figure out the installation and configuration of Gallery on my first web-hosting account, finally got it all sorted and working, and despite the entire wide-area family's original support, found that my brilliant idea was just not that important to almost all of them.

Here's wishing you luck with that, Roymond!

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:35 pm

Next time, go with MediaWiki. Gallery sucks, and MediaWiki also allows everyone to add commentary and so on (and it's pretty easy to make it so that only authorized people can write to it).

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:51 pm

My grandma recorded a bunch of remiscences onto audiotape recently, and my aunt typed it all up into a nice package with photos too. My aunt says "Never again." My grandma's book so far only covers until about when my mom was born so I was hoping she'd do more. I also thought that my grandpa would have some good things to say, but then he was in the hospital for a long time, then rehab, then he died, so there are stories that we will not hear. So, uh, not to be morbid, but please for your own sakes try to get people to record things now... you will be happier later.
-bill

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 2:29 am

Niveous wrote:Dan said "I Don't Believe You" and I took a step back when I heard that. And I realized that I lost a little of myself in the struggle to build a band. What happened to me just sitting down with my guitar and doing some simple g^2 stuff.

i just found this thread somehow. i don't know.

hello everyone, after a long absence.

anyways.

"i don't believe you" is still one of my favorite niveous songs. i haven't listened to it in a couple of years i know. but out of all the "i don't believe you's" this is the one that comes into my head. i can hear the fuzz of the recording and the heart of the song. it's just all there. i love niveous' simple openheartguy+guitar songs. awesome.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 7:50 am

Was it a favorite song a year and a half ago?

Niveous · Post by **Niveous** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:20 am

Thanks Dan.

Hmmm, looking back at that thread:
- I didn't do the webserial. I still wanna do Septemberian but it seems more like a novel than anything else.
-The new Silent E never came out. Got recorded but we just haven't released it yet.
- I haven't recorded any new g^2 but it's moreso because I'm struggling to find a music space in my home.
- Despite that, there is new Niveous music on the way....stay tuned.

Billy's Little Trip · Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:47 am

Interesting to see what I wrote. Although my swimming pool water management system is quite successful, my online auto apparel biz never saw the light of day.

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