Flashback Weekend - Saturday, August 11th - NMT Performs Tales From The Scrypt

We'll be at Flashback Weekend to perform a series of sketches called "Tales From The Scrypt." Or "Script." Anyway.

I wrote a bit and will be performing it. So, yay on me! Hey, Svengoolie will be there. And it will be cheaper than going to Wizard World.

I had some other thoughts but I will post them later. Hey, listen to the Hired Goons albums linked all over this blog site. We'll be playing in Chicago on Saturday, August 25th. www.gabbagabbadoh.com.

Gears #15 has been written. Slowly working on a live action "pilot" with Acid Storm voice Keith Carmack.

-paul

PS I am apparently NOT the only person who didn't like Amazing Spider-Man. Here's the other person. He pretty much nails it for me. So, thanks dude.

Quick Album Reviews - Aeges, um, some other stuff.

I cleaned out the KV HQ but only by a tiny bit. A few records here, a few records there, here a book, there a book. It helps make the place a tiny bit tidier, especially the KV Man Cave / Production Office.

This allowed me to pick up a few albums in exchange for what I brought in. Obviously this is done at a loss but the time it takes for the ebay listings and subsequent ebay billing, if I DO sell the items, well, it's worth it to get out of the house and go to a place that at least gives you a respectable trade in.

The wife included Parks And Recreation Season 2 on DVD for her part of the trade, and gave it to me. That was nice of her. I can now watch this in the other room while she is watching Star Trek: Voyager on the PS3. This can be a comment on the soullessness of society, that our lives our empty to the point where we both need a separate distraction in separate rooms. The dissolution of our marriage? Separate TVs, separate lives?

Everyone Loves Gears #14

Been a little while. I recorded the audio for this months ago. Didn't have the time to work on it and little motivation and then figured I better finish it before I lose all interest. Ended up having more actual "stop motion" moments than I planned! Anyway, waiting so long resulted in my losing interest in having a storyline that kicks off with this episode. But I can still have things happened and semi-"resolved." A continuation.

Amusingly, there have been a lot of requests from friends in my tiny acting world to do a voice on the show. And I'd like to expand the show so that it'd be...something else entirely. Likable characters, actual plot, that sort of thing.

But, you make plans and then God farts all over you. Or, maybe you have other things to do.

I have little else to say at the moment so I'll sign off.

A trip to the carnival and its predictably terrifying results.

I have to make an effort to be a better uncle-figure to my nieces, who live here in town and I don't see that often, even though they're the greatest and I'm pretty sure I have some sort of Favorite Uncle status with them. So that means more quality time with them. More hugs, more sit down talks about growing up and things like that.

A few years ago I took them to a carnival/fair thing in the parking lot of a large public high school and this year I thought I'd take one of the girls to it again after her mom asked me to hang out with her this weekend. They had a total blast. The wife and I had a blast watching them. Good times were had. I also didn't pay attention to the carnival workers during that visit, or at least have no recollection of them or their activities.

This year was slightly different, but only in that I WAS AFRAID, not for me, well kind of for me, but for any child who walked into that parking lot hoping to experience joy and not grow up painfully, tragically, and traumatically fast.

Some rocking. What else to talk about? Oh, I witness more meathead-ery.

I rocked out with my pal Mark last weekend on some music he's working on. Here's the results. More to come once stuff gets shaped n whatnot.

I rewrote Script #3 (Citizen Cobra) and may make another pass at it soon. My scanner doesn't seem to be recognized by the new OS and I'm a little upset by that and don't want to buy a new one. Thanks, Windows 7, for not recognizing anything I owned beforehand.

I have little else to write about, but I should type just to type and use this blog and write more often so we have a moment to visit with each other. So, after the jump, here's a true story.

Another Bugs & Cranks article...

...here.

ALSO! I was interviewed about Hired Goons. Check it out.

ALSO! Doin' a rewrite for script #3 for NMT.

ALSO! Will finish "Everyone Loves Gears #14" this week. Promise.

ALSO! Got my bike tire fixed.

ALSO! Jamming with a different possible band this week.

Lots of silly stuff going on. I really don't have much to talk about at the moment.

I wanna give a shoutout to my nurse pal who had to deal with a crack addict this weekend. I hope they pay you in the zillions.

-paul

Albums purchased recently: quick reviews (COC, Pelican, Torche, Metallica)

I was going to type up a long rambling thing about some of these, but life is short and I don't want to ramble on too much. I realized I was typing COC's life history and you know what? I'll just talk about the album.

3rd script reading and excess emotional baggage.

Taking a few moments to think about what went on a few nights ago. I can't lie to myself: one of the reasons I'm not drawing as much is those damn video games. Damn you, Ratchet & Clank! (a review of the Ratchet & Clank games for the PS3, coming soon.) But I was also spending a lot of time in front of this very computer (other than the last two weeks, of course) working on a 3rd script, the 2nd being The Voice and not being read at the moment.

3rd script is a parody and I belted out the outline in minutes yet had a rough time writing along with that outline.  Losing the computer for two weeks didn't help (and before C2E2, so I was too busy to write even if I had time to get the computer fixed right away). I was allowed to borrow a laptop, work on scenes from what I could remember, and then continue when I got the computer and attempt to finish in two days.

Computer trouble, stuff.

My computer decided to be difficult and hold all my music that I love to listen to hostage. Though I still buy CDs, this made it hard to listen to stuff while I type. Also, I wasn't able to type anything. And I have a script due Sunday. Which I will be finishing this weekend now that my computer is back in action. In that time, the Goons did two shows. Not sure how many we'll be doing anytime soon, as Monty is having a baby in July, so we'll be taking a break. I do have two musical projects I'm working on. I have to get back to typing. Excuse me. -paul

So I seriously thought I was going to die.

Dropped a cast member off. Headed home. Looked for a place to park. Got to an intersection, stopped. Someone else pulled up, i got there first, so I went through. The other car, some silver beater sports car that hasn't been stylish in quite a while with a big dent in the front right side, gunned it. Then he stopped as I went past him, and honked his horn. He turned to follow me. I went around the block and he kept honking his horn. I was a half block away from my place and I'm being followed. All I'm thinking about is I hope he doesn't start shooting. I can't imagine what his beef was. I stopped. He did that thing where he stopped at the end of the curb and not the stop sign before the crosswalk, like a lot of people do. I stop at the stop sign. Anyway, I stop at the stop sign nearest and now he's at my bumper. I go through the stop sign and he goes through with me, I guess me stopping meant he could go through with me, like a funeral procession. Like MY funeral because he's going to KILL me.

We Are Wyld Stallyns, some other stuff.

#1: I found my iPod. Ignore previous comic strip.

#2: We Are Wyld Stallyns just started at Theatre Wit, 1229 W. Belmont in Chicago. Click on the link to read more about the show...and to get tickets (plus, links to half price tickets!). I wrote the music for the band that fights Bill & Ted.

I thought I had more but i'm really tired. I should update more. Sleep now,
-paul

I lost my iPod. Waaa waaaa waaaa. The Paul Show #88.

Blog alert: Valient Himself

Check this site out. Click on the link in the title.

Not sure why, they came highly recommended from respectable sources, but Valient Thorr just didn't grab me at this week's COC show, at least not like Torche did. They weren't bad, I didn't DISLIKE them, I don't want to say anything that I didn't like about them because I'd be doing so out of ignorance and (as someone who used to review bands that I was unfamiliar with) that would be unfair. I do not want to write them off or turn anyone interested but also ignorant of their style away from them.

BUT IN THE MEANTIME, the singer has a blog, Valient Himself, and most of it is about old crappy movies (and some good ones). Low budget Sci-Fi channel, Up All Night, the kind of thing even The Asylum is too competent for. He writes hilariously (and of course, very well) about these movies. So kudos to his blog for KEEPING ME UP ALL NIGHT because I can't stop reading about his movie choices.

Hooray for Valient Himself! Check it out!

Corrosion Of Conformity - live at Double Door - Smarch 7th, 2012

I can't write about Corrosion Of Conformity impartially. I would like it to be known that if they put out an album of nothing, of complete silence, I would purchase it and champion it as the best damn tribute to John Cage ever.

(waiting to let that gag sink in...)

I have been very fortunate to have been given attention from the band regarding tour info and album stuff over the last decade and a half. So, yay me. And kudos to them, as they must have the patience of a saint to put up with me. I can't even put up with me. Maybe bumping into me only once a year makes it easier on them, who knows. I'm not bragging, I just dig the band, they are cool people and hopefully my incredible bias toward them won't cloud your decision to buy all their albums.

But you should buy all their albums.

Their latest is their self-titled. It is only a throwback to their old Animosity days in that there's three members instead of four. And maybe like the old days, the music seems to change almost randomly in each song and the riffage comes from left field.

Oh, the riffage. I wish Animosity and Eye For An Eye were recorded like this album. (This is blasphemy to all the fans from BACK IN THE DAY who saw COC create their scene as well as an entire new subgenre of music. Back off: I was 8 at the time.) The guitars never sounded this mean and angry before...and In The Arms Of God was pretty angry sounding! My favorite track, showcasing the talent of the reformed classic lineup, is Time Of Trials. It goes from wild n crazy to slow and heavy and it doesn't drag on forever. It's also the last song, which is perfect for the sort of album that when it's over, you feel like you didn't hear every nuance and you gotta go back again. Well played, COC.



I'm not sure what I can say about the album other than I dig it. The youtube clip here is two songs, The Doom which is heavy with a bit of thrash before switching to a bluesy jam, and then the previously mentioned and amazingly awesome Time Of Trials.

SO, live. This is only the fourth time I have been able to see them since they 'reformed,' once before at Riotfest 2010 and then twice last year. Sadly I had to skip out on their Champaign gig for a theater meeting. What can I say, I know they put on a show and last night was no exception.

The first band was "A Storm Of Light," and they were followed by "Valient Thorr" and I got to the club as Storm was finishing up, and I didn't know what to really make of Valient Thorr, such as whom to compare them to or if what I saw/heard was close to what they usually sound like. I don't want to say the wrong things about these bands and upset a fan with my ignorance so I'll just link them and you can check them out.

TORCHE, however: wow. A friend described them as Foo Fighters meets...someone really heavy, I don't know. (Maybe he said Helmet, as in the angrier material.) I don't know if "Foo Fighters" applies here either. Maybe something stoner rock meets Mastodon? I was super impressed. Whatever it was, it was aggressive yet groovin'. I totally dug it and rocked out a bit. They played some stuff from their upcoming album which is due in late April. Click on the link for their site and you can listen to a song from that new album. I picked up the EP "In Return" and listened to it ALL DAY. It's only 19 minutes long but it rocks super hard. I am listening to it now and am mad that I'm not headbanging, but it's hard to type that way.

COC: Finally, new material. They played some of the songs last year (MoneyChangers & Your Tomorrow). A good portion of the set was from Animosity (Loss For Words, Mad World, Consumed, Holier, Hungry Child) and there were a few more new ones (Psychic Vampire, Rat City, Leeches). Part of their set as a trio is opening with some of the instrumental Bottomfeeder from Wiseblood and then playing part of Vote With A Bullet (with Reed singing), so the highlight for me was the band playing the whole title track from Deliverance. It slammed. They were full of a lot of energy. No time between songs to rest up, just one after another and it stayed intense that way. They were also very animate, much more than when I've seen them on bigger stages. I wonder why that is, even years later? These sort of things create a better mood for both band and audience, I think, and that was the case last night. The crowd ate it up and rocked out. Older punks & metal heads & pretty much everyone else in the room joined together by the power of rock headbangin' together.

There you go. My clouded vision of my favorite band giving me what I wanted and then some, with me walking away super happy and telling you about it. So, while they're still on tour, check them out. They have an official site n stuff and you can buy the album here. I'm not sure what other details to bore you with so please check them out.

Incoming! Shows, projects, things!

Okay, SEVERAL things on the burner right now.

1. WE ARE WYLD STALLYNS! I wrote/co-wrote the music for two songs for the evil metal band in New Millennium Theatre's play. You can find out more information about the show starting off at the KICKSTARTER page for the show. Please check it out and donate a few bucks! I showed the metal band how to play the new stuff and they picked it up right away and are making it their own bad ass of bad assery that I can't wait to hear the finished product and see it performed on stage this spring!

2. HIRED GOONS show! We'll be performing at a fundraiser for New Millennium Theatre on Sunday, April 15th, at Fizz. Details once I have them.

3. HIRED GOONS show! Friday, April 20th @ Ye Olde Town Inn in Mt. Prospect. We had a blast at Poochie's bday party and they seemed to like us so they asked us back.

3.5. I might do something Kickstarter-ish for the Goons. Will let you know.

4. Am working on finishing the latest script and there will be a table read for the other script soon.

5. I drew a strip for The Heckler but I'm not sure if they'll use it.

6. I'm sure I have some other things that I'm doing but as I think about it, really I'm just in the process of trying to get the Goons booked this spring and finishing this script and maybe getting back to drawing.

7. Oh, Everyone Loves Gears #14 has been recorded, but I still have to take pictures and edit the whole thing together. Soon.

Um, this may or may not seem like a lot. It's not a lot to me, as far as volume, though it means a lot. I really feel like I should be doing more things. That's my own fault that I'm NOT, of course. Like drawing.

Sadly, my laziness has been a result from those damn video games you've been hearing about.

The mrs. picked up Batman: Arkham City and though I'm a guy who shouts "Make Mine Marvel!" instead of "Amen" during church, I gotta say that I have more love for the Batman. Or The Goddamn Batman. It's surprisingly...vulgar. The word "bitch" gets thrown around a lot. Other than the non-stop swearing and such, the voice acting is great (except for Talia; holy crap what an annoying character). The Mrs. is even shocked by the amazing graphics.

I played the game on "Easy" because let's face it, I die a lot in these games Usually in the opening menu. And i want to get through the game and not cry myself into a curled up fetal position because all I want to do is beat up Mr. Freeze or whomever. That said, the fighting portion of the game is just kinda pointing Batman at whomever you want to punch and pressing the fight button and he punches them. Again, I didn't play it on the other difficulty level (yet) but sheesh, getting through the legion of goons hiding out in Arkham City is brutal....FOR THEM!

I will say that several times, I was eaten by a shark.

And me with no Bat-Shark Repellent!

So it's really just flying from hither to yon around the city courtesy of a grappling hook and your cape and beating up oblivious goons. Fortunately ascending levels to open up unlockable weapons and attacks is pretty easy (again, I admit now that I was on the "Easy" level of difficulty) which I'm grateful for, as opposed to ever-widening level upgrades that would make having to beat up a ton of similar goons with fewer challenges seem painfully redundant despite being necessary. So, thanks, gamers.

If you think I'm a wimp for praising that aspect, please note that this is a video game. I don't deserve more respect for beating it because the level-ups are simple. I would deserve respect if I did something real, like become a real medical professional and saved real people's lives. I doubt there are real life lessons in Arkham City I could learn and apply in these situations, aside that I am going to ask some of my female friends to wear similar Catwoman suits (along with the same amount of lipstick).

So, anyway, I enjoyed the game. It's easy to get around Arkham City, the side missions are fun, there's only a few frustrating moments. I hate the kinds of games where I have to go BACK in an open free-exploring world and it's a zillion miles away. In Arkham City, it's easy to get around, even if the objective's at the other end of town, and thus I don't feel the need to reset the game because of so much time even MORE pointlessly wasted having to retrace my steps from the last save point (seeing as how I'm already pointlessly wasting my time playing the game in the first place).

"I am not really a gamer," says the guy who just spent days playing a video game. I have been pretty picky about the games I've purchased. "Oh, get Skyrim/Uncharted! You'll love it!" No, you don't know me, I probably won't love it. I'll love a movie that has a beginning, middle, and end. I won't love feeling like I'm PLAYING a movie. You don't play a movie. I like playing War For Cybertron not because I feel like I'm involved in some interactive art presentation that I need to defend against Roger Ebert's dismissal of video games being art; I just like to pretend I'm a robot smashing the crap out of other robots. So for a few hours I liked being the Goddamn Batman.

"WHERE ARE THEY?" the wife shouts randomly from another room.

I enjoyed the living heck out of the Ghostbusters game because I got to be a Ghostbuster. I would enjoy the game over another forced movie (without Bill Murray), but this is only because of my obsession with Ghostbusters. I would not recommend it as a work of art to be compared to the movies or discussed at a book club. I am enjoying the "Ratchet & Clank" series because I enjoy the gameplay, I think the characters and even the enemies are cute, and the presentation done very well. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing it but I admit that I wouldn't have picked it up if not for it being bundled with the PS3.

That is not an admission that I'm wrong about video games, even though I'm enjoying that particular game that I wouldn't have otherwise even given a thought about. Now it's it my life at the moment and I'm enjoying it. Score one for video games.

I would just be doing something else with that time, and it would produce something that would exist that I could call my own and even with my shoddy workmanship I could share and maybe be proud of. That's how I feel about video games, and about what I really should be doing with my time.

But, still, I'm the goddamn Batman.