Friday APR 25th 2008 - GENERAL UPDATE - Nothing much new to report on the music front. I was sick with the flu for quite a while and it left me with laryngitis so I have't been able to work on the vocal parts for Phantom Pain (see below), but I'm hoping to get back to work on that song and others soon. I recently organized an Apple Logic 8 seminar for the students of the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology, a local recording school that I attended myself back in 1988-89 (almost 20 years ago!). It was a very memorable day for me, seeing how the school had changed and being able to give back in some way. After being introduced to the students I told a story that illustrated how far recording technology has come since 1988; one of our tests for editing involved re-assembling a jumbled up version of the song "Strange Animal" by Gowan from a solid piece of 1/4" tape that the staff had previously cut up and re-recorded onto. I got a lot of stunned looks (and a few snickers at the mention of Gowan) from the students who primarily use computer programs like Logic and Pro Tools to edit songs now. In other news, I just watched the movie Cloverfield (SPOILERS TO FOLLOW - you have been warned!). I love monster flicks so I was looking forward to this movie, and while it made me shake my head as I thought about the CG work that must have gone into making the film I was left feeling disappointed at the shortness of the film and the opportunities left unexplored. In the Special Features stuff on the DVD, which does a great job of showing you how the film was made, the film-maker professes a love for Godzilla movies and a desire to make the same impact on the American monster film genre, but he fails in a couple of very basic ways. The Godzilla movies always did a great job of providing back-story about where Godzilla came from that created the rich mythology of Godzilla. In Cloverfield there is no back story as to where the monster comes from, he just shows up. And the creature does little but smash around the city of New York aimlessly. Godzilla always had intent. There was always a reason for him to show up (an earthquake, or perhaps to battle another monster to protect Tokyo). And Godzilla was a character that we could get behind especially when he was standing up for his favourite city. The monster in Cloverfield (named "Clover" by the filmmakers for some strange reason) doesn't have any personality. He just roars, destroys buildings and eats people. As a result the movie ends up without a plot, though there is a love story subtext with the main characters, both of whom I didn't care much about because they are boring, two-dimensional, good looking people without any character flaws. I did care about the two supporting characters, Hud and Marlena, because of their awkward relationship (if you can call it that) that slowly evolves over the first three quarters of the movie, but they both get offed in horrible ways and I was left feeling angry and thinking the film-makers had made a mistake about which couple should have been offed. Finally, the movie finishes way too short at a "we-were-just-getting-started" 73 minutes, and I was left feeling like a lot of story opportunities were left unexplored, especially in the lack of backstory regarding the creature. But it was entertaining and the CG work was amazing. Amazing CG may have meant a movie was exciting 10 years ago, but these days it's par for the course. Film-makers can't afford to leave out the backstory, the plot, and proper character developement anymore. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Oh, and I didn't get sick watching it.

That's it for now. Hopefully some music news and a sample next update...

Tuesday MAR 18th 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - After reading my article about the Tom Sawyer "growl sound", fellow Roland SH-32 user Joe emailed me and asked if I could send him a copy of my Tom Sawyer patch from my SH-32. I did a little digging in the manual and managed to get the patch data saved as a .MID file and put it on my server. If you have a Roland SH-32 and you are interested in adding the Tom Sawyer growl sound to your SH-32, then click here for further instructions.

Saturday MAR 08 2008 - Found another handful of old concert tickets to add to my online collection. I didn't realize I have seen Rush 9 times. And I found the ticket from Triumph's very last show before Rik Emmett quit, although now I hear they have a reuinion concert booked in Sweden in June.

Sunday FEB 17 2008 - GENERAL UPDATE - Just finished reading the autobiography of Slash. It should have been titled "Our Own Worst Enemies". As a guitar player, I'm a fan of Slash's work, but I, like many people probably, viewed him to be just a famous, drug-addict, guitar player. So when I saw his book and noted that it came in at 400+ pages I was curious to see how he had managed such a feat. After reading it, I am left wondering how in the world Guns N Roses ever became famous. They did everything they could possibly have done to ruin their own careers, and yet somehow they made it to the top of the charts several times. The lack of organization created by their recreational drug endeavours alone should have been enough to kill their chances, but then add the drinking, the crazy women, the backstabbing managers, the controlling lead singer who had zero respect for the band's audiences, and the lack of support from some of their so-called friends, and I am convinced that even if they were all in comas before Appetite For Destruction was recorded the Gods Of Rock would have somehow seen fit to still make them famous. I guess it was just in the cards. Anyway, it was a good read, and it opened my eyes to Slash's depth of character. I would never have guessed that he was so literate. I'd give it an 8 out of 10 for the crazy cast of characters alone.

In other news, I have added some screen captures to the Images section of the My Weekly Crime website. The pics are from a video we shot of the video crew doing their thing during the videotaping sessions for the Tribute Documentary back in April of 2007. If you want to know why Terry is only wearing one shoe you will have to ask him ;)

The music continues to flow. I am in the middle of working on a song called "Phantom Pain". No samples yet, but it is very Pink Floydian sounding. And it has the weirdest guitar solo I've ever come up with.

On the writing front, I am making very slow progress (but it's still progress!) on BubbleGum Cross. At this point I won't promise anything. I'm just happy the story is moving forward and that I am not getting sucked into editing while I write (BAD HABIT BE GONE!). The main problems right now are how to setup Jeena Malso's return, and how to finish the story. Everything else in it's place. I hope.

Thursday JAN 10 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - The Digital Men version of Freewill is done! I completed the new vocal track, added the synths back in and finished a few other minor tweaks. Check it out and tell us what you think!