CRUNCH TIME

I think I mentioned this before... I'm in the home-stretch with Mortal Kombat... the final weeks of crunch time... stuff like 19 hour days in the studio -- yup, that was Wednesday. Not even remotely close to a personal record, but exhausting, nonetheless.

Blogs may be short or sporadic... email reads and responses may be farther apart than normal... and you may feel a mild tingling sensation in your upper and lower extremities... keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times and enjoy the ride...

But I only feel like a million bucks...

I am worth $2,119,418 on HumanForSale.com

digital cowbell

"I got an electric fever... and the only cure... is more digital cowbell"

(my thanks to Phil Gullett for the tweaked-out photo and caption)

That's right folks -- a digital cowbell. Check out the stunning digital modeling of various classic cowbell's tone and timbre, then order your's now...

Sister Kombat

My sister, Anne, just arrived in town tonight. Tomorrow we're going to record her for one of the fighter's voices in Mortal Kombat. She's been a fan from way back -- I guess she used to beat the snot out of one of her ex-boyfriends playing MK2.

Anyone who knows Anne will know she's going to do just fiiiiine with all the screaming and yelling...

Back in the Saddle

I'm back -- rested, relaxed, and a little sunburnt. And now, on to war -

Mortal Kombat:Armageddon is in the home stretch. I've got about 3-4 more weeks to finish up the music, dialogue, and sound design for the game. It's killed me that I haven't really been able to write about what I've been doing, but let's just say, I've been BUSY. Long days, and lots of challenges, but I'm still having a blast working on this game...

Initially, I thought I'd be able to write all of the music for the game, but there has been far too much to coordinate and cover. I have been fortunate to have a lot of help with the dialogue and sound effects, but with all the other issues and changes I've needed to address, it just wasn't humanly possible. Fortunately, I had the help of the other 2 composers at Midway -- Rich Carle and Vince Pontarelli, and they have contributed some very cool tunes to the game as well. I think all three of us have very contrasting styles of writing, but all of it originates from the general style that the original composer, Dan Forden, had established in previous games.

Destination...?

Tomorrow morning, at the crack of dawn, Nicki and I are leaving for a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very much-needed 5-day vacation. We're headed to another fairly remote spot -- not as remote as the last trip, but it is a little more exotic. I think this country's only claim-to-fame may be the invention of the rum-induced hangover... although I'm not even sure that they invented it... but I will definitely look into it.

So goodbye cell phones, pagers, voicemail, email, blogs, forums... and hello sun, sand, and the lingering threat of hurricanes...

truly tasteless tunes

last night i had a dream that someone had transcribed threnody for jazz big band. the musicians were choreographed to dance while playing, in the style of "West Side Story". it was being performed at a gas station, and i was witnessing this premiere performance from across the street.

Vocal Kombat Remix

IF you found the screaming from the other day entertaining, you'll LOVE this -- if you did not, well, this is still very, very cool.

Steve Bryant added his own mix madness to those tracks. CLICK HERE to check it out.

K.T. Tunstall on Leno

On the corner of her guitar, a hand-written sticker that says:

"THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS"

Bravo Ms. Tunstall, for being the only person on that show to actually effectively counter the ignorance and twisted logic that Ann (super-size it, sweetheart) Coulter was spewing forth.

Coulter on Leno

As a rule, I try to avoid religious and political topics.

That being said, Ann Coulter is a complete and total freakshow.

Carlin on Leno

"Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is when the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it all organised by the Italians."

Vocal Kombat

Today I did a voiceover session for one of the fighters in Mortal Kombat. I'm not sure which one I will be yet, but I'll be sure to let you know. ANYWAY -- the session was a lot harder than I thought it would be. There are almost one hundred different vocal calls per fighter -- everything from effort grunts to death screams -- and it takes almost an hour to record them all. It was basically an hour of screaming at the top of my lungs.

Am I hoarse? Oh, you better believe it. There's almost nothing left of my voice at all. I also have an intense, stabbing pain in my left temple, I feel lightheaded and kinda sick to my stomach, my back and chest muscles are exhausted, and for some reason, I developed a cramp in my left foot. But it was totally worth it.

The high/low point of the session was the last soundcall -- I had to do a falling death scream that lasted at least 7 seconds. I kept running out of air before the time was up -- I didn't know how to diaphragmatically control my breathing (another side-effect of being a guitar player). After 17 bloodcurdling takes (and a breathing lesson), I finally got one that worked, but it was a frustrating process. Here are a few cleverly-edited out-takes: CLICK HERE

(Warning: if you are a sensitive or easily-offended listener, or my mother-in-law, I don't recommend listening to this)

Hey, it beats barking like a dog...

RSS-ified

Due to popular demand (Steve and some anonymous other person), I have set up this blog so it will do an RSS feed. My thanks to Steve Bryant and John Mackey for helping me out with this.

To celebrate this new technological advancement, I thought I would follow the trend set by Mr. Newman and write about a few of the musical skeletons from my closet (there are dozens and dozens), which will never again see the light of day:

* My original arrangement of Moussorgsky's Hopak -- my first encounter with concert band orchestration... words cannot describe how horribly awful this version was. There are also 2 band pieces I wrote before Chaos Theory that no one will ever hear either, but I honestly don't remember the names of them...

* RUHE: Last Dance -- my first piece for chamber orchestra. There are sections of it that were pretty good, but really, it was just a hodge-podge of orchestration experiments and atonal meanderings... structurally, it didn't hold together at all... but I learned a ton by going through with it.

* is and if -- two movements from an unfinished string quartet. I hated coming up with titles (I still do, actually)... and the concept behind naming this one was a lot more "fartsy" than "artsy" (I just didn't realize it at the time). I had finished reading this great book called "Fist Stick Knife Gun", so I was going to name each movement based on the middle letters of each word -- "is", "tic", "if", and "un" (c'mon, work with me here) -- and call the whole piece "isticifun". Hey, I know it's stupid, but what do you expect from a guy who's publishing company is called AVSICTISM?!? Come to think of it, I came up with that name around the same time...

* Sketches of Rodin -- for solo harp. The whole experience was made worse by my ex-girlfriend, who brought her new boyfriend to the premiere performance. I could tell they thought the music sucked, and even then, I had to agree with them.

* "Untitled" (see I told you I hate coming up with titles) -- for flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, 'cello and percussion. It was my first piece of contemporary concert music, and it got me a scholarship for grad school, but it was BAD, BAD, BAD.

(to be continued... some other time maybe...)

The Sopranos (a rant)

(I'm sorry I've been on such a TV kick lately -- this too shall pass)

As some of you know, I used to be a huge fan of the HBO series, The Sopranos. This was because:

a) I like gangster movies.
b) I like good storytelling.
c) I like it when the story is so volatile, you can't predict what is going to happen next.

The show started falling apart a long time ago, and I even complained about it on the blog before (this is not a great read, but it shows that I've been disappointed for quite some time).

Now a lot of times, when a show is starting to go downhill, the producers will pull a maneuver that is known as "jumping the shark". This season, they introduced a sub-plot based on homosexuality -- congratulations guys, but everyone from Sesame Street to The 700 Club beat you to that punch.

No, the producers of The Sopranos are so arrogant, that instead of doing extreme things to their storyline, they have pretty much frozen the storyline altogether, and will show us literally ANYTHING -- figuring we're so desperate for entertainment, that we'll still watch this slop and beg for more. The best example of this was in the second-to-last episode of this "half-season" (oh please, a half-season: another display of outrageous arrogance), when Carmela goes to Paris. Not only is it unbelievably tedious to watch a Don's wife stare blankly at the faces of statues over and over and OVER AGAIN, but what is most amazing is that on that trip, NOTHING HAPPENED THAT HAD ANY IMPACT ON THE STORYLINE AT ALL. Folks, you'd have to see it to believe it -- I mean that NOTHING HAPPENED!!! NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't watched the last episode of this "half-season" yet, but from all accounts, it totally, totally blows. And yet, I will (probably) watch it. But I think I'm catching on. I think the creators are TRYING to make this show suck -- to take what was once a good show and turn it into meaningless crap. So I'd like to make a few suggestions to the writers and producers, and I sincerely hope that they use these suggestions, so that I'll know what is going to happen in their "much-anticipated" "final" "half-season" (oh, you guys are GOOD), so I don't have to watch your stupid show anymore:

1. Have Tony Soprano (the mafia boss) go test drive a mini-van. This can probably take up at least one-half on an episode. Show him slamming the doors, kicking the tires... then show him having a tough time deciding between the arctic-ice blue one and the sea-foam green one. Show lots of shots of Tony's face, then the blue one, then Tony's face, then the green one, then back to Tony's face... it'll seem artsy. Finally in the final episode, show him pulling up in the driveway with the sea-foam green one. That's suspense!

2. Put more of Meadow Soprano (mafia boss' daughter) in the show. Despite any inklings you might have, it's really not as annoying as Hell to hear her pout and whine about her privileged lifestyle, and I'm sure all the fans love to watch a mafia boss' daughter plod through her unbelievably boring, whitebread college experience.

3. Get rid of Silvio and Paulie Walnuts and Chris and the rest of the gangsters -- they don't do much anymore anyway... and besides, the mafia is getting in the way of your "milquetoast life in suburban New Jersey" storyline.

4. Include lots and lots of sewing circles with Carmela (mafia boss' wife) and all her friends that meander aimlessly and go nowhere and have no purpose to the story... oh sorry, nevermind -- you're already doing that in every frikkin' episode.

5. Remember the FBI? Uncle Junior? The problems with Artie Bucco (mafia boss' friend) and Benny (one of the gangsters... y'know, gangsters? You remember them, don't you?)? And all those other loose ends that you've never tied together? Forget about them. Don't get back to them. No one will mind one little bit. A tight story is highly over-rated. You guys stick to what you do best: creating filler. You've only got 8 episodes left! You're in the barn -- you should be able to half-ass your way through these, no problemo.

Yup, we're still Lost

... can't blog now... still watching Lost...

666

"Woe to you, Oh Earth and Sea,
for the Devil sends the beast with wrath,
because he knows the time is short...
Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast
for it is a human number,
its number is six hundred and sixty six."

- Revelations
(with a little clever editing by Iron Maiden...)

Totally Lost

After chain-watching the first two DVD's of Lost that we'd gotten from Netflix, we decided we couldn't wait two days for the next two DVD's, so we went out and bought the entire set of the first season.

I am already working on procuring a bootleg set of the second season.

Oh yes, we are TOTALLY addicted.

Lost

Today the Netflix fairy has brought DVD 1 & 2 of the first season of Lost -- yes, yes -- Nicki and I have been living under a rock and haven't seen a single episode.

We're already on episode 3. Calling it an immediate addiction would be an understatement.

YouTube.com

While I was doing a presentation in Texas, a student asked me if I was on YouTube -- at the time, I thought he'd asked if I was in U2 (seriously!). While I thought the question was strange (do I look like the Edge? Do I sound Irish to you?), I took it at face value and simply replied "no".

As it turns out, I actually am on YouTube -- or, at least, my music is... ummm, well actually, an arrangement of my music is... ANYWAY, there's a video clip of Chaos Theory for marching band on there. I'm pretty sure it's Plano East High School, down in Texas. Here it is if you're curious:



I also found this link when searching for "BCM", but I don't think this has anything to do with us...?