song4nicole@yahoo.com

I am going to be writing a piece to be premiered by St. Charles East High School, dedicated to the memory of Nicole Alaniz. Out of respect for the bereaved, I’m not going to carry on about this tragedy, but here is a link to the article in The Chicago Tribune.

I have created this email address:

song4nicole@yahoo.com

so that anyone who knew Nicole and is interested in helping me get to know her better can contact me. I am hoping to be able to read some of her writing -- she evidently showed an extraordinary gift for self-expression. And I'm hoping that I might receive suggestions for a title...

My interest is in getting to know Nicole -- not judging her, and not judging those who write to me. I will not share anything that is written to me with ANYONE. And while my heart goes out to all who knew her for their loss, and I do empathize deeply with their pain, I should stress that I'm not a counsellor; there may be little I can offer in return for sharing your innermost feelings and emotions, aside from my sincerest thanks, and the reassurance that what you have given me will become a part of my work.

It is possible that I may write about this process from time to time, but I do not wish to turn this expression into a public spectacle -- while I am aware that only a handful of people actually read my ramblings, this tribute and my work is too sacred to me to expose it too much to the frivolous masses of internet passerby.

I am honored to do this work, and I am looking forward to getting to know Nicole Alaniz.

stranglehold

I'm spending more and more time working on Stranglehold... I've gotta say, this game is awfully good-looking...

(this is not a cinematic -- this is actual gameplay!)

deal or no deal

(Somebody please tell me if I got this wrong)

Last night, I did something I never do -- I watched the entirety of DEAL OR NO DEAL. And it was actually pretty entertaining. Now if you've never seen this gameshow before, I'm not going to go into it now... click on the link if you're interested.

Anyway, they had a guy on who managed to pick the top award (in this instance, it was $3,000,000.00) on his first try -- of course, we didn't find this out until the very, very end, but it was very impressive -- it was a 1 in 27 chance that he'd get that right.

1 in 27. That's pretty amazing.

To add to the drama, the second-to-last case he picked was the VERY LOWEST award (one shiny penny, or $0.01). Now the odds of this happening are also pretty amazing -- but what are the odds that the last two cases would be the highest award and the lowest award? If I've got this figured right, that'd be 1 in 27x26... or:

1 in 702. That's really seriously amazing.

But what were the odds that I'd watch this entire show, and actually come out thinking that Howie Mandel wasn't totally annoying and obnoxious?!

I can't even venture a guess at figuring that one out...

mo' youtube

What was this ad about, again?

Plano East Drumline Chaos Theory

It's amazing, the stuff you'll find on YouTube...!

David Holsinger

In case you hadn't heard, noted composer David Holsinger is the featured guest artist on the BCM forum this week. You can CLICK HERE to jump right to his question and answer thread. He's very open and honest in his responses, and it's fantastic to hear someone so experienced and so knowledgable express themselves so clearly about their career in composition. I'm very excited to read more of this ongoing dialogue this week.

Mike Stern

Mike Stern... Chicago Jazz Showcase... September 8th, 9:30 PM set... the whole band... so amazing... so inspiring...

... I feel like I just started my musical journey all over again, with the same wonder and love...

Siamese twin fortune cookies

All I did was order the Kung Pow Chicken Lunch Special "to-go" from Lo's China Kitchen... imagine my surprise when I got back to the studio and pulled out TWO fortune cookies in one wrapper... this beats finding the Virgin Mary in your bucket of fried chicken any day of the week!

bad... or badass?

Y'know how you sometimes find yourself with a flathead screwdriver in your hand, and you're jamming it in and out of a light socket to see if you can do it without getting electrocuted, and you know that if you keep this up, EVENTUALLY YOU ARE GOING TO GET ELECTROCUTED, but you keep jamming that screwdriver in there anyway, just to see what happens?

OK, maybe you can't relate to this example, but I've got enough metaphorically-melted screwdrivers in my metaphorical toolbox to prove that I definitely CAN relate to this kind of behavior. And I have the perfect non-metaphorical example:

The other day, I bid on a guitar on ebay. Now, I didn't want this guitar, I JUST WANTED TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN.

Sure enough, I won.



For the descriminating axe aficianado, this is a Jackson 7 string Randy Rhoads V with reverse headstock. In excellent condition. Muy metal.

Being the honorable fellow that I am, I'm doing the honorable thing -- I'm paying for it (fortunately, it's not that expensive). Once it arrives, I'll try it out, see how it sounds... but I really don't need another guitar...

or do I? Could you see me playing Chaos Theory with this axe, or is it too much? I can't decide...

So I put the question to you, folks: is this guitar over-the-top-outrageously-awesome, or is it just plain awful? Here's another picture of it:




Now I know I can count on some of the regulars to post their opinions, but this time, I want to hear from all you lurkers out there too -- Nic, M-dawg, Kull, E, Newm, Monkey -- let's hear it. Bad or badass?

the honest truth

OK folks, I've gotta come clean... I haven't been slaving away night and day on the next MK video game... I've actually been playing Guitar Hero non-stop all summer. Here's proof:

(THANKS FOR THE MOST EXCELLENT PHOTOSHOPPING, ERIC!!!)

answers to questions (pt.1)

I don't tend to respond to my blog postings, but there have been quite a few queries that seem like they should be answered. My apologies for not getting back to all of you sooner:

Kevin Howlett said...
I spotted a display copy of "Blitz: The League" and cracked it open to see your name in the credits (I was aware you contributed to that project). My question is this: How does it feel when you see something as wide-spread as a video game with your name on it?
I've got credits on over 80 CD releases, as well as dozens of industrial videos, documentaries, and short films -- and the only thing that really matters is how proud I am of the work I did for a project. I worked on Blitz: The League off and on for about 2 weeks, mostly doing sound effects and mixing -- so it's cool, but it wasn't such a big deal. I've spent over a year focused entirely on Mortal Kombat: Armegeddon. You better believe I'm pretty gall-dang proud to have my name on that sucker.

brittany kemp said...
i've seen two cirque de soliel shows and loved them did you enjoy the one you saw?
Hey Brittany -- say hello to everyone in TX! I liked Corteo a lot... although I liked Varekai and O even better... any Cirque du Soleil is flat-out AWESOME.

eRock said...
Jim, You should post up a sample of what your working on sometime!
Man, I would if I could, but I can't, due to non-disclosure agreements, etc. I'm hoping I'll be able to post some of it... sometime...

Anna Banana said...
Did you play with Sonya or Li Mei? How did they sound???
I played with Kai and Sektor. It wouldn't have made any difference -- even if I was Chuck Norris with a nuclear bomb duct-taped to each foot and a Great White Shark strapped to my back -- I was toast as soon as I agreed to play Mr. QQQ HHHH.

Oh, and Sonya and Li Mei sound totally kickass -- you should know, it's your voice!

Dillon McDonald said...
is there going to be a soundtrack realeased for the game? If so, where and how fast would i be able to get it?
Thanks for asking, Dillon (how are things now that Toews and Shilo are gone?!). At this point, as far as I know, there will be no CD release of the soundtrack. I have heard rumors about putting the music on iTunes, but I don't know if it's going to happen. But if you buy the game, you can go into this section called "The Krypt", where you can hear a lot of the music in the game... so basically, the soundtrack is inside the game.

Jamie Henderson said...
I look forward to playing the game, even if it's just to see which character's death is voiced by Mr. Jim Bonney!
You don't have to wait, I can tell you that right now -- I am Sub-Zero.