It’s… been a while since I posted any videos here, hasn’t it?

Time to fix that.

First, some music :

Kind of an abrupt ending there. I should really give up this “musical minute” idea and just call it “Musical Moments” or something similarly vague. Restricting myself to one minute is clearly not have the desired effect, namely getting me to make higher content density music.

Instead, it just makes me lazier and makes the music more awkward, and leads to me using the same tricks to pad things out every single time. Content density has actually gone down.

So, back to the drawing board on that one.

Next, we got us an SS :

Sarcastic Slideshow, of course. I feel like I have used some of those images before. I should organize my files in a way that I know which ones I have used and which I have not.

I guess I could move the image files into a separate folder after I use them. It would be a lot more work. Currently, I just select a swath of images and add them to the video project, then delete the ones I don’t like from the project (not the HD), and do audio captions for the rest.

Add the opening and closing tiles plus some background music, and abracadabra, you have another hilarious SS.

And now, this tale of woe :

La mort de moi souris d’ordinateur. Everything is okay now. I got a new wireless mouse and it works fine. Ir even takes an AA battery instead of AAA, like my previous wireless mouse, so I have no worries about what happens when the battery runs out.

All I have to do is charge up one of my purple AA rechargeables, and bob’s your uncle.

Say hi to Bob for me.

Next, my thoughts on Super 8 :

Honestly, I am still undecided about the movie. If I was Siskel or, let’s face it, Ebert, I would only be able to give a thumb half-up at best. A lot of it is wonderful but also cheesy and manipulative, and I am stuck between wanting to like it for its Spielbergian goodness and the part of me that just rolls his eyes at how obvious, corny, and at times downright stupid the movie is. It will take me a long time to fully digest that movie.

In a sense, it would be easier if I could just dismiss it cynically. But I can’t.

And now, more music.

I don’t know why I ended up putting in all those Foghorn Leghorn quotes. They just sounded right, I guess. Still, not one of my better efforts, in my opinion. Seems rushed and cheap. I am impressed with the rhythmic structure I built there though. That was one smoking hot beat for a few bars in there. Real pulse quickening stuff.

And now, my thoughts on Sense8.

Honestly, I could go on forever about that show. I am up to episode 9 or so now, and every episode is a wonder and a delight. The show is richly satisfying and the theme of these people from all over the world coming into contact with one another and slowly becoming a part of one another’s lives really appeals to me.

The show is just so… humanist.

And the characters are all very likable. That’s more of an achievement than it sounds like. So many shows do not grasp the need to do that, or lack the ability to make it happen.

But if you expect people to not only care about what happens to the characters but be willing to do through darkness and violence and death and horror with them, they have to be people you love being about.

What’s next…. oh yeah, more music.

A middling effort on my part. Nothing ear-grindingly wrong with it, but nothing particularly memorable about it.

I feel like, at this point, as a composer, I am just flinging myself repeatedly at the wall that has held me back for so long in hopes that I will eventually break through it and my output will match the songs in my head a bit more.

Or at least be more like the sort of music I want to make.

And now, for those who don’t care for music, more music.

But this time, I added random images! (I was SO tired. )

Can’t say I care for it, honestly. Things always go all to hell when I try to do melody. It ends up sounding like shit.

And now, another SS video (I am going to get such interesting traffic now) :

Use the wetness-heat evil. Sage advice. That is truly some of the most marvelously and ornately incomprehensible Engrish that I have ever seen. I wanted to put some oriental-type music behind my poetic reading of the text, but I couldn’t find anything that sounded right to me.

It was all too macho and martial and impressive sounding. Even the stuff that was supposed to be for meditation! I am not sure I ever want to meet the sort of person who finds power-strings and taicho drums soothing.

And now, some fun with interpretive subtitling :

Like I say in the end credits, I am never ever doing one with that many characters and cuts again. It was so hard to know who was talking when, and what was going on. I am pretty sure it will be hard to keep up with the subtitles as a result.

I will definitely stick to two-person scenes from now on.

And finally, a personal news update from a weirdly lit yours truly :

So yeah. Life has been weird lately, and not particularly pleasant or fun, but I am glad stuff is happening to me now and I will do what I can to keep that going.

Slowly, slowly, I prise the jaws of self-destruction out of my flesh. And as I do, I stop being the bone I chew.

And the greater the chance of me actually getting somewhere in life.

All this intellect and talent has to be good for something.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.