june 30, 2010

i'm back from new york. my film isn't developed yet. well, one roll is. i only got a few of the shots scanned before i was told i couldn't use cca's film scanner during the summer. i'll wait.

i destroyed my color tube camera by accident. the sun reflected off of something too shiny and nuked the tube. i bought another single tube color camera at a thrift store, the day after, because is was only $7.99. it really sucks, but to a comical extent. i don't know if i've ever seen such an unappealing image from a video camera. it's even worse than a early digital video camera in terms of image ugliness. it's worth the laugh. it'll be the camera i use to record a train running over it or something. i'd drop it off a building or something but it has no internal tape deck or power supply. i modified my pixelvision camera. it now accepts two 9-volts in parallel, instead of a bunch of 'aa's. it has video and audio out jacks now as well. it records to the tape correctly about half of the time. it's definitely better than when i first got it. but, the pixelvision is not really a camera. it's a toy. i don't have any way to record films, except 35mm animation with my nikon f3. i think it's time to get a sony dxc-m3a or an ikegami itc-730a, but those run for a lot of money (hundreds). and spending a lot on sd video is... questionable. i've been thinking about getting a bolex and going 16mm. maybe the death of my camera is a sign that i should be focusing on other things, such as...

music. some good music recordings came out of the trip. brendan and i did some neat tracks. jason happened to be in the area for a bit, so we recorded a track. i'm not sure where it'll end up. i think i'm ready to record some more rock music soon. fuck, i gotta do something with the first record. it still needs a title. the best fitting band name is really "it's day". i know i already had a thing called it's day, but it sucked. i'll do some cover art and then try to get things started. plang.

i have some new art. one up here. more in the works. oh! there's a photograph of mine hanging at a gallery in palo alto. "pacific art league" to be precise. the reception is at 5:00 pm - 8:00pm on july 2nd. this is the piece i have hanging.

yikes, i started an animation in new york. a paper cut-out one. i'm not there anymore. hmm... well, it'll get finished somehow at some point.




april 19, 2010

i'll be leaving for new york very soon. the 24th of this month to be exact. i may not update the site too much while i'm there, but i'll leave you with a few new photos.

i've been writing a lot of songs. it seems as if every time i pick up the guitar i end up writing a whole song. i'll probably record a new record soon. and speaking of recording, i helped record a record for dust collector. we have this great audio chain: we record onto a ¼" tape 4 track machine. when the tape runs by the play head, (around what? 80 milliseconds later?), it's output into the digi 002 and into pro tools. so were making a live transfer to digital from analog. pretty snazzy. azura is going to record this way, but also with an extra tape machine to get more tracks at once. i also laid down bass in the red rock studio for tara priya. i don't know when that record will be finished, but listen for me on it.

i have a new art project that i'm working on. it involves exaggerating depth in a miniature and using a piece of diffusion to fake shallow depth of field. if i don't get overwhelmed, i'll finish that up soon.

it turns out that the four perf system is not quite as realiable as i'd like. maybe i'll use it again. maybe not. ooh, i do love vista though. it's hard to sacrifice those extra four.




march 27, 2010

i modified the gate of my 35mm still camera to be academy size. what does this mean? normally, 35mm film in a still camera uses eight perfs per shot. i wanted to squeeze twice as many frames on per roll to save money and film, mostly for animation. i realized that by blocking half of the gate, i could get four-perf shots to fill the roll, if i ran it through twice. luckily, the nikon f3 has a spot right between the film and the shutter where a thin strip of material can fit. i used a piece of film covered in electrical tape as a mask. this made the gate 18mm by 24mm, instead of 36mm by 24mm. another lucky statistic is that the electrical tape i have is exactly 18mm wide. i blocked half of the gate and loaded the roll of film. i marked the position of the first frame and shot all the way through it. then i rolled it back almost all the way in to the canister. i reloaded the film a second time and offset the film by 4 perfs to fill in the "holes" i'd left behind. here is a test film of said experiment. after shooting this, it dawned on me that i should've used two 9mm masks on the sides so that i could've used the center of the lens. i fixed the masks to be the 9mm versions. now i have to shoot another roll.




march 25, 2010

new film, shot on film.




march 3, 2010

i finally got my act together and toughed my way through making a standalone application from a python script. i'd never truly given the py2app instructions a thorough read through. i was always too scared. i think it's a bit confusing, because i'm not much of a programmer. anyway... now you can download glider, my horribly coded programming challenge. it's still very unfinished, but you'll get the idea. i'm so excited to be able to make standalone applications.




february 26, 2010

new photos.

i'm backing up graham patzner and bria bonet for a show tonight at el rincon in san francisco. tomorrow, azura, my band is playing at the under the table gallery in san francisco. more info on that one here.

i'm so close to being done with some music videos. the only thing holding me back is coming up with a good title for my solo project. any ideas?




february 24, 2010

okay, the photography section has a slightly new interface. i still haven't uploaded all the new photos i need to.

music news. i've been performing again recently. i've updated the music section to include an event log, so you can see when and where i'm playing. check it out.

now, here's my review of joanna newsom's newest record:

i was very excited when i put on the first song of the first cd. it seemed really solid and well constructed. however, it was immediately apparent that her voice, while being cleaner and less squeaky and squawky, didn't seem as passionate and present as in her previous creations. i really love when an artist pours there heart out into a song through their voice, and it just didn't seem quite there. nevertheless, the new record was bringing me joy and excitement. after listening to the whole first disc, i'd pretty much had my fill. i'd recommend spreading this new album out over a few days, because all the tracks will blend together if you're not careful. the second disc is calm and sweet... and kinda boring in my opinion. there are some gems scattered in there, but it's like trudging through a muddy river to find them. so many of the songs sound the same, making it easy to get lost in this sea of sleepiness. now, i'm not against slow quietness in songs, but it even sounds like she's yawning on certain lines. with enough listens, i'm sure it would be rewarding to really get to know the material and stick it out, but i decided to take the route of scrubbing through the tracks, and then switching to the third disc. to be honest, i really listened to most parts of all the tracks, but there were many times when i was waiting for the song to end, rather than enjoying it while it played. the third disc bounded along better than disc 2, but i was a rather newsomed out at this point. even so, there were some spots on this disc that made me go, "yeah. that's the ticket.". overall, it's a good triple album, but there's a lot of wading through unmemorable softness. i'd rather have quality over quantity. three cds at once without enough variety, is a bit much to throw at a listener. i plan to keep listening to it, and i'm suspecting that i'll find myself more and more drawn to it as it becomes more familiar.

alright, that's enough for now.




february 22, 2010

yuuuuck. hard drive failure. luckily i do mirrored raid, so i have an automatic backup of everything. i was too scared to use the remaining disk, so i bought a 1tb drive to back everything up on first. i need to get my old drive fixed still. probably ship it off tomorrow. boring boring boring.

okay. not much has changed on this website for the above reason. but there are some neat things on the horizon. two music videos for my rock album will be done soon. i'm pretty much just going in order, making videos for all the tracks. i've also been shooting a lot of film for my film animation. i've been writing a story super slowly for about a year now. it's getting really cool. i think i'm gonna remove a bunch of photos from the photo section here. these days, i've been shooting so many good ones, that my standards have risen substantially. i'm excited to show a few new ones. look on flickr to see what i've been up to in the photography world.

in the realm of music, azura has been playing a handful of house shows. we're having a blast. writing new songs. i'm still not super into the name anymore. i feel, since we started back up, that we're a different creature than we used to be. i think i'm going to add a column to the music section. a calendar. so, that when you click on music, you get to see upcoming shows.

i had to move out of my last place. i'm now in oakland. soon to visit new york. in a month probably.

i'm tempted to change my website in a drastic way, but that probably won't happen.




january 31, 2010

new drawings and photos. ugh: adding 'previous' and 'next' buttons is such a pain.

laundry room show. be here: 2401 warring street, berkeley, california. be here at: 6:30pm (18:30) to 11:59pm (23:59) or later. it's free. i'll be playing. others will be too. i'm so sick of typing right now.




january 27, 2010

i think i'm gonna leave for new york in around three weeks. i think. that's really great, but also a little discouraging only for the fact that music (performing) has been starting up again. when i'm back i'll be playing a good many shows which you're invited to.

new drawlings. check 'em.

new photography section control. i've begun the slow and tedious process of placing 'next' and 'previous' buttons on every photograph page. i'll do the same with drawings as well, but it'll take awhile to get the whole thing set up.




january 9, 2010

whoa, nelly! new things. let's talk film/video first. i've been working on a short shot on tube video, with animated portions shot on 35mm. it keeps chugging, and it's turning out really good. it'll still be awhile before it's finished though. until then, i've got something i shot a couple days ago that's very very close to being done. probably tomorrow it'll be completely finished. it's a music video of a kind that i don't think has ever been done before. it's a split video in the sense that both mike hale and i are in all parts of it playing different songs. what? okay, so there will be two videos released. the same video edit for both, but with different audio. shot it in two days, edited in one. mike hale still needs to finish his audio. he lip synced to a demo of the song. i still don't know what to call my current music project. these two factors will delay its release more than anything else. brendan bellomo and i shot some expired super 8mm film recently. if anything comes out of it, i'll post it here of course. to keep you interested, i'll mention that i got snake blood on my hands while we filmed it.

new sculpture. it's really neat. please take the time to read the description on the page.

new photos. i'm very proud of these.

music news: besides the music video i've been doing, i've been playing a bit with aaron zonka and jason cirimele again. we had a couple of house shows. they were really fun. we have another tonight. i know it's a bit late to be posting info, but:
2401 warring street, berkeley, ca 94704
6pm-11pm today
bands
free

alright that does it for today in the news room.




december 16, 2009

new film is still chugging along. speaking of film, I'm headed to new york mid january. i expect to be working on a number of film projects.but anyway, the current one is about hunger. it has live action vidicon video featuring aaron zonka and i as grumpy british people, and it has stop-motion animation sections shot on 8-perf 35mm. around half the stop-motion is done. all the video is done. no sound is done. expect a finalized version early 2010 if not sooner.

in the music department, i've got a show coming up. here's the info:
-----248 felton street, san francisco, ca.
-----saturday, december 19th, from 5:00pm to 10:00pm
-----all ages, free
the music i'll be playing is a combination of old azura tunes, and some of the newer material i recorded recently. there's a possibility of a show in oakland on the 22nd. we'll see. ha ha. i played a small jazz show doing drums recently. i think there's a recording of it that i may be able to get my hands on.




december 8, 2009

new photography page.

new film coming soon.

new music may be coming soon.

i'm also playing a show in san francisco on the 19th. i'll provide more info soon.




november 25, 2009

new set that sofia and i made is up. new photography.

new animation coming soon. i had this idea that every roll i shot, i'd dedicate a few frames to animation. like: having something quiver back and forth that i could loop. little shakey things that could repeat and last for a whole second or more, only taking three or four frames of film. well, a couple things like that happened only i ended up using three or four rolls instead of three or four frames. then, my friend, jenny wanted to do some animation with me. after we'd built the set, i found out we didn't have a digital camera, so it was film again. another three rolls. but, it's totally worth it. there's nothing like the feel of stop-motion on real film. since it's expensive, i'm only shooting the minimum amount of frames necessary to convay the motions i need and using shake's adaptive retiming engine to generate some in-betweens. i'll probably use six more and then it'll be done. poor poor wallet. so lonely.

the plan is to head on east to new york in january. there, brendan bellomo and i will do many neat things. music videos?

have a happy thanks giving, or national day of mourning.




november 18, 2009

new photographs some of which fall into the sculpture/set design category. oh, and a new one added to this series.

my album is still done. you should pick up a copy here.

i'm still working on the set for the big film animation project. potential music videos on the way too... but, don't expect anything soon.




november 14, 2009

i deliver: here is an animation shot on the vidicon camera i have with film emulation.

there are a couple of new pictures. look at them.

once i get my current roll developed, there will most likely be some new photos to view.




november 7, 2008

new rule: there are no longer such a thing as "is" and "was". they've been replaced by "are" and "were". anyway... hey, my record are done! finally. it took me long enough. you should snag a copy of the whole thing for free. download this. i fear that i'm a few decades too late in releasing such an album. in this day and age, people don't like music like this. maybe you can be an exception.

next post will have news of an animation with molecular models shaped like dogs... and by next post, i mean this post has news of it; next post will have a download. it are almost done except for some more sound i need to do. this is not the animation to be shot on 35mm that i were talking about. that're still gonna happen, but i needed to do something quick and free first, to keep my sanity intact.

i don't know what else to talk about. oh! i'm gonna link to this. mike hale has put all of his recorded old and gray music here. he're in the process of recording a new album.

alright, time to go lynch my noose so it cannot hang anyone anymore.




october 14, 2009

looks like i'm actually following through with one of my projects. i've been wanting to shoot an animation on 35mm for as long as I've been taking 35mm stills. i started building the set and i'm working on the character. it'll be a short animation due to the cost of film and development. think 15 seconds. i'm still waiting for the film rolls to arrive in the mail. hopefully the cost of the whole thing won't exceed $75. when it's done, it'll land a spot on the first episode of the tv show i'm gonna start.

since the external headache has essentially been abandoned (for now), the demo footage is up for viewing.

music is still chugging along. the final song is so close to being done.




october 10, 2009

new thing.




september 24, 2009

new videos: "wake up, extend, repeat", "old and gray - untitled music video", and this. all tube cameras. none of that ccd or cmos nonsense.




september 23, 2009

there may be some new videos poppong up soon (actually there is one) for i managed to get a couple of vidicon tube cameras. a b&w quasar vk100 and a color sears one which appears to not have a model. they're both c-mount so getting lenses is easy. i'm pumped that they have 2/3" sensors, but i might 35mm adapt even so. i'm planning on starting a television which will similar to alive from off center and pete seeger's rainbow quest. i'll bring on local musicians, artists, and film makers for performances and interviews and show their work. in addition to video videos, i'm still planning on making some 35mm film animation. i'm currently gathering props for one i have in mind.

some new photos are up.

still working on the last song for my album. it's coming along quite well, but it's really long and hard to play, hence the snail mode. i encourage you to listen to the other tracks until it's done.




september 2, 2009

the main music page has been updated to now include the new rock music project. check it out!

mike hale (as old and gray) and i gave a performance at a new art space in palo alto last weekend. we decided to take bart from berkeley to millbrae and then bicycle the rest of the way there. it took us a couple of hours, but it was kind of an adventure. unfortunately, the weather was not on our side as it was one of the hottest days all year. since i don't do very well with heat, i took any opportunity i could to run through the sprinklers along the way. during the hottest part of the bike ride, we came to a do-it-yourself carwash, where mike used the high pressure spray hose for washing off cars, on me until i was completely drenched. we did make it there in one piece without igniting and performed very well, as did the other acts. ty, who we'd just recorded last weekend, gave his first show ever. it was very successful.

new drawing/photograph kind of.

some new photographs as usual.

yurt full of yogurt.




august 24, 2009

headline: mike hale and japhy riddle's recording studio is now open.

my friend/housemate mike hale of room for a ghost, old and gray, phantom float, and more, and i just put together our recording studio we'd been planning since before i moved in. the plan was to record bands or solo acts a few times a month to help pay our rent, which is cheap as it is: $225 a person. we do digital and now analog (read story below). although there's not a tone of equipment here yet, we make for that with experience and our recording philosophy: it's more important to have fun recording than it is to make a large profit. we don't charge per hour because we believe that time restraints lead to stress which leads to worse performance. right now we charge whatever seems reasonable to us and the musicians. it's understood that artists don't usually make a lot of money, so if the artist can only pay $20 and still pay his/her rent, we're accepting of that. like i mentioned before, it's more about a fun experience than about making a large profit.

so... i had an exceptional day last saturday. it began with an excursion to one of the east bay's boat yards to meet with my friend, nasreen, and breakfast (yes, breakfast as a verb). we had to cancel, but i'd already gone into the area, and for the first time. it was a really pretty area, making it a pleasant way to start the day. then on the way back, i came across one of many piles of free stuff berkeley has to offer. just some stereo equipment, but wait... what's this? a guitar amplifier. score! wait... oh, my! even better: a reel to reel tape machine. oh, sharks! i'm on a bike. how do i transport these large and heavy items? i had my camera and camera case, which i almost always have on me, so i took the straps off of each of those and strapped the tape machine to my back. i biked many blocks up hill with a tape machine on my back and the amp in my hand. i made it most of the way, but mike hale met me for the last haul.

before these treasures were to be tested, mike and i were scheduled to record our friend, ty. we were a bit rushed, but i think everyone was happy with the results of most of the recording. i believe there will be a myspace up with these recordings, which i'll link to when the url is known. we kept it cheap and received $100 for the session.

after the recording session, mike and i tested the findings from earlier. the amp worked and that was exciting. it's not an amazing model or anything (fender frontman pr-241 38w), but it's worth about fifty to a hundred. definitely worth more than the price i picked it up for. the tests mike and i performed on the tape machine were a bit of a let down. there seemed to be a lot of difficulty getting a good signal level on the tape. all the nobs had to be maxxed out and then the signal needing boosting afterwords. very hissy results. such a shame, but then we switched the tape out for some tape i'd been using as a movie prop and everything sounded amazing. i plan to record an old and gray album in a couple days, and record the vocals for my still un-named rock project using my new find. one really great thing about it is that it has separate recording and play heads, making it possible to monitor, with a delay of course, the actually signal tracked to tape in real time. i'm pretty sure that i can just run through this into pro tools to capture that real analog sound, instead of recording to tape, rewinding, and then playing back into pro tools.

i'm not about to start an analog vs digital war here, but i will say that some big reasons that i shoot film, use a typewriter, and now record audio onto an analog medium is not for the final results, but for the experience during. i was beaming during some of the recording tests mike and i did because i would look over and see the physical reels spinning. after such a good day, it was really happy and in a giving mood, so when i discovered some random norwegian girls outside my home, i gave one of them my ipod.

in other music news i kinda had to end azura, because it felt like a waste of time. the other members are not passionate about it and have other priorities. shame.


art news: nothing.

okay, some new photos, and a couple of other visual things got made. they'll be up eventually.




august 16, 2009

not much is new here. there are some new photos up.

here's a useful tidbit if you've got some lens filters screwed together too tight, finding them virtually inseparable. change the temperature of one of them. i don't suggest expansion with fire, rather, contraction with ice. take an ice cube a rub it around the perimeter of the front filter. what once could not be done with human strength is now accomplishable with almost no effort.

i'm never going anywhere.




august 5, 2009

new additions to photography.

i may have something amazing for you. a reinvention. stayed tuned. it might happen.




august 1, 2009

some time recently i advanced one year. hey, new drawing.




july 25, 2009

recorded drums with mike hale for the final song on my rock album. it'll still be some time before the other instruments and vocals are complete.

new photos as always these days check 'em out.




july 20, 2009

more photos. always more photos. the second page has been growing. the first page has been updated to include new photos in some of the the series, so check it out as well.

living space. i'm in berkeley now! i'm loving it. there are some real kindred spirits here.




july 8, 2009

i've been living in oakland for a couple of weeks now. oakland is strange. there is simply no concept of the importance of trash cans. they exist all right, but the street seems to suffice for most people. i'm planning on cleaning the place up a bit, just for the hell of it. i've already done a tiny amount of pickup and some of the garbage can be used for art projects. i'm planning on creating a photograph series entitled "one man's treasure". i know it's sexist, but it lacks the punch if i tamper with the saying. i've already taken some photos for this and other series so get your caboose over to the photography section and check 'em out. photography seems to be my biggest drive besides music right now. p.s. i don't condone the usage "caboose" like that.

i'll be spending some of my time in oakland and berkely working as a sound designer for an upcoming film. like, a real film. it's exciting. i'll have more details for you eventually. i feel confident that i can do it, especially since the last film i did some sound design for, bohemibot, won best sound design at visionfest and beverly hills shorts festival. as far as my own films being worked on, i'm in no hurry, unfortunately. oh, also i still don't have a real camera. and by real camera, i mean one that shoots progressive scan or movie film. i refuse to ever go interlaced again, unless it's a vidicon or something.

looks as if azura is a happening deal. we've been having band practice and rocking as hard as ever, minus last practice where people were tired, especially the snare drum head. the azura page hasn't been updated yet though. i wanna have something new to offer first. a couple of one night stand bands also came out of reconnecting with old bandmates: "the amazing possibles", and "avant jarring". they're super funny. on the horizon, i'm planning a few different things: an electronic music project called "japhy riddle's electronic music project", even though i dont really like electronic music in general.
i'm slowly planning a classical music project too. i won't be recording this in an audio form however - just sheet music. and lastly, a full-on pop album with jason cirimele, drawing inspiration from prince, michael jackson, debarge, and others. for my solo project, i still need to record one more song, then pick a name for it and a home. azura reforming, as awesome as that is, came at an akward time. i've been writing so many songs and now i don't know which project to put them into. i guess both. they can share.
also, lex hebert and i have been recording music under the name "day circus". it'll have a page soon.

slowly working on my story, "helicopter duty", but don't expect anything anytime soon.

programming is super slow, but i wanna post again the idea i had for another game: my own vortex.

until text nime...




june 21, 2009

moving to oakland for a month or less just because i can. then it's on to berkeley.

new photography.

look at this game concept i came up with. i'm pretty proud of it.




june 9, 2009

new person on links page. i met her on the bus. check her stuff out.

i'm making great progress on a story i've been writing. i think it will be a while before it's anywhere near complete, but i'll keep you posted.

in the music world, i've started practicing with old band mates of azura. it appears that we'll be really doing it. my solo(?) album is going well. i'll be able to finish it when i move into an area where i have access to a drum set. i guess i could kind of do that now, but i don't want to disturb people in that house. i'll wait until i move to berkeley.




june 3, 2009

even with camera problems, i still managed to shoot one roll sucessfully. check out a couple of the shots here und here. i'm not ready to shoot my film yet though until the camera is in perfect working order. oh hey, i'm on flickr.




may 22, 2009

record is coming along nicely. i need to record two more songs, but the ones that are already recorded are basically done, mixed, and mastered. you can listen to them here.

cameras suck. i got a used nikon f3 recently but it has problems with the shutter. so photography's on hold. fuck costco too. they sold me a photo cd that wasn't readable. i was gonna start shooting a film on film using pixilation, but that'll have to wait.




april 2, 2009

uh oh. i now have a new hobby to add to the list: photography. i just recently started to take it seriously. you can see some shots i'm proud of in the photography section. the ones at the top of the array.

music news: azura might start up again but probably under a different name with different songs. same old crew. we'll see how that turns out. also, my own recordings are going very well. i had a drum recording session with mike hale that was absolutely superb. i thank him deeply for the fun times we had those days and for the way he pushed me to retune all the drums and make everything sound great. it was well worth the extreme hassle of transporting my recording studio on public transportation. now i'm in portland recording my dad's band. it's going very well, and it's a lot of fun.

now that i've been laid off, broken up with, and homeless, i have nothing tying me down. i'm free to move about the cabin (universe). 100% free time. i'll try to take advantage of this while i can.




march 5, 2009

glider update. been awhile.

recorded some new songs.

worked on a story a bit.

working full time has caused me to snail through my projects, but none are abandoned.




february 9, 2009

the music page has been updated a little bit. a new band might start up pretty soon. but in the meantime, check out a project that i played drums for: moon bottle.

i'll put up an old film soon about smashing a toaster with a large hammer.

i may be doing some illustration work for this creative mind, london laidlaw, who is planning on releasing some picture books with his lyrics in them. expect a doctor seus like experience.

here's a list of what i need to do. you may notice things i haven't mentioned before (if you're a loser and spend lots of time on my website):
----film: complete "external headache", start shooting "advertisments", start shooting "a choreography of resurrected dead ends", finish editing "the anthology".
----inventions: make "compost airlock recepticle" diagram, finish glow-in-the-dark camera, get vcrs for recorder, draw up digram for lcd dynamic range enhancer filter.
----music: get more musicians for new project, finalize "bellomo/riddle" record, make more "torpedo town" covers.
----writing: finish two new stories.
----anything else: can wait.




january 17, 2009

the new film. "behavior" is done and up for viewing. some new stories are coming soon too. the glow in the dark camera body has been built, but i'm still working on the film itself.




january 8, 2009

new invention, and new film. the invention is... ready?... a new film stock! a photoluminescent (glow in the dark) film stock. i'm building a camera to use it, with a custom lens. the new film is not quite done. it's an animation. since i lack a camera, it's all digital. but not 3d rendered graphics, or flash animation, or anything like that. there's a new story up that i wrote (spoke) when i was 2.5 years old.

i guess technically, i have more inventions, but none of them are close to being built. i also have like a million films in the making. i suck. it's hard to finish things.




felicitous nativity, 2008

not that i really celebrate. but, this year we got a tree and decorated it with beads, feathers, shower curtain rings, and moose antlers. all the presents were household supplies. like a vacuum, a blender, pots and pans, a sewing machine. 'twas much fun. thank you, anya, for such a wonderful holiday.

glider update. a video of the screen taken with a video camera shows glider in motion.




december 22, 2008

glider update. almost a game now.

music is chuggin'. i'm gonna record drums to the rock tracks i've been recording.

i just bought a pxl 2000 (pixelvision). for those of you who don't know what that is, which will be most of you, it's a video camera that records video to audio tape cassettes. the resolution is 120 by 90, it's black and white, and it's awesome. they are hard to come by nowadays.

no progress on the vcr multitrack system yet.

after i put up "don't say yes when you really mean no!", i received an email from the creator of it. it was a friendly one, not an angry take-down-that-video-you-don't-have-rights-to-it message. i haven't responded yet.




december 4, 2008

happy birthday, anya! and thanks for all you do for me.

the hip hop show was really fun. i played with hunters, the giulio cetto experience, and the magnolia district. i shot some footage of hunters and tried to make it look as decent as possible even though it was shot on digital 8 with a small sensor, in low light. that means lots of post production to make it look anywhere near decent. here's a link to the first of eight videos that youtube darkened to ruin my color timing. enjoy. (they get better as they increase in number). i didn't put up any footage from my set because there wasn't that much to look at. the highlight of my set was definately when zack pallin (of hunters) scratched on a cd-turntable while i rapped and played a snare with my hand and stomped on the stage for the kick. the show forced me to finish the hip hop record because i wanted to have copies to sell. thanks you, anya, for helping me get to the show and make cd copies and printing. so the cd is available? not quite. all the audio is done, but there's a tiny bit of artwork still in the works. i strongly urge you to check out the goodnight caterpillar website. you can hear audio samples from every track on the cd.

new invention idea: i haven't built this yet, but i came up with a way to put together a high quality analog multitrack recorder. okay. vhs (remember those?) have actually really great audio capability. i've heard of people mastering on them, believe it or not. so theoretically, if you had multiple vcrs of the same model, one remote would trigger all of them simultaniously. stop me if you know what i'm getting at. ha, you can't unless you hack this website. so with preamps, you could record, say six high quality analog tracks, with three vcrs (assuming you chose a model of vcr with stereo sound). you'll need a mixer to monitor the sound, and of course, mix down to two track. it should work great but i have some concerns: maybe all vcrs, even of the same model, vary a bit in spin up time. if, for some reason, any of the tapes get out of sync, you're screwed. technically, if you used three vcrs, you wouldn't be getting six separate tracks in the way you would with an ordinary multitrack recorder, because it's really three pairs of stereo tracks, not six independent ones. therefor, you couldn't record track 1 (vcr 1 left channel) and then record track 2 (vcr 1 right channel). you would have to record tracks 1 and 2 (vcr 1 both channels), and then record tracks 3 and 4 (vcr 2 both channels). if i find a way to get multiple vcrs of the same model for a reasonable price, i'll totally build one of these.

new story. read it.

last news post, i said i'd put up "don't say yes when you really mean no!". i deliver. here's the first of seven videos. i received responses from the two possible actresses in question. one was from the video. one wasn't. seems jennifer dimitui is on facebook.

i think that's all the news. have a good what ever you celebrate.




november 9, 2008

first off, yay we won! !! !!! !!!! (the election). i was actually a poll worker, believe it or not.

glider update. i decided to recode basically from scratch. it's a lot cleaner now.

music news: okay. I'm planning to on finishing the hip hop album before the 28th for i have a show, and i would be great to do a cd release. the show is in stockton, ca. for details, click here! and... i'm also working on a rock album, in the style of azura (some azura songs are on it), birds have maps (some of those too), and new material. when it's done, i try to get band members and start a new real band.

and in other news, since i'm listening to the soundtrack of something very embarassing... once upon 1989, a video tape was released called "don't say yes when you really mean no!". it's an anti-drug musical based off of a play of the same title. it's definately a classic in my book. my friends and i would go hysterical watching it. anyway, the question always arose, in my head: where are they now? with a bit of research, my friends and i discovered a few answers to that question.

laticia jackson became a body builder.
albert jones may or may not still be acting. there's some debate whether an albert jones in the movie, "proud" is the same one. it's not a rare name by any means.
erin grey van oosbree now goes by grey delisle. i sent her a message but she never responded.
danielle decker, i may have found. i'm waiting for a confirmation from her.
jennifer dimitui, i may have found. i'm waiting for a confirmation from her too.

no information, besides plays they were in and what high school they were in (which we know is chula vista from the movie), was found on paul blaum, daniel polese, john paul salazar, paul sorensen, kimme stephanson, or jodi wolters... yet. if you haven't seen this movie (and i know you haven't), i'm going to post a link here of the entire movie. until then, sigh, oh! nara.




october 27, 2008

new short film called rainy day. with the external headache, i went for the shallowest depth of field i've ever come across. with rainy day, it's like a pinhole camera.

goodnight caterpillar's website is coming along. listen to the samples.




october 17, 2008

design.




october 11, 2008

sorry to anyone who was interested in my hip hop project. they pretty much came to a hault. but, no more! i recently recorded some more tracks. the album will be done after i finish two existing ones and then add one more totally new one. then it's on to cover art... oh shit! i just realized i have a perfect cover: this picture! okay, all i need to do then is make some good lettering for the title.

on an almost exciting note, a couple dslr are finally shooting video. sounds great except for rolling shutter (jello-cam). the sensors send out a line at a time instead of sending out whole frames. if there is an motion of normal sugnificance, the image wobbles. lame. but, soon, i predict, dslrs will shoot video without that flaw.

triceratops magazine has it's own page now. plea$e buy one.




september 27, 2008

new (old) videos. i've been transfering old footage to my computer and then spiffing it up (or down). the two newest ones to add to the collection are here and here. there are more coming soon. one that's only on youtube is here.




september 21, 2008

like the photography section, the video section has also been made over. it's now in two categories: "short films", and "music videos" (hmm. i wonder if i should divide it again into the two afore mentioned categories plus "animated films". i don't know.). there are a couple new films there too. this post says "september 21, 2008", but i don't have internet access at the moment so you'll read this at a later date.




september 18, 2008

photography section received a makeover. there are new photos there, but many of the old ones are gone. i felt that the now-discarded ones weren't up to par.




september 16, 2008

film news. not mine. it had always bothered me that i could not watch metropolis in its entirety and in order. much of the footage was lost and there were multiple edits of what still existed. recently, a 16mm negative was discovered that contained the previously lost footage. in november of 2009, a new high definition release is coming with the old and new footage. hopefully they won't mess this up with freeze frames like in one of the old versions that i saw. and hopefully, the edit will be true to the original, but who knows.

my new film, tentatively titled "the external headache" now has a page of its own with screen shots. plus, i finally got 'round to putting up a dream sweeper page.




september 11, 2008

new film is on its way. brendan bellomo and i built a new video camera adapter. perhaps the most shallow depth of field i've ever seen. it uses a single element 8.5" x 11" fresnel lens, and a focusing screen of the same size. the whole system is a little over 5 feet long. that's huge. using a fresnel lens has it drawbacks though. there is a lot of chromatic aberration and other distortions. but the footage we've been shooting looks beautiful due to brendan's superb lighting job. the new film should be finished in a few months.

until then, amuse yourselves with this. i have more things to show soon.

i got three of five rolls developed that i shot recently. i hope to get the last two done soon and then i'll post some up. i'll probably sell my camera in the near future. developing is too expensive. if anyone's looking to spend a little bit of money on a minolta slr film camera, let me know.

hey. i have art up on campnorth. there's not much there that you can't see here, but you can leave me comments about my work there.




august 20, 2008

sorry for the lack of updates recently. my external disk, where i store everything useful, decided to, not call it quits, but call it molasses time. i don't know why the data rate has turned into a couple megs a second. luckily it still works, just in sloth mode. i got a new external with raid 1 so everything will be safe. now, its a matter of transferring all the data from the sloth to the raid, a very long procedure due to the slow transfer speed of the old drive. anyway...

on to good stuff: new writing, new pictures, new photos as soon as i get them developed (yes, they're film), new camera invention (still needs a bit of work, but imagine photos/videos with super super shallow depth of field. i mean amazingly shallow.), new other stuff (can't think right now).




july 23, 2008

new things. video video art art art art art art




july 20, 2008

new counting system.

i'm helping with music for a play. i'm recording with my band. i'm planning many new things.

jims and bills.

glider update.




june 13, 2008

glider update.




june 11, 2008

a) i have a new invention thought up by mike hale of room for a ghost and myself.

b) i am doing sound for an episode of a chinese animated series.

c) is for cookie.

d) "the adventure" is taken by too many other bands. we seek a new name. fooey.

e)at your vegetables.

f)uck your fruits.

f)uck, you're fruits

?)

!)

:)




may 31, 2008

the blow, the pills, the yak, the herb. music news! japhy riddle is in a band, which i touched on before. we's called "the adventure". also! there's now an it's day website (at the end of your current url, type it'sday). there isn't much to do there right now. i'll tell you a secret though. there is a hidden link to the macy's website because that's a funny thing to do. laugh laugh laugh?




may 25, 2008

new old films, kogo, bloc.

if you haven't noticed changes to bio, please take a look.




may 20, 2008

the big bang. there's the los link.

new art.

new film.

i don't have a camera right now so film/photography will have to wait. hence, i'm putting a bit more focus on music at the los moment. i'm still waiting for dslrs to shoot video and for me to win the los lottery.

it's a shame that the entertainment industry is such a capitalistic and non-artistic industry. to ensure that they'll sell a form of entertainment, that being a movie, a record, television show, etcetera, they have to dumb it down to appeal to the stupidest people. every time this is done, standards drop. all we see are these shallow money makers. just take a look at the films that are out right now, watch mtv and see how... oops. sorry. mtv doesn't really play music anymore. listen to the radio and hear how all the music sounds the same, it's safe, it's predictable, it's perfect for the most simple-minded people out there. films are the same way. there's no depth to them because if there is, the dumb people won't pay for them. so what happens is that all we see are shallow forms of entertainment and they'll continue to be dumbed down to reach a stupider audience to make more money. now when a creative person is born, they'll get inspired not by the great art out there, which is now becoming extinct or hard to find, but by this shallow entertainment and think that this is the way entertainment is supposed to be. when they grow up, they'll create something that's decent, lose their money, create something stupid, get rich and perpetuate the cycle. if you create entertainment that challenges your audience, and you somehow get people to like it, which is near impossible, you will be reversing this cycle. if the entertainment industry released films and television that targeted only the intelligent people, maybe simple-minded people would want to learn to keep up. that's what challenging your audience is about. a big mistake is to think that people are stupid and dumb things down so that anyone can understand. it's insulting and it lowers standards and it discourages the intellectual growth of our society. if you had people feeding you all the time, would you ever learn to cook? this is similar to what's happening. so i say, force your audience to make an effort. don't hand them everything. let them have to think to understand. blah blah blah. i'm ranting too much. i'm not trying to sound angry, but i truly care about this issue. this was just a stream of consciousness, but i would like to write a paper on this subject eventually.

p.s. don't ever buy bottled water. it costs more per gallon than gasoline, creates lots of waste, uses up resources, and is usually bottled straight from the tap.




may 15, 2008

a couple weeks ago, i recorded a demo cd for "the big bang". if i knew their website, i'd link to it. when i do, i'll post it.

i've been playing music with some people. uh oh, band starting. we'll see where it goes.

new art.




april 23, 2008

bio has been updated. see if you notice the changes.




april 12, 2008

new film.




april 4, 2008

missing anya.




april fools, 2008

a film from 1999 that brendan bellomo and i did has been remastered. see it in its final form hither. we also have some new music and some more new(old) videos on the way.

glider is progressing.

ha ha. finally birds have maps album is done. it got mastered. i started recording it in late 2006. what a long wait.

a jet riot is coming! a jet riot is coming!




march 27, 2008

i started programming a game. it's a remake of john calhoun's glider. click on this to see how far i've come.




march 24, 2008

the hit counter is not working because I'm running off a new webspace provider again. it's depressing seeing all zeros every time.

new photos posted. not all link.

fixed typos on a few pages.




march 19, 2008

new art. new inventions on the way. more camera related inventions. what else..? remastering old hip hop tracks to re-release as goodnight caterpillar. clips from gypsy concert series #6 are up on youtube.




march 7, 2008

new art and more new art to come as soon as i scan. and speaking of scanning, brendan bellomo and i are in the process of attempting to make a scanner camera. see you soon.




february 1, 2008

new art. i'm spending a lot of my creative time doing that now. some of it is hanging in a coffee shop right now.

i had a recording session with old and gray recently. pick up some cds from him. he is also throwing a weekly location-varying concert series. it's called "the gypsy concert series". it features old and gray and other acts. i sometimes accompany him for these concerts.

new sculpture, new inventions (check out language).




january 11, 2008

all drawings now link. more photos link. + other minor fixes/improvements to site. started new invention page for the language i'm working on. it'll be up soon.




january 9, 2008

first off, i'm now living in santa cruz in a converted church with friends of mine. my san diego living situation fell apart, but that wasn't much of a loss.

okay, on to site things. more pictures link in the drawings section now. i'm about to add a few more things to inventions. like the language that i'm working on and some ideas for various things. very descriptive, huh?

my 35mm adapted camera keeps getting better.




december 8, 2007

new section: sculpture.

and i'm finally starting to get the photography section going.




december 3, 2007

new film yet again.

new art, but i haven't scanned it yet. why did i type that. i guess to show that i'm not completely unproductive.

new language. what? yeah, the alphabet is really neat looking. that's about all i've developed, along with the some experiments on sentence structure, and rules about the categorization of words. for instance, all nouns that are non-physical objects have a certain ending or beginning letter (haven't decided yet). every letter has the purpose of not only making a sound, but also helping to define what the word means categorically. let's take the word "spoon". we'll say that it is a noun - "no letter added". we'll say that it is a physical object - "no letter added". we'll say that it's a tool - "t". and used for food - "f". and it's curved - "c". then we insert vowels in some manner to get something like this "tofic". 12 12 12 (ha ha ha). okay, to tell you the truth, i'm making this up on the spot, but these are some of the ideas that have been rattling around in my head. the spoon example was stupid. but i'm hoping to devise some system so that by reading an unknown word, one can already get a glimpse about what it means. it's like when we read an english word and then notice its latin roots, and go "ah, i get it".

there's probably more news but i just got vanilla raspberry frozen yogurt, thus, my priorities have changed...




october 25, 2007

that new film is up. yay. yo.

damn it. it seems that more and more people are developing 35mm adapters. it makes me feel less special. in the near future, dslrs will do 24fps hd video. that will make my adapter seem weak in comparison. until then, i'll post some new photos and videos of my system with my new f1.4 lens soon. it looks pretty laljax(slang for "good") now.




october 24, 2007

great. i move to san diego and it burns down. at least the area that i'm living in (la jolla) does not have to evacuate. okay, the website is now version 3.5, the .5 being that now it is running on a different server. and i'm running on a different computer. i got an apple macbook pro (2.2ghz intel core duo, blah blah blah). i'm running windows on it too because i couldn't cope without sound forge, my mastering program. if you want to run windows on an apple, i highly recommend parallels desktop 3.0 for mac. it just works.

okay. what's new? a worked on a new video for my friend/roommate anya's art class. she asked me to help her film people running through the woods carrying ribbons and then getting killed. a typical day. we're cheap so we bought vhs tapes instead of ribbon. they have a lot of "ribbon" in them. great, another film with tape in it. my life is so repetitive. every film i work on has analog tape in it in one form or another. once i compress the film, so you can download it in less than a week, i'll provide you with links to see it/download it. it's really short though. like a minute. right when i got home from the shoot is when my f1.4 lens arrived in the mail. oh, well. next film i'll be able to use it.

music. so highway rival (name to change, possibly to "this fair city" (i like it)) tracks are done. i'm not sure what the status of that record is. jason charles franklin, the singer of that band, recorded a solo album with me awhile back. it was all acoustic and he said that eventually, he'd like to record a full band electric version. things changed and we scrapped that album except for one track to be used on the electric album. we recorded the new "full band" (me on drums and bass) one and it sounds great. i recommend giving it a listen. a few tracks should be up on his myspace soon. as for my own music, not much has been going on. i'm still writing rock songs here and there and working on hip hop.




september 25, 2007

moving to san diego soon.

new videos: ana, goodnight caterpillar - snail in the wrong shell, a cinematic representation of incrementally increasing beats per second.
new writing: doctorshop quartet.
new place to hear it's day songs.
new music: goodnight caterpillar - pet sea urchin, goodnight caterpillar - the radio (demo).
it's day's "the living room" is done now. it didn't really come to a perfect conclusion, but it's just time to move on. listen to tracks here.




september 10, 2007

been a little while, eh? i was on vacation. i was in california working with brendan bellomo on his film, bohemibot. i made some films of my own while i was down there: "a cinematic representation of incrementally increasing beats per second", and "babies are tape (temporary title)". since i've been back, i've started work on a new musical promotional film (music video) for my hip hop project, goodnight caterpillar. i'm assuming it will be done tomorrow. maybe the next day. look at some screen captures on the myspace.

looks like i'm going to be moving to san diego, california, for a bit. but i must first mix and master all the highway rival tracks. plus, the jason charles franklin tracks. i'm not bringing my computer for it is a desktop machine. i'm thinking it's time to get a laptop. there's so much to do before i leave. ramble ramble ramble.

i vastly improved my 35mm to digital adaptor. it's so sharp now. the only problem is that there is a lot of light loss. that's what happens when you go through four lenses and a focusing screen before you hit the ccd. i now use this camera for everything. like the videos i mentioned earlier.

is there any music news? i'm taking a break from music. kind of. i'm still writing. and still doing hip hop, but music has slowed down, due to the fact that this generation's tastes are complete shit. it's too hard to go against the grain. i'll have to wait until people wake up. mainly, i've been doing film. so again, check out my videos.

triceratops magazine has been reissued. phone me, mail me, run into me on the street and get one. super cheap. $1.00-$5.00.
today, i discovered an amazing book. it's called "codex seraphinianus". you can download a torrent from grey lodge occult review or from this link from their site. when you've gotten what you need out of the torrent, you'll have yourself decent scans of over 350 pages from the book. i recommend doing a google image search to find out if it's worth downloading. it is. i'd like to mention ubuweb. they define themselves so: "ubuweb is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts." i'm going to try to get some of my films up there. wish me luck.




july 31, 2007

new birds have maps record, entitled "birds have maps" (hey! wait. what? wasn't there already a self-titled? yes. here's another. ha ha, suckers. it has a different album cover and different songs. that's good enough.), is basically done. all the tracks have been recorded and artwork is complete. needs a few more liner notes possibly. the myspace has some tracks from it. an acoustic album is also in the works.

it's day's "this is nowhere" video just got finished today. you can see it here or if you love really awful quality video, here. another one for the "it's dayvd".

"triceratops magazine" is in production again. i'm starting over and rereleasing it. issue #1 will be available shortly.

jason charles franklin has new tracks up on his myspace. they're rough mixes of the recordings at japhy riddle studios. hmm... there should be a website or myspace or something dedicated solely to japhy riddle studios, huh? maybe i'll make one. knowing me if i talk about it now, it'll a: never get done, or b: happen in a year from now.

a new invention is being crafted in my head. it's an add-on for the 35mm to digital adaptor. the digital camera's flash is blocked by the body of the minolta xg 9. i was originally going to build some parascoping system for it, but i had a better idea today. i'll take a normal mountable flash and mount it to the minolta xg 9. but first, i'll take it apart and remove the button that triggers it. instead of a button, i'll use a photocell to complete the circuit. the photocell will be triggered by the digital camera's flash. the only thing to worry about is some sort of delay. hopefully there will be none.




july 24, 2007

highway rival recording sessions are going well. super rough mixes of two of the five songs are up on their myspace. the band and i are shooting for, at least, rough mixes of all the songs before august. then, sometime in september, the demonstration record will be mixed/mastered and released.

a few more drawings have links now. "last thursday" is coming up again. time to sell more art.

i bought a cute little 650 watt light made for super 8. i got it for less than $2 because the girl at the check out thought i was cute, or she messed up with the register... because she was distracted by my cuteness? just kidding. sorry.




july 22, 2007

nothing.

it's funny to me to have a post that doesn't have news.




july 19, 2007

i finally got my 35mm adaptor working. here, motherfuckers!

i'm recording highway rival. the first session went really smoothly and efficiently.

i mastered a song off of a four-track for strigidae. mostly just cleaned up some punch-ins.




july 9, 2007

new invention.

added various band pages in the all music projects section.

it rained on art selling day so not many people showed up. i still made $37.00. 37 is my least favorite number for the record but i didn't complain.




june 27, 2007

new artwork. i'll be selling it again at "last thursday" on alberta street in portland. last time i made around $100. i won't make as much this time because i don't have as much art to sell.

i'm in the process of modifying a camera. it'll be in the inventions section when complete.

i finally mixed and mastered the tell the truth recording sessions done here at japhy riddle studios. they sound really good. contact tell the truth if you'd like to know more about the truth. or these recordings. i'm not sure what they're going to do with these tracks because they've changed their line up, and basically moved on from this era of tell the truth.

new strange music project. heart, the monitor. very obnoxious.

and just so you know...




june 24, 2007

mike amaro and johanna kibrick amaro got married. the wedding/show was most excellent. a number of bands played including their band, tell the truth. and i backed up jake generalli on drums, bass, guitar, and oscillator (one at a time, obviously). congratualtions guys!




june 15, 2007

i'm ready to play hip hop shows. come to performances for a fun time. i'll post info here and on the goodnight caterpillar myspace. and on this topic, i'm done with a very short ep (maybe it shouldn't be called that. it's only like ten minutes) with some lo-fi hip hop from goodnight caterpillar. it's called "moth fucker ep". get it? like mother fucker, but it's just "moth" because of the whole caterpillar theme. shut up, japhy...

oh, yes! inventions. there are three inventions that have links now. they're all sound related. check 'em out. they all have examples (audio or video).

i guess you guys aren't ready for this, yet...
_________ two shorts walk into a bar...
_________ bartender - "you're too short. get out!"
...but you're kids are gonna love it...




june 11, 2007

here.




june 6, 2007

new things all over. happy hunting.




june 5, 2007

look bitches, i changed around the music section. it's almost good now. just a little more work on it. yay.




may 28, 2007

a ton of tuna!

only one more song for the birds have maps record and then it'll be done.

there's a new thing in the writing section. have fun.

there's a new thing in the video section. have fun.

there are new things in the drawings section. have fun.

i was on stanford's radio stastion, kzsu. i had fun. i got to play recordings of two birds have maps songs and one from old and gray i did some vocals on. and chose a laura barrett song to be played also, because she's the best. well, gavin knight is the best actually because he had me on his radio show. we had many laughs. it was fun all around.

another recording session with jason charles franklin today.




april 20, 2007

recording sessions started for jason charles franklin...




april 17, 2007

sorry for the lack of updates everyone (no one). new birds have maps song called "there was no meeting of flesh". the ep, so far, is:
1. apple song (sweet version) (done)
2. intimate dating is intimidating (demo stages)
3. have you ever been lonely? (no recording)
4. there was no meeting of flesh (demo stages)
5-7. (has not yet been written. there will be a drum solo as its own track, as a transition piece.)

new 'it's day' video on 'it's way'.

awhile back, i did a split with old and gray. recently i went back to california and helped to vocals for some old and gray stuff. it's really good. i'm not sure when it's going to be released. but when it is, i'll post.

i'm hoping to record a few people soon. being a recording engineer is super fun. and if you (yes, you) would like to be recorded at japhy riddle studios, hit me up.

i've been doing designs for brendan bellomo's new film, bohemibot. weapons, doors, eating utencils, alien fonts, etcetera. i may fly out to new york for the shoot in may.

more interesting things on the way. i got pumped to update my website. but i'm sleepy now. i'll do a better one soon.




february 20, 2007

new and funny goodnight caterpillar song. it's called "glider 4.0". embedded in the lyrics are every room's name in the entire game.

birds have maps news. there is an ep coming out.

bumblebee people is going to be an it's day song. yay! it found a home.

i'm also trying out singing for a band called secondary colors. the songs on the myspace are sequenced tracks, but they are a live band.




february 14, 2007

this is my valentine to all.




january 26, 2007

i'm back from california. i had an amazing trip. thank you everybody who hung out with me and gave me a bed for the night. whilst one state south, i drew lot of pictures in my sketchbook some of which are in the drawings section.

there are new music things going on. i am now part of tell the truth. a part that plays drums. this leads to the myspace but the sound and members have changed quite a bit, so this is not an accurate representation of tell the truth anymore. i'll still master the recordings i did before i was in the band.

the rats are in the gas mask. i hold tuning forks up to volcanos.

is this it's day material? i'm not sure. it's on the myspace for now, but it might end up being used for something different. whatever the case, it's not finished.




december 14. 2006

i'm recording tell the truth in my studio(my room). they are really good. you should listen to them on that link to the left. i've worked with them before. a little bit of mastering on some of their demos. they're my friends, and they're awesome, and i love them.

remember that band, birds have maps? they recorded one album that pretty much rocks. they broke up. right. but new releases are on the way. new releases? i though the first album was never really released. that's true. it should be, huh? anyway, two new records are on the way. and by on the way, i mean within the decade. ha ha ha. i've just recorded a demo of a song to be on outputopia, the birds have maps's second album. you can download it hither. some parts are missing because pro tools was being a full blown cocksucker (i don't want to explain so i'll just be vulgar). anyway, you can download it, but there are beeps in places where there are parts that couldn't be exported from the session. it sounds as though i'm being censored on the recording, but i assure you, i'm only saying "spends" and "away". the track isn't mixed or processed very much. the guitar tone is very dry and plunky, the edits are not perfect, there's a really good section missing, and the snare drum needs some work. it'll be dynamite when it's done though.

there's also a new it's day record coming out. 8 of the 10 tracks are finished. you can hear a sampler of them on the myspace. i started to work on the official it's day website, but i got frustrated and stopped because i'm not very good at web design. it'll happen eventually.




december 08, 2006

i'm going to an oscillating innards show tonight. I'll probably need two sets of earplugs (that's a compliment, gordon).

updates to the music section. you can now download the legendary gunn high school open mic performances that me and jason did a few years ago, under the japhy riddle subsection, + more.

new artwork.

i 've updated some of the links on old news posts but from now on i'm not going to do anything like that.

i'll be in california on december 19th. i'm gonna playing a few shows there as well as working on a music video, and other things blah blah blah, this news is boring.




november 27, 2006

updates to the video section.

p.s. - kate bush rules. at least her work from '78 to '82.




november 16, 2006

endocument.

updates to the music section.




november 10, 2006

it's amazing how much i update the news now. that's what happens when you have no friends. i'll have plenty soon (just kidding) because of these pants (and the neat little layout in which they can be seen).




november 9, 2006

...and i record another traditional just for fun. a minor note: birds have maps tracks have had their bass boosted. thanks to charlie mezak for noticing they lacked the proper amount of bass. the tracks have been updated on this site but not on the myspace. okay, that's all.




november 5, 2006

to the beach, yall! okay, here's a hip hop song. it's a demo. it's goofy, not serious. it's waiting for you to listen to it. and you might as well become myspace friends with goodnight caterpillar.




november 4, 2006

more drawings are up. only one of them is new and not all of them can be enlarged. it takes a lot of time to do this kind of work even with advanced tools.

i finally have some video editing software. i got adobe premiere pro. i like final cut better(so far), but since i don't have a decent apple computer yet, i figured that i'd get pc video editing software. and speaking of editing... i just edited a "movie" that dawn riddle (sister), heidi alexander (sister's friend), and i(sister's brother) made around 1993? 1994? by edited, i mean took out the dead space between the improvised dialogs and actions. yes, they're jump cuts, but i figure that the picture looks so shitty(lot's of shots are too dark, too bright, backlit, and framed badly) in itself, that it doesn't matter. i won't say too much about the "movie" because i don't want to get you all out there excited, for it is too embarrassing to put up on this website.

i got rained on so much today.




october 28, 2006

hardcore anyone? x-ray x-rated, i hope that's glue up your sleeve. the instrumentation is: 1-string guitar, bass, keyboard drum beats, and vocals. just good fun music. not very serious. i don't have a name for this stuff yet.

a funny fact is that duct tape has so many uses but it's actually not good for ducts at all. and also there's a store called the "door store". i looked it up because of a brilliant skit from olde english comedy. it's a different door store than the one in the movie but get this... the door store (the one i looked up) specializes in chairs and other fine home furnishings but they don't have too much in the way of doors. isn't life great?




october 27, 2006

new artwork. new section started. new music. nuclear bomb. okay, the new music is technically old music (traditional(i've only heard the simon & garfunkel version)) but it's a new recording. i'm not sure what i'm going to do with this. i just wanted to make it. be warned: the vocals are not perfectly in key. i just did them and had fun with the whole thing (at 4:00 in the morning of course).

okay, wow! i just went through (and am still going through) a bunch old cassette tapes. i found some amazing stuff. for starters, a maxit for pet album that had been overlooked. it was our fifth recording i believe. not that many people know about maxit for pet anyway. i found some improvised hardcore that me and jason cirimele did. i don't ever remember recording this, which is rare for me. i have a pretty good memory. i found a tape of old azura ideas. this dates back to before we had written any songs. it's just me playing guitar or bass and occasionally singing or humming. it's not much to listen to but it gives you an idea of where i was coming from when writing azura's first songs. there's a recording of prog song i wrote on keyboard during my days in nightfist. but the one that tops them all is a tape that's labeled "perry hern & joyson - hairy perm". on it, is something called "project dental - the meaning of life in 12 easy steps". now i've never done any drugs, but hearing this has got me to question that. it's jason cirimele and i doing a one night stand band and the last track (being the title track), is completely ridiculous. the tape is stopped and started such a great amount of times. many of the times in mid sentence. it's mostly just talking, but we sound drunk and stoned. i'm guessing it was sleep deprivation. the track is over nine minutes and never seems to have a point. i don't remember recording this stuff at all but i'm glad i did. anyway... i have more tapes to go through now. see ya later.




october 25, 2006

okay, more video. i guess i've been doing a lot of that lately. the newest, "gh-177", was really a test to see if i could do a certain kind of special effect. the title was the result of hitting the keyboard and then adding a number. it'll be up on youtube shortly. this film is not to be taken seriously. it's only cool because it's so lame.




october 24, 2006

the "float from the fields" video is up on youtube now. other videos will be put up there too in good time (or even bad time). this is the link.

minor updates.




october 17, 2006

i spent the last three days shooting and editing a music video for an it's day song from the newest record, "the living room". look in the video section to watch. I'll be performing this song and others in november. i'll post more information about it when it gets closer to the time. the music video that brendan bellomo and i are working on, should be completed over winter break. okay, that's all for now. enjoy.




october 13, 2006

new goodnight caterpillar song. I don't think it's complete-it's so short.

new mp3 on the it's day myspace from the upcoming ep or full length (i haven't decided at this point), "the living room".

a few link errors have been eliminated on this site.




october 8, 2006

some updates. video, drawings, um... i can't remember if there's more. happy hunting.




september 27, 2006

i stayed up until 4:30 in the morning mixing and mastering the birds have mass record. besides some tracks being more quiet than others overall, this record is finished. now all i have to do is find new band mates so birds can play shows again. the sample mp3s here and on the myspace have been updated with the new better mixes. check them out.




september 23, 2006

website now has more working things. "art" and "music" sections have begun to be useful. "contact" works.

a couple day ago, i saw busdriver in concert. if you haven't heard of him, you need to get on that. best hip hop show ever. he's amazing live. kind of shy though when i talked with him. he represents what hip hop should be, in my opinion.

sound travels fifteen times faster through steel than through air.




september 20, 2006

new website. version number 3! nothing works yet except news.

i have moved. i'm now residing in milwaukie, a town just south of portland, oregon. i have no more bands for the time being. check the bleiachra myspace, though. the tracks for the split with buckle are up there. the 7" will be released some day. we need to work out the money aspects first. records are expensive to press. i am no longer friends with jason cirimele, so any collaborative projects still pending are cancelled or will be released unfinished. such as a hip hop album we were working on. fuck hip hop though. it has so much less emotion than rock. nevertheless, i'll continue doing it just for fun.

it's day. the "its day" ep has been re-released with new cover art, and with professional printing (jungle digital imaging). it's selling for $5.00. contact me if when you would like one. the splits are now going for free to cool people (people I run into on the street that seem neat). "veril's antidote", the full-length, will be released when enough copies of "its day" sell. i'll begin performing again maybe. the new music video is on delay. it'll get worked on more over winter break.

birds have maps. birds have very little mass. the band, although not officially broken up, is at a standstill. i'm still writing for it. the first record will still be released after I get all the kinks out.

sorry for the lack of updates. i've had no internet until very recently.

to the beach, y'all.