Ethereality News & Weblog

NEWS:
A long over due Kitty Cat Diary entry:

And the Lisa session I mentioned before:

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I uploaded a few new clips I composed for the Galactic Melee score. The game is currently on hold as the project ran out of funding. I have no idea if Kevin will ever put more money into it to get it out there. I certainly had fun composing the score for it, and in a way, it was the catalyst that made me start thinking seriously about a career change again (more on that later).

Here are the new clips:

Galactic Melee - In-game Combat 3 - For this combat cue, I used evolving pads and percussions to build up a sense of mystery and tension.

These in-game combat cues loop throughout the various levels in the game. Since the game is more about strategy and teamwork than about pure action, I wanted to go for a more hypnotic and introspective atmosphere for all the combat cues as opposed to the typical in-your-face aggressive approach that most shooter games use

Galactic Melee - In-game Combat 2 - For this combat cue, I established a persistent drum groove that drives the mood and propels the strategic action forward.

Galactic Melee - In-game Combat 1 - For this combat cue, I used a square wave tone for its main melody to convey the feeling of piloting a small spaceship in the vast open space.

Galactic Melee - Credits - Since Galactic Melee has no narrative premise and is really just a fun multiplayer experience, I wanted the credit music to be more uplifting and optimistic and not dark like the rest of the score. My intention was to end the game with a feeling of “Now that the fighting has ended and we’ve all had lots of fun shooting at each other, let’s just put our ships on autopilot and enjoy the beautiful view as we cruise the galaxy together.”

WEBLOG:
Our apartment currently looks like a warehouse, with most of our stuff already in boxes. Just thinking about shipping my music gears (roughly $40,000 worth) across the ocean makes me nervous. I would be very upset if any of it was damaged along the way, since there are some pieces that are no longer in production and will be very hard if not impossible to replace.

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The fact that art isn’t my favorite among the things I’m passionate about is not a mystery among those that know me well. This isn’t to say I don’t love art, just that I’ve been working as a professional artist for so many years that I’m ready for a change. Throughout the years, I noticed that my love for music, film, writing, and even to some degree photography, has often eclipsed my love for art. The simplest way to describe why I feel the way I do, would simply be this:

Music, film, and literature can move me to tears and evoke feelings of such intensity that art cannot (although when art is paired with words like graphic novels, can, but I left the comic book industry behind many years ago). Photography as a medium communicates in a similar way to art, but what I like more about photography is that it’s just so much more fun than sitting there drawing and painting all day. Photography forces you to get up and interact with other human beings, animals, and nature in an active manner that is much more exciting than sitting at an easel, moving a Wacom tablet pen around, or pulling vertices in a 3D software. Although video games, animation, and film special effects can all be very exciting, they usually are only that exciting to me when I’m experiencing them as the audience–working on them don’t really give me the same enjoyment as I get when I’m composing/arranging/performing a piece of music, immersed in the story and characters I’m writing about, directing a scene and seeing magic happening right in front of my eyes and sharing that sense of excitement with the cast and crew, or being in “the zone” when a photo session is going very well and everyone’s just having a great time.

So, now that I’m leaving my current art directing job, I’m looking to my future with the intention of making a career change. I’ve tried to do this before and I couldn’t make it stick because it was just easier to find a job as an artist (many say it’s because my artwork is the most impressive of all the creative things I do. I don’t know if that’s really it). I’ve worked as a writer/director in animation and that was the only full-time job I’ve ever had that I really enjoyed. I’ve done professional work in music and photography as well, but neither could pay the rent full-time when I did them. Now, I’m going to try and see if I can make music stick this time around. While doing that, I’ll still be writing my screenplays and novels, and continue to shoot photography just for fun. Maybe I’ll continue drawing/painting too, depending on if any compelling projects come my way (that reminds me, I’m still a member of the Black Mesa MOD team. Maybe now I can contribute more concept art to that project).

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Mini movie & TV reviews:

There Will Be Blood - I respect this film, but I found it hard to sympathize with a main character that was so absolutely ruthless and lacking empathy for others. The score for the film was very unique, and certainly one of few notable ones I’ve heard in recent memory.

Babel - It took me a long time to finally sit down and watch this film, and it wasn’t as bad as I had feared it would be. It certainly didn’t deserve all the buzz it received though, as I felt the attempt to link the characters and situations together had no meaningful purpose to me, and made no profound statement in the way that I feel it should have to have deserved such critical acclaim.

Entourage - I have been hearing about Entourage for a long time now, but never got around to watching it. Now that I have, I can see what all the fuss is about–it is a very entertaining show, especially if you have an interest in the entertainment business. It has the ability to let you live vicariously through the lives of the characters, and it feels like watching something real unfold as opposed to knowing that you are watching fiction.

WEBLOG:
If you do anything creative at all, you should care about the Orphaned Works bill that will decide whether or not you own the rights to your own work. The past rights you have to your work will be lost–even if you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re the original creator. Read up on it and take action!

Article detailing what’s at stake for you.

Podcast discussing the bill and its ramifications, with links for taking action to preserve your rights.

(EDIT: I just got an email from Mikeal (http://www.tattooeddad.com) telling me that the Orphan Bill is some kind of a misunderstanding and that there is no such thing. He sent me this link to read up on.)

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Life’s been hectic as we’ve begun packing for our move back to China. I can’t believe we’re moving back after just two years in the States, but this time it’s all business so we go where our fortunes could be made. Obviously we much prefer to live in the States, but you’re only young once, and if you don’t grab every opportunity that comes your way, you might just miss out on a better life later. I’ll try to keep my bitching about China to a minimum this time, since the last time I was more or less forced to stay there, and this time it’s of my own choice.

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Have you ever wondered how much ink is really left in your printer’s ink cartridge when it tells you you’ve run out? This is how much is actually left (I used a pair of pliers to squeeze the remaining ink out):

And if you swirl that around around with your finger:

That’s still good for a lot of pages. Not the most efficient design I must say. I understand the current design requires that the ink doesn’t run completely dry, otherwise the printer could be damaged, but there must be some other way of doing it? I suppose you have to think of it as you’re not actually paying for the wasted ink–you’re only paying for the usable portion.

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Jeremy Lipking finally released his DVD and art book. I’ve been waiting for years for them and it’s about time. The book was more sparse than I expected, concentrating on mostly the more recent figure paintings. I wish it was a more comprehensive collection of all his works to date, but I have a feeling he’s saving that for later.

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I’ve been on the hunt for good tracking headphones, since the headphones I have are not quite appropriate for that purpose–they’re either open-sealed (will bleed into the mic), ear-pad styled (uncomfortable for prolonged sessions), or IEM (In-Ear-Monitors) that’s a hassle to insert/remove quickly. So what does Rob do when he’s on the prowl? He spends hours at pro audio shops testing out gears. I did a 3-hour listening test of headphones at a local pro audio shop, and here’s a mini review of the ones I tested:

ATH-M50 - By far the best of the bunch. Sounds very similar to my sennheiser HD555. In fact, if it was open-back, it would probably sound just like the HD555. Nice and warm, lush, no harshness at all. No boosted or scooped frequencies, except the highest highs are just tiny bit rolled off for the warm sound (this is essential for me, as most headphones tend to be too harsh).

Equation RP21 - Very good for the price. Slightly harsh at the high end, but everything else was great. The ear-cups don’t fit as comfortably or securely as other headphone with full-sized ear-cups.

Beyerdynamics DT770 / DT880 - Sounded similar to each other, with the DT880 a bit more accurate. Both have that slight harshness in the highs that I don’t like. These are very comfy though–I wish the M50 and the RP21 had velour ear-cups like these.

Sony MDR-7509 / MDR-V600 - I have always disliked the Sony headphones due to the shrillness of the high end, and it’s still the same this time. Absolutely couldn’t stand it. Talk about listening fatigue!

Sennheiser HD280 Pro - It’s OK. Nothing to write home about. The bass is a bit anemic, and the overall sound is a bit limp and lifeless. At the same price, the RP21 sounds significantly better (although the HD280 doesn’t have that slight harshness in the high end).

Sennheiser HD202 - for such a cheap price, it’s quite good. Bass is hyped, and lower-mids are recessed. Tiny ear-cups the just surround your ears are a bit weird–like someone’s hugging your ears.

M-Audio Q40 - Second best of the bunch by far. Almost like a middle ground between the M50 and the RP21–the harshness in the high end is almost gone–just a tiny hint that’s barely there. The rest sounds remarkably similar to the M50. The ear-cups are a more secure fit than others, but some might prefer the looser feel of the M50 and the RP21.

Some Samson headphone (can’t remember which model) - CRAP. Don’t bother.

So, my final decision was:

RP21 - for the singer to wear during tracking.

M50 - for me to wear during tracking.

I could have swapped out the RP21 for the Q40, but since someone was selling the RP21 and no one was selling the Q40 used, I jumped on the RP21. I like the Q40 better, but I also like the fact that the RP21 will give me a different perspective as an alternate take on my mix, whereas the Q40 is so similar to the M50 and HD555 that I really don’t need 3 very similar sounding headphones. Besides, I love that vermillion color on the RP21–a bit of that retro cool vibe.

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Headphone amps are something I’ve been wondering about but never took the plunge, because in the back of my mind I keep thinking that they won’t add much benefit. My critical listening is done on my near-field monitors, and I only use headphones when tracking or if it’s really late at night. I’ve read people’s buyer’s remorse from getting headphone amps stating that the only thing it did was make things louder, instead of the flowery ravings of better clarity, tighter and more defined bass, better stereo imaging…etc. I don’t want to end up like one of those guys and then turn around to sell mine off on ebay.

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Preamps are a hot topic in the pro audio community, and I’ve been researching on what preamp I’d like to get to round out my studio. The ones I’m seriously considering are:

Great River ME-1NV
DAV BG-1
Summit Audio 2BA-221
FMR RNP
Grace Design Model 101
True Systems P-Solo

I’m leaning towards the DAV at this point, but I’ll have to research a bit more to reach a decision.

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I’ve also been looking into maybe getting a premium AD/DA converter, since I’m monitoring on a pair of monitors that cost close to $7,000, and it doesn’t make sense that the rest of my signal path are not of the same premium quality. Maybe I’ll go for products from Benchmark, or maybe something a bit more modest in price like the products from RME or Apogee. These high quality AD/DA converters are certainly not cheap–no matter what you’ll be spending about a couple thousand of dollars.

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Mini movie reviews:

Stranger Than Fiction - I didn’t feel that the novel being written in the film by the author was anywhere near what anyone would call a masterpiece, and for the characters in the film to continually refer to it as a masterpiece that would prompt someone to give up his life, just felt a bit like telling instead of showing.

Cloverfield - Although the style is the main thing anyone would notice about this film, and I’m the type who typically does not like it when style becomes more important than substance, I enjoyed this film due to the realistic depiction of what would really happen in a crisis. During some scenes it became hard to believe anyone would try that hard to hold on to a video camera let alone keep on shooting while trying to stay alive.

Atonement - Enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite as moving as I had hoped. Knightly is a breathtaking beauty in certain angles, that’s for sure.

Superbad - Good fun, for people who like raunchy humor involving unpopular high school kids.

Harold and Kumar Goes to White Castle - My brother Dennis kept telling me I had to see this, and he was right. Also good raunchy fun, with an Indian and a Korean guy as the two main leads, which is something of a novelty for an American comedy film. Can’t wait for the sequel–Harold and Kumar 2 Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which will be out April 25th.

Alien VS. Predator: Extinction - I wanted to like this because the two brothers that directed it are members at cgsociety.org, where I’m a Forum Leader, but it just wasn’t a good film in both screenplay or direction. I just watched it a couple of weeks ago and I already can’t remember much about it–that’s how forgettable and disposable it was.

The Golden Compass - I was disappointed. I found the film neither emotionally moving nor viscerally thrilling–not even interesting enough to appeal to my inner child, which is not that hard to please when it comes to fantastic premises. A colleague (Linda Bergkvist) worked on the film as a concept artist, and I’m guessing the witches were her handiwork, but I couldn’t tell if anything else were obviously her designs.

30 Days of Night - One of the better vampire films I’ve seen in a long time. Atmospheric premise and some excellent camera work. Also really liked the way the vampires were depicted–just human enough but not nearly enough to be bad poetry reading tortured types.

Stardust - I had read the book years ago and the film’s visuals were similar to what I saw in my head when I read the book. I tend to think of Clare Danes as an actress who’s very limited, and she’s sometimes cast in roles that require her to be more physically beautiful than she actually is. There are actresses who can pull that off (Cate Blanchett comes to mind), but Clare Danes is not elegant or graceful enough to play roles that are more attractive than she really is. I am a big fan of her first role as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life though.

Shrek the Third - I turned it off before I finished. A complete waste of time. These sequels are nothing more than attempts at money-milking a franchise. Pixar they are not.

The Mist - One of the best horror films I’ve seen in a long time. Focusing on the characters was a great choice, but the religious fanaticism aspect of the story was way overboard. I would think a lot more people would’ve resisted the crazy woman, and that as soon as she started demanding blood, some of those who followed her would’ve snapped out of it and realized things have gone too far. If the writer has simply included a scene like that then it would’ve made the film a lot more believable. The ending was also out of character, and felt too forced.

Enchanted - It’s annoying cute on purpose in the first half, which might turn some people off, but if you stick it out, the second half of the film becomes a lot more interesting–when reality starts to sink in and everything becomes more grounded.

Appleseed: Ex Machina - I liked the smoother cell-shading rendering this time more than the last film, but I think they squandered an excellent sub-plot that could’ve been a lot more intense dramatically. The main plot itself is quite derivative and not worth mentioning–even the action choreography was lackluster compared to the previous film. Overall, I enjoyed what little they did explore with the character sub-plot, but wished they could’ve done more.

WEBLOG:
I’ve been feeling kind of blah lately. Of course, Elena being away for so many weeks is one reason (she’s on a business trip again in China, and also scoping out construction companies for the interior modeling of our apartment and my recording studio), but it’s also the lack of free time to do the things I really want and need to do. I’m one of those people that’s got a huge “To Do” list at any given moment, and it never seems to get any shorter year after year. To give you an idea of how extensive that list is–here’s an excerpt:

Short-term
-Get all medical appoints out of the way
-Finish processing latest photo session
-Finish all freelance work
-Finish current concept art tasks for Black Mesa
-Finish business plan (can’t talk about this yet, I will once things pan out)
-Write a new song and record Carol as the vocalist
-Get Tenacious Games to pay me the money they owe me for the coloring job on The Spoils.
-Test out the Shure SM7A
-Chase down the guy that sold me the Variax Acoustic 700 for the missing cable and manual.

Medium-term
-Finish ripping the rest of the CD collection into mp3’s,
-Finish archiving old out-of-print cassette tapes
-Finish digitizing old out-of-print/personal VHS tapes
-Find ways to finance a Musicman Bongo Stealth 5-string, a Zendrum ZAP, and a Parker Fly Deluxe
-Sell off as much stuff as possible before the big move
-Build a new DAW and an isolation box for all computers in the studio
-Build shipping cases for all instruments before the big move.

Long-term
-Finish writing screenplays and novels that’s been on hold due to lack of free time
-Get up to session player level on all instruments I play (drums, guitar, bass, keyboards)
-Finish up all unfinished paintings
-Finish up all unfinished music

That list is just a fraction of the actual one I have in a Word file. I predict some of those tasks and goals on that list will still be there by the time I retire. That’s a pretty depressing thought, because I’m only thirty-five.

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My friend Lisa (from when I lived briefly in Kentucky) came up from L.A. to visit. We hung out and did a fairly casual photo session of her with just makeshift household lights and window light. She’s also a photographer and currently still shoots film,. I’ve been trying to convince her to give digital a try for years now, but she’s pretty attached to film. I showed her my entire digital workflow–from shooting with the Canon 1D MarkII, processing the RAW’s, editing in Photoshop, to organizing with ACDSee Pro. If that couldn’t change her mind about digital, then nothing ever would. Once I’ve had time to finish processing the photos from that session I’ll upload them. For now, here’s one image I did process:

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I have been adding a lot of gear to the studio in the last few months. All the gears were carefully researched, very practical, and none were impulse buys or luxury items. Here’s a list of the gear I’ve added to the studio in the last few months, with brief comments about each:

yamaha BC-3 Breath-Controller (for my Kurzweil PC2X) - I was quite disappointed by the lack of sensitivity and control with it. Fading in volume is fine, but the fade outs are almost impossible to control smoothly–it tends to just drop out once you start to ease up on the breath pressure.

Yamaha FC-7 Expression Pedal (for my Kurzweil PC2X) - Not much to say. It does the job.

Kurzweil Ribbon Controller (for my Kurzweil PC2X) - Pretty good. I taped no-slip discs under it so it won’t slide around when placed on top of the PC2X.

Line 6 Variax 700 Acoustic Guitar - I think this is probably the best product in the Variax range. It feels great, plays great, and has some killer guitar models. The ethnic instruments are a joke, but I got it mainly for the various acoustic guitar models and the mandola.

Line 6 Variax 700 Electric Guitar - Nice build, sounds pretty good, and not much to complain about. The acoustic models on it are not nearly as good as the ones on the acoustic Variax (that’s why I got both).

Line 6 Variax 700B Electric Bass - I got this mostly for a few of the models like the Thunderchief, the 8 & 12 string models, and the Precision Bass model. The rest are ok, but nothing to write home about.

Line 6 Lowdown Studio 110 Bass Amp - This little guy delivers some serious power for its size–enough so that I can’t really use it in the apartment or the grumpy guy upstairs will freak out and call the manager on me.

Audio-Technica 4033 large diaphragm condensor microphone - Pristine sound. No complaints.

Shure SM7A dynamic microphone - Still waiting for the package to arrive.

Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor pedal - Works like a charm. Took the hum right out of my Fender Strat.

Warwick Rockstand (7 slots) - Spacing is too tight–you’d knock your axes on each other if you’re not careful. But I can’t complain since it freed up so much space in the studio. It takes up about the amount of space as two to three regular guitar stands, but holds 7. What’s to complain about?

Line 6 Toneport UX2 audio interface - I’ve been fairly happy with this, but I think it’s lame for Line 6 to charge for a separate VST version of Gearbox. The headroom on the preamps, the output, the headphone..etc are on the low side–you’d have to crank everything up to get decent volume. There’s also no auto-wah in the Gearbox that comes with the Toneport. You’d have to pay for extra tone packs to get auto-wah. How lame is that? Stability wise, it’s been pretty good thus far.

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I have a number of books and DVD’s on drumming, but for some reason, most dwell on hand techniques and don’t go into depth about foot techniques. I’ve been trying to get my foot to be able to play fast bass pedal rolls of up to as many notes as my foot can handle, and I wish there were really good instructions on that subject out there. I scoured youtube and found some, but none were in depth. Jojo Mayer obviously can do amazing things on a single pedal, but he has not gotten around to teaching it. I took a look at the Dualist bass pedal and it’s pretty clever, but I want to learn it the “right” way before I start using special gear to cheat.

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Factor One was an industrial band I was in back in the early 90’s. Dean, the founder, recently tracked me down online. He’s still making music–you can check out his stuff here.

I played a couple of shows while in Factor One–one was opening up for Sheep On Drugs, and the other one was opening up for Voice Farm (they had an amazing show on Halloween). Factor One had also opened up for heavy weights like Frontline Assembly, Red Flag, but that was before I joined the band. We almost got to open up for Nine Inch Nails and Consolidated at some point, but those gigs fell through. I played mostly keyboards in that band, and a little bit of guitar and drums. I was never into playing live, since I’ve never been much of an instrumentalist–more of a composer/songwriter. Now that my playing has gotten much better on all the instruments I play, I wonder if I’ll enjoy playing live more.

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I finally sold off most of my action figures/dolls on ebay. They’ve been just sitting in boxes all these years, and even after getting them out of the storage, there’s still no room for them anywhere in the apartment. I was tempted to keep all the special forces ones because they are just amazing in detail and quality, but I think my days of being a military nut is over. I’ve been back in the States for well over a year now, and I still haven’t had a chance to play a single game of airsoft. I mean, if you can’t even find time to play in California, the best weather in the whole world for playing airsoft, then your airsoft days are probably over. I’m keeping all my airsoft gear though–even if just for home defense. At 400 FPS, my upgraded rifles will draw blood and break a few teeth if some idiot decides to break into our apartment.

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I’m currently using the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 to digitize my old VHS tapes, and it’s working fairly well. The bundled softwares are a joke–usable, but extremely limited in features and clunky to use. The Hauppauge is actually the second product I tried–the first was the ADS Tech DVExpress DX2, and it was DOA. I exchanged it and got another DOA unit. I made sure to try both units on four different computers, all the USB ports available, and finally gave up and returned for a refund (newegg.com rocks, BTW. I do all my computer-related shopping there).

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Elena and I have tried quite a few Thai restaurants in the Bay Area, and so far Thai Pepper in Sunnyvale is still one of our favorites. If you live in the Bay Area and love Thai food, then you owe it to yourself to give it a try. The Curry Duck is our favorite dish there, and their various salads are also quite good–not to mention their menu is priced quite low. The only other Thai restaurant that we think is very good in the Bay Area is Marnee Thai in San Francisco–they even have a charming clairvoyant owner who often walks around giving out free advice. Too bad both restaurants are 30 minutes from us now that we live in San Mateo.

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Resident Evil 4 is the game I’ve been playing for a long time now (since I have so little free time, I try to sneak in a short session here and there while I’m eating in front of the computer) and to be honest, I don’t see what all the fuss is about (it’s gotten rave reviews across the board). Sure, it improves upon the crappy camera and control of the previous RE games, but it’s got it’s own list of problems that all the reviewers seemed to have overlooked (or didn’t care about). Now, I’m not saying I’m not having fun with the game–just that I expected it to be better from all the hype.

Here’s a list of issues I have with the game:

-Ridiculous vendor character that waits by the save checkpoint. What the hell is that all about? It feels like lazy game design, and it’s such a dated concept that I wonder why they bothered to use it for this “innovative” twist on the RE franchise.

-”Notes” taken by various characters left all over the place for you to read. When System Shock 2, F.E.A.R., and Bioshock did it, they made sense, but the notes in RE4 were just stupid, in both why anyone would write down some of these things, and how they’re just casually laying around in various places. Many of these notes are like journal entries giving away important secrets about the mission the characters are on. Who the fuck goes around jotting down journal entries about their secrets and then leave the pages everywhere while on clandestine missions?

-Lack of bonding and interaction with important NPC’s that you spend so much time with. The only time Ashley talks to you is during the pre-rendered cinematics, or when she’s calling for help. They should have given her lots of in-game dialog so she can make comments according to each situation, or even just chit chat, instead of being this mute AI you lead around each level.

-Arbitrarily made up puzzles that are just silly, and campy characters like the midget villain. I guess it’s just a Japanese thing–they love throwing campy stuff into gritty stories (Metal Gear Solid for example).

-Horrible camera/controls that are more often frustrating than fun.

-Antiquated game design elements like blocking paths with obviously breakable items, or things you should easily be able to climb/jump over. I know this is a hard one to address, but it felt like they didn’t even try to make it feel more logical–they just put random stuff up as barrier.

I guess the only real saving grace for this game are the “not zombies.” They way they gang up on you in open space is intense, and that’s where most of fun is–shooting the “not zombies.”

BTW, the Logitech Rumble Pad 2 works very well (I imagine identical to the console experience)–that’s what I’m using to play RE4 on the PC. Beats the hell out of trying to play it on the keyboard/mouse.

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I try to get reading time in whenever I could–on the train and on the can, otherwise I’d never have time to read anything. Here are some of the stuff I’ve read recently:

The Road (novel) - My brother Dennis got me this for my birthday. It’s a very good book (won the Pulitzer Prize), with an unconventional prose style that took a while to settle into. It’s by Cormac McCarthy, the author that also wrote “No Country For Old Men,” which is now a critically acclaimed film adapted by the Coen Brothers. The book is essentially about a father and a son’s journey on foot in a post apocalyptic world where almost every living thing was wiped out. It depicts the father’s selfless love for his son, and how he tried to protect him through all the hardship and despair. Definitely recommended.

Sanctuary (graphic novel) - I read the first few volumes many years ago, and never got around to finishing it. I finally did and it’s quite engrossing. Maybe too idealistic, but I enjoyed the passion and the conviction of the characters. It’s not everyday you see a hard-boiled political/crime thriller comic book about idealistic young men trying to change the future of Japan by reforming the government and the organized crime.

Love and Rockets (graphic novel) - I left off the series at the Wig Wam Bam collection, and I just picked it back up (I bought all the collected volumes after Wig Wam Bam, but only the Jaime stories–I’m not really a Gilbert fan). The tone is exactly the same, and if you like the earlier stuff, it’s just more slices of the various characters’ lives. If you’ve never read L&R, it’s essentially a slice of life drama about lesbian punk rockers, Mexican Americans, love and hate, heartache, and lovable losers.

Already Dead - A vampire novel by Charlie Huston that was entertaining, but didn’t have any emotional substance so I didn’t like it too much. If you like mysteries and warring vampire clans, then you might like this, but if you want to care about the characters and their relationships, then this is not that kind of book.

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Quickie Movie reviews:

No Country For Old Men - Excellent filmmaking, and certainly has Coen Brothers’ trademark approach for building tension and depiction of characters that are just “a bit off.”

Juno - One of the best indie dramedy I’ve seen in a long time, with witty dialog and great acting. Ellen Page was just adorable in this film, and Jennifer Garner was surprisingly funny as well. I didn’t realize Ellen Page played Kitty Pryde in X-Men 3–I should have, since I remember watching X3 and thinking Kitty Pryde was super cute. For some reason I keep mixing up Jason Bateman and Nathan Fillion, because to me they look very similar. I should be embarrassed since I’m a big Firefly fan.

American Gangster - Good film. Didn’t feel too much like a Ridley Scott film, but then again, I’ve discovered that often as a director matures, he’s able to go beyond his normal voice and do something very different.

Invasion - Quite enjoyable, but fell just a little short of expectation–maybe not as epic as I had hoped it would be. Nicole Kidman is always a pleasure to watch. I used to think she was some stone cold fridget pretty face, but having recently seen her on a few talk shows being quite warm and genuine, I’ve warmed up to her a lot. Now I can enjoy her beauty without feeling a chill down my back.

Cabin Fever - Silly fun, and not as scary or gory as I had expected based on its reputation.

The Kingdom - Overall enjoyable, and the final gun fight was great. I think that realistic and gritty action style is pretty much the norm for movies these days, whereas in the 80’s and 90’s it used be the stylistic approach that was less about reality and more like a caricature of real life.

Ratatoulle - This film had the least amount of character development and character relationship dynamics than any other Pixar film. I would’ve been disappointed, but that final scene with the food critic was just so utterly brilliant that it made up for the rest of the film.

The Reaping - I find Hilary Swank a bit hard to watch at times because she’s like the classic example of a “butterface.” The story was pretty silly, and the reveal at the end felt more like manipulation than a revelation. The little girl in the film (played by AnnaSophia Robb) has these amazingly piercing eyes–creepy but beautiful.

Premonition - Convoluted and frustrating. I don’t think I’ve ever liked a Sandra Bullock film.

I Am Legend - Quite different from the book, and I think they should have kept the dog and the woman part of the book, as they really made up the emotional core of the story.

And of course, I’m going to sneak in a bit of TV stuff too:

Breaking Bad - One of the best shows on TV right now. Absolutely brilliant writing, acting, and perfectly cast as well.

Two and A Half Men - This one has overtaken How I Met Your Mother as my current favorite sitcom. Biting humor, hot chicks, funny kid, and Charlie Sheen playing a parody of himself–what’s not to love? Melanie Lynskey, who plays Rose on the show (a very cute but psycho chick) is just adorable. Those big brown eyes can melt steel.

NEWS:
ImagineFX have collected a bunch of artwork, tutorials, interviews, articles…etc from past issues into one volume called Fantasy Art Exhibition Vol.1, and it contains the interview they did with me (along with the tutorial I did). You can now also read the interview directly from their site as well.

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Been a long time since I updated Kitty Cat Diary. Not that I’ve stopped taking photos of Elena–just that I’ve been too busy to sort through them. For it looks like I’m all caught up though. Latest entries:

Shot a quickie session around our apartment’s pool/entrance too:

WEBLOG:
I finally got the Bioshock demo to work on my machine. It seems like it was only months ago that I had upgraded my video card, and now I’m behind the times already. I had to run the demo at much lower resolution than I had hoped to (I have a 24″ widescreen monitor), and the audio was stuttering the entire time. At least the surround sound was working though (I have a 7.1 system), unlike with the Valve games running on the Source engine. I always have problems getting the surround sound to work with the Source games, and often even typing “snd_digital suround 1″ in the command console doesn’t work.

I have been looking forward to Bioshock ever since it was announced years ago. Being a huge fan of System Shock 2, there was no questions as to whether I would play this “spiritual sequel.” I could see why all there’s all this hype about the game (some of the reviews read like love letters), and I did enjoy the demo quite a bit, but I have say it didn’t quite grab a hold of me in the same way that System Shock 2 or any of the Half-Life games did. Perhaps after playing through the entire game I will feel differently. For now I’ll hold back any final thoughts until after I’ve played the whole game.

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I have wanted an IEM (In Ear Monitor–the kind that goes into your ear canal, like an earplug) for a long time now, but never could justify the purchase (the good ones will cost you around $200), but now that I’m on the train everyday, I had enough reasons to go ahead and get one. It was down to between the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro and the Shure E4c, and I ended up getting the Shure. Boy do I regret it. Not that the E4c’s are bad headphones, just that the bass is really anemic and the highs too shrill for my personal taste. I wish I had gotten it from a different online store too, because the one I got it from does not allow refunds on headphones. I had read all kinds of reviews and debates between audiophiles online beforehand, and my instinct told me to go with the one with the flatter frequency response. The Super.fi 5 Pro is supposed to have more hyped bass, which seemed like a bad thing for accuracy, but now I think when used with a portable mp3 player, it probably would even things out, as the portable mp3 players are always short on bass anyway. Now with the E4c, I have to jack up the bass in my Nomad 3 Jukebox, and turn down the highs as well for a more pleasant sound. See, I’m not even a bass head–in fact I can’t stand hyped up bass, so that tells you just how anemic the bass is on the E4c. Now I’ve gotten the right EQ setting going on the Nomad 3, the E4c’s are starting to grow on me, but I just wish I didn’t have to compensate so much with the EQ to get it there though.

On a side note, my Nomad 3 is starting to feel a bit ancient. Compared to the current generation, it’s quite bulky (about double the size of an iPod), and 20 GB just isn’t enough anymore. I have close to 200 GB of music on my machine at home, so naturally I’d want to get as much of it into a portable player as possible. Maybe I’ll upgrade to the next generation of the Creative Vision? I won’t be going the iPod route again just like last time, since I’ve tried my brother Dennis’s video iPod and I think the ergonomics isn’t quite as good as the Creative products (can’t jump between different hierarchy of directories quickly). It doesn’t even have a customizable multi-band EQ setting, which is a deal breaker for me.

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It’s been a few years since I last did a clean reinstall of the OS (WinXP Pro), and with all the crap I install on my system, it always becomes boggled down eventually (even if I clean the registry and optimize settings regularly). This weekend I did a repair install, and I thought it had fixed the problem, as I was able to have Sonar 6 running a lot smoother than before, and actually got some composing done over the weekend. But as soon as I had to reboot for something, I found out all the old problems are still there (Explorer would freeze up, mouse detection would not work, random reboots…etc). Looks like I’m going to have to do a clean reinstall anyway. That’s always a PITA, but at least the machine will run smoothly for at least another year or so (I hope) before it starts to go weird again.

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I’m thinking about selling my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens, as it sometimes misses the mark when focusing–especially in portrait orientation using one of the non-cross hair sensors. That lens is already considered a very good one, and from here on the only way up is the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L, which costs about $1,250 brand new. A bit too rich for my blood, but I might give it a shot on ebay and see if I find a good used one.

Speaking of selling, I’m tempted to sell my Novation ReMOTE SL 25 too, since I have never gotten it to work with Sonar (it did, for about a day with Sonar 5, but not with Sonar 6). I tried the Generic Control Surface approach and the ACT approach with Sonar, but neither could get the transport buttons to work, and it’s also an one-way communication in terms of feedback–the LCD on the ReMOTE SL would not update (and that’s one of the best things about the ReMOTE SL). To tell the truth though, I wouldn’t know what to replace it with. Maybe an Edirol PCR50?

NEWS:
It looks like I’ll be doing some work on the card game The Spoils. Tenacious Games had contacted me a few months back about doing the cards, but I was tied up with Spiderman 3 and Surf’s Up for Sony Pictures during those months. Now that my schedule’s opened up, I’ll probably end up doing roughly a dozen cards for them. I’ve done pen & paper RPG illustrations many years ago for R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk: Pacific Rim, so this is kind of similar territory. A lot of my peers don’t like doing work for game cards and RPG manuals because these markets tend to pay less than others, but you could always negotiate a better rate to make it worth your time and effort (assuming you are worth the higher rate in the eyes of your client).

WEBLOG:
As a reader and a writer, I’ve always treasured the universal emotional truths that we all share as human beings. I’m not talking about emotions that are easily categorized like joy, pain, anger, boredom..etc, I’m talking about more complex layers of emotions that only arise from some form of dynamic interaction, not merely passive responses to the world around us. For example, the absolution of someone after being vindicated of a crime he did not commit, or the weight that dissolves from one’s back when he learns to let go of a hate that’s been the dark and destructive driving force of his existence, or rediscovering a long lost dream and rekindling the passion for making it come true. These are universal emotional truths unique to humans–ones that are far more dynamic than the simple emotions that even dogs can feel. They are the ingredients for great stories, and I’m drawn to them when I write or when I’m enjoying the works of other writers. I’ve seen so many aspiring writers that don’t understand this simple dynamic, and that’s the difference between a writer that has something to say, or a writer that simply tells a good yarn. Not that there’s anything wrong with a good yarn, but for me personally, if the story can resonate deeper than the basic entertainment appeal, then I become emotionally invested and the payoff is far more powerful. Unfortunately, there’s another category of writers–one that goes through the motion of fabricating these universal emotional truths in a manner that’s almost contemptuous of the reader/viewer’s emotional intelligence (or it puts to question the writer’s own emotional intelligence, or level of talent). Usually, when I’m experiencing the works of this type of writer, I feel either A) manipulated B) lost of emotional immersion due to the writer’s transparent execution shortcomings, or C) lost of interest due to the writer’s lack of emotional common sense. Sometimes I wish I had never learned critical analysis of creative works–be it art, writing, music, photography, or film, because when you’re less picky, you get to enjoy so much more. Even mediocre works can keep you immersed and entertained. Does all this sound very pretentious? It probably does, but that’s just what I’m feeling at the moment. Mind you though, I do enjoy the occasional cheese now and then if it’s done brilliantly (the British TV comedy Spaced comes to mind), so I’m not really as stuffy as my rantings suggest.

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I’ve been playing Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and so far it’s pretty disappointing (I really should have read all the negative reviews online first). The people responsible for the writing of the game belongs to the third group I described above. If the gameplay itself was really fun,then I’d have been less critical, but it isn’t. I’m not even sure if I want to finish the game at this point. Maybe I should just hold out for Half-Life 2: Episode 2, as that’s the only franchise with a reliable pedigree out there these days.

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Oh My God. I never knew… (For all you fans of Oingo Boingo)

On a related note, I found out a while ago that Danny Elfman was commissioned by the Carnegie Hall to compose an original work titled “Serenada Schizophrana,” and it premiered in February of 2005. What’s also interesting was that Andy Summers (from The Police) performed on the guitar for another original piece preceeding Serenada Schizophrana. For those of you that haven’t been following Andy Summers’ career since The police broke up, he’s pretty much been immersed in the contemporary jazz scene (something that Sting’s dabbled in as well).

Have you guys noticed that the rockers of that generation tend to veer into the classical or jazz territory as they get older? I wonder what this generation of rockers will get into as they age. It seems that no matter what genre of music you start in, you’ll always gravitate towards the more conventional music styles as you age–probably because more conventional music styles have a richer history and tend to have greater musical complexity (at least according to conventional music theory). I personally have felt this as well, since the older I get, the more I gravitate towards composing orchestral works. This isn’t to say I’ve lost interest in the more edgy styles of music though–it’s just that orchestral works tend to be more challenging to compose and arrange. I’ve always been into jazz an classical even as a teenager though, so this is hardly a new transition. My greatest joy will always be hybridizing different genres though, and it’s something I’ve done for as long as I’ve been making music.

I remember distinctly back in the late 80’s, I wanted to combine orchestral and electronic music, but back then I didn’t have the necessary equipment to pull something like that off (high-end orchestral libraries were not an option back then as their cost was astronomical). When Hans Zimmer started to rise to celebrity status in Hollywood, I observed the hybrid style I had in my head become more and more popular, to the point where it’s the standard style these days for film/game/TV scores. Now that I have the necessary equipment to make that kind of music, it’s no longer something unique. I’ve always felt that being innovative and original isn’t necessarily the most important thing a creative person should strive for though–more than anything, simply expressing what resonates within you is the most important objective, and if you happen to be unique, then your work will be perceived as so. So many people mistake innovation and originality for “better,” and it couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve seen and heard and read plenty of very unique but completely pointless and atrocious creative works that used “being different” as a crutch and a gimmick (a lot of modern art comes to mind). But who knows? Maybe those people were actually “unique” and they did express what resonated within. It could just be that I’m the one that’s too mundane.

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I can’t believe it’s time to add more storage space to my rig already (I just ordered a 750GB hard drive from Fry’s, and a SATA 3GB/IDE133 controller card from newegg.com). Between my two machines, I will have almost two terabytes of storage space, plus 600GB of backup storage that’s off-line most of the time (I only hook them up when backing up files). The new hard drive will be taking over the sample libraries duties, but I’m a bit nervous about streaming all of my samples from one drive–it could lead to audio crackles and pops during recording and playback. At least I’ll be installing it internally though, so it’ll still be performing much better than an exterior option (which was what i considered at first).

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I was at the Palo Alto branch of Fry’s a few days ago, and it was such an appalling experience. For example, their DVD sections were grossly mislabeled, and their foreign section didn’t even have the DVD’s in alphabetical order! How the hell can anyone find anything in that condition? I talked to one of their employees about it, and he said they’ve badgered the manager about doing something, but the manager kept blowing them off, and upper management won’t listen to the little guys, as they always take the managers’ word for everything. He also told me that many have quit because the managers refused to listen to employees’ suggestions on how to improve the store. I talked to one of the managers, and sure enough, his eyes were glazed over as he fed me some line about “we’re looking into it.” They need to fire a bunch of managers at that store, because it’s probably one of the worst managed stores I’ve ever seen.